CommLog

Our Approach To Presentation Design

A COLLEAGUE AND I have spent the past few days helping a number of client teams prep for a significant presentation to senior management. We do this from time to time, and when we do our focus is typically on message strategy and credibility. That said, presentation design is a heuristic for both, and we inevitably end up teaching the basics of good v. bad slide design at the same time.

At the firm we take an approach to slide design that is different from traditional corporate practice. Our basic philosophy:

• You are the message: A person can communicate with greater persuasive power than any slide presentation.
• Exception: Pictures that say a thousand words. But they REALLY have to say a thousand words. They should also be high-resolution images, or don't use them. Garr Reynolds has more to say about this, and he's right.
• Your slides should "do no harm": They should never compete with the speaker, and only augment the speaker's point. As a result they should be lean on text and lean on animation (there's only one slide animation that has any taste, and it's the slow fade). Otherwise the audience is paying attention to the slide and not to you.
• Ensure everything is essential: Keep the ink:data ratio as close to 1:1 as possible. This means killing chartjunk and following sound principles of chart and table design. It also means killing all that branding and those logos -- the audience knows who you are.

As we explain this philosophy we typically point people to the research of Edward Tufte, which I'll do now. There's also much more in the CommLog archives if you search for "PowerPoint."

Yesterday we spent a lot of time coaching around the physical design of slides so they best reflect our approach. As we did I referred to the "CRA presentation style" more than once, and thought it might be useful to describe the physical setup of our standard PowerPoint template here as an example.

Our PowerPoint template comes in two flavors: White background and dark background. Here's a shot of each. We use the dark background in dark rooms, and the white background in light rooms (you may click any of these images for a larger view).

We've honored the Golden Ratio by matching the proportions of the slide itself to that of the Golden Rectangle (1:1.618). In our case the slides are set to be 10" wide and 6.18" high. This "letterbox" look is more interesting, permits more interesting layouts, and looks great when you project.

We use Gill Sans font, our preferred font for headings in documents across the firm (we use Garamond for text). Gill Sans is easy on the eyes, has an interesting feel to it, and holds up well regardless of text size.

When we use images (which we prefer to do over text ... they help convey an emotional dimension) they're always high resolution, and often full screen.

When laying out images and text, we turn on PowerPoint's "guide" function and set our guides so they reflect the "rule of thirds" and make layout choices based on the guides and their four points of intersection (for more on this go here).

When we DO use bullets, they're a simple as possible ...

So that's our template setup. We think it helps our on-screen stuff be more effective, which is our goal. We've also been inspired by the good taste of Garr Reynolds; go see his stuff. Hope the above is of use.

Technorati Tags: powerpoint, presentations, garr reynolds, information design   

Tips for Intercultural Communication

While doing some client research on intercultural communication, I found this simple article from HBS's Working Knowledge. The author offers tips for communicating with a diverse workforce:

1. Learn how the source culture best receives communications.
2. Train international employees early and often.
3. Train the non-foreign-born, too.
4. Assign mentors and take care of the spouses.
5. Practice open-door communication--carefully.
6. In company-wide communications, avoid jargon and slang.
7. Play by the rules and stick to business.

Some of these tips remind me of what we take away in business from uncertainty reduction theory, a seminal theory in intercultural communication. The theory proposes that we seek to reduce uncertainty in our communication interactions. We do this automatically by making predictions at the cultural, sociocultural, and psychocultural level. In other words, we make assumptions about other people based on prior experience or accumulated knowledge. When we communicate with people we don't know or with individuals from an unfamiliar culture, it's critical that we check our assumptions and seek to learn about one another by making factual observations, asking questions, and disclosing personal information that prompts a reciprocal response.

Actionable Email

This post at 43 Folders, in which Merlin Mann asks "how many actionable emails do you get each day?" (he also has a poll up), prompted me to post this comment:

I get plenty; they're nearly all actionable. That said, I (and the folks in our firm) receive significantly less that our peers in other organizations, and certainly less than our clients.

Why?

1) We put "pull" information where it belongs: On the web. The core of our intranet is a blog, which we use to post any information that would otherwise find its way into an email distribution. If someone's hosting lunch at Chili's for Suzie from AR's birthday or there are Dunkin' minis in the break room, you need to check the blog to know. And if you miss something important because you don't read the blog, you're accountable for the miss.

2) We do a good job of matching message to media based on the principles of "media richness." (Read more about media richness here). The result is that we spend more time in face-to-face or telephone conversation, which is more efficient than email for a whole range of topics.

Works for us, and thanks to the liberal use of David Allen's Getting Things Done Outlook add-in across our firm, we nearly all go to bed each night with our inbox an empty box.

One of the reasons our IC practice has pushed blogs so hard with clients isn't because we have a high level of latent geekiness (well, not all of us). It's because one of their benefits is a significant reduction in email traffic. Over the three years that blogs have been the foundation of the CRA Intranet, employees have become wonderfully conditioned to (1) post anything there that's of interest to the group, rather than emailing it, and (2) check there on a regular basis.

As a result, nearly any internal email we get is either one-to-one or one-to-few.

As to media richness, certainly go read the CommLog post I linked to in the comment above and download its primer (it's a PDF file). When I speak about communication, especially to leaders, I hammer the point of media richness: the more uncertain, strategic, persuasive, or relationally important a topic is, the more it requires media closer to face-to-face conversation.[1]

"Uncertain" involves a lot of daily business discourse, but it typically doesn't mean "earth-shaking uncertainty." Indeed, most of these conversations are routine. Trying to set a meeting time among three people is a routine task. It also involves a large amount of uncertainty, which is why it's so difficult to do via email--the feedback channel for the medium has significantly greater lag than that of a telephone conversation.

We overuse email because it's in front of us and it's cost-efficient. But getting off your keyboard and on the phone, or face-to-face, often produces faster and better results.

1. More on these issues here.

The Latest on Team Coaching

As a former academic, I find myself still perusing academic journals from time to time (yes, I’m a nerd!). More often than not, however, I find an interesting article consisting of great theory and impressive empirical results, but, let’s be honest here…… such articles can be painfully boring to read. Still, an article published in the most recent issue of one of the most prestigious management journals, The Academy of Management Review, is worth a closer look. Hence, I offer you my quick and dirty translation of this article…… In our coaching business, many of our clients are taking advantage of a program we call “Coaching4Teams” an innovative program which combines one-on-one coaching and team based learning. In their latest article, A Theory of Team Coaching, Richard Hackman of Harvard University and Ruth Wageman of Dartmouth College tackle the question: How much of a difference does team coaching make to team performance effectiveness? Great question, right? I thought so. According to the authors, coaching behaviors can and do help teams achieve and sustain team performance effectiveness, but only under certain conditions which may surprise you......

The More You Talk, The More You Learn

Many leaders are so tied to their BlackBerrys that they view face-to-face conversation as more of a nuisance than a learning tool. But in an email era, this IABC-sponsored article “In Praise Of Small Talk” re-affirms something we’ve been telling our clients for years: employees prefer face-to-face communication with their direct managers. The article echoes our advice to leaders: make time for talk, use smart questions, build partnerships, share experiences, and create a clear & common purpose—-all things difficult to do over email. A client recently called to tell me that, after struggling to convince his CIO to engage in these “informal conversations," his boss is now a big believer in them. And the organization is seeing huge benefits. The informal leadership conversations they’ve organized with small groups of employees have reduced uncertainty during a recent outsourcing, improved performance, uncovered new information, and helped discover ways of working better. We know you've heard it before ... but if you want to be a smarter leader, consider leaving your BlackBerry at home for the day and start talking.

Show Production Lexicon

Over the years I’ve compiled a list of key terms used by production crews for stage events. They use a language all their own, and if you’re not experienced in the theater, most of it sounds like nonsense. Still, it’s always good to talk to experts in their own language, and you might find the list useful before you participate in or coach someone for your / their next big speech, town hall, or convention. I’ve posted it in the extended entry.

Keeping Up With Employees During Outsourcing

Most organizations have outsourced, are in the process of outsourcing, or are considering outsourcing and conducting a "sourcing evaluation." Fact. As we've worked with our clients during each of these stages, we've learned many lessons about the process and how employees (both in and out of scope) respond to the news. One of the most important lessons relates to how employees educate themselves about the outsourcing industry. In-scope employees are often just as savvy as the executive team about the pros and cons of outsourcing and how it will affect their business. They read offshore newspapers, download whitepapers, and participate in online message boards to stay informed, among other things. So this morning when I finally checked out my FierceCIO email update from Friday and saw this, I immediately thought of the employees who may be "in-scope" and also read it...I know the article has made its way around most organizations by now. (The article is about a recent study of organizations who have outsourced. It seems many of these organizations are unhappy with the result. I question the validity of the research, but now that it has made its way to popular press, most will not scrutinize that aspect of the study. You may download the full article from Information Week here: Download file.) I also know that those employees who have read it are in the process of crafting a question to post on the intranet Q&A page or getting ready to ask it at the next brown bag or town hall (or have even emailed it to your CIO). So what do you do? # Don't be surprised. Communication professionals need to be as informed as the employees during an outsourcing evaulation or process. There are plenty of email updates you can subscribe to via Google, FierceCIO, Yahoo!, and others to stay up-to-date. When you see articles like this, make sure your leadership team isn't surprised either. # Don't deviate from your original messaging. Articles like this do not change why your organization has decided to think about outsourcing or the process you're using to make sure it's the right decision for you. # Email the article to employees and proactively address it. "We know you saw this. We saw it, too. It doesn't change the reasons why we've chosen to look at this." This will make some leadership teams squirm...pre-test the idea with a pulse group or other informally networked employees and provide that feedback to your leaders if they're unsure about the idea.

The Paul Newman Principle (Again)

Last December I had a client come to me with this request: “I want to give the speech of my life.” He’s a CEO, the leader of an international company, and this March he was to give the keynote address at the convention celebrating the company’s 40th year in business. Last weekend he succeeded, delivering one of the most powerful and moving speeches I’ve had opportunity to see. What’s more, his #2 and #3 executives also gave powerful speeches, each in the unique style of the man doing the talking. Since then I’ve reflected on why this suite of speeches was so good, and why my client’s speech was so wonderful in particular. The answer is: “Practice.” I met with my client three months prior to the show date to discuss strategy for his address, to unpack his emotional and rational themes, to identify his headline and main message, and to discuss structure and length (20 minutes is my general counsel, by the way). He then wrote his own speech, taking time over the year-end holidays to do so. We then met twice before the show to run through the comments, hear the flow, and try on stories and metaphors; to hear the words come out of his mouth; to test where he could truly connect with this content and where the connection was forced. On the weekend of the show, he reserved not two run-throughs, not two hours, but two days of green room and stage time to practice. While he only went through the speech twice on stage, he practiced informally perhaps a dozen times, with me (at that point) simply coaching for confidence and connection. And then he knocked it out of the park. A standing ovation before he was finished; tears in his eyes and the eyes of the audience. There are only two reasons he was so good, and neither is me (as much as I’d like to take the credit). The first is that his speech was honest: he, not a speechwriter, wrote the first draft, and his content was totally honest as to what he thinks and how he feels. The second is that he practiced. And practiced. And practiced. I’ve posted before about the importance of practice for presentations and speeches, describing my time in a green room with Paul Newman before another client’s address (another client who also practiced—running through his speech perhaps 50 times over two months—and who also knocked it out of the park). Since then I’ve taken to telling that story and invoking what I now call “The Paul Newman Principle”:

He wasn’t practicing because he’s Paul Newman, he’s Paul Newman because he was practicing.

These are very busy executives. They both run international organizations of enormous scale. But they make the time to practice for their public appearances, and the more important the appearance, the more time they devote to practice. So, you, too, can give the speech of your life and enjoy a reputation for compelling communication that drives an organization forward. But it means practice, and if you want those kinds of results, you need to be honest with yourself about the time and practice you’re willing to commit. If you don’t invest the time, you won’t reap the value, plain and simple. Besides: if it’s good enough for Paul Newman, it’s good enough for you.

Turn Off Auto-Check And Get Back To Work

Merlin Mann over at 43 Folders is yet another advocate for turning off the auto-check on your email application. I've done this, and I've advised most of those whom I coach to do so as well. As Merlin writes:

If you’re doing anything with new email more than every few minutes, you might want to rethink your approach. I’m sure that some of you working in North Korean missile silos need real-time email updates, but I encourage the rest of you to consider ganging your email activity into focused (maybe even timed) activity every hour or three. Process, tag, respond to the urgent ones, then get the hell back to work.

Indeed. Executives today need fewer interruptions, not more, and certainly not one every 60 seconds. Besides, if anyone TRULY needs you that urgently your phone will ring. So turn off the auto-check, pull down your email every hour or two, and get back to the work at hand. Update: More on managing the e-tide over here. Tip-o-the-hat again to Merlin.

Albright On Communication

In CIO Magazine's Albright On Communication, Information And Negotiation, "former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright shares her secrets for persuading people even tougher than Larry Ellison to do what you want." For instance:

CIOs sometimes have to deliver bad news to their bosses or boards of directors that could threaten their careers. What's the best way to deliver bad news effectively?
If you have a tough message to deliver, you have to deliver it straight. You have to make sure that the message, whatever it is, is clearly received. Otherwise, invariably, somebody will come back and say, "Well, that isn't what I got out of what you said." You need to make sure that there is no question about what it is you actually said.

How would you do that?
For the most part, you try to get the person in subsequent conversations to repeat what you said. Not by saying, "Repeat to me what I just told you," but you go back to the subject to see if they fully understood. If they start acting like the relationship still goes on as it was before, then you know they didn't understand.