To use an athletic analogy, a normal speech and a TED Talk are totally different events (like a sprint vs the decathlon). It takes a surprisingly different set of skills and type of preparation to perform well.
I've given hundreds of presentations, and don't normally stress about them. I did for this one.
In most of my talks, there is very little "set in stone" to memorize. I tend to have a main topic (or theme), and each slide serves like a module ... and I think, talk, interact, and improvise throughout the framework.
This works well for me because I tend to think in anecdotes that branch out from the main theme. That may be a great skill to have, but it's not one that helps you write a good TED Talk.
Why? Because, in contrast, a TED Talk is really about "one idea worth sharing".
In many respects, it's much harder to write and deliver a good 10 minutes about one idea, than it is to prepare to talk about a much broader topic for one hour.
The TEDx committee created a sense of formality with stringent standards and deadlines. My guess is that, during the planning and rehearsal process, they wanted uncomfortable speakers to provoke better speeches.
As a result, I prepared (and threw away) four separate talks before coming up with something that felt right and flowed properly.
Here are some bullet points that highlight lessons learned.
I didn't realize how hard it was to make something simple.
The video should be ready next week.
EDIT: Here it is:
If you hate writing personalized holiday cards, you'll love this tool. It does what it is supposed to, it's easy to use, and it's going to save you a ton of time and effort.
The Task I Put-Off Every Year.
Even though composing a message and signing cards is a relatively simple task, some part of me resents and resists it.
Call me Ebenezer Scrooge, but I don’t enjoy writing thank you notes and holiday cards.
On one hand that embarrasses me a little, because I recognize that both are expressions of appreciation and being grateful for relationships and nice things. On the other hand, it's the thought that counts. I can be grateful and appreciative without suffering. How much time and effort I spend is irrelevant to how much goodwill I feel or express.
EMail Merge Pro.
That's why I recommend you try this e-mail merge software. It allows you to send personalized holiday cards, invitations or other messages, in a fraction of the time it used to take.
This easy-to-learn, easy-to-use Outlook mail merge solution has a helpful Wizard interface that gets you up and running in minutes. It takes you through a step-by-step process that makes it very easy to select who you want to send to, and how you want to personalize the message (for example, adding a first name or some other information from the contact record).
Now that I have a "Holiday Card" category in Microsoft Outlook, the hardest part of the process is tagging the new people who I want to get a holiday card.
It is the Right Tool for the Job.
If you need to tap a nail into the wall, a chain-saw is not the right tool. Likewise, most people don't need commercial e-mail services. Still, it is a great convenience having a tool that you can use, from time to time, when you want to send personalized messages to a bunch of people.
EmailMerge is a one-time purchase that allows you to send unlimited emails to unlimited contacts no additional fees or costs.
I tend to use this program two or three times a year; and every time I use it I'm happy it's there and thrilled with how it performed. Here is a link to a video demonstration.
I've used this software for many years. It is stable, mature, and continuing to improve. I highly recommend that you download a trial from their website.
They also make a number of other add-ins for Outlook worth checking-out and have a blog worth reading.
Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.
I visited family.
One of the things that caught my attention was how attached to stories we are ... our own, and the stories of others.
They help us decide who is naughty or nice. They help us decide who to spend more time with ... and where we fit in.
Stories are emotion catalysts and amplifiers. Choose the 'right' ones, and you feel good. Focus on the 'wrong' one and you feel bad.
Well-told stories make us care. Humans use 'story' to make sense of things. If you create the narrative, the process is intentional. However, for most, the quality of our stories is not a conscious process.
How Do You Craft a Great Story?
A good story can make the gathering feel that much closer. A good story can flip a conversation at a party from completely awkward to wonderful.
A good story can glue your nose to a book. And, on screen, a good story can rivet generation after generation.
Story-telling is an important skill. So, how do you tell a good story?
Andrew Stanton, the Pixar writer and director behind both Toy Story and WALL-E, has many ideas, and he shared his expertise in his TED Talk, The clues to a great story .
Storytelling is like joke telling. It's knowing your punchline, your ending, knowing that everything you're saying, from the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal, and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings.
We all love stories. We're born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories. It can cross the barriers of time, past, present and future, and allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others, real and imagined.
Here is an infographic that sets out the basic steps to a great story.
Stories are not just for kids.
Make me care. Take me with you. Be intentional. Let me like you. Delight me.
Words to live by!
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Sometimes business feels like a debate. Other times, dinner conversation or a family discussion takes a contentious turn. In any case, here is a quick primer on logical fallacies.
A logical fallacy is a flaw in reasoning. In other words, logical fallacies are like tricks or illusions of thought. Consequently, they are often used by politicians and the media.
It is fun to identify which of these certain people (including yourself) use when arguing.
TWENTY LOGICAL FALLACIES:
They fall into three main types: Distraction (10); Ambiguity (5); and Form (5).
A. Fallacies of Distraction
1. Ad baculum (Veiled threat): "to the stick":
DEF.- threatening an opponent if they don’t agree with you; EX.- "If you don’t agree with me you’ll get hurt!"
2. Ad hominem (Name-calling; Poisoning the well): "to the man":
DEF.- attacking a person’s habits, personality, morality or character; EX.- "His argument must be false because he swears and has bad breath."
3. Ad ignorantium (Appeal to ignorance):
DEF.- arguing that if something hasn’t been proved false, then it must be true; EX.- "U.F.Os must exist, because no one can prove that they don’t."
4. Ad populum: "To the people; To the masses":
DEF.- appealing to emotions and/or prejudices; EX.- "Everyone else thinks so, so it must be true."
5. Bulverism: (C.S. Lewis’ imaginary character, Ezekiel Bulver)
DEF.- attacking a person’s identity/race/gender/religion; EX.- "You think that because you’re a (man/woman/Black/White/Catholic/Baptist, etc.)"
6. Chronological Snobbery
DEF.- appealing to the age of something as proof of its truth or validity; EX.-"Voodoo magic must work because it’s such an old practice;" "Super-Glue must be a good product because it’s so new."
7. Ipse dixit: "He said it himself":
DEF.- appealing to an illegitimate authority; EX.- "It must be true, because (so and so) said so."
8. Red herring (Changing the subject):
DEF.- diverting attention; changing the subject to avoid the point of the argument; EX.- "I can’t be guilty of cheating. Look how many people like me!"
9. Straw Man:
DEF.- setting up a false image of the opponent's argument; exaggerating or simplifying the argument and refuting that weakened form of the argument; EX.- "Einstein's theory must be false! It makes everything relative--even truth!"
10. Tu quoque: "You also"
DEF.- defending yourself by attacking the opponent; EX.- "Who are you to condemn me! You do it too!"
B. Fallacies of Ambiguity
1. Accent:
DEF.- confusing the argument by changing the emphasis in the sentence; EX.- "YOU shouldn’t steal" (but it’s okay if SOMEONE ELSE does); "You shouldn’t STEAL" (but it’s okay to LIE once in a while); "You SHOULDN’T steal (but sometimes you HAVE TO) ."
2. Amphiboly: [Greek: "to throw both ways"]
DEF.- confusing an argument by the grammar of the sentence; EX.- "Croesus, you will destroy a great kingdom!" (your own!)
3. Composition:
DEF.- assuming that what is true of the parts must be true of the whole; EX.- "Chlorine is a poison; sodium is a poison; so NaCl must be a poison too;" "Micro-evolution is true [change within species]; so macro-evolution must be true too [change between species]."
4. Division:
DEF.- assuming that what is true of whole must be true of the parts; EX.- "The Lakers are a great team, so every player must be great too."
5. Equivocation:
DEF.- confusing the argument by using words with more than one definition; EX.- "You are really hot on the computer, so you’d better go cool off."
C. Fallacies of Form
1. Apriorism (Hasty generalization):
DEF.- leaping from one experience to a general conclusion; EX.- "Willy was rude to me. Boys are so mean!"
2. Complex question (Loaded question):
DEF.- framing the question so as to force a single answer; EX.- "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"
3. Either/or (False dilemma):
DEF.- limiting the possible answers to only two; oversimplification; EX.- "If you think that, you must be either stupid or half-asleep."
4. Petitio principii (Begging the question; Circular reasoning):
DEF.- assuming what must be proven; EX.- "Rock music is better than classical music because classical music is not as good."
5. Post hoc ergo propter hoc (False cause): "after this, therefore because of this;"
DEF.- assuming that a temporal sequence proves a causal relationship; EX.- "I saw a great movie before my test; that must be why I did so well."
via Oxford Tutorials
Mind maps are going mainstream. They're showing up throughout the office, with a wide variety of users and uses.
Initially, mind maps were simply a brainstorming, outlining, or note-taking tool. Now, they are showing up in thought processing, visual thinking, project management, process planning and presentations.
Tony Buzan is the father of modern mind mapping. Here is a video where he describes mind mapping and why you might want to use its "radiant thinking" process.
Tony Buzan's company recently released iMindMap 5. It is software that helps you create mind maps. Here is a map made with iMindMap that explains the basic best practices of mind-mapping.
iMindMap 5 is a great tool that keeps getting better. You can certainly use it for a lot more than taking notes.
The product comes in various versions (starting with a no-cost basic version) and moving up to a full-featured Ultimate version, which includes rich project management and 3-D presentation tools.
Here is a video showing the software.
The current generation of mind mapping tool is considerably more powerful, yet easier-to-use, than its predecessors. You can download a copy of iMindMap to try for yourself.
Next week, in part 2, I will show examples of maps made for specific business uses.
‘Make no mistake,’ Obama is a big fan of his own catchphrases.
I have been using a software tool you might find useful. It solves a problem that you probably have, even if you don't think about it often.
A Cure for Information Overload.It In the old days, you could photocopy something and put it in a file. So finding it was relatively straight-forward.
Today, you are faced with a different type of challenge (and chances are your filing system is so "1990s"). Nowadays, you might be looking for a picture, audio snippet, or video ... a document (or more likely, just a part
of one) … or a scrap you saved (like a quote, web-link, or blog post).
Moreover, as you use the computer for more things (and a bigger percentage of the work you do), it gets harder to find a random "something" that you might be looking for.
Part of the problem is that we are getting more efficient at creating "stuff", so there is more of it. In addition, that stuff is a lot more varied than it used to be.
Capture Everything to Your Personal Digital Memory.Evernote makes it easy to store, organize, and find virtually anything. Even better, it is also good at sharing it with others (award-winning good at it).
Chances are, if you can see it or think of it, Evernote can help you remember it. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screen-shot. It will be there when you need it.
Finding it Fast, Wherever You Are.Everything you capture is automatically processed, indexed, and searchable. That means you can find things quickly and easily.
You can search for items by keywords, titles, and tags. Evernote even makes the printed and handwritten text inside your images searchable, too (for example, the text on a photo of your white-board).
There is an application program. However, you can also access your information through a Web interface (wherever you are, even if you are away from your computers). In addition, there are versions that work on various smart phones and Evernote provides "Capture" buttons that integrate with Microsoft Outlook and whatever browser you might use. What that means is that it's easy to use, and it's there when you need to use it.
Here is a video showing you how it works.
One Tool That Takes the Place of Many Others.
I've tried dozens of programs that do similar things. In the old days, they were called "personal information managers".
Many of these tools are specialized, so to handle it all you might use a to-do list (or "Getting Things Done" organizer), Internet bookmark manager, screen-capture utility, document management system, and free-form database.
Evernote does all that, and virtually anything else you throw at it ... yet, it doesn't cost you anything until you throw enough stuff into it to pass its generous monthly threshold. For what it is worth, I clipped over 200 items before passing the limit.
Bottom-Line: Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free. It's worth a try, you might like it.
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What could turn this boy, who I happily go to Cowboys games with ...
... Into this boy?
When it happened, I posted this comment on Twitter: "My high-school age son came home today as a Platinum Blond. Hooray ... it makes guessing 'What's Next' so much more fun."
The responses were clever. One guy said: "Grounding is next, I expect." Someone else thought providing a little contrast would help. They said: "Here's what could be next ... Well, hope not ... but you never know". Click this link to see what they were referring to.
As it turns out, his blondness was something many football players did to celebrate their team making the play-offs and getting to play at the new Cowboys' Stadium.
Somehow (in this context) he looks better to me already ... But he doesn't have my burst of slowness, yet.
The point is that many things we initially perceive one way, may turn out to be something quite different all-together.
Here is a Story to Illustrate This Better ... And to Make it Stick.
This is another one of those stories I get, in different forms, from time-to-time.
It is called "Who Knows?" And sometimes it is told as an old story from China, while other times it is set during the American Civil War.
Nevertheless, "Who Knows?" is one of those "sticky" stories that people like to re-shape and re-tell. So, with no further ado, here it is for you to read for yourself.
Who Knows?
A farmer's horse ran away one day and all the villagers came to him saying, Oh what bad luck you've had! Your horse that you need to do your work is gone!
The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said, Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?
Several days later, the farmer's horse returned, followed by a herd of wild horses!
Oh what good luck you have, cried the same villagers! Not only has your horse returned, he has brought you many horses!
The farmer again shrugged his shoulders and said, Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?
One day not long after, the farmer's son was trying to break one of the wild horses. He was thrown off the horse and broke his leg.
Oh what bad luck you have! Cried the villagers. Now your son has a broken leg. Who will help you?
The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said, Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?
Not long after, as the son was recuperating, an army came through the village and took all the young males to fight in a war in another region. They did not take the farmer's son because of his broken leg.
Oh what good luck you have! The villagers cried once again. Your son has been spared being taken off to war because of his broken leg!
The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said, Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?
We Don't Know ... Yet.
This is a great story to remember when you're projecting far beyond the present moment ... or even when you're just worrying about what will happen next?
The things we think are good fortune can often have bad endings; and vice-versa. How many times have you looked back on what seemed like bad luck, when it happened, but later realized that it was the start of something better?
Made to Stick:
This story reminded me of the book by Chip and Dan Heath, called Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. It is a fascinating explanation about what makes an idea memorable or interesting.
The premise is that you should focus on the six things that make ideas stick – which they summed up in the mnemonic "SUCCES" (yes, I know that success has two "s"s at the end ... I didn't make up the acronym). Here is what that represents:
Other Resources:
It surprises me how many of
my thoughts cluster on a particular theme for a period of time. I guess it makes sense because I think and write about things
I notice that catch my interest. And as my focus changes from time to time,
what interests me changes. It is kind of like not being able to get a song out of your head ... only it's about what you focus on.I heard a good explanation for this at a Tony Robbins seminar this week.
He
has an exercise where you open your eyes and look around the room,
paying attention to anything that has a bright green color to it.
Try it, look around the room noticing everything you can remember that has green in or on it.
Then
close your eyes, and without looking around again, try to remember
anything that was red. You probably can remember a lot more green
things, than red things.
Tony calls this "reticular activation".
But it's just a fancy name for the same reason that if you buy a white
Lexus, all of a sudden you see white Lexus cars everywhere you go. The
things you focus-on show up more often in your life simply because you
notice them more often.
If you're curious, this week, the theme that I'm noticing in my personal, professional and business life is time, speed and pace. Here's a link to that post.
