 Presentations as the cure for insomnia. Have you ever witnessed or participated in a mind-numbing, dense, PowerPoint® presentation that stupefies rather than edifies? Most of these failed presentations are doomed from the start by one basic fatal flaw. That fatal flaw is easily avoided once you've had the PowerPoint® epiphany. What is the PowerPoint® epiphany that will end the misuse of the popular slide presentation software? The answer is in the three simple statements below.
PowerPoint® presentations fail because we take this visual tool and we use it to display documents. I came across this forehead slapping 'aha' moment while reading the excellent antidote to poisonous PowerPoint® presentations--Beyond Bullet Points (Microsoft Press, 2007) by Cliff Atkinson. The premise of the book is that PowerPoint® is a visual tool that should not be cluttered with text and graphics. To be effective, each slide in the presentation should have a main premise stated simply and one compelling graphic that underscores the premise. That’s it; one thought expressed in one short sentence and one graphic to illustrate and support that thought. No lists, no bullet points. PowerPoint® provides the nub of the concept, the presenter provides the details. Beyond Bullet Points provides extensive detail on how to organize and create slides that tell a story in a simple, compelling, and logical manner. It offers a radical departure from the ordinary PowerPoint® presentation format, and when you consider the effectiveness of most PowerPoint® presentations, a radical departure is what is needed. The entire Beyond Bullet Points presentation process is explained in full, illustrated with effective examples, and backed up with convincing research. After reading Beyond Bullet Points I'll never approach a PowerPoint® presentation the same way again as a presenter or as an audience member. Neither will you. Add Comment Pity the Poor Yankee Fan 11/26/2009
No professional sports team in America has been as dominant as the New York Yankees. The Yankees won their first World Series Championship in 1923, have made it to the World Series 40 times and, in 2009, won that series for the 27th time. The National League’s St. Louis Cardinals have the next best record having gone to the dance 17 times and winning ten. Not even close. Yankee fans point with pride to 44 former Yankees in the Baseball Hall of Fame and perhaps a half dozen more now playing or recently retired who arguably have the career statistics to merit induction into the Hall of Fame. All-time Yankee greats have entered into the American consciousness and are part of the American grain. People who do not know baseball, or care for baseball, know Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle. Yankees have been so good for so long that they think winning is the norm. They don’t know what they’ve been missing. Yankee fans have no idea, no concept, no understanding of the thrill, the exhilaration, the deep satisfaction of rooting for a victorious the underdog. I can hear Yankee fans, and others, scoffing at the idea that anything but routine success is worthwhile. But the rest of us who are foolish enough to identify with and emotionally invest in sports teams understand. We know winning against the odds, prevailing in the face of adversity, overcoming obstacles speaks to the human soul in a much deeper way than does having the financial wherewithal to purchase and field the top tier of baseball talent year after year. The Yankees are not the only rich sports franchise and they have not always spent their money wisely. But because they are in the nation’s top media market, they have always had money to spend including a quarter of a billion dollars (that's billion with a B) in the off-season prior to their 2009 championship run. Only the privileged root for the privileged to do well against an economic upstart. Is that what we have here, class warfare—rich baseball barons vs. the rag tag home team? Depending on your perspective, issues of economic envy or economic fairness may indeed influence the Us vs. the Yankees attitude. But there is more at work here. Expecting your team to win and being disappointed that they were unable to take advantage of all their advantages is vastly different from knowing your team can win if they play their best. Yet that is the world most of us, even Yankee fans, live in. In real life the traffic light does not always turn green at our convenience. We face real competition at work and real challenges in our daily lives. There are no guarantees and the odds are seldom stacked in our favor. Still we know if we do our best today we can beat the odds and win. So here’s to our competitors, may they do well and push us to do even better. If the opposition wasn’t as strong, we wouldn’t have to be as good and success wouldn’t be as sweet. Poker Face Anger Management 11/20/2009
 After a disagreement at work have you ever said, "You know what I should have said? I should have said..." There's nothing wrong with that. But if after a disagreement you have ever said, "Uh-oh, I should not have said that." This article is for you. Your should not have said that moments may be momentarily satisfying (it’s OK to admit it) but they are always counterproductive and must be avoided. Here’s how. Be angry, but don't act angrily It is OK to be angry. Anger is just a feeling, a spontaneous response to external stimuli. Because feelings are spontaneous, they are pre-will. If they are pre-will or involuntary, anger, or any other feeling, is not right or wrong. While how we feel is not right or wrong, what we decide to say or do when angry can be very, very wrong. In my experience, the best leaders in a firm are those who are able to control their anger by not reacting to it. Sure they become angry, but they don't give into it and allow that anger to take over. How do they do that? They carefully, deliberately, and purposely don't react. Play your cards right It’s like playing poker. There's the tradition of keeping a poker face -- don't telegraph whether you have a great hand or poor hand. At work, take the information in, don't telegraph your response, don't react. Think and then think again. That old saw of counting to ten before responding, the grand-daddy of all anger management advice, really does help, as does taking deep breathes. Isn't it impressive when co-workers or members of management receive bad news and are able to maintain their composure and begin to work on addressing the issue? Who would you rather work with, someone who bangs on the table and screams when upset or someone who can rationally address the problem? Which side of that ledger do co-workers and bosses place you? Easy does it To control your anger, think about your hot buttons; what starts the anger launch sequence for you? Prepare for or avoid those situations. If you are going to a meeting that you expect to be difficult, promise yourself you won't react immediately to anything upsetting. During my career, I have never regretted keeping a poker face when angry, and I guarantee you won't either. The Upside of Alibis 11/08/2009
 Christy Mathewson Confidence is important to success. But is it important enough to prop up with alibis? Christy Mathewson thought so. Christy Mathewson was one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time. With the NY Giants for virtually his entire career, from 1900 to 1916, he won 373 games, tied for third on the all-time list, and had a career ERA of 2.13. In 1908 he won 37 games. In the 1905 World Series he pitched and won three games in six days—all shutouts. It was no surprise when, in 1936, he was among the famous 'first five' players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame--Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson. Christy Mathewson believed confidence was critical to success, so critical that he dare not admit he could be beaten fair and square. When he lost he always had an alibi to preserve his confidence. "An alibi," Mathewson told Grantland Rice, the premiere sports writer of his day, "is sound and needed in all competition...One of the foundations of success in sports is confidence in yourself. You can't afford to admit that any opponent is better than you are. So, if you lose to him there must be a reason--a bad break. You must have an alibi to show why you lost. If you haven't one, you must fake one. Your self-confidence must be maintained." We tend to disparage alibis as being, well, the sign of a wimp. But Christy Mathewson was no wimp. He was a remarkable competitor who insisted it’s important to have an alibi, to convince yourself the opponent got lucky. He goes so far as to say, if there isn’t a good alibi, make one up. "Your self-confidence must be maintained." When I first read this I thought convincing yourself that the other fellow got lucky is deluding yourself. Mathewson didn’t care. He needed that confidence to compete and his livelihood depended on competing at a very high level. And there is more to Christy Mathewson’s alibi theory that might make it seem more attractive to you. Grantland Rice quotes Mathewson as saying, "Always have that alibi…But keep it to yourself. That’s where it belongs. Don’t spread it around. Lose gracefully in the open. To yourself, lose bitterly—but learn. You can learn little from victory. You can learn everything from defeat." Mathewson was talented. He built a Hall-of-Fame career on talent bolstered by confidence and the ability to learn from his mistakes. So, when you strike out at work, maybe it's OK to knit an alibi or two to prop up your confidence. But keep them to yourself and learn from the mistakes that made the other guy lucky enough to win—this time. Empathy and the Proposal Process 11/02/2009
Enough Stress to Go Around It’s late. You’re working on the Scope of Work for an important proposal. Then you’ll have to get going on the price. Another late night, another stressful situation. Does anything cause more tension and stress than having to write proposals that will make or break the future of the firm? Well, consider the poor souls who have to read 50 of those proposals and decide which firm to hire for this important project which could make or break the reviewer’s career. There is a lot at stake for everyone involved on each side of the proposal process. You need the work to stay in business and the reviewers need to select the firm that will deliver a successful project. That’s why the most successful proposals are those written with the needs of the beleaguered proposal reviewer and selection committee in mind. Keep Your Audience in Mind You don’t have to pity the poor proposal reviewer, but you should understand what he or she is going through so you may make it as easy for them to keep you off the rejection pile. The initial phase of the selection process is, frankly, an elimination process. Would you want to read all 50 proposals? Neither does our stalwart reviewer. She’s looking for ways to whittle down the pile—the quicker the better.The Ideal StandardThat’s is why it is not enough to write a proposal that contains all the required information—you have to make it impossible for the reviewer to miss the required information. Provide a Guide to Required InformationHow about a simple chart that lists the proposal requirements and where that information is located in the document? Required Information Location Original Signature Cover Letter........Cover Letter Similar Projects in Past 5 Years.......Section 4: Relevant Projects Three References.............................Section 5: References Create a Tab for proposal requirements and include the chart there, or make the chart part of the cover letter or table of contents. Include it where it makes sense and where it can’t be missed.Keep the proposal reviewer in mind and don’t give him any reason to relegate you to the reject pile. At a minimum you must:
Eight Common Proposal Pitfalls 10/12/2009
 Preparing proposals and qualifications that have drop dead due dates can be harrowing for all involved. Even in firms with an effective established document production process, problems sometimes occur. When they do, it’s a good bet that one of the eight common proposal pitfalls listed below is the culprit. Most of these pitfalls can be avoided by conducting a consistent and productive pre-proposal kickoff meeting or conference call early in the process. This article assumes that your firm has a technical lead and a proposal coordinator assigned to each proposal and qualifications in production. Here are the eight most common proposal kerfuffles and suggestions for avoiding them. 1. Missed Mandatory RFP Provisions A careful, attentive reading of the RFP (Request for Proposal) prior to the proposal kickoff meeting or conference call gives you an unfair advantage in the proposal production process. As you read the RFP highlight or make a note of all mandatory requirements. Have those notes available to you during the pre-proposal kickoff meeting. Reschedule the kickoff meeting if participants have not had time to read the RFP. 2. Changes to the Project Team Taking the time at the beginning of the process to review the RFP requirements and discuss the project team in depth will virtually eliminate the need to insert additional team members after the organization chart and resumes have been completed. Last minute changes to the project team are disruptive and, with few exceptions, are easily avoided with adequate discussion of the project team and RFP requirements at the beginning of the process. Remember, project teams include in-house personnel and all sub-consultants. 3. Subconsultant Materials Identification of all needed subconsultants should be completed by the end of the proposal kickoff meeting. The technical lead for the package should contact the subconsultant firms, confirm their participation in the proposal and clarify the subs’ project role. Thereafter, the proposal coordinator should be in contact with the subconsultant for all materials needed within the proposal. The process works best when your proposal coordinators are talking to their proposal coordinators. 4. Added Project Descriptions Again, time invested in this topic during the proposal kickoff meeting or conference call a week or two before the proposal is due will greatly reduce the need to add project descriptions to the proposal at the last minute. 5. Scope Scheduling a date, several days before the proposal review date, for the draft scope to be submitted to whomever is to approve the scope is essential. Otherwise, the Pricing section is delayed and the Scope and Price are produced under less than optimum circumstances. Mistakes in Scope and Price are the greatest threat to producing a winning proposal or worse, sending a flawed proposal that won’t allow the job to be profitable. 6. Pricing Pricing needs to be tested against Scope and in most firms is subject to management approval. At the kickoff meeting, assign someone to confirm when those persons needed to approve the pricing will be available to do so. Adjust the schedule to accommodate management review of pricing. 7. Notary and Original Signatures The need for forms that have to be notarized, original signatures requirements, Insurance Certificates, proof of corporate registrations in the project State and other required documents should be understood and discussed at the proposal kickoff meeting or conference call. The process must accommodate original signatures required on subconsultant materials too. 8. No Proposal Schedule Following the proposal kickoff meeting or conference call, every participant in the proposal process should receive a schedule from the Proposal Coordinator indicating what each participant’s role is and when that information is due. A schedule-free proposal is far more likely to crash and burn than those with a schedule. Work demands change daily, so the proposal schedule has to be flexible. If a due date is going to be missed, let the Proposal Coordinator and Technical Lead know the new due date. Proposal Kickoff Meeting The common thread for avoiding these proposal pitfalls is an effective pre-proposal kickoff meeting or conference call. A commitment to planning at the beginning of the proposal process and insisting on communications throughout the process will eliminate the most common proposal pitfalls. You can’t eliminate every potential problem, but you can get rid of the ones you cause, and that leaves the absolute minimum number of hurdles to overcome. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar. The Myth of Multitasking 10/08/2009
 Has the comforting myth of multi-tasking lured you into thinking you are being super productive as you continue to check and respond to emails while answering the phone as an employee or co-worker talks to you? Please stop.
Obviously, you are not paying full attention to driving while texting or talking on the phone. It’s not multi-tasking, it’s semi-tasking. Take a hint from the once very common at-grade RR-crossing signs–Stop, Look, & Listen.
|  AuthorTony has more than 20 years experience producing marketing documents for engineering and architectural firms. He is currently the manager of Corporate Marketing for an international Engineering and Architectural firm.Involved in local politics, he serves as a Township Supervisor in West Hempfield Township, Lancaster County, PA.
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