How NOT to start your presentation on change

Senior leader... standing at the front of a room, about to announce some key information on a change and transformation piece of work. 

The room is hushed. Everyone is waiting to hear why the change is happening and how it will affect them. You know the old 'WIIFM' 'What's in it for me'. You've got to hook them in first, before you even begin to blab on about how it will roll out and when it will happen. 

So the leader begins... and the first words out of their mouth were: 

'I have seven slides to present'.

Yep, that was it. The number of slides. The number of times they were going to 'click' the clicker to advance the PowerPoint deck of pre-prepared numbness. Seven times. 

THAT was the most important thing?

That's what you wanted to lead with?

That was going to frame the change, the message, the impact?

The nervousness, uncertainty or anxiety was leaking out of this leader and their subconscious or unconscious was speaking: 'just get through these seven slides'. 

The team thinking - 'oh great, seven slides.'

After some wise counsel on how this leader could design, communicate and facilitate change through the rest of this national rollout, the start of the subsequent presentations changed.

This leader started with a story, or a statistic, or a statement. It was inspiring, engaging and it captured attention.

They didn't start with the number of slides. Not any more. 

Know your message.

Know your team and their 'what's in it for me'.

Lead with that. Reinforce that.

Share that and be passionate about that.

Not how many slides you have. (zzzz)

Do it with the lights on and the blinds open

Yep, put it on show and make it visible.

Stand out, loud and clear so people can see and hear you!

Doing what and where ... you wonder?

Last week I was working with a team on their leadership day. They put so much effort into making the conference room dark enough for the PowerPoint presentation and slides. I figured this was gonna be one heck of a deck. 

But, well, it wasn't. It was a bunch of dot points on the company template. zzzzzzz, yawn and dull boring, #fail.

This was a leadership team and a big event focused on communicating change, inspiring the team, getting everyone on the same page.

A darkened room and a deck of uninspiring, forgettable bullet points. Yep, that's really going to have staying power... no.

Leaders need to get real when it comes to communicating change. Turn the lights on. Let them see you. Keep the blinds open. Let natural light in. Be authentic - there's so much 'authentic leadership' talk going on, yet when leaders have the perfect opportunity to influence, persuade and deliver messages as a real human being, they sanitise themselves and hide in the dark, clicking and 'blah-blahing' through lists of linear nothingness.

Stop spending so much time on your bullet points and slide deck and spend some more time crafting, rehearsing, speaking, engaging, sharing and humanising your leadership communication.

Lights on. Blinds open. Now. 

Clean up your (meeting) room!

Last week I ran a skills workshop in an organisation's meeting room. 

I could tell it was a meeting room because there was a sign on the door that said "Meeting Room". 

But if I'd been guided in there with my eyes closed and then opened my eyes, this room could have easliy doubled for the "Storage Room".

This meeting room was a dumping ground for old broken chairs, additional surplus chairs, trolleys, boxes of supplies, more chairs, some broken tables, filing cabinets, storage cupboards and other 'junk'. 

The environment this created was .... cluttering. 

I spent time before the session, clearing some breathing space, sectioning off an area and making sure the 'working space' was separate from the 'storage space'. There wasn't alot I could do about the 'rubbish space'. 

The feedback was that it was the best meeting room they'd seen and worked in. 

When space is at a premium, it's understandable that any sort of space begins to get taken over. 

But the cost on your communication, collaboration, productivity and performance suffers, particularly when you can't get things done swiftly or cleanly because the environment is polluted. 

Clean up your (meeting) room. And if you need half of it for a storeroom, then section it off so that the roles and purposes of those spaces are clear. 

How often do you hear interior designers on lifestyle shows talk about 'zones' for living. Retailers do it too. They're looking for ways to create an environment that will give you a positive reaction... not a reminder from your mum that you need to clean up your room!

So here's a reminder from me.... clean up your meeting room. It's costing you so much more than a bit of cluttered floor space. 

The best selling exhibition in town

In a busy workplace it can be tough to get people to listen and tune in to your change message, your key message or any of your messages!

How do you get people to listen to and understand what your team is working on? How do you get them to sign up, buy in and want to be a part of it?

Watch my short sketch video this week and you'll see how a clever project team got people to come along to their best selling 'exhibition'.

What important thing are you working on?

What will you do to make the people you work with want to tune in to it?

Download the video here

It's time to clean up our language

Listening to people talking is something we do every day; listening in workshops, in planning sessions, in meetings, conversations and learning environments.

I don't know about you, but I hear lots of 'dirty' language! Ok, not swearing, but rather let's call it 'unclean language'. 

This is language where people interrupt, make assumptions, give directions, tell people what to do and dish out prescriptions. Yes... how much do you enjoy being told what to do? Often we may not intend to be so ... dirty... with our language, so it's something to be aware of. 

We really do need to clean up our language!

Clean language has the capacity to break down silos, build trusting environments, boost our capabilities to think, evolve our ideas and deepen engagement. It's an approach identified and developed by New Zealander David Grove. More leaders, coaches, managers and drivers of change might like the idea of achieving those things.

You can read more about the technicalities of clean language here and here but a session presented at a conference I was at recently reminded me of the power of this clean listening and communication tool.

In short, here's how you keep it clean:

• listen using the person's words
• use 'and...' to kick off your sentence or question
• ask 3 key clean questions (where x is a word they've mentioned/used)
  • And what kind of x is that x?
  • And is there anything else about x?
  • And that's x like what ?
• stick to these three questions
• slow down.

You can get the essence of the session from my visual notes.

So... how 'clean' are you? How clean are the others on your team? 

Boost engagement, build trust and break down silos in these challenging times by cleaning things up.