Category Archives: Education

May 24, 2011 · 7:00 am

Stage time, stage time, stage time

Darren LaCroix is a Toastmasters member who won the World championship of public speaking in 2001. Last Friday, I attended a workshop on public speaking that he gave in Lisbon, just before our District 59 Spring conference.

The guy is impressive. The 3-hour workshop was fantastic. The deal was truly value for money.

He explained his story more or less in his winning speech from 2001, repeated at an event of the NSA in the following video:

10 years later, he is even better… but he wasn’t always like that. During the weekend he played another video of himself in the late 80´s. He was then a disaster of a public speaker. He then went on a journey of studying the best speakers and working hard to improve until being what he is today. This sounds very much as the American dream story… but having seen the video back then and seeing the dozens of shelves filled of videos and cassettes of speeches that he went through in those 10 years, there is little doubt of the truthfulness of that story. As he said “I use the tool of Toastmasters better than most”.

Some takeaways of the workshop

I will leave below some of the notes I took during the workshop, to share them with you and to have them properly stored for myself (still, if you get the chance of attending one of his workshops, do yourself the favour and book a place in it). Many of them are quotes either from him or from his coaches, sometimes I didn’t get right the source.

The most important part of a presentation: “The thought process in the audience’s mind”.

He introduced the concept of “salting” a presentation: getting your audience to want to hear your message before you deliver it (building up curiosity, tension).

The 4 most important habits to create:

  1. Never turn down stage time (he even subscribed to 4 different club to “quadruple his failure rate”).
  2. Record yourself every time (“yeah, it’s hard to listen to yourself… but guess who we have to listen to!”).
  3. Be confident enough to be humble.
  4. You must crave feedback.

“Habits are like train tracks: take a long time to put in place but once there they’ll take you anywhere”, Patricia Fripp.

On nervousness before an audience: “Did anyone come here to watch me fail?”

“Skill set without mindset will get your audience upset”.

Sometimes emphasizing is de-emphasizing (from the lyrics of some U2 song).

“Clarity and simplicity”, for the audience. Use the stage with a purpose.

“Don’t add humour, uncover humour”. Not especially in favour of adding others’ jokes, if you do that you have to say so.

If you are inauthentic and the audience senses that, they won’t follow you.

“Connect before you can educate, entertain and persuade” (he had greeted 90% of the audience individually before starting the workshop). As a curiosity he mentioned the movie “Avatar”, in which the creatures are connected through hair and ponytails, e.g. “the horse chooses the rider”, in the same way the goal of the speaker is to get the audience to like him.

For professional speakers the pay has to be a side effect.

We are not taught how to incorporate feedback.

“Toastmasters slogan should be: `The best place to make mistakes´”.

“The difference between good and great speakers is 100 speeches”, Dale Carnegie. An average Toastmaster member gives 3-4 speeches per year (it’d take 25 years to give 100). Take every opportunity you have to give speeches. He delivered his winning speech 22 times in the 3.5 months previous to the competition. “What is your stage time rate?”; join more clubs.

“Speaking as a dialogue, not a monologue”. Use pauses to give people time to reflect, especially when speaking to people of different cultures and when you ask rhetorical questions. Since pauses are uncomfortable for the speaker, give yourself something to do mentally, e.g. counting “1001, 1002, 1003…” (Internal dialogue)

Use stories

“Jesus did not use Power Point… he used parables”. Tell one to make a point; then another one to make another point. Use very clear transitions between stories. Be careful of narrating the story: not good to step in and out of the story. “Take us, don’t tell us”. A story goes directly into the subconscious.

“What can you do to tell the story without words?”. The emotion is in the eyes (“eye-motion”). Reaction tells the story.

In a story: at least one of the characters has to change the emotion from the beginning to the end. Focus on telling better stories. The audience needs to know who is speaking: the best way to achieve it is by using the name of the recipient of the message in the dialogue (no need to change position, just a heel-turn).

V.A.K.S. = Visual Auditory Kinesthetic Smell (strongest one is describing smell)

Invite the audience into the scene (use “you”). “I / you ratio”: Even when telling a personal story, use more times the pronoun “you”.

“Tap and transport”: ask a question about a personal memory of the audience and then bring them into your story (they’ll relate what you say with their story, it’ll be their story). Once telling the story is better to use present tense. Do not ask “How many of you…?”, use instead “Have you…?”, the test is that you would never ask to a friend in a 1-to-1 conversation “How many of you?”.

“It doesn’t matter what you see, it matters what the audience see when you say it”, Patricia Fripp.

Not in favour of memorizing a speech (internalize it). Never give a speech in front of a mirror. Do not memorize gestures (inauthentic).

What do you want the audience to do / think / feel after hearing your speech? You must be able to phrase that message in 10 words or less.

On the use of simple vocabulary/grammar: “the audience wants you present, not perfect”.

Hold the silence before starting the speech (shows confidence): the “Ed Tate scan”. How stable you are in the first 30 seconds tells the audience how stable the message is.

Let it go. The true story is not so important. You may have to twist some details or cut some parts.

Opening: CSI beginning, i.e. directly into the crime scene.

Do not preach. Don’t tell people what to do (“you should”), instead tell what you did, what “we” could do, etc…

Recordings of Toastmasters finals speeches can be found at: Bill Stephens Productions. Darren found out that the champions:

  • Had a coach.
  • Paused.
  • Used Word to write the speeches (counting words).
  • Had a sparkle in the eye (they owned the stage).

If there is anything we should take home from the workshop, it is: “Stage time, stage time, stage time”.

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January 5, 2011 · 8:00 am

New Year’s resolutions vs. goal setting

During the Table Topics session of last week’s Toastmasters Madrid meeting, a friend asked one of the members whether he was the type of person that used to set goals for himself or have New Year’s resolutions.

The member was very determined in his answer: “yes, I am definitely a fan of goal-setting”. He cited a study in Harvard Business School where they found that the 3% of graduates who had written goals, and plans to accomplish them, ten years later were earning ten times as much as the other 97% put together… (it doesn’t say whether within that 3% there was a single individual, the kind of Bill Gates, who made himself just those ten times of the remaining 97%).

Then I saw a Facebook status update by another friend: “85% of my personal goals for this year – achieved.” (Bear in mind that this fellow is an outstanding individual).

Finally, two days ago I found in Twitter  a retweet of another post by Sid Savara about how to undertake a personal year-end review.

… Why not?

I decided that this year I’ll start writing down my goals and attaching a detailed plan to achieve them, instead of just thinking on January 1st of a few well-intentioned resolutions such as “learn languages”, “lose some pounds”, etc., and forgetting them by the 3rd of January. (By the way, thanks to Sergio, Javier, Alex & Conor for their inspiration).

If by 2021 I am making ten times as 97% of the readers of this blog combined, don’t tell me I didn’t warn you well in advance!

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November 11, 2010 · 12:00 pm

Master in common sense

“What is the main thing you learn from studying an MBA?” When I have been asked this question I always answer that the learning process is different: Most of the subjects present you with situations / cases that once solved you said to yourself “well, it was applied common sense, wasn’t it?” Yes, applied common sense to some situations you never encountered or reflected on before. This is one way you learn, the other is hearing from first hand hundreds of real stories experienced by your teachers.

It is not like learning to solve fluid dynamics or differential equations exercises… it is not that before you didn’t how to solve a problem and then you know it, at least this is how I felt at EOI. The learning process during the MBA is more like encouraging you to apply common sense to many issues, making you reflect on new topics from those that entertained you at university.

I tell this because after reading “How to win friends & influence people”, by Dale Carnegie, I felt the same.

I found that Dale Carnegie is a great story-teller and nothing is better to learn or reflect on different issues than seeing the application of solutions, skills or techniques in stories, real stories. Some of the ones in the book came from Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Roosevelt, Rockefeller, several American generals… and many others were stories from lay people like you and me.

I remember that one of my teachers in the MBA used to say “70% of your work within a company is just human relationships; and precisely that is not taught anywhere”.

The skill to deal with other humans effectively is so important that, as Dale Carnegie tells in the book, Charles Schwab was the first person to earn a million dollars a year (when 2.500$ a year was considered a good salary), when he was picked by Andrew Carnegie (no relation) to become the first president of United States Steel company in 1921… Why? As Charles put it: “I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement”. (We may argue whether he indeed deserved a salary hundreds of times higher than the average… I already discussed this when I commented other book in this blog).

Now, I leave you the different principles that Carnegie offers to improve your effectiveness when dealing with people (a rare animal indeed!), reflect on them:

Fundamental techniques in handling people:

  1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
  2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
  3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six ways to make people like you:

  1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
  2. Smile.
  3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
  4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
  5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
  6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Win people to your way of thinking:

  1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
  2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say “You’re wrong”.
  3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
  4. Begin in a friendly way.
  5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
  6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
  7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
  8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
  9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
  10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
  11. Dramatize your ideas.
  12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a leader:

  1. Begin with praise and hones appreciation.
  2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
  3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
  4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
  5. Let the other person save face.
  6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise”.
  7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
  8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
  9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

“Obvious…” This is one thought that may come to our mind when reading some of these statements. However, we’re not acting in that way every day, being as obvious as they may be – thus getting the results we get…

I encourage you to read the book (~260 pgs.) and see in those stories many examples applicable to yourself; daily situations in which to apply those principles.

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October 19, 2010 · 12:00 pm

Fomentar la Mentalidad Analítica vs. Fomentar la Creatividad

Ayer acudí a una jornada de Formación Continua dentro del ciclo “Management para Emprendedores” de la Escuela de Organización Industrial (EOI). La sesión trataba el asunto “Fomentar la Mentalidad Analítica vs. Fomentar la Creatividad”.

De esta jornada quería destacar el barrido funcional de una empresa que hizo el invitado Carlos Espinosa desde esta perspectiva. Intento aquí recuperar la tabla que expuso él:

 

Barrido funcional: Creativo vs. Analítico.

 

Por último, el profesor, Andrés Fernández Romero, terminó la clase explicando la “parálisis ante una respuesta esperada” de una forma apoteósica; usando el ejemplo de cómo medir la altura de un edificio con un barómetro…

“Sir Ernest Rutherford, presidente de la Sociedad Real Británica y Premio Nobel de Química en 1908, contaba la siguiente anécdota: Hace algún tiempo, recibí la llamada de un colega. Estaba a punto de poner un cero a un estudiante por la respuesta que había dado en un problema de física, pese a que éste afirmaba con rotundidad que su respuesta era absolutamente acertada.

Profesores y estudiantes acordaron pedir arbitraje de alguien imparcial y fui elegido yo. Leo la pregunta del examen y decía: “Demuestre cómo es posible determinar la altura de un edificio con la ayuda de un barómetro”.

El estudiante había respondido: “Lleva el barómetro a la azotea del edificio y átale una cuerda muy larga. Descuélgalo hasta la base del edificio, marca y mide. La longitud de la cuerda es igual a la longitud del edificio”.

Realmente, el estudiante había planteado un serio problema con la resolución del ejercicio, porque había respondido a la pregunta correcta y completamente. Por otro lado, si se le concedía la máxima puntuación, podría alterar el promedio de sus de estudios, obtener una nota más alta y así certificar su alto nivel en física; pero la respuesta no confirmaba que el estudiante tuviera ese nivel.

Sugerí que se le diera al alumno otra oportunidad. Le concedí seis minutos para que me respondiera la misma pregunta pero esta vez con la advertencia de que en la respuesta debía demostrar sus conocimientos de física. Habían pasado cinco minutos y el estudiante no había escrito nada. Le pregunté si deseaba marcharse, pero me contesto que tenia muchas respuestas al problema. Su dificultad era elegir la mejor de todas. Me excuse por interrumpirle y le rogué que continuara.

En el minuto que le quedaba escribió la siguiente respuesta: “Coge el barometro y déjalo caer al suelo desde la azotea del edificio, calcula el tiempo de caída con un cronómetro. Después se aplica la formula altura = 0,5 por g por T al cuadrado. Y así obtenemos la altura del edificio”. En este punto le pregunté a mi colega si el estudiante se podía retirar. Le dió la nota más alta.

Tras abandonar el despacho, me reencontré con el estudiante y le pedí que me contara sus otras respuestas a la pregunta. Bueno, respondió, hay muchas maneras, por ejemplo, coges el barómetro en un día soleado y mides la altura del barómetro y la longitud de su sombra. Si medimos a continuación la longitud de la sombra del edificio y aplicamos una simple proporción, obtendremos también la altura del edificio.

Perfecto, le dije, ¿y de otra manera? Sí, contestó; éste es un procedimiento muy básico para medir un edificio, pero también sirve. En este método, coges el barómetro y te sitúas en las escaleras del edificio en la planta baja. Según subes las escaleras, vas marcando en la pared la altura del barómetro y cuentas el número de marcas hasta la azotea. Multiplicas al final la altura del barómetro por el número de marcas que has hecho y ya tienes la altura. Éste es un método muy directo. Por supuesto, si lo que quieres es un procedimiento más sofisticado, puedes atar el barómetro a una cuerda y moverlo como si fuera un péndulo. Dado que cuando el barómetro está a la altura de la azotea la velocidad es cero y si tenemos en cuenta la medida de la aceleración de la gravedad, al descender el barómetro en trayectoria circular al pasar por la perpendicular del edificio, de la diferencia de estos valores, y aplicando una sencilla formula trigonométrica, podríamos calcular, sin duda, la altura del edificio.

En este mismo estilo de sistema, atas el barómetro a una cuerda y lo descuelgas desde la azotea a la calle. Usándolo como un péndulo puedes calcular la altura midiendo su período de precesión. En fin, concluyó, existen otras muchas maneras. Probablemente, siguió, la mejor sea coger el barómetro y golpear con él la puerta de la casa del conserje. Cuando abra, decirle: señor conserje, aquí tengo un bonito barómetro. Si usted me dice la altura de este edificio, se lo regalo.

En este momento de la conversación, le pregunté si no conocía la respuesta convencional al problema (la diferencia de presión marcada por un barómetro en dos lugares diferentes nos proporciona la diferencia de altura entre ambos lugares). Evidentemente, dijo que la conocía, pero que durante sus estudios sus profesores habían intentado enseñarle a pensar. El estudiante se llamaba Niels Bohr, físico danés, premio Nobel de Física en 1922, más conocido por ser el primero en proponer el modelo de átomo con protones y neutrones y los electrones que lo rodeaban. Fue fundamentalmente un innovador de la teoría cuántica. Al margen del personaje, lo divertido y curioso de la anécdota, lo esencial de esta historia, es que LE HABÍAN ENSEÑADO A PENSAR.”

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September 30, 2010 · 11:00 am

Learning while investing

During last days I had some fun learning different terms used in the shipping industry while investigating some possible investments. Let me share some of these examples:

“Panamax”: this is a term for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal.

“Panamax is determined principally by the dimensions of the canal’s lock chambers, each of which is 110 ft (33.53 m) wide by 1,050 ft (320.04 m) long, and 85 ft (25.91 m) deep. The usable length of each lock chamber is 1,000 ft (304.8 m). The available water depth in the lock chambers varies, but the shallowest depth is at the south sill of the Pedro Miguel Locks and is 41.2 ft (12.56 m) at a Miraflores Lake level of 54 ft 6 in (16.61 m). The height of the Bridge of the Americas at Balboa is the limiting factor on a vessel’s overall height.”

(Did you ever have such an idea of the size of the Panama Canal?)

The two ships seen here seem almost to be touching the walls of the Miraflores Locks.

The same applies to the term “Suezmax”.

Another curious term is “Capesize“… which meaning by now you may already guess: “Capesize ships are cargo ships originally too large to transit the Suez Canal (i.e., larger than both Panamax and Suezmax vessels). To travel between oceans, such vessels used to have to pass either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. [I especially liked this last clarification] In effect Capesize reads as “unlimited”.” (Sure, once you have to travel around in the open ocean… you put the limit).

Lastly, “Deadweight tonnage”: this is “the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew.” It is curious that in the shipping industry this is also called “payload” according to the Wikipedia, while in the air cargo industry we refer by payload to just the weight of cargo / passengers…

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September 6, 2010 · 12:00 pm

TEDxMadrid 2010

Last Saturday, a friend and I attended TEDxMadrid, an independently organized TED event in which several speakers presented some “ideas worth spreading” as the TED slogan goes.

The event took place in HUB Madrid, a “unique ecosystem designed to enable individuals ranging from corporate executives to community leaders, from policy-makers to entrepreneurs and freelance professionals to thrive. It is an office and events space where you can access social business ideas, innovation, knowledge, market opportunities, inspiration and experience” as they put it.

The event was streamed and the videos so far are available here. It was also funny to see the twitting activity that took place among the people being at the meeting (check #tedxmad, #tedxmadrid…).

A summary of each talk was made in the form of sketch boards by Puño & Gorriti that are available in flicker.

At the end of the event there was a short performance of impromptu theatre by “Impromadrid Teatro”, it was a funny experience. I have a friend who also has an impromptu theatre company in Madrid, “Impronta Compañía de Teatro Espontáneo”, I must go to one of their performances!

I still have to mentally “re-work” many of the things we heard and saw, and look for the many webs, books and ideas that were raised. Nevertheless, in this post I already wanted to share some thoughts that I took with me:

  • Slavery. It was commented by Antonella that in the last TED she learnt about “Free the Slaves”, an organization that liberates slaves around the world… slaves in the XXI century? We hear about women obliged to work as prostitutes or children working in some hidden factories… but when I heard the figure 27 million of them, I was shocked.
  • To be exponential in our thoughts. Alberto Dubois showed in his talk how evolution is exponential (human evolution, computing evolution, genome decoding evolution…) but we are normally linear in our thinking. We may apply the “exponential” way of thinking to many other fields, think of it.
  • BRINKs. We all have heard about the BRICs (the term coined by Goldman Sachs to refer to Brazil, Russia, India and China) or the PIGS (the term coined by Anglo-Saxon economists, used by FT, to refer to Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain – lately Ireland and Great Britain as well), Alexander van de Putte introduced the BRINKs. This term refers to Brazil, Russia, Iraq, Nigeria and Kazakhstan, the countries which increased oil production will defer (once again) the estimates for the peak oil.

Finally, I wanted to thank C. Todd, Javier, Derek and Antonella for the great effort they have put into this event.

For those of you who could not attend this event but would have wished to do so, be aware that a similar event will take place in a month from now in Madrid, TEDxSol, on October 5th.

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August 31, 2010 · 10:00 pm

EVM in 40 minutes

Two years ago, I found an excellent free online 40-minute course about Earned Value Management. It was in the website of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) Acquisition Operating Framework (AOF).

Some days ago, I wanted to check it again and it was still available. If you are interested in the topic, check it.

Earned Value Management course at UK MoD AOF.

I have never seen an EVM course as good as this one, no matter how beautiful the name the consultancy training company gives it.

Some time ago I also read a well-structured book on project management, “Guide to Project Management“, by Paul Roberts. I recommend this one too.

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June 18, 2010 · 8:00 am

District 59 Conference: a Learning experience

Two weeks ago I attended the Toastmasters District 59 Conference, “Springtime at the Beach”, in The Hague. This was the first time I attended such a conference, and I was impressed at the level of the speakers and the organization of the conference itself.

Being an Area Governor, for me the event lasted two days and half, starting on Friday June 4th afternoon with an executive committee meeting, following with the start of the conference, later the evaluation contest and a party with divisions showcase. That wasn’t a slow start.

On Saturday we had some workshops, the elections of new officers and the international speech contest. The way the conference, workshops and elections are held reminded me very much of my time at AEGEE and how there the Agorae were held; even some of the topics covered are similar, the way sometimes the focus is put on the procedure and not on listening at length to what the candidates plan to do if elected, etc…

On Sunday we had more workshops and the training for the new district officers (namely Division and Area Governors).

International Speech Contest. This is the main attraction of the event. We could say that we paid the 135€ fee of it to attend this contest. We had 10 speeches, one representing each division. As I wrote above, the level was very high. I couldn’t see a clear winner; a prove of that is that only one of my 3 favourites came among the 3 first ones. The winner, Na Elom Amouh, told us about his journey from Togo to Munich and how we should never give up in the pursuit of our dreams. A motivational speech. In general, most speeches in these competitions tend to call the audience for noble purposes, inspire good behaviours, etc. I must admit that some of those speeches do get to move you.

Evaluation Contest. Here, the participants had to evaluate a very good speech from former District Gov Christopher Magyar. This is not an easy task, as it is always more difficult to find points of improvement. Even though in this contest the level was very high as well, with very analytical and encouraging evaluations, this time my 3 favourites came in the first 3 positions, the winner being Tara Majumdar.

Miscellanea. There are many small details, side happenings, different situations that contribute to enlarge the baggage the one takes from the conference.

  • The landscape surrounding the conference letting members to relax.
  • The music being played in the plenary sessions, especially the banners parade bringing up the spirits of all attendees.
  • The chance to have meals in the terrace.
  • The wonderful garden for the gala party and the party at the beach.
  • The attentive organisers… the continuous availability of stroop waffles, coffees, etc.
  • The counting of votes behind the scenes… when each one is coming up with a different number!
  • The entertaining way in which chairs conducted the contests.
  • The experience of tweeting the event (from @TM_Madrid and @javierirastorza)…

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Learning experience. Overall, the conference is an intense learning experience. You learn how others organise officers’ trainings, set up clubs, give recognition to members, set up workshops, and use different techniques and skills in public speaking… To end this post I wanted to remark two workshops that I attended and especially liked:

  • Pecha Kucha: this is a presentation technique originally from Japan that consists of preparing a presentation that consists of 20 slides, each one lasting 20 seconds and that will run automatically. You, the presenter, can’t stop it so you need to time yourself to precisely convey your different messages when each slide is being shown. It was very dynamic and I think it’s a nice challenge to try it one day. Check out the calendar of Pecha Kucha nights in different cities around the World.

  • Youth Leadership Program: this is Toastmasters program for youngsters. A couple of Toastmasters explained how they have carried it in a school with teenagers. From what I saw, it must be a very rewarding experience, a way to give back something to society and at the same time a way to help young students improve their skills. This is also another challenge I might try one day.

Next District conference… in Barcelona; I’ve already booked my place there!

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