Tag: Presenting

  • “Difficult People” Versus Difficult Dynamics

    Presenters wanting to learn to respond to ruckus-causing participants discover an industry dedicated to techniques, programs and articles, but especially labels. Experts in the “difficult people” business love labels.

    Here are several labels for different kinds of “difficult people”:

    • The Know-It-All
    • The Show-Off
    • The Rambler

    But Guess What? We Are All “Difficult People”

    To be a person is to be difficult. “Difficult people” are often just regular people responding to difficult dynamics. Difficult dynamics can include:

    • Organizational change
    • Bad room set-up or temperature control
    • Mandatory attendance
    • Ambiguity about how the event will benefit the individual
    • Personal challenges, such as hunger and low blood sugar.

    What trainers, facilitators and presenters need to know is:

    • You cannot fix people.
    • You can reduce difficult dynamics, thus lowering the risk of reactive behavior.

    3 Ways to Reduce Difficult Dynamics

    You may have little control over organizational change or mandatory attendance. However, these steps will address a broad spectrum of difficult dynamics:

    1. Set Up the Room for the Outcome You Desire
    For engagement, interaction, and accountability, seat people in groups of 5-6.

    2. Clarify the Benefits
    You MUST clearly express on why this topic is important to the participants and how it will benefit them.

    3. Model Both Authoritative and Cooperative Behaviors as a Presenter
    Encourage people to express themselves and to ask questions. Simultaneously, set and hold limits.

    To achieve smooth dynamics, don’t label human beings. Instead, prevent difficult dynamics before they occur.

  • When YOU are the Bored Trainer (or Presenter!)

    We’ve all had bored trainers and presenters. They lack passion, energy and spark.

    But what happens when YOU deliver the same material over and over and over again? How do you keep it fresh?

    5 Tips That Refresh

    1. Remember the “Turf” That Comes With Being a Professional

    Whether you are an athlete, an actor, a tour guide, or a trainer, the ability to perform at the same expert level time after time comes with the territory of being a professional. Professionals “give it their all” each time they perform.

    2. Re-Arrange the Order of Things

    Re-arranging content may feel risky when things are working just fine as they are.  However, you’ll be amazed at how refreshing it feels to present a content block either earlier or later than usual.

    3. Initiate and Enjoy Interaction

    Each group’s energy is different. Have fun with that! Meet and “hob-nob” with individuals during the breaks. Listen for any unique words or concerns. Be sure to ask plenty of questions.

    4. Increase Your Self Awareness in New Areas

    Knowing your content as intimately as you do is a luxury. It enables you to tune into how you are presenting it. Are you using online tools? Are you making eye contact? How is your lighting and voice projection?

    5. Feel Fortunate!

    How many of us get to do jobs that involve such a high level of physical, emotional, and mental exercise all at once? From a purely selfish standpoint, what a great way to keep your brain young! Additionally, you are transmitting information that helps your participants. You are “doing good” in the world. How many people can really say that?

    I hope these five tips help you keep your presentations fresh—not only for your participants, but for YOU, too.

  • Enthusiasm in Training

    As a trainer or presenter, enthusiasm goes a long way in making you the best you can be. As your joy excites your participants, their energy rises to meet yours. People feel good. Work gets done.

    But what if your enthusiasm has taken a hit? How can you regain a sense of joy while giving a presentation or training a group?

    These five practical steps will help.

    1. Create a list of 10 positive aspects about the subject. Your brain may balk at doing this, but you’ll be forced to see the subject in a new way. Its “newness” will stimulate you in unexpected ways.

    2. Do something physical. When your blood pumps aerobically, it helps wash away your “blaahs.” Don’t wait — you can take a walk right now.

    3. Visualize yourself being enthusiastic. Take a moment to close your eyes. See yourself as you would from the outside, feeling fantastic and emanating positive energy. Seeing yourself this way can kick-start your acting this way.

    4. Smile. Research has shown that when you smile, even if that smile doesn’t come easily, your brain chemistry changes. Try smiling and feeling joyful, even if it is difficult. You’ll be surprised how it “ups” your mood.

    5. Get excited about the success of those around you. When you express authentic enthusiasm about what others are doing, your own mood improves. You start feeling excited about what you’re doing, too.

    Keep the vitality and magic of life as you train, facilitate or present. It will be your gift not only to others, but to yourself.

  • Focus on the Uncommitted in Your Audience


    Presenters, do you fear waves of animosity coming from your audience? Or have you ever believed your audience to be friendly and accepting, only to receive a terrible shock?

    One of the best “Presenter Tricks” I know is to present as if everyone in your audience is “uncommitted”. Doing so allows you to effectively deal with crosscurrents, hostility, and support–all at the same time.

    This chart identifies the needs of all the segments in your audience. By focusing on the uncommitted, you benefit everyone!

    Audience Segment What Do They Want from the Experience? Dangers of Focusing Only on This Segment? How This Segment Benefits When You Focus on the Uncommitted
    “Friendlies” Satisfaction, affinity. Perhaps a pep-talk. Too easy – you may assume too much. Their knowledge and commitment is deepened.
    “Hostiles” To see you fail. To hear you say something wrong. Increases your own nervousness and defensiveness. You may come off abrasively and unlikable. They experience human respect, openness and reason from you (and are likely to mirror the behavior.)
    “Indifferents” To be left alone and unchanged. To the exclusion of the rest of the audience, you may tie yourself up into knots trying get a response. They may get the message, while not being hammered by you.
    “Uncommitteds” To experience a reasoned, well-thought-out, good-natured exposure to the issues. NONE! They get the best of YOU: affinity and reason.You won’t cut corners by assuming support where it might not exist. You construct and present your message thoroughly, persuasively and with confidence.

    By focusing on the Uncommitted, you take great strides towards more resiliency and effectiveness as a presenter. Try doing this the next time you present.

     

  • Fake It ‘Til You Make It – Annoying Cliche or Truth?

    I occasionally surprise myself by uttering the cliché above while encouraging a shy person to improve their presentation skills and confidence. I used to secretly kick myself for using such a hackneyed phrase—until I read Richard Wiseman’s great book, “As If.” In it, he cites dozens of studies showing that if we act a certain way, we begin to think and feel that way.

    Here’s one scientific study that’s particularly relevant to presenters:

    Vanessa Bohns and her associates at the University of Toronto asked one group of volunteers to adopt a posture associated with dominance and power: these volunteers stuck out their chests and moved their arms away from their bodies. Other volunteers were instructed to curl up in a powerless-looking ball.

    Then, the experimenters placed a tourniquet on each volunteer’s arm and slowly inflated it. The band got tighter and tighter, reducing blood flow. Volunteers were asked to say when they could no longer tolerate the discomfort. Findings: those in the powerful posture were able to tolerate much tighter tourniquets that those curled up in a ball. Simply acting as if they were powerful and strong helped push away an unwanted emotion.

    So-step into that “magic circle” and fake it ‘til you make it! Roll those shoulders back, opening up your chest. Separate your arms from your body. Be BIG! No one will know you are quaking inside…go on and give it a try. Science supports you!

    Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshops.

    Guila Muir is a premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

  • The “I Don’t Feel Like Me” Blues

    that's not me yowlHave you taken a presentation skills course with me (Guila) and found yourself feeling strange, even “fake” as you practice unfamiliar behaviors?

    You may remember hearing my prompts during the session. They include:

    • Use the Magic Circle!
    • Own the Real Estate!
    • Drop the Figleaf!
    • Sternum Up, Shoulders Down! and even
    • Show Your Body!

    Sometimes, my workshop participants push back. They may tell me “That’s not what I do,” or “This doesn’t feel like me!” While I empathize with their discomfort, I’m also glad they’re feeling it. Behaving in a new way SHOULD feel different, even a little scary.

    The Intensified You

    Why are you taking a presentation skills course? Presumably, it’s to improve your presentation behaviors. These behaviors can be defined as unique skills that improve your delivery of content. They are not skills to make you better at coding, supervising, engineering, making art, or any of the skills you already excel at doing.

    When you feel out of your comfort zone as you practice new presentation behaviors, give yourself a pat on the back. You are expanding your boundaries. You are stepping into your “intensified you” persona.

    “Intensified” or Fake?

    Your “intensified you” persona includes:

    • Speaking more deliberately, and probably more loudly.
    • Taking up more physical space through the use of gestures and posture.
    • Demanding attention, and thriving in it for the duration of the presentation.

    The “intensified you” persona is 100%, authentically, you. It is simply a stronger, more confident and powerful version of your everyday you.

    The New Science

    2,000 years ago, Aristotle proclaimed that acting virtuous would make one virtuous. More recently, Harvard researcher Amy Cuddy found that we become how we act. The way we use our bodies shapes who we are. We know now that change occurs from the outside in, not only from the inside out.

    By acting “as if” you belong in front of an audience, you start belonging in front of an audience. By looking powerful (even if you are quivering inside), you become more powerful.

    Embrace It

    The move from the “workaday you” to the “intensified you” might feel uncomfortable. Complain if you desire. But if you are serious about being the best presenter you can be, say “hello” to new sensations, postures, and movements. Start to enjoy a new side of yourself—the intensified you.

    “Our bodies change our minds. Our minds can change our behavior. Our behavior can change our outcomes.”

    Amy Cuddy

    Want more tips to improve your speaking self? Learn about Guila Muir’s Presentation Skills Workshop.

  • When a Trainer is a Presenter: Five Top Platform Skills

    Computer class with caucasian female teacher talking to hispanic student. Horizontal shape, focus on backgroundGreat trainers must be great presenters as well. I believe that participants learn most from highly active classes that imbed great design and content. However, I also know that the trainer’s presentation skills can help or hinder learning.

    What are Platform Skills?

    Platform skills are presentation behaviors that a trainer uses to transmit content effectively. Not to be confused with skills that guarantee participation (which, in general, only trainers use), both presenters and trainers must demonstrate excellent platform skills to get their messages across. Platform skills is one exciting arena where training and presentation cross paths.

    Five Top Platform Skills for Trainers

    Prepare for your next training session by making a commitment to the behaviors below. Then, ask a peer to observe you and let you know how you did.

    I compiled these criteria by researching some of the best resources in the training field, and have listed them in no particular order.

    The trainer:

    • Clearly communicates the session’s topic, goal, and relevance to the participants at the beginning of the session.
    • Effectively manages nervousness so that it does not distract the participants.
    • Uses humor, analogies, examples, metaphors, stories, and delivery methods other than lecture or PowerPoint.
    • Faces the participants most of the time in a “full-frontal” body position.
    • Summarizes and closes the class with energy.

    Want more tips to improve your trainings? Learn how Guila Muir’s Instructional Design Workshop can help you to create powerful, effective training sessions.

    Learn how to present with pizzazz using the Kite Method with Guila’s Instructional Design book.

    Guila Muir, a premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters, has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you into a great trainer.

  • How To Build “Home-Grown” Trainers

    Happy top manager standing by the whiteboard and interacting with business partners at seminar

    Have you ever wished you could reduce your organization’s dependence on outside trainers? How about developing your own workshops? Join the ranks of organizations that have benefited from developing their internal resources, saved money, and improved the relevance and quality of their training!

    What’s Not Working

    Over the last few years, I’ve worked with dozens of agencies to develop their own “home grown” trainers and tailor-made curricula. Why? Agencies tell me it begins with dissatisfaction with current options:

    1. Sending employees out to workshops advertised by national companies. Though some of the information is valuable, the workshops are generic. Typically participating are a hundred people or more, from all industries. One or two from your organization that attend may benefit, but the value to the agency may end there.

    2. Bringing in training experts. Though sometimes necessary and very appropriate, bringing in experts can be expensive. These specialists may provide a “one-size-fits-all” training – after all, they just gave this same presentation in Cleveland a week ago. And what happens if you can’t find an expert in your very specific subject area?

    Exploring Options

    The term “training of trainers” (TOT) can mean different things. To some, it means training people the “ins and outs” of a specific program, the ultimate goal being their ability to teach that program. For example, a local health promotion organization trains elementary school teachers to use its packaged curriculum. They assume that teachers will use their already-established training skills with the product. This type of TOT’s focus is on content.

    A more flexible type of TOT focuses on process. It usually includes how to design a lesson based on adult learning principles, how to integrate a variety of participatory exercises, how to enhance presentation skills, develop learning aids and evaluate the learning. The best TOTs include strategies to ensure learning occurs and to identify and analyze training needs from the outset. Using these new strategies, participants often develop and present a lesson based on their area of expertise that they can use immediately.

    Steps To Develop “Home Grown” Trainers

    Once an organization decides to “grow” its own trainers, there are two major investments: a one-time investment in training and an ongoing investment of time.

    • When possible, garner enthusiastic, visible support from the top.
      When leaders overtly support trainer development, all employees get the message that learning is a valued and important element of work.
    • Select people to become “trainers in training.”
      These can be people with training expertise or just a strong interest, as well as subject matter experts who traditionally have “bored the pants off” people while transmitting information. Clarify expectations, time commitments and potential rewards for participating.
    • Provide an expert Training of Trainers.
    • Provide regular Trainer Development Meetings. These meetings usually take place once a month. Trainers meet to discuss what is working well and to debrief issues and challenges. Often a different trainer will model a “chunk” of curriculum or an activity each month.

    Wouldn’t it be great to use the resources you have right at your fingertips to develop or expand your agency’s training potential? “Home gown” trainers benefit personally from enhancing their skills, the agency benefits from increasing its training ability and other employees benefit from increased training opportunities. “Home-grown” trainers play an important role in creating an organizational culture of learning, innovation and self-reliance.

    Guila Muir is the premiere trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thousands of professionals improve their training, facilitation, and presentation skills. Find out how she can help transform you from a boring expert to a great presenter: www.guilamuir.com

    © Guila Muir.

  • Dive In!
    Presenting and Open Water Swimming

    I am an “adult onset” swimmer. Learning to swim at age 46, I trembled with the same anxieties as many of my Presentation Skills clients. I even heard myself describe my experience using the same words. Swimming was unnatural, awkward, unnerving, and out of my comfort zone.

    Twelve years after my first lesson,  I continue to feel amazed at how many parallels I continue to discover between swimming and presenting. I often ask my workshop participants for similarities they perceive between these two divergent activities. Their collective wisdom will help YOU overcome your “fear of the water:”

    1. You must prepare

    Workshop participants cite this similarity most often. This makes me happy. Open water swimmers can literally die (and sometimes do) for lack of preparation. Presenters can metaphorically “die” if they are not prepared.

    Keep the ratio of 1:3 in mind. For each hour spent presenting, it’s wise to put aside a minimum of three hours to design, prepare, and rehearse your material.

    2. You must keep focused on the final goal

    For swimmers, effectively sighting on the final buoy helps determine who wins and who loses. Open water swimmers can end up swimming hundreds of extra yards if they don’t continually keep their eyes on where they want to end up. Those who sight poorly end up off-course, exhausted, and maybe even wounded: One swimmer I know ran into a piling and broke a tooth because lost sight of his final goal.

    Presenters also lose when they drift away from their stated purpose. Remember to carefully craft and state your purpose. (Here’s an article that will help.) Then remain accountable to your purpose throughout your presentation, even if metaphorical winds, chop or waves  try to toss you off course.

    3. You must stand tall

    Efficient, graceful swimmers demonstrate the same physical skills as presenters. Although swimmers remain horizontal, the fastest ones elongate the back of their necks. Their shoulders roll back and down to achieve the most powerful stroke, and their chests press into the water.

    Presenters, if you practice these exact physical techniques, you will appear more credible, authoritative, and strong in front of any group.

    Both in swimming and presenting, conditions can be rough. The first few strokes can feel icy. But if you’ve taken these three participant-generated tips to heart, you will overcome those challenges within the first few minutes. Then everything will go “swimmingly!”

    Send me your “swimming” and “presenting” analogies!

  • The Curse of Knowledge

    by Guila Muir
    info@guilamuir.com

    Think of a skill you have, (such as driving, swimming, writing, reading…) Would you say you are unconsciously competent with this skill? That is,

    • Can you do it without thinking about it?
    • Is it part of you, like an instinct?
    • Would you have a hard time explaining the steps of this skill to someone with no knowledge at all about it?

    All of us have skills like these. And it’s great that we do! And yet, here’s the big question. Can this level of expertise actually hurt us as teachers, trainers or presenters?

    Before taking a guess at the answer, consider this experiment Elizabeth Newton did in 1990 at Stanford University. She assigned volunteers to one of two roles, either a “tapper” or a “listener.” Each tapper was asked to pick a well-known tune such as “Happy Birthday” and tap out the rhythm on a table. The listener’s job was to guess the song.

    Over the course of the experiment, 120 songs were tapped out. Listeners guessed only three of the songs correctly, making the success ratio only 2.5 percent. But before they guessed, Newton asked the tappers to predict the probability that the listeners would guess correctly. They predicted 50 percent. The tapers were flabbergasted by how hard the listeners had to work to “get” the tune.

    Why?

    The problem is that once we know something (for example, a song’s melody or a skill), we find it hard to imagine not knowing it. Our knowledge has cursed us. The more intimately we know a subject or a skill, the harder it may be to effectively teach or present it to others in a way they can understand. We may find it impossible to fathom how to teach because we don’t know where to begin.

    The Need for “Conscious Competence”

    It’s common knowledge that experts who know the most about a topic don’t always make the best teachers. In fact, some of the very worst teachers have the highest levels of knowledge and expertise. These experts have lost touch with conscious competence, and they wonder why their students aren’t learning.

    As presenters and trainers, we must come to our subjects anew. We need to get in touch with what the Buddhists call “beginner’s mind”, an experience of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions. But we must also “crank ourselves down” from unconscious competence to conscious competence.

    Conscious competence is the state we’re in when we are able to do a skill, yet must still concentrate on its steps and nuances. It’s the state we inhabit when we don’t feel like an expert, even if we are. Even if we must concentrate in order to do the skill correctly, we can verbalize each step we take. We are not on automatic pilot.

    A Challenge

    So-beyond the need to “know your stuff,” which elements do YOU believe are most important to make a great teacher? Here’s this month’s challenge. Please take the time to answer the question, What makes a great teacher, trainer, or presenter? in the “add new comment” box below. I’ll publish the most-often stated ideas in our next newsletter.

    Thanks to The Art of Explanation, by Lee Lefever, for introducing me to the Stanford experiment.

    Learn about Guila Muir’s Pre­sen­ta­tion Skills Workshops.

    Guila Muir is a pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com