Ignite CSP

Behind the scenes

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The power and the polish of an event is demonstrated in the moments the audience doesn’t notice. These are the moments in between things, the time when elements are moving and the next thing is about to happen, but hasn’t yet.

 

How do we plan for those moments? How do we practice them?

 

I was part of a very large conference yesterday, one that happened completely online, via Zoom videoconferencing. From the outside, it could have looked like people just showed up, signed into Zoom conference rooms, and participated in the content that had been prepared. But behind the scenes, it was clear that an enormous amount of work went into thinking about every detail.

 

How will we build the schedule so people have time to finish one meeting and go to the next? 

 

How will we encourage participation without having people talk over each other? 

 

How will we help people select the breakout sessions they want to go to, and make it so easy that they can’t get confused or lost? 

 

How can we support the people who are presenting material so they don’t have to deal with the technology elements of the meeting?

 

Beware of the planning document that looks like a list of events. This happens, and then this happens, and then this happens…Any theatre director will tell you that it is the moments where those commas lie that can make or break your production.

 

How will you get from “this” to “this”?

 

Is the route clear? To everyone?

 

Test it, double-check it, ask someone who thinks differently from you to try it out. Don’t let the moments in between compromise the whole endeavor.

If Shakespeare wrote your presentation…

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William Shakespeare wrote quickly, and he wrote to make money. He had to—his job was to create something that was appealing to an audience. He knew that he needed to write plays that made different kinds of people happy, from the illiterate groundlings to the Queen of England.

 

Here’s how he did it:

 

He included something for everyone. Even in the heaviest dramas, he incorporates comedy. In the comedies, there is moving and poignant drama. When you create your presentation, intentionally include elements that are relevant to different people. Some need data, others stories, still others will follow your work better with clear visuals. All will benefit from having your message reinforced in different ways.

 

He varied the style in which he wrote. You don’t need to bring out the iambic pentameter, or contrast poetry and prose, but it’s good to change things up. If you know you have a more formal style, look for places to loosen up. On the other hand, if you are a casual, relaxed speaker, experiment with areas of your talk where it’s appropriate to be more solemn or formal.

 

He repeated everything. Shakespeare knew that people would talk, sneeze, cough, and laugh over the most important plot points of his plays. He didn’t want anyone to miss what was going on, so he built repetition into the dialogue. We learn about the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets in Romeo and Juliet several times before we ever meet either of the title characters. When we write our talks, we sacrifice clarity and repetition for cramming more and more information in. The audience can’t remember that much—make sure you support, build, and repeat your main point.

 

Experiment with these three tips. I can’t promise your next PowerPoint will still be in print four hundred years from now, but you’ll definitely do a good job of reaching the people in your audience!

Aligning your offer and your audience.

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I read pages and pages of listener reviews of different podcasts yesterday. Here is what they boiled down to:

 

That quirky thing [the host’s voice, the style of the podcast, the huge amount/scanty amount of research, the political slant, the banter, the fact there were/were not interviews] is what I love about this podcast. I’ve listened to every episode. Five stars!

 

That quirky thing is a deal breaker for me. I barely made it through one episode and then deleted it from my phone. One star.

 

As long as the people you want to listen to your podcast are the ones giving it five stars, there’s no problem. The people who don’t get it, don’t get it. That’s okay. Not everything is for everyone.

 

But what if the people you made it for are the ones who are turned off? What if your quirky thing doesn’t work for them, and your message isn’t getting through?

 

Ignite is about to launch an online course for people who want to make sure their podcasts are connecting with their audiences. How to Talk When No One Can See You: Vocal Coaching for Podcast Hosts helps you identify your audience, develop awareness of your vocal habits and strengths, and provides concrete and individualized techniques and feedback to help you grow.

 

Stay tuned to learn more!

When do you want to quit?

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Quitting, in and of itself, is value-neutral. There are great reasons to quit just about anything. When does the urge to quit well up in you?

 

  • Are you doing something you’ve never done before?
  • Are you doing something you’ve done often?
  • Are you frightened?
  • Are you bored?
  • Are you exhausted?
  • Do you feel alone?
  • Are you scared of failing?
  • Are you scared of not failing?
  • Are you alone?
  • Are you overwhelmed?
  • Are you calculating sunk costs?
  • Are you looking to the future?

 

I’m curious—what are the stories you tell yourself about quitting? Is there value in continuing to do something because you’ve always done it? Are there common threads you can learn from in the times you have quit something in your life?

 

This comes back to what I’m always asking: what is your default pattern? Then, knowing that, what happens when you experiment with a different response?

 

The power of saying yes

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Yes.

And.

Saying yes to new ideas, even ones that seem like they may not lead anywhere, is how we encourage more and more ideas. Creating a culture that values innovation and creativity means we celebrate every idea, and we do this as an investment in our future. Without welcoming the mediocre and even the bad ideas, the good ones won’t appear.

Ignite CSP founder Angie Flynn-McIver talks about “yes, and” in this short video.

Learn about our Improvisational Communication workshop here!

 

In the mouth of the wolf

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Despite a lifetime spent in theatre, until last week I had never heard the Italian term for wishing a performer a good show. Now I’m fascinated by it.

 

The phrase is in bocca al lupo, or “in the mouth of the wolf.” A little internet research reveals that the origin of this phrase is unclear, but likely stems from hunters wishing each other to be in dangerous situations as a means of warding off bad luck. The English phrase “break a leg” works the same way, by wishing ill fortune as a way to draw good fortune.

 

For me, though, the phrase “in the mouth of the wolf” conjures up something different. When an actor steps onstage, she is walking into the place of danger, of vulnerability. What will happen? Unlike film, where you can stop and start and redo, live theatre (and music, and and dance) happens in real time. The actors walk, knowingly, into the mouth of the wolf. They step boldly towards a situation most people avoid like they would a wild animal.

 

I imagine the actors poised between the teeth of a giant wolf. Their fear of judgement, of failure, does not keep them from venturing out. Instead, they engage that fear head-on. Indeed, knowing there is something to lose makes the experience more resonant, more valuable, more interesting for the audience.

 

When do you find yourself venturing out to the unknown, the frightening, the unsettling, the challenging? Where is the mouth of the wolf?

 

Move on.

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“This isn’t going to work. Let’s move on.”

 

Last weekend, I was helping out at a friend’s party. There were dozens of candles that needed to be lit, in a short period of time, so four of us were working our way down the line with lighters and long tapers.

 

The candles were small, placed the bottom of jars, and the wicks lay flat on the surface. To light them, you had to tip the candle out, pry the wick off the surface, drop the candle back in, then fire up your lighter.

 

About halfway through the candles, with time running out, I was struggling to get one of the candles lit. I looked down the line, saw how many others were already lit, how many were still waiting, and made a decision.

 

This one’s not going to cooperate; no problem. Put it aside and keep going. Don’t waste time and effort. Grab the next candle.

 

The power of the chair

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We spend a lot of our work life seated. Many calls and meetings have us in our chairs for hours! What do we need to know about how to ground and utilize our physical presence when we’re sitting down?

 

Ignite CSP senior coach, Vivian Smith, brings you some advice for just this situation.

 

 

Turn your camera on!

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I spend a lot of time coaching people to achieve a single outcome—more effective communication. “Effective” can mean concise, moving, convincing, reassuring, compelling…the specific outcome differs, but what everyone is looking for is to avoid miscommunication and to get to the desired result.

 

Many of our clients do almost all of their communication for work virtually. They may go to an in-person meeting now and then, but they are mostly on WebX or on conference calls. Over the last ten years, the proportion of our clients who need help communicating in the virtual realm has skyrocketed.

 

But here’s what’s interesting. In every case, our clients come to us for reason number 1, “we need to communicate more effectively,” with no realization that “we only communicate virtually,” is a contributing factor. It is only when we start talking about the circumstances of their work style and communication that this emerges.

 

As in other areas of our lives, this technology has taken over so quickly that we have not kept up with its potential downsides, seeing only its efficiencies.

 

Now our global team can meet every Monday via Zoom!

 

Now we don’t have to fly to meet these potential clients in person; we can demo our product via screen share!

 

Now I can load up my calendar with back-to-back meetings and never leave my desk!

Now I can check in with my team and monitor their progress on Slack!

 

Yes, you can. But should you? And more to the point, are you even asking the question about how you can best reach the results you want?

 

From the frontlines of my work in teaching people to talk to other people more effectively, I can tell you that we need to at least be asking the question. Let’s take this one: Now we don’t have to fly to meet these potential clients in person; we can demo our product via screen share!

 

A sales team can churn out more calls in a day if they are not meeting people in person. There’s no doubt about that. It saves time and money. But let’s say your goal is to shorten the sales cycle. We know that one thing that builds trust between strangers is when they can see each other as human, not a disembodied voice. In fact, one study showed that successful deals have a 41% higher rate of webcam usage. The salespeople who used their webcam, and showed their own face on it rather than simply sharing their screen, closed more deals. More than 71% of sales teams are regularly integrating video into their sales cycle.

 

When you choose to keep your camera off, when this becomes your habit, you have to acknowledge that you may be working harder and longer to achieve the same goal. Why not experiment? Turn that camera on. See what happens.

 

Ignite is coaching sales teams in the best practices of virtual communication. Read more here!

Getting back on the horse.

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It could happen.

 

You’ve prepared, you’ve planned your talk using a strong intention,  you know just how you want to affect your audience, and you’ve practiced. You walk up there, open your mouth…and flop.

 

What do you do when you feel it going wrong? How can you save it?

 

I’ve been in this exact situation, and I know how it feels. What’s happening? Why can’t I get words to come out in the right order? Why can’t I remember what I wanted to say? Why isn’t the acumen responding the way I thought they would? Ugh, this is a disaster.

 

This, right here, is the moment you’ve been waiting for. This is when your intention is going to serve you like a parachute does a pilot who had to eject from his plane.

 

Pause. Take a breath. Think, “What am I here to do? What do I want my audience to walk away thinking or feeling? What’s my intention?”

 

This process will bring you away from the death spiral of self-sabotaging thoughts, and back into relationship with your audience. They don’t want you to fail. They want you to succeed, and more importantly, they want to be changed by your words.

 

What do you have to offer them?

 

Read more about how Ignite coaches people to talk to any audience with confidence.