You have the structure. You have the words. But a great talk goes way beyond words. In a recent study, the ratings for the most popular TED talks were the same whether the viewers watched with or without the sound on. Why? Because the speakers were able to convey meaning with everything else at their […]
Using Quotes in Your Presentation: Albert Einstein on Race Relations and Change Management
Einstein was a genius, almost beyond measuring. But if you study his writings you quickly realize that his genius extended SO far beyond mathematics. I find this amazing, since most brilliant mathematicians I’ve met can barely communicate with real people, let alone articulate exquisitely accurate social commentary. What I love about many of these ‘broader’ […]
This Week in Insights: Week of September 7
ON THE COMMUNICATION SKILLS BLOG: Eli Murphy deconstructs Nilofer Merchant’s TED Talk, “Got a Meeting? Take a Walk,” and talks about the power of a problem-based opening statement. FROM OUR TWITTER AND LINKEDIN FEEDS What’s one simple technique to make your talks better? The Epiphora. The mysterious origins of punctuation. 13 stats that should terrify […]
DeconstrucTED: Nilofer Merchant’s “Got a Meeting? Take a Walk.”
In our “DeconstrucTED” series, we look at some of our favorite TED and TED-style talks. We deconstruct them to demonstrate how we all can be more effective communicators in our own right. This week, Oratium’s Eli Murphy shares why Nilofer Merchant’s 2013 TED talk is one to remember. Q: Nilofer opens with a pretty bold […]
Would Your Message Pass the 8th Grader Test? The Curious Case of “Blank Van Blank”
We are dear friends with a delightful a family in Ohio: wonderful parents, blessed with several rambunctious young children. Like many of us, these parents are very mindful of protecting their impressionable young kids’ minds from Internet content that would be potentially harmful. And with this aim, one of the things they’ve done is to […]
This Week in Insights: Week of August 17
ON THE COMMUNICATION SKILLS BLOG: Tim Pollard shares how to slim down your presentation…and still have all the detail you could ever need. FROM OUR TWITTER AND LINKEDIN FEEDS PR pro, entrepreneur, author, and keynote speaker Peter Shankman tells you how to send an email and guarantee it will be read The One Trait That […]
How to Slim Down Your Presentation. Or, Having Your Appendix IN
I was sympathizing with some sales guys at one of our workshops recently. They were showing me some sales collateral that Marketing had created for them – and this was the old joke… that wasn’t, and isn’t, funny: It was an unbelievably dense deck. A bewildering quantity of material. It was the kind of deck that […]
This Week in Insights: Week of August 10
ON THE COMMUNICATION SKILLS BLOG: Thinking of banning PowerPoint (or any slides) at your company? Eli Murphy discusses why banning PowerPoint doesn’t solve the real problem. FROM OUR TWITTER AND LINKEDIN FEEDS Scientists now combine light and sound to reveal the brain 15 meeting etiquette rules every professional needs to know [infographic] For the #SwipeFile: […]
Switzerland…. Not so neutral on PowerPoint
Leave it to the Swiss…. There is an organization there advocating for a referendum prohibiting the use of PowerPoint during presentations. And they claim to be the 8th largest political party in Switzerland. Seriously. This puts them right behind the Evangelical Peoples Party (and given the anti-PowerPoint rhetoric on their site, I would argue they […]
This Week in Insights: Week of August 3
On the Communication Skills Blog: Tim Pollard reveals the beating heart of sales messaging. From Our Twitter and LinkedIn Feeds Can imagination be measured? A mathematical algorithm for discovering new things The 12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational [An old, but good, list]. 3 Lessons IBM’s Watson can teach us about our brains’ […]