It’s always great to discover new angles on stuff you’ve been working with for years; and yesterday (17 April 2013) was a good example.
I was speaking at the regular breakfast meeting of The Business Club in Warwick (UK). My topic was “Powerful Presentations”; the invitation came through the good offices of my good friend Nick Thomas of The Thomas Consultancy. And what a friendly bunch of people!
The discussion during my talk reminded me that there are many ways to skin a cat, especially in this field. For example:
- Years ago, I’d learned a technique for managing stress before a presentation, from NLP expert Dianne Lowther of Brilliant Minds. She calls it “The Circle of Excellence” and it’s explained in detail on pp 68-70 of her book ‘Introducing NLP for Work, A Practical Guide’.
- In the audience yesterday was a hypnotherapist, Helena Lapworth. Naturally, when I got onto the section about tools to help increase confidence in delivery, she commented that she used many of these techniques in her own work. On this particular tool, she said, “we call that anchors & triggers.”
- AND …
- There’s an old saying that’s been used for ever and a day: “Tell them what it is you’re going to tell them. Then tell them. Then tell them what it is that you’ve just told them.” As the method has been widely used by Army officers, I’ve heard it called it the Aldershot method or the Sandhurst method, those being places with a high incidence of Army-related activity.
- However, afterwards Caroline Woodward of The Symphony Group came up to me and said “I know that technique as the “News at Ten method.” Of course that makes perfect sense; you have headlines both at the beginning and the end. And as many more people watch or listen to broadcast news than are familiar with military procedures, the “News at Ten method” is the phrase I shall use in future. Thanks, Caroline!
As King Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.
Richard Clayton of Richard Clayton Financial Services in Birmingham (he runs the club) sent me a complimentary e-mail afterwards. I’ve copied Richard’s kind remarks into my testimonial page because, as movie director Baz Luhrmann says:
“Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Here’s a copy of the reading list I sent the members of The Business Club after my talk on Powerful Presentations.
For info on the NLP book I mentioned, click HERE.
Mind-mapping: try one of the many books by Tony Buzan, e.g. the wonderfully titled: “Mind Maps at Work: How to be the best at work and still have time to play.”
“Future history”: visualisation technique used by many sportspeople, e.g. Muhammad Ali, Padraig Harrington. See sports psychology blogs, e.g: http://www.themartineffect.co.uk/blog-harrington.htm
“The Art of Speeches and Presentations,” Philip Collins, Wiley