by Alan | Apr 19, 2007 | Business, Communication skills, Customer Service, public speaking
Have had two experiences in the last week that left me wondering if I’d lost ‘it’. Neither was directly my fault and in both cases I already knew better.First, I gave a talk where The Big Cheese (the one who signs the check) and some other Big Shots...
by Alan | Apr 16, 2007 | Communication skills, Delivery, Don't!, public speaking
This has multiple variations. Presenter opens talk/sentence/paragraph with “I’d like to tell you a story.” Or it might sound like “Did you hear the joke that begins…?” Message to audience? You can snooze all you want, but I’ll...
by Alan | Apr 15, 2007 | Communication skills
Watched a presenter give a live demo. It was marginally fascinating to his audience. But in switching between two PowerPoint presentations, one video, a live program demo, and a canned program demo, he never did pull off a clean transition. Several times there were...
by Alan | Apr 14, 2007 | Communication skills, Content, PowerPoint
Most of us have multiple versions of our speeches, training programs, presentations, and notes. It’s hard to keep them straight. Frequently, the easiest and best way is to date them. I do this myself. I have my own naming convention for any date-related...
by Alan | Mar 23, 2007 | Communication skills, Content, Customer Service, Delivery
Flying earlier in the week and heard over the PA in an airport:”American Airlines paging pilots Captain Susie Queue and John Doe. Please report to Gate 7 regarding your flight.”Now, my fantasy is to be in an airport or airline where the pilots don’t...
by Alan | Mar 20, 2007 | Content, Efficiency
Sitting in a hotel reading the instructions for “complimentary high-speed wireless internet service”.Seven steps, easy enough. Then there’s another step listed after an asterisk (even though there is no asterisk anywhere else on the page). The step...
