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Influence your audience with data

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“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

The term was popularised in the United States by Mark Twain (among others), who attributed it to the 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881). In today’s information overload world, the need to use data in business is a necessary tool for an effective communicator. Big data is here.

 

Today’s article looks at three guidelines when using data to influence your audience:
1. Don’t lie or mis-lead

I once heard a CEO from a major coaching association stand up and give a confident presentation full of his insights, trends and forecasts from his research of talking with … 16 people.

Now maybe these were the 16 most important people in the field. Or maybe they were the 16 most insightful people. But let’s face it, it’s a little dangerous to make big bold predictions from a sample size of 16. While industry leaders, gurus and media titans are great food for thought, they can often skew the outcomes. Always explain your sample size and the implications this has on the data itself.

Another common mistake occurs when visually displaying data. When you’re using a bar chart for example, always use a baseline of zero. The two charts below will show you the impact of starting a baseline from anything else.

 

The first chart shows what looks like a massive increase in one year:

You’ll notice that the scale actually starts from 79,000 so that the increase from 1998 to 1999 looks significant.

Plotting the same data with a baseline of zero gives a different picture:

In this chart the increase looks much less “massive”.

 

2. Comparisons and contrasts

Single data points carry very little meaning and are instantly forgotten unless you are a subject matter expect within that particular niche.

I once heard an engineer stating that his products had helped to take out one billion grams of fat from the US diet. That sounds like a lot but can you imagine how much that is?

Instead, comparing it to population of New York City gives a better indication of the magnitude of how much fat was really removed.

When Apple were marketing the iPhone 5, they contrasted it’s dimensions with the iPhone 4 so that the new phone was “18% thinner and 20% lighter”. This brings out the incremental improvements in a better light than may at first be obvious when comparing the two phones.

Comparisons and contrasts are especially useful because they take a complex subject and should the most important similarities or differences.

Remember that the amount of detail you show will depend on your audience. So the example below show how Apple compares and contrasts in China, where a higher comfort with technical specifications and a higher focus on price exists.

3. Tell your story behind the numbers

Whatever your data set, you can always find a way to personalise or humanise the way you introduce it. This is known as telling the story behind the numbers.

Overwhelming an audience with a slide back full of numbers is not an effective way for them to internalise or remember your message. Instead, your data should be used as a way to strengthen the message you wish to convey throughout your presentation.

Whatever story or anecdote you choose to share it should follow these checkpoints:

A. Memorable or meaningful to the audience

The audience can relate to the story, understand it quickly and likely to remember it.

B. Impactful

Help your audience remember the point by making your story clear, concise and finish with a precise point.

C. Personal

Ideally, as an expert on your subject, you’ll be able to share a story that comes from your experience. This adds credibility to you as the expert.

Types of business stories:

  • Give an example from your own experience
  • Share an example that you’ve observed your colleagues doing
  • Share a customer story
  • Give some insight from your company’s culture or values
  • Recount the lessons from your CEO or founder
  • Explain how this number was reached
  • Show what the number means to the audience

Adjust to your audience

In a Harvard Business Review article titled “How to Tell a Story with Data,” Dell Executive Strategist Jim Stikeleather explains how you can divide up your audience based on their technical knowledge.

These levels are novice, generalist, management, expert and executive:

The novice is new to a subject so likes it clear but not too simple.

The generalist is aware of a topic and looks for an overview and the main themes.

The management seeks detailed understanding.

The expert wants to deep dive into discovery and limit vague storytelling.

The executive needs to know the significance and conclusions.

Conclusion

Using data to influence is a necessary part of an effective communicator’s arsenal. Use these guidelines to ensure that your data doesn’t bore the audience but engages and leads them to the points you wish them to remember. First, never mis-lead. Then use contrasts and comparisons to give context to your data. Finally, add anecdotes, stories and examples to personalise the main points you wish them to remember.

 

Five Metaphors you can use to better influence your audience

One of the key challenges in influencing is to use a range of influencing techniques. Many business executives commonly use data to influence. To be honest, data is often overused, and many business professionals do not use data in an influential way. We will cover how to better use data in a difference letter. Today I would like to introduce the idea of using a more visual way to influence. There are various techniques that you can use when it comes to using a more visual approach. For example, storytelling, sharing anecdotes and personal experiences. The reason why visual influencing techniques are effective is because they allow the other person to “see” the ideas that you wish to convey. Storytelling is a very powerful and deep form of communication for humans. As children, we love to hear stories. As adults, billions of dollars are spent on entertainment such as going to movies, watching videos and playing video games. Reading fiction allows the reader to visually create the story in their own minds. So the ability to use visual images to allow the other person to see the ideas that you wish to share is a powerful, memorable way to communicate and influence.

Today I’d like to share a technique around using metaphors. Metaphors are commonly used in business. For example the famous Chinese book, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, is frequently referenced in business. Here the metaphor of war is applied to the world of business. There are many metaphors that you can use in business to convey a visual picture let’s look at some them.

1. The metaphor of a ship
Let’s imagine that you wish to describe your organization and you want to use a metaphor to do so. You could use a metaphor such as a ship. The ship, like an organization, is a complex system. You could think of a ship as going on a journey, you think of the ship as having to be constantly in motion, a ship always has to be making correctional changes to reach its target, a ship has a captain that decides on direction, ship has a crew who needs to be working together to help the ship reach it’s destination. A ship could be considered as going on an adventure, you could use metaphors of Christopher Columbus or in China you have a similar general, Zheng he. You can use different types of ship. Consider the classic voyaging ships from the 18th century. They convey the sense of adventure, facing undiscovered worlds and the hardships that go along with being pioneers. Alternatively, you could also have a different metaphor if you wanted to focus on speed. Perhaps then a better metaphor is not a huge ship but a small faster speedboats that can adapt quicker and is more flexible to the environment. The business environment that many companies operate in is harsh and changes rapidly. If you stand still, you get beaten. Many technology companies face this reality. You could use the metaphor of having to decide to go through a storm or go around the storm. When it comes to the crew, you can talk about how it’s important that everybody pulls together and works together. If you are talking to an audience who were familiar with the America’s Cup you could use the idea of a race and the technology that goes into the modern yachts. The most important aspect of a metaphor is that the audience can very easily picture and also understand it.

2. The metaphor of a machine
Another example that you could use when it comes to using a metaphor is you could talk about an organization as a machine. You could talk about the importance of process, a system, you could talk about the need to increase effectiveness and efficiency. You could use examples of businesses that are regarded as machines, for example when it comes to franchising, such companies such as Starbucks or McDonald’s have very effective systems to open and serve a huge network of stores. The metaphor such as the machine focuses on cost and consistency and delivering the same experience every time. On the other hand using a metaphor such as the machine is slightly cold in the sense that it’s not something that people naturally appeal to. While many organizations have very systematic processes underpinning their success, they won’t necessarily focus on this when communicating with their staff and customers. An organization may not actually wish to be seen as a machine. However you also have to relate the metaphor to to your audience. So for example if you’re presenting to a group of technical people or  to blue-collar workers who were very familiar and have hands-on experience of machinery, then this would be a good metaphor. You could expand this metaphor to include the importance of maintenance,safety and quality.

3. The metaphor of natural environment
You could also use a metaphor such as the natural environment. You could use nature as  a metaphor to show how a business needs to evolve, how it needs to compete for resources to survive  by gaining an advantage against other organisms competing around it. This type of organization needs to respond to its environment and needs to be able to learn and adapt to be able to grow. This is quite different from the machine metaphor because once machine is set up and and its programmed to run, it stays the same, it doesn’t evolve. If you’re using nature as a metaphor, then there is not some central controller. In the ship metaphor you could say that the captain was in control of directing the ship. But with a natural environment maybe there’s an ecology maybe there’s a lot of interdependencies so it’s not clear who’s in charge. Today many companies operating in a matrix organization where reporting lines are more complex than before. By using nature as a metaphor you could talk about ideas of whether your actions have a bigger impact on the environment or if the environment has a bigger impact on you. You can talk about how a company needs to respond to the market, needs to be agile. In this metaphor you could say that a company’s focus needs to be more focused on external influences rather than internal influences. We could make the case that external influences have a much stronger impact on an organization. You could also take this metaphor forward by thinking about what kind of organism or natural metaphor could be used. Is our business more like a spider’s web where we need to adapt to the environments, we need to have different connections, we need to be able to survive. Even when one part of the web is destroyed, the other parts of the web can still do their jobs. Select a relevant and appropriate image that conveys the message effectively. While financial firm, Merrill Lynch were known as the “thundering herd” in their early days. Post financial crisis and acquisition by Bank of America, this is downplayed although they still retain their bull logo.

4. The metaphor of sports
Another commonly used metaphor when it comes to business is sports. In many countries football or soccer is the most popular sports and that’s an easy one to use. You could have a look at your organization as a football team. For example, you have the manager with a supporting coaching team which could be linked to the leadership team, you have the people performing on the football pitch, the fans in the stadium cheering them on and the media projecting their brands around the world. There’s lots of ways that you could use as a sports team as a metaphor. Depending on the culture that you wanted to influence, you could use different sports metaphors. So for example in America, baseball and American football would be would be a better metaphor. In Brazil, football. In China you could use volleyball or basketball. The advantage of a sports metaphor is the idea of being competitive and staying competitive in competing with other teams. Also most sports result in winners and losers. Except of course if your country plays the unusual game of cricket, where two teams can play together for five days and the result can be a draw. There are very few sports played in the 21st century where this can happen. You got the British to thank for that. You can also use the language of sports in your metaphor. You can talk about a project “kick off”. You can take a “time out” to review activities. You can analyse the situation at half time. You can advise your team to “keep their eye on the ball”.

5. The metaphor of a movie
You could also use that the metaphors of the movie industry to relate to your business. The production of a movie is a large and complex process. You have the talent acting in the movie,  the movie director to work with the talents and of course the behind-the-scenes guys like the script writers, the video animators, and other technical guys who all need to work together, on a demanding schedule.  You have the importance of the publicity and marketing departments and of course you have the fans. Have a look at the type of movies your target audience are watching and see how you can relate it to them. If you’re conveying a change message to a younger audience, think about using Transformers as a metaphor. Large epic projects may be matched to Lord of the Rings. Go and watch every movie that grosses over USD500m at the box office, even if it’s not to your usual tastes. Watch it and look for the metaphors that are connecting to the target audiences. There is most likely a strong powerful story line or great archetypes that you can learn.

Conclusion
So you can see when it comes to using metaphors, you are only limited by your creativity and your ability to link your metaphor to a picture that is easily understood by your audience. Recently I’ve been speaking in Asian countries like Japan, China and Thailand with audiences ranging from high school students to executives in multinational companies. The metaphors that I use when I’m facing these different audiences will vary. When I’m facing a younger audience I will do some research to find out what are the  current popular movies, hot brands or singers in that culture for that particular age group. Then I will find a way to link my message to these metaphors. In that way I’m helping the audience to digest my message by providing them a picture that is easily understood because they are already familiar with the particular metaphor whether it’s a singer or actor or brands. Finding ways to link your message to a metaphor or image is a very powerful way to influence because it’s memorable, it’s easily understood, and often you find that it sticks far longer after your presentation.

Action – Next Steps
So for your next presentation think about a message that you want to convey and then try and find a metaphor that you can link it to. Good luck and if you would like to share your metaphors or if you have any questions about how you could use your metaphors then please feel free to reach out. Send me an email or connect with me on LinkedIn.

The Engaging Speaker adds burst of enthusiasm to increase energy levels

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The Engaging Speaker is a performer. However, her primary purpose is not entertainment. The purpose is not for the audience to watch spellbound. The Engaging Speaker knows that every talk is a chance to educate and inform, inspire and persuade. She has a clear communication purpose alongside her ability to entertain.

What’s the main difference between a performer and an educator? A performer knows how to vary the energy levels in the audience. The Engaging Speaker knows that shifting energy levels keep the audience’s attention and increases their engagement.

The Engaging Speaker leads this change in energy with bursts of enthusiasm. She carries the audience to a higher level. By turning up her enthusiasm dial from 5 out of 10 to 7, she makes it clear to the audience that she believes in her content, she believes in her message and she wants dearly for the audience to come along for the journey.

In my very first sales job, I was given a book to read on improving sales performance. I still remember that the first lesson was that more people are moved by enthusiasm than are ever influenced by information alone. Product knowledge is important. But it’s worthless unless you can connect with your audience first. The Engaging Speaker keeps that connection by adding bursts of enthusiasm.

How can you add enthusiasm? Imagine your telling a good friend about a great experience you just had. Perhaps a fun time out with friends or family. Think about how you tell the story. Your voice speed. How your tone pitching up and down. The laughter and smiles that accompany a good story. The transfer of energy from you to your friend. Enthusiasm is like electrify flowing between two people. The other person can’t help but be affected too. Enthusiasm is a great safe way to connect with your audience. Look for ways to add more enthusiasm into your next talk. Entertaining personal stories are usually a good place to start.

I work with technical professionals who want to engage and influence non-technical people through public speaking and presenting.

About the Author
“Warwick helps C-level executives, working in multinational companies based in Greater China, who need to become more confident and effective in their spoken communications. Warwick helps the executive project a clear message allowing them to express their opinions powerfully and gain respect from senior managers even when under pressure.”
Warwick is the author of “The One Minute Presenter: 8 steps to successful business presentations in a short attention span world”.
Buy The One Minute Presenter here.

7 things to know about how new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella communicates in public

Satya Nadella is the new CEO Microsoft. No doubt we’ll be hearing more from him over the years. But how does he fare as a smart and engaging communicator? Here are seven points to consider:

1. He’s a subject matter expert. When you listen to his interviews and keynote talks, you’ll be left in no doubt that Satya is a tech guy. He’s knows his stuff. You’ll hear him talking a lot about the cloud.

2. He looks the part. Satya is very well dressed and exudes the look of a business leader without looking too slick. He has presence.

3. Good energy. While not at the over-the-top energy levels of former-CEO Steve Ballmer, Nadella certainly brings good energy to his public talks. He has a clear voice, a good physical presence and cuts a dynamic figure. He brings good energy to the room.

4. During keynotes, he tends to speak a little on the fast side. Added to his high energy style this can become a little overwhelming after a while. His delivery can seem a little one tracked and one paced at times. A few pauses to break up ideas would help the audience digest his ideas. A shifting between energy states to create difference responses from the audience would improve his delivery.

5. He falls into the trap of a technical professional. He leads with content and forgets to have a message. If you stopped his keynote speech after five minutes and said, “Okay, so what was that about?”. You’d struggle to easily pick out a message or takeaway idea without retelling his ideas. Without a headline message, all the data points, process and buzzing ideas will be quickly forgotten.  As he becomes the figurehead of Microsoft, this will likely change. Why? See the next point.

6. I love the fact that he describes himself as a learner.  Satya defines his motivations as “Family, curiosity and a hunger for knowledge. “  This desire will make him a quick study and I’d expect we’ll see a very different public persona from Satya – especially to general and non-technical audiences – over the next 12 months.

7. He loves cricket. And if he can explain cricket to people who didn’t grow up with it – then there’s nothing he can’t explain!

To learn more about Satya Nadella, visit my Scoop page with articles from multiple sources. Click here.
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Transform into a better speaker with the right kind of preparation

Michael Bay is the Hollywood director behind blockbuster movies like The Rock, Armageddon and Transformers. He was recently invited to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) by Samsung to help launch their curved televisions. It’s the major venue for brands to launch their products.

What happened when Michael took the stage is not that pretty. According to Michael:

Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES – I was about to speak for Samsung for this awesome Curved 105-inch UHD TV. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar. I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down – then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing.

You can see the video here. It’s all over in a minute:

 

Among the flood of reactions, there’ s a point of view that Michael was struck by stagefright. Stagefright is a power reaction to the idea of speaking in public that affects many people to such a great extent that they’re unable to speak. They’re simply overcome by their physical reactions to anxiety.

 

However, having watched the video a couple of times I think otherwise. As Michael mentioned in his blog, he skipped the teleprompter introduction and then it got lost. And he says on the video, “The type is off. Let’s wing it right now. “

 

I’ve seen this many times before. It’s a reliance on a crutch. It could be a PowerPoint deck, it could be a script or some notes. In this case it was a teleprompter with his word-for-word script. In other words, he could only read in public not speak in public.

 

In my opinion, this is not caused by stagefright but by the wrong type of preparation. Michael Bay is no doubt being paid some big bucks by Samsung and I’m sure he spent some time thinking through and preparing his script. But he didn’t take it to the next level of rehearsal. As I recently commented on a public speaking group on LinkedIN:

Don’t rely on the technology. He needed the teleprompter to speak and that’s not a good place to be when it stops working. I help my executives to speak without notes or other crutches. The confidence this gives them allows them to better use slides and other speaking aids. It requires more preparation and a leap of faith.

A good speaker may start with a script or notes but at the end of rehearsal will be able to deliver the talk without referring to a script or notes. If the speaker is unable to do that, then they are not ready. It’s just a part of the process. If you stop half way through the process, you’re under-prepared.

What this needs is adequate preparation involving clearly mapping out a flow or direction for the talk. Refining a message that articulates your point of view. And supplementing your message with an interesting array of supporting material such as anecdotes, examples, and data if relevant. Just like an actor would first read a script, then run through a rehearsal script-in-hand and finally be able to perform without any notes, every good public speaker follows a similar process.

The problem occurs when speakers stop their rehearsal too soon. This is the curse of PowerPoint. I’m sure you’ve seen more than a few speakers just reading from the slides off the screen. This is because they have not mastered their content. They may have spent a lot of time making their slides but it’s not the right type of preparation for a public speaker. It’s not asking too much that Michael Bay should be able to speak about why he’s working with Samsung, what he think of the product and how the experience might look for consumers.

In the same way, when I coach executives who are giving public speeches at town halls, conferences or all-hands meetings, they often start by insisting that they hold notes or have their script in front of them. What happens, of course, is that gradually they start to refer to their notes more and more and finally all they are doing is reading from a script. It looks and sounds awful. I help them see this and move on to a the next level or preparation.

The script is simply a crutch that good rehearsal can overcome. Once you’ve mastered the content, you can then use a slidedeck to prompt your flow or to trigger a story or example.

In Michael Bay’s case, all he had to do was keep his composure and be ready to go off-script. The Samsung executive was asking him set up questions that he could have easily answered, like “What do you think of the Curve (TV)?”. Surely you don’t need a script to say a few words about that.

In this case, perhaps things will work out well. As Oscar Wilde said “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

The Engaging Speaker shares relevant personal anecdotes that support a message

Find your personal anecdotes

I recently went to renew my work visa. While changing metro lines I was walking along reading The Economist. I boarded the metro going the wrong direction. By the time I changed back and got to the train station, I missed my train by 2 minutes. I went to change my ticket for a later one and the ticketing system crashed. When I arrived in Suzhou, the taxi took me to the wrong road. Later in the day another taxi couldn’t find the government building. After completing one process, the lift went up instead of down. Unexpectedly, the payment process changed to credit card only, no cash. As I was taking the urgent track I had to pay an additional fee; cash no card.

Throughout this experience I didn’t get too stressed. In fact, despite all the small obstacles I finished the whole process in two hours. Having lived in China for so long I’ve come to understand that the best state of mind in these situations is to be calm and amused. As a triathlete, I’ve learned to race the race as it unfolds and not the one I had planned.

 

Taking the above anecdote, I could link it to several messages:

1. In China a calm state of mind works best.

2. A plan is only as good as how you react to changes in the plan

3. Be prepared. But be prepared to adapt.

4. Getting things done in China come with stress.

 

There could be several different types of messages that I could relate to the personal anecdote. Collect your experiences and think about messages that can help people learn from your experiences. People love stories and they’ll focus in when you tell them.

 

One final tip when telling anecdotes: add small concrete details to make your story come alive and feel more real. Mr Orange, played by Tim Roth, in Reservoir Dogs was an undercover cop trying to infiltrate a heist gang. The scenes where Mr Orange is rehearsing his story with his colleague is a great lesson on how to add the small but important details in a story.