Improv Wisdom

I’m enjoying Patricia Madson’s quick book at the moment. Improv Wisdom – don’t prepare just show up!

Here are her 13 maxims for life.

1. say yes (to everything).
2. don’t prepare.
3. just show up.
4. start anywhere.
5. be average.
6. pay attention.
7. face the facts.
8. stay on course.
9. wake up to the gifts.
10. make mistakes, please.
11. act now
12. take care of each other.
13. enjoy the ride.

Sounds like a great manifesto to me. But I think it takes a lot of preparation to be unprepared. Just as it takes a musician years of practice to be unprepared and jam.

My top 8 communication principles

I’m distilling my work in coaching communication into what I think are the most useful principles for effective communication. Here’s my top eight.

1. Be flexible. The person with the greatest communication flexibility has the greatest control over their results. If you’re not getting the results you want, change your communication.
2. Seek first to understand (Covey).Communication is all about perception and perception is driven by perspective. To be an effective communicator, seek first to understand …. other’s perspectives!
3. Have something to say. Know who you are and be clear on what it is you want to say in your world. What do you want your audience to … think, feel and do!
4. Keep it simple. If you can’t communicate it in 90 seconds, you won’t be clear after 90 minutes or longer.
5. Be bold. The first challenge is to get people’s attention. Make the communication stand out. Do the unexpected. Be unpredictable.
6. Use emotion. Emotion is that personal force that drives (or hinders) our achievement of the significant things in our lives. Learn to use it to reach others hearts as well as their heads.
7. Be yourself. Once you find out eactly who that is! It’s usually enough.
8. Get out of your own way. Let go of personal agendas and ego.

Would you change these? Add others?

Tales of Passion

Here’s a great example of the power of emotion. Author and activist Isabel Allende delivers  tales of passion. What I love about this is that Isabel has you laughing one moment and sad the next. The video runs for 17 minutes, but you’ll see what I mean by 5 minutes 02. It’s quite a performance.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/isabel_allende_tells_tales_of_passion.html

Also I think we need more NZ’s that meet her requirements for good characters – mavericks, dissidents, outsiders, adventurers and rebels. Those with a passionate heart.

Tailoring the message

I had to smile today as I walked past the preacher on Lambton Quay. He has been there since I can remember. His message is usually along the lines of – we are all sinners, repent before it’s too late, etc. He never seems to get much traction with the passing foot traffic.

Right at the moment, the world seems to be impoding internationally due to the banking crisis. Today his message was – smile, it’s not that bad! At least he’s thinking about his audience. I didn’t stop today but will next time and talk to him about his apparent change of heart.

Lessons from humour

Here is an old (1958) recording of a speech by Gerard Hoffnung to the Oxford Union. Listen to the bricklayer story about a third of the way in.

http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=584603&song=Oxford+Union+Address

I heard it again on the radio over the weekend. It’s very funny for two reasons.

1. Timing is the essence of comedy. He get’s it perfectly. The power is in the pause.
2. Gerard paints a picture in your mind before he says what happens. You know exactly what’s going to happen before he says it! And it seems doubly funny.

Make your communication more impactful by using pause and by painting pictures in your ausiences’ mind.

It’s all about stance

I’ve been reading an interesting book.

‘The Opposable Mind’ by Roger Martin. It’s a great title. Opposable thumbs gave us the evolutionary leap from primates, and an opposable mind takes us another step forward.

Roger is talking about Integrative Thinking and the ability to hold two mutually opposing ideas in our heads and finding an integrated combination of both. It’s avoiding the ‘tyranny of the or’ and looking for the ‘and’ and ‘both’.

Anyway he proposes a 3-part model for integrative thinking. I like threes.

1. Stance – how do I see the world, myself in it and what am I trying to achieve. (eg. “there’s always a better way” is a stance, and humility is a stance)
2. Tools – the tools and models that organise my thinking about the world. (eg. prototyping is a tool, assertive inquiry is a tool, and brainstorming is a tool)
3. Experiences – what experience build my repetoire of sensitivites and skills.

Stance guides tools which guide experiences. And, experiences informs tools which informs stance.

It’s an interesting book. One thing that struck me was the importance of stance – not just for thinking. Stance is critical in martial arts and when I’m coaching people to present, presence starts with the presenters feet – his/her stance.

It would be interesting to explore our own mental stance for thinking and communication. Is it the most effective stance? And if not, how does one change one’s stance?

Inside your visual aids!

Here’s an interesting talk on TED.

 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

Interesting content. But I love the visual aids and how Hans gets inside them. Spectacular and funny. Good use of humour too.

Challenging Personal Paradigms

A friend and I are exploring a new business venture at the moment. It’s creative and we are both finding it very stimulating. We have been meeting with people in the industry and have been stuck by how people are captured by the prevailing paradigm. We have a different perspective. And it’s very difficult for people to see the opportunity from their perspective.

Tomorrow we’re pitching the opportunity to a critical partner. I need to remember to pitch the opportunity from their perspective or paradigm first. Before I try to change it. Then, I think I’ll try to use analogies to see if I can shift the paradigm. If I can choose analogies that are close enough to their experience. Maybe, I can get them to see things differently. I’ll let you know how I get on.

But this just leads me to my real point. What are the paradigms we have of ourselves? That may not be right. Or may not serve us. I often bump into these when coaching people for presentations. I get them to do something different. Something they are not used to doing. It may be, being more animated. And they say … ”That’s just not me! I want to be myself”. Right. I want people to be themselves too, but I don’t accept that we are our behaviours. Our behaviours have grown out of the set of our past experiences. And how we’ve interpreted those past experiences. We can still be ourselves doing something different.

If I can normally present in a semi-comatose manner that bores the living daylights out of people. I can present in a more animated and energetic manner. Do we really think our audience will say … “hey that’s not you. Go back to the old boring self we knew and fell asleep to”

This is just an example. Generalise to all your behaviour. Ask the question  … What behaviours do I need, at this moment, to achieve my objective?

Laugh and cry

This is a great presentation by author Isabel Allende.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/204

Think about how she uses emotion. One moment you’re laughing, next crying, next angry. It’s compelling. Leaders take note.

Chicken

Here’s a funny video of a content-free presentation – well, not exactly content-free – its one-word content.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk

It’s pretty stupid but to make a serious point - if you can present and get one word to stick in the minds of your audience, you have done an exceptional job. Too many presenters use more words, but the audience doesn’t remember any.