I saw Garr Reyonlds talking about his Presentation Zen today! Thanks for the book Garr!
At functions like this I try to take away at least one Nugget. Today, I got a full bag! But it took 90 minutes to start finding them.
About 2/3 of the way through his presentation I thought "Well this guy hasn’t really prepared very well (he just has a massive slide deck) and he’s talked about himself too much. He’s only just started getting into the juicy stuff now but he’s screaming through his slides!"
A number of times he repeated "It’s a ‘casual’ presentation." But I thought, "we paid good money and he is trying to flog us his book! There is nothing casual about that!"
However, once the audience questions were launched the nuggets started to appear.
Afterwards, a few people said that they’d learned some good things about how to present; but actually, I learnt more interesting stuff about myself!
Here are my nuggets:
Nugget 1: I need to come up with a word(s), like Presentation Zen, that describes my Purple Cow. Then I can own my space!
Nugget 2: What is my Purple Cow? I might ask you next!
Nugget 3: I must take more photos of things I’m doing (or eating!) and use them in my social networking.
Nugget 4: Tell stories, it’s easier to be conversational that way. [I agree, it has to be said though]
Nugget 5: Live in the moment. [I agree, I'm Buddhist.]
Nugget 6: The little things matter! If I’m going to design things for my business make sure they are done well.
Nugget 7: Mistakes are so stigmatised! If you are not prepared to be wrong then you will never innovate. As a consultant things I deliver should not be perfect first time, instead they must seed discussion and allow us to improve business outcomes together.
Nugget 8:The creation of a simple user experience requires careful planning, which is very complex. Some people think the exercise of user-centred design is easy but it is one of the hardest things in IT. If it was easy, then I wouldn’t have a job.
Nugget 8: Off the grid. Paper is OK for Getting Things Done (GTD)
Nugget 9: Create sticky ideas with:
- Simplicity
- Unexpectedness
- Concreteness
- Credibility
- Emotion
- Stories
I’ll be buying Made to Stick by the Heath brothers right away!
At the end of presentations ike Zen. I also like have a think about how people like Garr get such broad exposure?
1. He’s smart and carismatic
2. He reads and recommends books
3. He knows the right people (Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki the list goes on!)
4. He use relevant examples from people to add credibility to what he is saying
5. He has a book
I need to write a book.