Inspiring me to blog...

Garr Reynolds' presentationzen.com is the blog which inspired me to start mine. This is an exceptionally wonderful resource to learn presentation, including design, preparation, delivery, etc. I am happy to recommend you to stay in touch with it.

Music as the powerful energizer

Yes, the title above sounds obvious. But whether you will really use it or whether you can use it well in the learning environment is another thing. Here is my experience. I used music only a few months after I heard people saying that it is useful for learning. What stopped me are things like hesitation of whether the class will then look cheap, whether participants will be distracted at the end... etc. But today, after using it for a few months, I sincerely believe that it is very useful!!!

Music at the class start makes participants settle in the class more comfortably. Music (e.g. Disco / Hip Hop) charges participants with energy to conduct exercises, and keeps them awake especially after lunch. Music (e.g. soft ones) makes helps participants calm down after activities, and reflect themselves what they learnt from the activities. In addition, music can condition people, and one most useful application is to bring them back on time during break (assuming that they can hear the music in their break area). In particular, music will work well for you if you being to the aural learning style - a piece of music associated with your learning can trigger you to recall the learning more easily.

After all, participants enjoy themselves better with music, simply because people love music in general!!! I am using music all the time in my class. Well, apart from the above, music amuses me during the class as well!!

Most music work, and of course different types of music work better for different purpose. Among all the music I am using, the pieces in the "Tune for Trainers" CD (see the picture) are the best!! You can readily purchase it from Trainer's Warehouse - a resourceful place to get your training gadget!! In the CD, you will find tailor-made music for class start, lunch, break, etc. In addition, there are a few 1-min long music which is great for you to mark the time during activities.

Enjoy!!

From the 'Energy Level' perspective

One of your jobs in a presentation or training environment is to energize your participants. Or I should say it is necessary to have a group of energized participants in order to put your message across in a presentation or class. You can always imagine that there is a devise in the room which can detect and show the ‘energy level’ in the room, like what the thermometer does to the room temperature. If the ‘energy level ‘ is low, the learning is slow (or even does not exist). Remember all the boring wordy product briefing!!

Two incidents these 2 days which make me think:

I sat in some of ex-participant’s presentation and class these 2 days. Having been a trainer for a while, I can feel very strongly the ‘low energy’ at the start – the silence, the dull face, the lack of response to the speakers’ questions. People (at least I do) felt odd, and the speakers are not sure whether the participants are getting the points. The question is to raise the ‘energy level’. Well, in short, this is the reason why ice-breakers exist. However, what should we do if the session is very brief e.g. 1 hour like the system briefing today? A thought we had in the post-briefing discussion is that we should have some easy-to-participate activities in the beginning. Asking question is one. Even better, we can ask some yes-and-no questions so that people can just respond by raising their hands, or even better by standing up (‘energy level’ always up when people stand up!!!). In addition, some visual aids will help e.g. circulating the fake bank-note if the topic is about bank fraud.

The another occasion is a conference call today. It was like the one I mentioned last time – global one, largely one-way, lot of people. However, the call facilitator was great. His voice is of ‘high energy’ (the golden rule – the participants will NEVER have a higher energy level than the presenter / facilitator / speaker!!!). More importantly, I believe he designed the call from the ‘energy level’ perspective!! Before each speakers started, he introduced each by telling what the speaker’s Chinese Zodiac animal symbols are!! It is quick, it is about the coming Chinese New Year. And people get excited – how old he / she is, whether he / she has the same symbols as mine….. Great stuff!!

What are the learning points? Think from the ‘energy level’ perspective when you plan, and prepare accordingly!! (yes…. It all relates back to preparation!!! Surprise!!)

How prepared are you in using stories in presentation? And do you have the gut?

I attended a big conference call this week. Well, you know how boring conference call can be, especially those with over 10 people and wide spectrum of topics (Why is big conference call boring? I think it goes back to the essence of a good communication i.e. you need interaction. You simply do not have enough air time for all to speak, which is the only interaction medium in a conference call.)

Having said that, there was a UK lady in the call who gave an impressive briefing (almost a speech since it was so polished). She started with a story about her son, and then related it to her topics, and at last summarized with the same story. More importantly, she impressed me by finishing her entire briefing in 20 minutes, exactly the duration indicated in the agenda.

Let’s not think about what (whether too much) preparation she made, but focus on the effect. Her performance impressed me a lot, and I believe it also impressed to most (for those who was listening) in the call. In the future, I will associate her name with ‘preparedness’, ‘articulate’, ‘good communication’. A very effective way to perform and gain reputation in a community, which help gather collaboration and help our work)!!

I then think of her preparation (always the key in any form of presentation). She probably has scripted her speech, well, at least in bullet points. And she must have rehearsed as well in order to have such a good control in time. In addition, she really has spent time selected her stories and practiced telling it. Adding altogether, I guess it may take at least 30 minutes. Well, it may not worth the while for everyonel. But it is definitely worth us to keep it as an option – when you have to build reputation, or when the audience is very important.

And a question to me (or to you as well) – why haven’t I done it at all before?

Another thought out of this call is the gut in telling a story in such a high level conference call. Hey, everyone is so serious talking about business, with all those high-sounding jargons e.g. strength-based, retention, value-added, matrix…. Do you dare to tell a story relating to your son? I guess this all goes back to how much you believe the power of story, and how much you are willing to take risk. I think for me the latter question relates to me more. I do believe story help to draw attention and retain memory. And if I take some risk, give it a try though others may think otherwise, get used to it, it will be fine. Yes, it is the risk-averse attitude which is the obstacle.

As I shared with the others in the class, one can only acquire a skill if he / she takes the risk to use it. Open your mind, and do what you believe. Also, as Steve Job said, ‘Stay foolish, stay hungry!!’

Using the Speaking Note

The offsite went alright. The mat activity fitted well with the objective of the offsite, and the timing was good. More importantly, I do learnt something new (or I should say, I learnt an ‘area of improvement’ for myself!!) – about the use of speaking note.

I prepared speaking notes of palm-size, big font, bullet-points speaking notes. Well, very much the ‘correct’ design of speaking notes as what most will believe. However, the notes did not help much at the end. Why? Because I did not read it at all on the spot!!!

So many things were happening during that 45 mins, and thus I did not read the notes at all. What was the consequence? I missed to mention that there will be prize for the game, ask those who have played the game to come up, and more importantly invite the bosses for observation comment!! Yeah, not detrimental… but I wished I did not miss and could do it better….

My learning is that:

· I got to prepare more. More time to rehearse so that I can memorize the key points naturally, despite the chaos in the ‘real’ environment;

· I got to practice to use note. I got to conquer the “odd feeling” in taking time to read the notes. I should try to make note for the next class, and use it (even though I may not actually need it)

(The mountain on the picture is the 玉龙雪山. It was taken from a window in the hotel. Sadly, the offsite was so packed that I spent 98% of my time in the hotel.