Communication made simple, with José Mota

Why is storytelling such an important skill to have? What makes stories so powerful? No better way than to share a story of my own.

Stories bridge the gap. They are a great entryway between your ideas and your audience's. Because stories aim to demonstrate underlying principles, the narrative you choose is malleable, and if you choose one that your audience can relate to easily, the more effective it becomes.

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Steve Jobs' presentations were incredible. Why? His remarkable presence, his personal brand, and the simple yet strong slide decks made the difference. Everyone would cheer when he announced the first iPhone, or the innovative Macbook Air. The black and blue fade background with big white letters zooming in would mark that generation of computers for good. What made Jobs so influential on stage? What made people line up to see him? Let's figure that out.

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Doing the right thing is not the same as doing the thing right.

Meaningful practice makes progress. How do we practice? How to prepare for a big online presentation, a team workshop or a webinar, in a way that is purposeful and tells you that you're doing better than last time?

I'm breaking my answer in three parts: why it's important to practice, what to practice when it comes to speaking in public, and how to do it in a way that is meaningful and lets you know you're improving.

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Reference material

The continuation of last week's episode on paralanguage. If you're curious to get the context behind it, check episode 57.

What makes people want to see TED talks? Usually because speakers that go there have great ideas to share. And what makes them so interesting that people can be engaged for such a long time?

I would personally love to acquire such incredible gravitas. They always look so collected, and yet so confident. These people are truly inspiring, and I'm telling you there's a way to get there.

How do you become more confident and interesting when speaking in front of others, and how do you add that special something that makes people want to listen to what you have to say?

We've been exploring posture and gestures lately. They are incredible resources that take advantage of the visual senses and pairing them with the actual message that others hear.

Because we now understand how effective gestures are, it becomes important to realize the conditions in which we do them, specifically the space and boundaries we have available. Also, when interacting with others, we want to actively engage with them, create an impactful experience and somehow justify the time and energy they're spending with us.

When you talk with others, how do you increase your confidence while still being respectful of others? How do you leverage the space around you to send a message more meaningfully?

Conversation is one of the most spontaneous activities for people to engage in. Everyone loves talking with others, be it an extrovert on a introvert. If you think about it, introverts are very much selective extroverts; meaning, they like to expand with a limited number of people they can trust.

Talking gets more interesting when it becomes slightly physical as you move your arms and make certain gestures with your hands. Depending on the situation, you might choose different gestures.

Which ones are right to use when speaking in public or reasoning with someone who's close to you?

Imagine yourself having a conversation with somebody; a deep one, in fact. The ideas being exchanged require some effort to understand, and they take time to fully absorb.

Now imagine you're absolutely still when you're talking. Arms down, fixed expression on your face, 6 feet away from the other person.

What does it look like? Is it awkward or funny? Is it provoking or is it rather something you see yourself doing? What would you change in that picture?

If you're part of a product team, chances are that you talk about solving certain problems on a daily basis. Teams who use Scrum, for instance, plan their work together every day. Part of their process includes understanding where they are in the context of their sprint goal.

There is often the challenge of discussing those goals from a text file, maybe a product requirements document or a Jira ticket. The time spent writing that kind of information is considerably higher than if you were to either talk about it or draw it. This challenge becomes more significant when someone or everyone is working remotely, and it can become increasingly simpler as the team adopts new methods.

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Go back to any situation where you had to make a decision with anyone else (maybe your team or a client). Think about the documents you had with you, and how they supported the group. Think about the experience of coming up with those documents and how different it would be if you didn't have them. What does that picture look like?

More than once I've had people come up to me to ask for help on this subject. They either want to schedule a call to explore a quick set of options or they email me to start and plan a big subject for the long term. Active listening plays a big part in validating the other person's point of view when talking face-to-face, and transferring all the information into writing has become even more valuable, as all points are confirmed on paper and revisited at a later time very effectively.

It is clear that writing is very different from talking. It takes somewhat longer, and it has the potential to be interpreted differently from expected. However, with the reality of remote work, writing eloquently and efficiently becomes an important skill to have.

So how do you make writing almost as smooth and effective?

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