The Jay-Blog

Presentation skills

With a number of presentations coming up, it's time to review the presentation process. Years ago I took the Decker Communications course and found it worthwhille.

Decker suggests starting by writing up small Post-It notes in four areas:

1. POINT OF VIEW. What is your stance, attitude, opinion about the subject?
   
2. LISTENERS. Who are they? What are their demographics, needs, attitudes?
   
3. BENEFITS. How will your listeners benefit by taking the action step?
   
4. ACTION STEPS. What do you want your listeners to do?

Decker also recommends these communication skills:

1. Eye communication
   
2. Posture/movement
   
3. Gestures/facial expression
   
4. Dress and apearance
   
5. Voice/vocal variety
   
6. Language/non-words
   
7. Listener involvement
   
8. Humor
   
9. The Natural Self

Beyond these, I want to tell some good stories -- easy to follow and more interesting.

My earlier notes on giving presentations are here. Off the top, the most important advice that sprung to mind then was:

• tell stories, not what appears on a PowerPoint slide

• use pictures -- graphics and mental images -- to convey the message

• put yourself in the listener's shoes first, last, and always

• practice, practice, dry run, practice, revise, practice, edit, practice

• never read a speech

• talk with one member of the audience at a time

Techniques that are good enough that I've shamelessly ripped them off are:

• present a series of "objects," not a fully structured presentation; let the listener choose the sequence

• before the presentation, ask individuals in the audience what they want to/expect to hear

• put the questions at the beginning, not just the end.

Don't ask "How am I doing?"
Rather, ask "How are they doing?"

Good bye, 2002

It's Sunday morning, the sun is streaming through the window, and the end is nearing its finale. The New York Times Magazine is filled with obits of the famous folks who are no longer with us. I read their bios, smiling at the entertaining way they're written and finding myself in many of their stories.

Asking how a beauty with such promise as Little Edie Bouvier ended up in a filthy, dilapidated "Gray Gardens" house seething with cats, mice, and racoons, the writer says, "The answer, of course, is: Easy. Life is a daily battle against the accretion of tiny entropies."

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"In midcentury America, sociologists for a while rivaled even psychiatrists in their seeming ability to explain everything about everything. the most influential scoioloigist of the era was David Riesman, whose 1950 book The Lonely Crowd ventured to break all of civilization down into three basic character types: 'tradition-directed,''inner-directed' or 'other-directed.'"

The passage of time had reconfigured my memories of the days when sociology was hot stuff and Riesman's book "crowned an age when eggheads had the answers," and I'm glad the Riesman obit puts things back in order for me. I was swept up in the belief in sociology in the mid-sixties. I majored in "soc" (rhymes with bosch) at Princeton, thinking it the key to mind-control and a career in persuasive advertising.

As the years rolled by, I discounted the relevance of sociology to the real world and thinking most of social science is 90% horseshit. This became a personal put-down. Why hadn't I majored in Electrical Engineering or something practical? Fact is, I made the right decision for the person I was, in the environment I found myself.

Ironically, the discipline of sociology has more answers to making eLearning and knowledge management work than does computer science. The real issues are social. Collaboration, participation, motivation, culture -- these are the tough nuts to crack. The computer stuff is a given.

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Breaking out my personal journal from the Internet Time Blog feels like the right thing to do. Here I feel free to let the stream of consciousness flow wherever it may; the business blog feels more purposeful.

Polite LMS?

Alan Cooper has written a wonderful piece on "Polite Software."

Start with the seminal book The Media Equation, written by two Stanford profs in 1996. (Here's my review from that time.) The authors substitute computers for people in classical psychology experiments, only to find that our Neanderthal brains don't know what to make of computers, so we interact with them as we would with other people. We like polite computers that complement us; we don't like rude computers that criticize us.

Alan reasons that software should be polite, noting the irony that most programmers are anything but. He calls for software that is:

Is Interested in Me Is Deferential to Me Is Forthcoming Has Common Sense Anticipates My Needs Is Responsive Is Taciturn About Its Personal Problems Is Well-Informed Is Perceptive Is Self-Confident Stays Focused Is Fudgable Gives Instant Gratification Trustworthy

I've been saying since day one that eLearning is a lot more than computer-delivered lessons. Nonetheless, eLearning, collaboration, KM, LMS, and lots of other systems we rely on have software in their veins. Bad software = bad learning experience.

Which would you prefer -- a snappy, hyper-efficient, no-nonsense learning environment or a forgiving, helpful, supportive one?

It's high time we judge software by its friendliness as well as its efficiency. Alan Cooper's article asks penetrating questions. Perhaps we should replace "shoot-outs" at industry events with software popularity contests.

As I assemble my "short lists" of sims or LMS or collaboration-ware, the way it treats me will weigh heavily in my decisions.

(By the way, while I've met Alan Cooper, I'd have never found this article were it not for syndication. If "the syndicate" means nothing more than "gangsters" to you, see the Internet Time Blog for an explanation.)

Before Its Prime

You're here early. I just put this up and am in the midst of testing it. Half home page/half blog.

Format

I'm thinking about putting this blog on the home page of jaycross.com. Maybe not such a hot idea. Duller posts really don't belong this close to the front.

On the other hand, timeliness is the currency, not perfection. Fresh is more important than smooth.

Do you have any thoughts about this? Should a blog become one's home page?

The butler did it

Milady comes home early from the charity ball.

"Jenkins." she says to the butler. "My bedroom immediately."

Jenkins follows her to the bedroom.

"Jenkins, Take off my Dress"

Jenkins timidly removes her dress.

"Jenkins. Take off my Stockings and Garter"

Jenkins carefully removes her stocking and garter.

"Jenkins. Remove my Bra and Panties"

Jenkins looks extremely embarrassed as he removes her bra and panties.

Milady looks at him angrily and says

"Jenkins, If I ever catch you wearing my clothes again you're fired!"

#1

This is the first entry in jazeblog, a new personal blog I will be experimenting with at the new jaycross.com. I had a little bit of a hassle finding the images folder but all seems to be working fine now.

No comment

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I am not making this up.

The Store's open.

Ho, ho, ho.

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Lucky for you, the Internet Time Group Store just opened on the web. We have a unique philosophy: the Store only carries things I own and really like.

Cameras, gadgets, books, you name it.

Come to the Store today. I could use the money.

Setting your sights high enough?

The front page of this morning's New York Times carries a story about Chesa Boudin, who was just named a Rhodes Scholar, what the Times calls "a remarkable achievement for a boy with epilepsy and dyslexia who did not learn to read until third grade and spent much of his childhood in temper tantrums," not to mention being separated from his parents at the age of 14 months when they were put in prison for Sixties radicalism and being raised by two other Weathermen leaders, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

Were it not for Chesa, fellow recipient Kamyar Cyrus Habib might have rated more than a sentence fragment. Kamyar holds a black belt in karate, skies downhill, and is a published photographer. Oh, and he's blind.

It is bleak outside. A dark and stormy night. And it's only 4:00 pm.

As much as I like to think of myself as a time researcher, unbuffeted by the agrarian calendar, I find myself puttering around, straightening this and that, and generally getting prepared to face a new year. These days, this applies to computer files as well as the real desktop. Delete. Delete. Delete.

Nano-bio-info-cogno (NBIC) convergence

Interim paper from the National Science Foundation on info convergence. Says Jim Spohrer,

The basic idea is that information is encoded in atomic systems, molecular biological systems (DNA, cells), digital computer systems (bits), and cognitive systems (neurons, brains, people). Social systems (memes) are another way in which information is encoded. As these separate sciences advance, more interactions are occuring between them. And, here is the big speculation thought, an understanding of how information is encoded and recoded into each of these systems may allow for rapid improvement in human performance.

Perhaps the convergence is more than one hundred years away, since physicists since the late 1800's have been working to create a unified theory of the physical realm -- nevertheless, the speculations in this material (and most of this work is speculation) are good imagination-stretching exercises for thinking about how future generations may collaborate, interact with their world, learn, and evolve. Fascinating speculation, but not for the faint of heart, since much of this material from the National Science Foundation (NSF) reads more like science fiction than science fact.

Is my influence at work here? I told Jim I enjoyed reading his science fiction when the raw reports were coming out on the web a few months back.

The Muse in the Machine

The Muse in the Machine: Computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought by David Gelernter was published eight years ago but its message still rings true: Emotions are part and parcel of thought. AI must include them.

I'm more interested in the application of this viewpoint to human learning. Gelernter posits that we think differently when attentive than when unfocused. As we turn down the focus knob:

Our thinking switches from the logical operations known to cognitive scientists and economists down to the day-dreamy, intuitive state where emotion ties thoughts together instead of rationalization. It almost goes without saying that how we learn shifts whenever we spin the dial. Intuition tells me (I’m a little sleepy at the moment) that this shift in style has more impact than the “natural” learning style instructional designers have been trying to accommodate with so little success.

Authentic Happiness

Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment by Martin Seligman

I haven't finished Authentic Happiness but half-way through, I'm convinced it's a valuable book.

Check out the companion website. You can take the self-tests that appear in the book.

Positive Psychology is so uplifting compared to the usual approach of studying crazies and depressives. It brings a smile to my face to read Marty explaining his own growth. His five-year old daughter asks him to stop being such a grouch – and he does.

H = S + C + V, translated as your enduring level of Happiness is a function of the Set range (your genetic disposition to happiness), modified by your life Circumstances (e.g. being a blind orphan in Bangladesh) and by Voluntary, that is, things under your control.

Circumstantial changes that can contribute to happiness are:
1. live in a wealthy democracy
2. get married
3. avoid negative events
4. acquire a rich social network
5. get religion

But don’t bother with these ineffectual things:
6. make more money
7. stay healthy
8. get more education
9. change your race or move to a sunnier climate

To the extent that you believe the past dictates the future, you will allow yourself to be a passive vessel and not try to change its course. I think past history in general is overrated. Savor the good and de-emphasize the bad. Show gratitude for the good, forgive and neutralize the bad.

MORE to follow

Back from Europe

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

Last night I returned from ten days of business and pleasure in Berlin and London.

While away, I managed to misroute my email, sending several days of messages into a black hole. If you were trying to send me money, please try again. Now. The address to use is jaycross@internettime.com.

The Online Educa conference in Berlin had a record turnout. It was a good event; I'll post a report later.

Big Ben, London

It was refreshing to find that when it comes to eLearning, UK companies have precisely the same needs as US companies.

New Tate, London

A highlight for me was visiting the New Tate, built into a former electrical station across the Thames from St. Paul's. The odd-looking thing above is a piece of plastic stretched to fill the former turbine room. This monstrosity hums, echoing the sound of the former occupants.

The curators have put together several great displays of conceptual art. We're talking Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp, Man Ray, Pollock, you name it, all asking "What is art?" and "What is reality?" Wandering through the first exhibit space was a visual journey through Philosophy 101.