01-Structuring a problem, deliverables, stakeholder analysis

Jag Sheth on becoming a trusted advisor

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Although my GBS colleague Jag Sheth is best known as a professor of marketing, when digging around in almost any field of management, sooner or later one finds his influence if not some of his actual work.

Management Practice is no different, and that doesn’t surprise me at bit, given Jag’s years of experience thinking and writing about the practice of marketing, on top of his theoretical and scholarly work.

One of the connections between Jag and MP can be found in his 2000 book Clients for Life, which he wrote with Andrew Sobel. As you know, we frame the MP course in a way that causes us to think of internal as well as external “clients.” In effect, we can see clients everywhere, even if we’re not explicitly working with them as someone in a professional services firm might.

Given that, Jag’s book offers some good advice for all of us who seek to have, as his introduction begins, “loyal clients who come back to use year after year.” We want that “double win” I keep mentioning: being seen as doing good work, and having that work credited with helping others make good decisions and take action.

Jag and his co-author frame their goal as moving people – you, for example – from “expert-for-hire” to “trusted advisor.” They want to help with professional growth, clearly. As such, it also intersects with the Leadership Development course that lies ahead for you after you complete MP.

Tackling the entire book is likely more than you need to take on during your MBA studies, but here is a PDF with the Introduction and Chapter One, to give you a sense of what they’re recommending. That might help you determine if and when you might want to take in the entire book. [The GBL is going to place this on e-reserves, and when it’s available by that route I’ll replace this attachment with a link.]

0-Clients for Life-Intro-ch1

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, storyline structure

Title Watch

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Interesting titles are paramount for speeches for just as good housekeeping. Starting off on a good foot is paramount and titles are your first contact with your audience.

Avoid Cliches like well.. pretty much every other posts I have made for example. Look for originality and something fresh that will get people curious. Use titles that are active like “A Walk with Giants” or “Jumping into Equities”.   Try something original with humor. For example take a title like “Cars should yield to Joggers” and rename it something like “Don’t Stop for me”. Look for inspirations from recent books movies or even to topics in recent news articles.

Alexandra Watkins, ALB, a member of San Francisco Toastmasters, is founder and chief innovation officer of the naming and branding company Eat My Words. She says, “You have to catch someone’s interest with something unexpected, irresistible, fun or colorful — or with a clever twist on a familiar word or phrase.” She gives two examples on the subject of photography: “How to Shoot People” and “Confessions of a Sharp Shooter.”

 

http://magazines.toastmasters.org/display_article.php?id=1140173

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, questions, storyline structure

Masters of Storytelling

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Master Storytellers are known to utilize the three I’s of Storytelling: Invitation, Imagination and Impact

Invite people to think outside of the box. Make them curious by asking them a question like “Do you want to make a change ____?”.

Use people’s imagination to paint a picture of a better tomorrow. Guide them to thinking about how this improved future will impact them more specifically.

People desire for impact. Everyone wants to see that their work has a meaning. Every so often during your presentation take a slight pause to see how your presentation is affecting the group.

 

Some more exact pointers for storytelling using the three I’s of storytelling include:

–       Don’t dump facts and numbers on your audience, be investigative of sorts and ask your audience

–       Do not jump from point to point without making sure your audience is absorbing your content

–       Practice timing, do not rush through your presentation

–       Think of certain images for your audience, say things like: “Imagine this…” or “Picture that…” People respond well to imagery.

–       Do not forget to keep a pulse on the people in the room to see how you are effecting them.

 

Anyone out there a good storyteller? Is there anything you consistently do that heightens your ability to tell a story?

The inspiration for this blog post:

http://magazines.toastmasters.org/display_article.php?id=1140160

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07d-Delivering a presentation, questions, storyline structure

Dealing with a Distracted Audience

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Whether it be a cell phone, laptop, tablet or phablet, people are finding themselves more and more self consumed with technology than ever before.  Do not be alarmed or offended when this happens, as it happens to everyone. You want to have a casual atmosphere when presenting and you don’t want to start the presentation banning technology use, who knows someone may be posting something positive on social media about your presentation and your voice could be reaching an even larger audience than you think.

Presenters should not judge their audience based on their attention and body language as you have to earn their attention by developing a connection with people. Here is a novel idea on attaining their attention, force it. Force your audience to participate. Instead of being more concerned with being the sole speaker be the guide of the presentation. Just like when we have our MBA classes, students are encouraged to bring the group through a conversational journey to an ultimate goal of learning certain topics. Student engagement is vital to keep our attention after a long day at work, at 9:00 at night.

Ask your audience questions throughout your presentation. By doing this you force people to be on their toes and concentrate less on being distracted and more on the topic at hand. You might even toy with the idea of asking your audience to have a 2 minute conversation with their neighbor about their experiences on an idea you are speaking about. This discussion encourages engagement that would otherwise potentially not be there.

 

For a more in depth read on keeping your audience’s attention check out the original articles I learned these concepts from.

http://www.inc.com/guides/how-to-improve-your-presentation-skills.html

http://magazines.toastmasters.org/display_article.php?id=1108437

07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation

An Introduction into Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

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Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) was created in the 1970s by Richard Bandler whom is a computer scientist and Gestalt therapist as well as Dr. John Grinder whom is a linguist and therapist. NLP is a concept utilized to help with communication and is beneficial in many ways however is particularly useful if used for self development. Largely what NLP does is enable a heightened awareness and control of oneself, it improves a persons ability to appreciate another persons feelings and behaviors which results in more empathy and better cooperation.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a very in depth concept and can not be simply explained in a blog as there have been many books as well as training courses that teach the concept. Below are some of the Operational Basics of how the Programming works, I believe they can be utilized in not only presentations but also in how to be persuasive.

1)   Know what outcome you want to achieve

2)   Have a clear understanding of if you are pushing forward or away from your desired outcome

3)   Practice being flexible with your behavior to get your desired outcome

4)   Take action now

Largely the idea is you need to have a detailed understanding of exactly what you are looking to achieve and having the emotional intelligence to know if you are moving forward or not and changing your behaviors to try a different approach.

There are distinct presumptions you must understand the concept which is a backdrop or of what NLP is based on. Some of the most important as I see it are below:

1)   The meaning of communication is the response you get

2)   Language is a secondary representation of experience

3)   The mind and body are parts of the same cybernetic system and affect each other

4)   Behavior is geared towards adaptation

5)   Present behavior represents the very best choice currently available to a person

6)   “Possibility in the World” or “’Possible for me” is only a matter of how

7)   There is no such thing as failure; only feedback

If you are further interested in the concept read the original article attached for some additional introduction into the subject.

http://www.businessballs.com/nlpneuro-linguisticprogramming.htm

Has anyone out there ever used Neuro-Linguistic Programming in their life? Please share if you have had either positive or negative results from utilizing the concept!

07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, questions, storyline structure

What not to do while Presenting

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We have all attended presentations where glaring errors have been made and we are just irking to exit the room, out of either pain or embarrassment. Surprisingly they are quite easy to make and with a little practice, easy to avoid.

 

1)   Failing to engage emotionally.

Explicitly speaking about facts will lose your audience. Incorporate an intriguing storyline that makes the presentation more meaningful. Ask yourself “Why is this important?” and speak to how the effects will hopefully help a process or employees.

2) Asking too much of your slides.

Keep your slides succinct. Nobody wants to be constantly reading and digesting your slides. Try to keep expansive bullet points to a minimum. Additionally keep your teleprompter text hidden from the audience’s view.

3) Trotting out Tired Visuals

Think of visuals you can present that are original. People can almost always predict what visuals you are going to present, so include some that are a bit different. Avoid Cliché visuals.

4) Speaking in Jargon

All businesses and departments have their own jargon, however you really need to avoid this highly technical or industry specific jargon. If people can’t follow your train of thought they aren’t going to be following your ideas any time soon.

5) Going over your allotted time.

One of my biggest pet peeves; nobody appreciates presentations going over the planned amount of time. You will start losing your audience to shuffling and IPhone use and realistically they will not absorb the information you are presenting.. People in general have the attention span for presentations of 30-40 minutes; if you can try to keep no more than that you will stand a chance of holding your audience’s attention.

 

View the original article below:

http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/12/avoid-these-five-mistakes-in-y/

06-Building a case, evaluating evidence

Building Your Case Starts with Asking the Right Questions

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The concept of building your case begins well before you gather all of your information. It is easy to fall into a trap of fitting your case around the information you gathered, however this can lead to many problems such as developing a solution to the wrong problem, not solving the underlying root cause of the problem, or even providing answers to the client that they already know. There are strategies that you can use to gather the right information prior to building your case, which in the end, will become your case.

When doing research on the topic of building a case, I came across some short but powerful tips that HBR has come up with regarding the topic. Here are a few tips that I find helpful:

  • Don’t’ settle for the first developed business case; explore alternative solutions
  • Get the impacted clients and employees involved
  • Ask questions to clarify what the client is asking of you
  • Ask “what” and “why” questions to expand on the client’s thought

Remember, all of these activities should occur well before you gather your information and develop a solution for your client. Neglecting any of these activities may cause your project to start over from the beginning or even lose the business from your client. For those who are interested in this topic, there are a few more tips that you can use to help build your case: http://hbr.org/tip/2012/05/10/build-a-better-business-case and http://hbr.org/tip/2013/03/01/use-questions-to-build-your-case.

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, storyline structure

Deconstructing a Ted Talk

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Happy early 4th of July! Before I head out to the pool to enjoy this long weekend, I thought I would leave everyone with a few tangible tips on how to make a presentation great.

Everyone is familiar with Ted Talks, and for good reason—they contain powerful ideas that often change people’s attitudes, lives, and the world. I happened to find an article that deconstructs one of the most viewed Ted Talks of all time: “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” I do encourage watching it when you get a chance, as it contains some intriguing and useful ideas. Whether you get to watch it or not, here are some takeaways that can be applied to future presentations.  Click Here for the Ted Talk and full deconstruction of the speech.

1. Get your audience in the proper mindset right away. Simon did this by getting the listeners “to question,” but you can be creative here with stories or astonishing facts.

2. Have an inflection point, and be sure to emphasize it.

3. Make your speech tangible by bringing in examples or research to support your ideas (duh!), but do not spend too much time or get into the nitty-gritty details. Otherwise, you risk losing your listeners.

4. Build suspense into your story. More direct eye contact helps you achieve this effect.

5. Consider using parallel structure. Think JFK’s famous line: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” As for Simon, “We follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.” Very impactful!

6. Pause for impact, but you need to be strategic with quantity and placement; keep them to a minimum and spaced out.

7. The most viewed Ted Talks do not use PowerPoint slides, so do you really need to?

8. This one is my favorite: fascination cannot be faked. Hopefully you have the privilege of being fascinated with what you present because this allows you to connect with your audience. And if you are not fascinated…well, good luck?!

I would like to add “smile” to the list as my own. When I was an intern, that was one of the most important pieces of advice that I received regarding public speaking: “Don’t forget to smile while presenting.” I was a little surprised with this advice since I thought it could take away from the seriousness of a formal presentation, but the more top-notch presentations I see, the more I notice the smiles throughout the speeches. This goes together with tip #8, but I thought it needed to be called out specifically. Hopefully I smiled during the Delta presentation…

Lastly, I came across an article titled, “How to Give a Killer Presentation,” which appeared in the Harvard Business Review last summer (you can get the full article through the Emory library system; click here for a portion of the article). It was inspired by the Ted Talk given by Richard Turere, which this one YOU MUST WATCH (Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with lions)! Richard was an unlikely candidate to give a Ted Talk: terribly shy, spoke poor English, and had difficulty producing coherent sentences. But, his idea was so inspirational that the folks at Ted worked with him to frame his story and give a powerful speech. Boy, did he nail it!

The lesson here is that you do not need to be the best speaker to be engaging and inspiring. There are tools and tips you can follow to improve presentations (i.e. the list from above, this HBR article, all the other posts on this blog…), and if you let your pure passion and unique personality shine through honestly, people will hear you. And how about Richard’s smile? My heart melted.

03-Planning the work of a team, 04-Managing a project team, work plans

Managing Your Time Effectively

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We all know how difficult it can be juggling school, our jobs, friends, family and goodness knows what else. Sometimes it seems like we’re burning the candles on both ends, and we just can’t seem to catch up no matter WHAT we do. It’s so easy to get distracted, especially with all the electronic devices filling up our lives, whether it’s the TV or your smartphone.

I’ve often observed this with managers and co-workers as well. They get so caught up with the little things,  it can be difficult to stay on track.  Projects then get pushed back, things pile up — and then they end up spending 12-14 hours a day working 6 days a week. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg talks about trying to balance family and work in her book “Lean In”.  When she first became an executive at Google, She said she constantly felt worried about missing something – if she was at home with her family, she was concerned about things at the office, and vice versa.  So she implemented a pretty similar policy outlined in Michael McKeown’s article The No. 1 Time Management Mistake. She cut out the non-essentials — whether that was extra meetings, phone calls, etc. She kept strict office hours, but made herself available, if needed, on her BlackBerry. She prioritized to-do list every day — and her employees soon followed. Soon, her team was completing projects more efficiently – and in less time.

I think these lessons are especially key for us as students and future managers. Learning how to focus on the essentials and eliminating distractions will help our stress levels and our work flow. And having effective time management seems particularly essential in this shortened summer semester! So how do you make time for school, work and your personal life?

 

feedback, team dynamics

Stages of Skill Acquisition

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My career path in the last few years has been in workforce development. As a Program Manager for a graduate school work-study program, I work to find meaningful applied work experiences for students. 

For many of them, these positions provide them with the opportunity to be mentored by their supervisors or by another worksite colleague in the field of public health.  As a result, I am always working to find the ways in which we can teach students to search for valuable mentorship experiences and engage in those opportunities.

A former mentor of mine introduced me to a what’s known as the Dreyfus Model (often used in field such as education) to demonstrate how students can gain skills through application, instruction, and practice.
The model consists of 5 stages— how a student goes from “novice” to “expert” in the acquisition of these skills:
  1. Entry-level (novice)
  2. Capable (advanced beginner)
  3. Competent 
  4. Proficient
  5. Expert
In summary, think about how each of these stages relates to your career progression thus far. I leave you with the following questions to think about when considering how this framework relates to your professional experiences:
  • Where are you in Dreyfus Model?
  • What experiences did you have previously that lead you to where you are now
  • Did you have a mentor at any of those stages?
  • Did you serve as a mentor to someone else at those stages?
  • How have you been able to implement change in your department or organization at those various stages?
  • How have you used the “stage” you’re in to work effectively in a team?
  • Have you been able to accept and provide different levels of feedback based on what stage of the model you’ve been in?

As career paths change and at times we may enter an entirely new industry, it is very possible that we enter the Dreyfus Model at a lower (or higher) stage than we were before.

Sources:
Miner, Kathleen. “The Mentor’s Virtue.” Mentorship Training, Emory Public Health Training Center. Emory Conference Center, Atlanta. 24 July 2014. Oral presentation.
Lester, Stan. “Novice to Expert: the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition .” Stan Lester Developments 2005 . Web. 30 June 2014. <http://www.sld.demon.co.uk/dreyfus.pdf

MEMBA learning community, Fall 2016- Spring 2017