The Presentations Japan Series

Recency is a simple concept to understand.   It basically means that we are all simple beings and we tend to remember best what we heard last.  Given this is so simple, you would think that presenters would be masters of the wrap up.  Not so.  I am always amazed at how often speakers allow the final impression to crash and burn through neglect.  What do I mean by neglect?  They are missing in acti...

It seems logical that any presentation we are giving is ours.  Well, that is sort of correct, but what I am talking about is making it reflect your style and personality.  When you talk to people about being a leader, they often bring up the word "authentic", but when you talk to people about presenting, few ever mention that word.  They are focused on being easily understood, convincing, concise,...

I get this question quite often: "should I follow the logic of 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do' with regard to doing business with Japanese companies?". Their question is usually related to how to present to buyers. The Western "pitch deck" is usually well designed, professionally laid out and zen like in its simplicity.  Ironically, the equivalent decks from companies in the land of zen, are u...

Storytelling in business is an open field.  In most facets of commerce, the field is crowded, established foes are entrenched behind high protective walls and as far as you can see it is all red ocean.  Presenting however is all blue ocean because most business leaders hardly even get their toes wet.  They dismiss being able to present in a professional manner as fluff, smoke and mirrors, all show...

Remembering Ex-PM Shinzo Abe As A Communicator   Like everyone, I was so shocked that Japan has lost such a prominent, global representative of the country to assassination. I wrote this original article back in 2016 and I thought to rework it and release it again in memory of Shinzo Abe.  Over many years I have seen him improve as a public speaker and that always encourages me to think that other...

Imagine an experienced, senior executive from a name brand major company giving a one minute introduction of the company, while holding a piece of paper, reading the introduction to the audience.  What would be your impression of that executive and by extension the professionalism of that company?  I am sure it would be highly negative.  If a senior person can't manage a one minute talk without re...

Recently I have been coaching people on their presentation skills.  It is always amazing to me how some small changes can balloon into major improvements.   If these things are so simple, then why aren't they making the changes themselves?  Why do they need coaching?  Basically, we all wander through life with a minimum level of self-awareness about anything, let alone how we appear when we presen...

I am just back from a highly pointless presentation.  The bureaucrats who run the Tokyo Metro subway system and the Tokyo Government Planning Division were presenting on their plan for a new subway line to be constructed in my neighbourhood.  This is my second occasion to attend one of these types of presentations.  The previous one was about changing the direction of aircraft landing at Haneda an...

The request has been made to give a talk on a certain subject.  The date and time are fixed and now the work begins on the preparation.  Here is how not to do it!  Start with plundering previous slide decks for re-usable content and create new original content for this particular presentation.  Fuss mightily over which slides go in and which go out.  Discover even after that Herculean effort to pa...

Self-awareness, self-belief, self-direction, self-discipline – there are a host of these "self" aspects to who we are and often related to who we are not.  If you grew up with a silver spoon firmly in your mouth, went to expensive, exclusive private schools, extensively travelled abroad with your parents at a young age and enjoyed the summers at your Swiss Boarding school in your youth, that is te...

How good is your Mongolian?  Well, I don't know even one word in Mongolian, but I learnt a powerful lesson about presenting and communicating, when grappling with this language recently.  I am a Master Trainer for Dale Carnegie and most of my time is spent working here for Japanese clients.  Occasionally, I am asked to work with Dale Carnegie colleagues from other parts of the world, usually in AP...

The rule in business is to stay clear of religion and politics, because you risk alienating a chunk of your audience who hold different views to you.  That is clear and sensible. What about other points of view (POV) however which are more related to business itself.  This could be about government regulatory policy, industry trend predictions, marketing issues, quality control, your purported pro...

I sometimes read about certain celebrities, historical figures or leaders who are described as being better presenters with small groups or being better presenting to large groups.  I wonder what they mean and why that would be?  I presume the inference is the person is more impactful with one group rather than the other or feels more comfortable addressing one group rather than the other.  Why wo...

We think of our presentations as something we give to an audience physically in the room with us or these days, maybe to an audience trapped in tiny little boxes on the computer screen.  Media interviews come up rarely for most business people. This medium requires a very specialised skill set to do it properly.  Amateur business leaders up against the pros from the ranks of journalists rarely goe...

I discovered the journalist Simon Kuper, when I started subscribing to the Financial Times newspaper (FT).  I have a number of go to columnists in the FT and he is one of them. I like his intelligence, wit and writing style.  He recently mentioned his experiences attending conferences after a long break.  He outlined some advice for presenters thinking about addressing conference audiences, which...

When we are asked to give a business presentation, we may imagine we are the hero, arriving on our white charger, to rescue the audience from their woes.  We may come armed to the teeth with research, data, statistics, evidence, testimonials and proof.  We have it partially correct.  We are definitely there to add value, to make their attendance worth it and to leave some positive residue from the...

Until a number of weeks ago, I had only vaguely heard of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  I read he was an actor who played the role of the Ukranian President in a television drama production and then turned that into reality, by winning the election and becoming the leader.  I was thinking of a reality TV star like Donald Trump or a B-grade movie actor like Ronald Reagan both becoming the leaders of America...

It is a tricky balance to be clear, concise, articulate and also plausible.  I was thinking about a podcast interview I heard by a titan of industry.  He had obviously been trained in how to handle the media, so as soon as he spied the microphone, he went into media interviews 101 mode.  Media interviews by their very nature are a fake environment.  Those being interviewed are taught to be glib, k...

I was sitting in the lecture theater, as usual in the front row, so that I could catch everything that was being said. University was a big deal for someone who climbed out of the trench and put the shovel down on a Friday and hit the campus the next Monday. Calling me earnest about my studies doesn't even get close. On this occasion we had a guest lecturer, who was giving a talk on the battle of...

I was recently asked to be interviewed by a University senior for a project he was doing on communication in business.  I don't know if I was a good choice.  After I left High School, I was working for an insurance company during the day and joined then dropped out of a night course on Communication at the Queensland University of Technology. The "communication" study idea sounded great, but what...

Kata, the way of doing things and Kanpekishugi or perfectionism are wonderful traits in Japan.  Everything works well and as expected. Things have an order here and there are certain ways of doing things which will brook no adventurism.  Things must also be done properly, no half measures.  As a transplanted wild Aussie, I fought against both for many decades.  "Why does it have to done this way?"...

Being persuasive is a key element to business success.  You can argue the rights and wrongs of that statement, but it is the reality.  We cannot avoid the fact that being able to present to others and get their agreement is a critical skill which we all need. Now we meet vigorous, go, go, go people and so when they give a presentation, their passion, motivation and power come to the fore.  For the...

Presentations have a cadence.  Notices are sent out to the mailing list or promoted through some form of media.  Interested people sign up and attend the event.  There is a hosting organisation representative delegated to get proceedings underway. I went into detail on that component last week, so if you have missed it, please go back and listen to that episode #280 on "How To Introduce A Speaker"...

Today we are going to look at how to introduce a speaker, something which we may not do so often, but still an important facility which we should do well.  I am sure we have all seen the MC introduce the speaker.  I am also sure we have seen very few do a good job of it.  One of the problems is that the MC hasn't connected this role with their personal and professional brands.  They are mumbling a...

Today we are going to look at inspiring people to embrace change. Not grumbling and finally accepting change.   Not resisting change, until the bitter end. We are talking about "embracing" change.   This is a big task.   We may have all done that exercise where we fold our arms across our chest, but with the bottom arm on top this time.   It is a simple change, but instinctively we don't like the...