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“If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done”. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
A nuclear engineer teaches sewing a button, a senior product marketing manager shows how to bake ginger cookies and a manager of a national flooring company provides a lesson on magic and integrity. What’s up?
Each participated in Rapid Knowledge Transfer: Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes, a dynamic team program I designed based in the delivery of quick interactive presentations. For over a decade I have led teams in this method with presenters working individually or in pairs. Without further ado I would like to share four of seven benefits gleaned from shorter rather than longer presentations.
1. Fast Reduces Fear
Public speaking is our number one fear. A short presentation with hard start and stop times counteracts the free fall of performance anxiety and serves as a sanctuary for the nervous mind. If the design and delivery of even a brief presentation gets to be too much you fall back on the thought “Oh well, this’ll be over fast!”
“The 7 minute constraint demanded a surprising degree of efficiency and made me reconsider how I present my thoughts on a daily basis.” TUS7M participant
2. Rapid Rapport
While effective presentation planning is a given, communication takes off when it is immediate, responsive and improvisational. You are the message; connect!!! Even a brief presentation should serve the purpose of connecting with your audience.
Creating meaning is central, even in a couple of minutes. Design the presentation with a bias towards offering an experience for the user/listener/audience rather than using it as a forum to display the presenters’ knowledge about the subject.
“Sitting out in the darkened audience on a Saturday night for the Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes program I expected to be mildly entertained and learn a bit. Instead come 9:30 pm and the program’s close, I was energized and ready to sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in French, sew buttons, dance salsa and banish my fear of public speaking. The dynamic presenters had me wanting to learn much more period."
TUS7M Audience Member
“I learned to be open to taking risks and attempting something uncomfortable. I tend to try to control all aspects of a presentation, to plan carefully for the best results, but sometimes the best results come from a little bit of improvisation and spontaneity. TUS7M participant participant
3. Even Brief Presentations Have An Objective
Establish a clear intention for your presentation. This objective is your rudder steering the design and delivery of your presentation and ensuring you stay on task.
Intentions can be concrete (How to Set-up a Successful Lemonade Stand or Salsa Dance) or experiential (The Power of a Minute) or both (How to Get Rich Quick); the later demonstrated how to turn $2 into $20 in one minute yet also addressed the value of integrity.
“This was an extremely effective lesson in what turned out to be much more than delivering a message in a finite amount of time. Understanding and mastering the many components that go into working with a team to create a valuable experience for any audience takes a deep level of creativity and confidence, two traits that are not easy things to learn by watching from the sidelines. This project forced us to jump right in and confront any insecurities and challenges, head on!” TUS7M Participant
4. Same Constraints, Diverse Presentations, Authentic Voice in Business
Start with giving out the same guidelines then encourage customization of the presentations based on individual strengths. Presentations that run in different directions will showcase the variety, diversity and individuality within a team. When authentic personal style shines through a presentation it is easy for the audience to engage.
“The TUS7M project was fun and educational. Being limited in time, it really forced us to communicate clearly and succinctly. This is the project that made our MBA cohort a team. It was amazing to see how much our projects varied considering we all were given the same, simple instructions. I would love to do it again!” TUS7M Participant
“The number one thing I learned regarding design and delivery [of a short presentation] was to be true to my personality and that of the person I was working with. It made the entire project fun and exciting. We became so passionate and confident throughout the project; it was one of the best, most memorable and well received presentations I have ever been a part of.” TUS7M Participant
5. Brief Presentations Boost Confidence
A good measure of quality teamwork is how individual learning accelerates when people are on the same page and participating in an identical process of constraints. Confidence increases with repeated action; in rehearsing everyone self-corrects and this shared experience establishes trust.
“The number one thing I learned regarding design and delivery [of a short presentation] was to be true to my personality and that of the person I was working with. It made the entire project fun and exciting. We became so passionate and confident throughout the project; it was one of the best, most memorable and well received presentations I have ever been a part of.” TUS7M Participant
6. Humble Time Frames Require Smart Preparation
Rehearse, do run-throughs, give and get feedback before presenting.
Living in New York and California respectively one RKT pair relied on virtual communication. Their first concept was to teach how to make and bake a bread replica of the Guggenheim Museum to actual scale in 7 minutes!!! A test run in their respective kitchens across the country quickly cured them of the feasibility of this idea.
“Looking back, our mutual desire to please the other person and keep conflict out of our partnership sacrificed our own passions around certain ideas. Accepting more creative tension, rather than suppressing it completely, helped us reach our final (successful) idea more quickly.” TUS7M participant
7. Velocity Values Paring Down
Edit! In a brief presentation communicating clearly, simply and swiftly is key. Demonstrate the power of just enough and not more. Use your hierarchy of information to deliberately choose the most important points to convey.
Brief presentations force the presenter to challenge the tendency to overly complicate a message. Rather than packing way too much into your presentation focus on showing rather than telling and delivering less more effectively so it’s easy for your audience to engage with you.
“For me, this highlighted why teaching and communication in general requires a certain degree of mastery to make the subject simple again.” TUS7M Participant
Linda Yaven leads teams in Rapid Knowledge Transfer Programs for designing and delivering rapid interactive presentations using this engaging and fun model.
Ready for a provocative alternative to the typical conference panel? Linda Yaven will catalyze knowledge exchange between your conference panel and audience participants with a journey through her innovative Rapid Knowledge Transfer “Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes” program. Ignite authentic engagement impacting the quality of audience take away. Linda is an Associate Professor in Design Strategy MBA
Califonia College of Art, San Francisco.
Copyright Linda Yaven 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED www.lindayaven.com elle@lindayaven.com
Like to use this article in your e-zine or website? Yes, provided all links are live and include this copyright and by-line.
A nuclear engineer teaches sewing a button, a senior product marketing manager shows how to bake ginger cookies and a manager of a national flooring company provides a lesson on magic and integrity. What’s up?
Each participated in Rapid Knowledge Transfer: Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes, a dynamic team program I designed based in the delivery of quick interactive presentations. For over a decade I have led teams in this method with presenters working individually or in pairs. Without further ado I would like to share four of seven benefits gleaned from shorter rather than longer presentations.
1. Fast Reduces Fear
Public speaking is our number one fear. A short presentation with hard start and stop times counteracts the free fall of performance anxiety and serves as a sanctuary for the nervous mind. If the design and delivery of even a brief presentation gets to be too much you fall back on the thought “Oh well, this’ll be over fast!”
“The 7 minute constraint demanded a surprising degree of efficiency and made me reconsider how I present my thoughts on a daily basis.” TUS7M participant
2. Rapid Rapport
While effective presentation planning is a given, communication takes off when it is immediate, responsive and improvisational. You are the message; connect!!! Even a brief presentation should serve the purpose of connecting with your audience.
Creating meaning is central, even in a couple of minutes. Design the presentation with a bias towards offering an experience for the user/listener/audience rather than using it as a forum to display the presenters’ knowledge about the subject.
“Sitting out in the darkened audience on a Saturday night for the Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes program I expected to be mildly entertained and learn a bit. Instead come 9:30 pm and the program’s close, I was energized and ready to sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in French, sew buttons, dance salsa and banish my fear of public speaking. The dynamic presenters had me wanting to learn much more period."
TUS7M Audience Member
“I learned to be open to taking risks and attempting something uncomfortable. I tend to try to control all aspects of a presentation, to plan carefully for the best results, but sometimes the best results come from a little bit of improvisation and spontaneity. TUS7M participant participant
3. Even Brief Presentations Have An Objective
Establish a clear intention for your presentation. This objective is your rudder steering the design and delivery of your presentation and ensuring you stay on task.
Intentions can be concrete (How to Set-up a Successful Lemonade Stand or Salsa Dance) or experiential (The Power of a Minute) or both (How to Get Rich Quick); the later demonstrated how to turn $2 into $20 in one minute yet also addressed the value of integrity.
“This was an extremely effective lesson in what turned out to be much more than delivering a message in a finite amount of time. Understanding and mastering the many components that go into working with a team to create a valuable experience for any audience takes a deep level of creativity and confidence, two traits that are not easy things to learn by watching from the sidelines. This project forced us to jump right in and confront any insecurities and challenges, head on!” TUS7M Participant
4. Same Constraints, Diverse Presentations, Authentic Voice in Business
Start with giving out the same guidelines then encourage customization of the presentations based on individual strengths. Presentations that run in different directions will showcase the variety, diversity and individuality within a team. When authentic personal style shines through a presentation it is easy for the audience to engage.
“The TUS7M project was fun and educational. Being limited in time, it really forced us to communicate clearly and succinctly. This is the project that made our MBA cohort a team. It was amazing to see how much our projects varied considering we all were given the same, simple instructions. I would love to do it again!” TUS7M Participant
“The number one thing I learned regarding design and delivery [of a short presentation] was to be true to my personality and that of the person I was working with. It made the entire project fun and exciting. We became so passionate and confident throughout the project; it was one of the best, most memorable and well received presentations I have ever been a part of.” TUS7M Participant
5. Brief Presentations Boost Confidence
A good measure of quality teamwork is how individual learning accelerates when people are on the same page and participating in an identical process of constraints. Confidence increases with repeated action; in rehearsing everyone self-corrects and this shared experience establishes trust.
“The number one thing I learned regarding design and delivery [of a short presentation] was to be true to my personality and that of the person I was working with. It made the entire project fun and exciting. We became so passionate and confident throughout the project; it was one of the best, most memorable and well received presentations I have ever been a part of.” TUS7M Participant
6. Humble Time Frames Require Smart Preparation
Rehearse, do run-throughs, give and get feedback before presenting.
Living in New York and California respectively one RKT pair relied on virtual communication. Their first concept was to teach how to make and bake a bread replica of the Guggenheim Museum to actual scale in 7 minutes!!! A test run in their respective kitchens across the country quickly cured them of the feasibility of this idea.
“Looking back, our mutual desire to please the other person and keep conflict out of our partnership sacrificed our own passions around certain ideas. Accepting more creative tension, rather than suppressing it completely, helped us reach our final (successful) idea more quickly.” TUS7M participant
7. Velocity Values Paring Down
Edit! In a brief presentation communicating clearly, simply and swiftly is key. Demonstrate the power of just enough and not more. Use your hierarchy of information to deliberately choose the most important points to convey.
Brief presentations force the presenter to challenge the tendency to overly complicate a message. Rather than packing way too much into your presentation focus on showing rather than telling and delivering less more effectively so it’s easy for your audience to engage with you.
“For me, this highlighted why teaching and communication in general requires a certain degree of mastery to make the subject simple again.” TUS7M Participant
Linda Yaven leads teams in Rapid Knowledge Transfer Programs for designing and delivering rapid interactive presentations using this engaging and fun model.
Ready for a provocative alternative to the typical conference panel? Linda Yaven will catalyze knowledge exchange between your conference panel and audience participants with a journey through her innovative Rapid Knowledge Transfer “Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes” program. Ignite authentic engagement impacting the quality of audience take away. Linda is an Associate Professor in Design Strategy MBA
Califonia College of Art, San Francisco.
Copyright Linda Yaven 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED www.lindayaven.com elle@lindayaven.com
Like to use this article in your e-zine or website? Yes, provided all links are live and include this copyright and by-line.