Blogs
May 20, 2009 by Jerry
Other forms of communication have provided valuable sources of advice for our blogs about presentations. The most recent inspiration came from Broadway and Hollywood director, Mike Nichols. Today we turn to a legendary television pioneer. Edward R. Murrow, the celebrated broadcast journalist, had a distinguished career at CBS that started in the early days of radio in 1935, and culminated in the golden age of television in 1961. George Clooney’s excellent 2005 film, Good Night, and Good Luck, brought Murrow back to the forefront of public consciousness, but I didn’t need any reminders. My own career at CBS began after
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May 18, 2009 by Jerry
In a prior blog about my presentation at the Commonwealth Club, you met Bill Peacock, a member of board of the club’s Advisory Council. At the event, Bill shared an anecdote about his days as a classmate of Elizabeth “Liddy” Dole at Harvard Law School. But Bill has other noteworthy aspects of his career; one of the most significant being his position as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, where he helped spearhead the Army’s “Be All That You Can Be” campaign. That slogan, which ran for over twenty years—until it was replaced by the far
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May 15, 2009 by Pearl
In earlier blogs, we’ve offered you presentation advice from Mike Nichols, Mark Twain, Oprah Winfrey, and Fred Astaire. Today’s advice comes from Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs’ commencement speech to the class of 2005 at Stanford University has become a classic, with over 2.5 million views on YouTube. Jobs knew exactly how to inspire the graduates. Wearing jeans and sandals underneath his robe, Jobs began his address by revealing that he had dropped out of college; and that that day was the closest he had ever been to graduation. What better way
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May 13, 2009 by Jerry
A recent Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle had as its theme, “Roughly Speaking,” which played out in answers of words containing either “er” or “um.” When spoken, those two sounds are known as “fillers” or “unwords,” because they have no meaning. Unwords are the bane of any speaker’s existence because they produce a perception of uncertainty. Barack Obama, whose superior speaking skills undoubtedly contributed to his ascent to the presidency, is known to lapse into unwords whenever he departs from his trusty teleprompter and speaks extemporaneously—as in a press conference. This lapse has drawn much spoofing, much of it
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May 11, 2009 by Jerry
Ben Schott, whose self-portrait you see here, is a London-based writer, who is also a contributing columnist to the New York Times with a blog called, “Schott’s Vocab.” Schott describes his blog as “a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles—some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy.” In a recent column, Schott invited “co-vocabularists to exorcise their linguistic pet peeves and vocab vexations by posting a comment.” Three hours after his invitation went online, there were more than 650 comments, and a day later that number doubled. Many were comments on comments, and many cited the same peeves, but
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May 8, 2009 by Nichole
With Mother’s Day approaching on Sunday, I suggest you visit a website that has posted a list of “mom-isms—things your mom always said.” I found many of the sayings that I had heard as a child, and I’ll bet most of you have heard them, too. Seeing those phrases again made me realize that they have helped me communicate today. 1. “How many times do I have to tell you?” and “If I’ve told you once…I’ve told you a thousand times,” MEANING: Listen to the key point of the message being delivered to you. This will help you to give
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May 6, 2009 by Jerry
In a prior post I wrote, “email has instilled a drastic decline in the verbiage (as well as the style, spelling, punctuation and courtesy—but those are subjects for another time).” This is the time to focus on the last item, courtesy. See if this scenario doesn’t sound familiar: You are deeply involved in the development of a major business project, and you write an email to a key member of the working group in which you raise several issues that need to be addressed. The person to whom you wrote responds to your email—but answers only the first of
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May 4, 2009 by Jerry
Listening is a social skill that is rapidly becoming extinct in the 21st Century, a subject I wrote about in a March blog, saying, “For those people who still retain a semblance of politeness, it has become waiting for one’s turn to speak; for those who no longer bother, it has become not to listen at all, but to talk past the next person.” This rude behavior is merely annoying in social circles, but can be destructive in the more mission critical circumstances of business and politics. One of the most common instances of not listening comes in response to
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May 1, 2009 by Pearl
The first time I watched one of Professor Lawrence Lessig’s presentations, it reminded me of Sesame Street; and one particular episode in which the main theme was a lesson about fruit. As pictures of various fruits, their text labels, and animated dancing characters flashed on and off the screen, the soundtrack bounced along with a lively song. The words, colors, and photos of the fruits and the lyrics of the song, were all as synchronized as an elaborate Pixar film. In Professor Lessig’s presentation, the words and photos on his slides were perfectly synchronized with his voiceover and they proceeded
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April 29, 2009 by Jerry
The Microsoft Office Online site offers users of PowerPoint 2007 a variety of graphical templates for download, one of which is to combine picture and text in one frame, as in the image above. I have taken the liberty of editing the image by reversing the position of the picture and the text as below. Feel the difference? Now let’s raise the ante by increasing the amount of text in each picture and text combination into four short bullets, as is often done in presentations. Feel the
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