The Presentations Japan Series

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 change. If we can't deal with such a simple change, how hard is it going to be to get people to accept big changes.

How can we persuade people to go for the changes we are recommending? Here is how we design the talk.

1. We start with clearly defining what it is we want to change. We have to make sure this is crystal clear to ourselves and everyone else involved. If you have ever designed a questionnaire or a survey and haven't been clear enough on the question, about what you want, then you know it throws the whole effort out of kilter and you can't use the results. So, the change has to be communicated to people and that means we have to be concise and clear about what the outcome is that we want.

1. This isn't the order we present the talk in, but for design clarity purposes we start at the end. We need to design two closes. We have to decide how we are going to close the talk before we open up for questions. The second close is for after the Q&A. The latter is particularly important. We don't want some random, off topic question hijacking our audience's attention and have them forgetting the key point we were making.

Remember we want our recommendation to be ringing in the ears of the audience once the talk is over. So the second close is the last thing they will hear from us and we have to dominate their memory banks with our messaging.

1. We should be anticipating likely questions we will get. We don't want to be surprised by a question we are not prepared for. We can see our own credibility and the credibility of our suggestion about the needed changes crash and burn, if we cannot properly handle the questions thrown at us.

1. We have to justify the reason for the change. This has two parts, one being the statement of why we need the change. We have to be clear about asking for the change so that there is no doubt about what we say we need. The other part is an example why we need the change. This example has to be clear and compelling.

1. Now we need to come up with three quite viable solutions for fixing the problem we have specified. We can't have two ludicrous solutions and one which looks like the perfect idea. This type of approach will come across as an attempt to manipulate the result and our credibility will be damaged.

1. To demonstrate balance, we need to nominate the pros and cons for each of the three suggestions. Having chosen legitimate alternatives, there will be real pros and cons and we need to outline what these are in detail. We want the audience to feel we are being objective in our approach.

1. We purposely make the third suggestion the one we prefer. We know that recency means that the listeners will best remember the last thing they heard. It has to be the strongest of three strong alternatives.

1. We need to specify that we are recommending option number three and then provide convincing evidence of why we are recommending that solution. We have to make sure the audience feels the other two options could work and that this last one is clearly the best option.

1. Lastly, we design the Opening. As always, the opening has one main task and that is to break through all of the distractions going on in the minds of our audience. People today are so preoccupied with their phones and social media, that we have a gargantuan struggle ahead of us to pry their phones out of their hands and have them give us their full attention. This is the hardest time in history to be a public speaker, so we need to be up to the task.

So the order of delivery is as follows: 1. Opening, 2. Statement of Need, 3. Example of the Need, 4. Solution One – pros and cons, 5. Solution Two – pros and cons, 6. Solution Three – pros and cons, 7. Our recommendation that we choose Solution Three and why, 8. Close number One, 9. Q&A, 10, Final Close

If we follow this structure, then we have a much better chance of people adopting our suggested course of action. Getting people to make changes is extremely difficult. Getting them to make the changes willingly is even more difficult, so we need this type of special preparation in order to be successful.

Today we are going to look at motivating others to action. Actually, this is a devilishly difficult task. Getting anyone to change what they have been doing and take a new action is extremely complex. We all talk up a storm about this or that should change, but we are not keen about changing ourselves. In fact, we expect everyone else make the necessary changes and we want to stay exactly the same.

In our training on the topic of mindset, to underline the power of our habits, we ask people to make small changes. For example, put your wristwatch on the other wrist or fold your arms across your chest, such that the arm that is usually on the bottom is now on top. Try it for yourself and like most people you will feel a bit uncomfortable with the change. Appealing to others on the level of logic works well, but people need their emotions to be engaged for them to take action. We act on emotion and justify it with logic. Let's look at how we can design a talk which will motivate others to take an action we recommend.

Here is the design order, which is different to the delivery order.

1. We start with the end in mind and decide what is the concrete action we want people to take. This action has to be clarified and made not only easy to understand but also made to seem easy to complete. If the action required sounds complicated and onerous, our audience won't be motivated to make it a reality.

1. We might think it is a good idea, but will our audience be convinced? This requires some clear benefit to taking action. Everyone thinks in terms of what is in it for them, so we have to supply that component. It also has to be powerful or the work to achieve the benefit may not seem worth the time and effort. The outcome of the action has to seem much more advantageous than sticking with whatever it is they are doing now.

1. Telling people what to do will induce resistance. That is why starting with the action is almost guaranteed to fail. Instead, the incident, the context, the background providing the evidence that this is a good idea comes next in the planning.

Storytelling is so powerful and this is where we have to make good use of it. There must be some reason we think taking this action is a good idea. What have we experienced, heard or seen that makes us think that is true. We need to reach back into our memory and capture the very basis for our belief. Our job now is to tell that as a story involving the people, the place, the season and the time. Ideally, we should include these elements in such a way that the listeners can see it all in their mind's eye. People they know, a season they can relate to, a location they have seen or can imagine etc.

This structure is called the Magic Formula. When we deliver the talk, we reverse the usual order and we start with the Incident, then we finish off with the action and the benefit. The key here is the majority of the time is spent on the incident, the context and the action and benefit are honed down to the most key elements.

If we have more than one action, we are splitting the focus of the audience and we don't want that. If we pile on the benefits, then each additional benefit we add dilutes the effect of the first one and so on. We must focus on the most convincing benefit and highlight that one alone.

One huge advantage of the Magic Formula is it is very hard to oppose what we are saying. Normally if we put up an idea, we are faced with a room full of critics. They are firmly fixed on why our idea won't work and why their idea is better. By starting with the incident, we are taking our audience straight into the background, the context.

Often hearing the context, they conclude the same thing we have concluded. By the time we get to the action part, they are already there ahead of us and have concluded the same thing themselves. This is genius, magic, because we have now secured their agreement to undertake the action before we have even made the recommendation. If you want others to take an action you want to sponsor then this is the winning formula, the Magic Formula to make that happen.

So how have your New Year resolutions been unfolding? Change is tough, as is forming new habits by adding in new concepts and at the same time removing old negative habits. Resolve requires consistency, patience, perseverance and application – all of which need extra energy on top of what we are already doing. As presenters we have time, talent and treasure at our disposal to take ourselves up a few rungs on the ladder to success every year, if we can break out of the pull of gravitational forces holding us to where we have always felt comfortable.

Time is Life. We know that and what we decide to do with it becomes the summation of our lives. In all facets and periods of our lives, the ability to be persuasive is the big divide. We either live our lives according to someone else's plan or we decide our own way forward. To be able to achieve that we need the cooperation of others. Once upon a time, perhaps and it is a big perhaps, we could do it all ourselves. That is a distant memory in today's highly complex, global and interlocking world. Being persuasive brings people with us and we can meet the goals we have set. The issue is if we are not persuasive, then they may not choose to follow us, but seek someone else who is more persuasive.

The beauty of being a presenter is that we are sharply focused on one of the most important business and life skills. Those like the old me, who will run a mile if asked to present or speak in public are really missing out. The fear of embarrassment and possible humiliation overrides the ability to plumb the benefits of having this facility.

The talent lies within us and the trick is to unleash that talent. It is not an inborn talent. We learn how to become a more convincing, persuasive speaker over time. The biggest obstacle is lack of knowledge of what to do in order to master the art of public speaking. Those in denial do not sign up for classes, coached by professionals. They don't purchase the videos, audio sets and books written by experts on the subject. They don't listen to the free podcasts available. They don't tap into the vast experience of others and so short circuit the learning process.

Talent comes from nurture and we have to invest the time to nurture our abilities. Content marketing has become one of the greatest educational breakthroughs in human history. Putting out great content for free has never been done before on this global scale. The intellectual property was proprietary and if you wanted to gain access then you had to pay for it. The idea of giving away your Intellectual Property for free sounded like nonsense. Yet today what do we see? A vast array, in fact an overwhelming array of insight, information, data and analysis sitting out in the public domain at no charge. If you want to do something there is probably a YouTube video on how to do it. How good is that!

We must invest our time though in a calculated manner, because we are all drinking from the firehose, given that the free content volume is immense. Educating ourselves in a considered way will help to sort through which content is the most valuable. Of course, the only valuable knowledge is applied knowledge. We need to be taking what we are learning and then adopting the better ways of doing things and making them our new default positions, our new habits.

Not everything we need is free and some investment of our treasure is needed. The content marketing logic is that you get to taste the quality and if you think this is what you need, you purchase more of this content. Do you have an ongoing education budget allocation for polishing your persuasion skills? Where is the best allocation of treasure to gain the most powerful outcomes? How much do you need to be spending every year to become an outstanding professional? There is an old observation about do rich people have libraries because they are rich or did they become rich, because they have libraries? I firmly believe education, however humble or basic, is critical to personal growth. The more money we can pour into our education, the more successful we will become. It can't be an intellectual curiosity in business, it needs to be applied.

We have time, talent and treasure to help us become better presenters, more powerful persuaders and boost our personal and professional brands. No matter if your New Year resolutions went off the rails already, time to regroup and reset for the coming year. It is never too late to start again. The second time for us will bring more context and perspective to where we need to apply ourselves for greater success.

Today we are going to look at communicating with greater impact. So the first question is what do we mean when we say "impact"? Most talks are totally forgettable. Test this hypothesis yourself – how many of the many talks you have listened to, can you remember either the speaker, the topic or both? Generally, we struggle to remember either, because there was no impact for us. We were not touched emotionally and logically by the presentation. Logical presentations with really great data and insight are fantastic, but these do not stick because we are under constant bombardment from new data. Statistics from a year ago are now irrelevant today, because we have moved on. The content in written form is difficult to bring alive, but when delivered by a trained presenter the same content can be scintillating. I don't mean reading it word by word, but taking the content and really being excellent in the delivery of the content.

Speaking in a boring manner must be the evolutionary default setting of the human race, because this seems to be the easiest way to give a talk. The only problem is we might be impressed to be on the giving end, standing up there on stage pontificating, but those on the receiving end are not paying attention. They are bored by us and our talk and they escape to the internet to find more interesting things to do. Two or three clicks on a mobile phone and our audience are in distraction heaven, completely oblivious to us and our message.

A monotone delivery is guaranteed to lose the audience and therefore your message isn't going to resonate with anyone. That constant same tone is like a version of presenter "white noise" and it makes us drowsy. We need to have some variety in our delivery, which will keep our audience listening to us from start to finish. There are some simple techniques presenters need to master to avoid being sent to presenter oblivion by our audiences.

Here are some points to work on:

1. Word emphasis – we should try to add extra stress to key words or phrases when we speak. Not all words have the same heft and we don't want harmonisation across the whole sentence. We want certain elements to stand head and shoulders above their neighbours. This makes a tremendous difference to how our message is received.

Let's take an example with this phrase: "This makes a tremendous difference". Say these phrases out loud to yourself and listen to the difference in impact when I stress key words: "THIS makes a tremendous difference" or "this MAKES a tremendous difference" or "this makes a TREMENDOUS difference" or "this makes a tremendous DIFFERENCE". Just be adding some stress to certain key words, we can change the meaning of the sentence.

1. Pauses – when we stop speaking, that is a "pattern interrupt" and if some people have been escaping from our presentation, this will bring them back to us. When we insert a pause, it creates a contrast between our sentences and it grabs people's attention. The next time you give a talk, try doubling the length of the current pauses you are using in a couple of parts of the talk. It has that pattern interrupt feature and generates anticipation of what is going to come next.

1. Pacing – we can really slow words down to give them emphasis. L-E-T-S S-L-O-W I-T R-I-G-H-T D-O-W-N We can also go very fast for contrast, but not for too long or we will lose people. We are looking for emphasis here to give us impact with the listeners.

1. Modulation – Japanese is a monotone language, so it doesn't have the same natural tonal variety of most western languages. However, it can have differences of speed and strength injected into the delivery to create variety. If a classical music orchestra only played the crescendos or only the softer lulls of the piece, it would be extremely boring. If we speak with the same strength, soft or strong throughout, we will lose people. Highs and lows are what create variety.

1. Phrasing – we can use alliteration or rhyme with certain words to create memorable phrases. For example we can go from "hero" to "zero". This a good example of a phrase which sticks with an audience. Look for places where you can create these memory links to you and your talk, so that people won't forget either.

1. Movement - gestures are super powerful and when congruent with what we are saying, can really add a lot of strength to our statements. Hold gestures for a maximum of fifteen seconds, because after that, their power goes right down and they are no longer effective. Be very careful about running around, up and down the stage, pacing to and fro – this is a real distraction from your message. The rule is to move for a distinct purpose only. Design that in from the start so you know what you are doing and why you are doing it.

These six points will create impact with your audience because remember, everyone else is stuck in the same groove like an old vinyl record and they are losing their audience. You however will be seen as a person of value, absolutely enhancing your personal and professional brands.

The Q&A is a great chance to clarify any points which were not clear to the audience. This is an opportunity to really reinforce some points we made in the talk, to make them even more impactful with the audience. We can also draw on our reserve power and add extra content which we couldn't include in the speech. Apart from when we were mingling with our audience before the talk starts, this is the next opportunity to interact with our listeners.

We have to take some precautionary steps to prepare for the Q&A. When we are designing the talk, we have to think of the likely questions we may get, so that we are well prepared to answer them. We also have to understand that the Q&A is like a street fight – there are no rules. Members of the audience can argue with us, call us a charlatan, debate with us and dismiss everything we have said. People can also ask us anything they like, however off topic.

There are a couple of steps we need for dealing with hostile audiences. From the very start we should clearly state how long we have for questions. We may find the hostile audience is quite hard to deal with and then we suddenly say we have to go and we look like a coward running away. Once we have stated the time limit for questions, we can just say, "we have now reached the end of question time" and then we can go into our second close and leave with our dignity intact.

After stating the time limit for questions we say, "who has the first question". This is a subtle hint that we are expecting a lot of questions. If we don't get any questions, we just say, "a question I am often asked is….". We state our own question and then we answer it. Usually this gives people in the audience the courage to ask their question because the ice has been broken.

The type of people who go after a speaker are trying to show everyone how clever and tough they are. When we receive this type of question we look straight at the person, but try not to move our head. In polite society, we sometimes nod when people ask a question to give them encouragement, but we don't want to look like we are agreeing with them and the thesis of the hostile question.

We look straight at the person, no nodding and just hear them out. We keep calm because we know we have a sure fire way of dealing with hostile questioners. Once they have finished, we stop looking at them and now look at the rest of the audience. We paraphrase what they have said.

We do this in a special way, where we take all the sting out of the question. For example, if they said, "Isn't it true that your company is going to fire 10% of the workforce, just before the end of the year, when it is impossible to find another job". If it wasn't a hostile question, we could just repeat it because often people sitting in other parts of the audience couldn't hear what the questioner was saying.

We absolutely do not want to say, "The questions was, is it true that we are going to sack 10% of the staff before the end of the year". Instead, we paraphrase and purposely weaken the invective. We could say, "the question was about staffing". Now we turn back to face our hostile questioner.

By paraphrasing, we have given ourselves between five to ten seconds to consider how best to answer the question. We proceed to give the first six seconds of the answer, while maintaining eye contact with our questioner. After that, we never give them any eye contact again for the rest of the event. They feed off attention, so we now strategically cut off their supply of attention and we look at the other audience members and talk to them. We keep making six seconds of eye contact with the others in the audience until we finish. The hostile questioner becomes deflated, because they are not getting any of the limelight and attention they seek.

The other people attending the event will be amazed at how professionally you handled the situation, which they know had it been them, they would have had no idea what to do. Our personal and professional brands have just been elevated.

We now say, "who has the next question?". If it not hostile, we can repeat the question so that everyone can hear it and we then answer it. Again, we start the answer by directing our eye contact to the person asking the question and then move our eye contact to others in the room for six seconds each. If we want a bit more time to think about our answer, we can just insert a pause. Or we might use a cushion. This is a brief neutral statement that buys us thinking time. For example, we could say, "Thank you, I am glad you have raised that point". We wrap things up by saying, "We have time for one final question. Who has the last question?". We answer it and then we go into our second close.

Generally speaking, we want our answers to be concise, so that more people can interact with us by asking questions. It is also advisable to be brief because we will get ourselves into less trouble with our answers!

What is a complex subject? That really depends on the audience. If they are all experts in that subject area, then the presentation can and must be done at the same high level. If they are not knowledgeable on the subject, we need to avoid assuming too much prior exposure to related information and not use jargon and acronyms. There are varying levels of difficult themes when presenting. It is relatively rare that we have to present highly complex content in a standard business talk. Rather, this type of activity would take place at specialist conferences and at industry events, where the audience are experts or at least dilettantes. This is usually an inform type of presentation, where we are going to clearly explain a technical or complicated matter and pass on insights, data, statistics etc.

We have a number of guiding requirements when we are designing this type of presentation.

1. We need to develop flexibility in making complex material simple and understandable. We often work inside our own mental framework, where we know what we are talking about and assume that is the same for everyone listening. We need to step outside our bubble and see the content from the audience's point of view. How can we deliver the message in a way which will overcome their barriers to understanding? How can we communicate in a way which makes the subject seem simple to grasp?

1. We must seek ways to communicate the information in an interesting manner. Storytelling is brilliant for making dry facts and figures spring to life and attain a relevancy which appeals to our listeners. We should definitely never resort to speaking in a brutal monotone when delving into the bloody entrails of the subject. Voice modulation, pauses and hitting key words harder than others, will provide the light and shade needed to create variety in the delivery, making it easier for everyone to follow our key messages.

1. Let's relate to the audience at their level. This can be tricky because there is rarely the same level of expertise in the room. We have to aim for the lowest common denominator and speak at that level, without alienating the actual experts in attendance.

1. We must follow a logical progression of ideas otherwise the complexity of the subject will lose members of the audience. It is hard enough to deal with difficult subjects without making the delivery hard to follow as well.

1. We shouldn't forget to develop emotional contact with the audience. Well designed visuals can connect to everyone's emotions. Like storytelling, the slides can bring a dry idea to life and make it compelling. Showing the results before and after in visual form, especially using photos, is both powerful and convincing. Importantly, we must have one idea per slide as our standard, to make sure the audience can understand the point of the side in just two seconds.

1. As always, when thinking about how to approach the nitty gritty of the talk, we begin by designing our two closes. What is the key information we wish to inform our audience about. We must work hard to strip this down to the minimum number of words required because that will aid gaining clarity. The second close can just be a repeat of the first close or we could express the key point in a different way.

1. Now we work on the core message. Depending on the length of the talk, we will build a certain number of chapters, each of which provides the evidence and proof to back up what we are telling everyone about our subject.

1. Finally, we design the opening. In the case of complex information we can use an analogy. How does this work? An analogy is very useful when we are trying to explain complex concepts in a simple manner. We are comparing the similarities of two dissimilar things. For example, "designing the corporate strategy is like ordering a gelato". In this example there is nothing similar between designing corporate strategy and ice cream. We are taking two dissimilar things and connecting them to make a point.

1. Having stated the analogy, we now have to explain what we mean, so that the audience can get the point. We continue, "When we order the gelato, we hope this is going to be what we want and will give us the flavour and taste outcome we want, but no matter how good it looks in the refrigerated cabinet in the store, we won't know the truth until we actually taste it. This is the same with corporate strategy. It may look perfect on paper and the design seems to make logical sense, but we won't know if it works until we apply it".

Obviously, this is the design stage where we start with the end, but in fact we are going to deliver the talk in this order: analogy, analogy explanation, main body, close number one, transition to Q&A, close number two.

Whenever we have a complex subject to present, we need to approach it differently from our usual garden variety talks. The basics don't change – we need a good design and an excellent delivery, but the mindset needs some revision before we begin the process. If we do this then our talk will be well received and we will continue to build our personal and professional brands.

Persuasion Power Eats Everything For Breakfast

Intuitively, we know that people who can command an audience, energise teams, excite customers and secure decisions through their persuasion power are successful individuals. Did they gain persuasion power because they were successful or did they become successful through their persuasion power. We know it is the latter. Given we all know this, then why are so few business people successful as speakers. I attended a chamber of commerce AGM, which just shocked me. It hadn't dawned on me that as part of the proceedings those aspiring for a position on the Board, had to get up and say why they should be selected. When I realised this prospect was looming, I thought to myself, "this will be interesting". There were some very serious corporations' very serious heavy hitters assembled to joust for seats on the Committee.

No Free Pass for Corporate Captains Of Industry

What a revelation. Almost none of them could string a five minute talk together extolling their own virtues. I was wondering how on earth they were allowed to represent their brands with such an underwhelming facility in persuasion power? Why didn't their companies invest in making them presentation and promotion advocates advancing the brand's credibility. As often happens though, they didn't get the training, they just got the responsibility for their big enterprise's revenue production. They toiled long and hard in the engine rooms of their companies becoming outstanding individual performers. Often they started as technical people, typically engineers, who were excellent in their field of specialty. Promotion after promotion led them to run the operation.

Getting to the top and being able to successfully promote the brand are not the same thing. The apex of the organisation narrows down to only a limited number of contenders for the top positions. Those who have the technical skills, the experience and the ability to persuade others will self-select themselves for the top job. The logical conclusion is to not wait until you get promoted to garner the facility to persuade, but to grab that skill set so that you are the one who gets promoted.

Self Promotion That Elevates Personal Brands

Promoting oneself and being really good at what you do are also not a given. We have to be intelligent, competent, industrious, patient and strategic. At the same time we should get training and grab every single opportunity to promote our personal and professional brands through presenting. Once we gain more ability, we will be given more opportunities for bigger events and larger venues. Being able to present to a large audience is good, but being able to keep presenting to large audiences is even better. We scale up our capacity to dominate any sized venue, as we learn the intricacies of each step on the ladder. The chances though of getting a series of large events from the very start are low. We have to put in the sustained work and build up our presenting nouse, skills and confidence.

My recent TED talk was speech number 546 for me, so you would think that would be a dawdle for such an experienced presenter. What I immediately realised though, was the scale was different. It wasn't a typical large venue, it was a vast global audience. Normally, if you underperform in your talk, only the assembled business people know about it. If you do a poor job on your TED talk, then you are exposing your personal brand to the entire world and exposing it forever. In my case, it is even worse, because I teach presentation skills professionally. I also have my global Dale Carnegie colleagues and all of my competitors, watching like hawks. I also recently published my book on presenting in Japan, raising the bar on expectations. On the other hand, if you are under the spotlight and you do a professional job, then your brand becomes global and your credibility goes up.

The Catastrophe Secret Escape Hatch For Presenters

It looks like there is no safety net with presenting on the big stage but that is not quite true. Yes, you only have yourself to rely on for the success or failure of the talk. No one can sweep in from the wings of the stage and rescue you from a self-induced disaster. What people see on stage is only the tip of the presenting iceberg. Be it the experienced presenter or the novice, there is one huge escape hatch from speaking catastrophe and that is rehearsal.

This is such an obvious thing, you have to wonder why I even raise it? What is amazing though is that the vast majority of business talks are given once, delivered to the live audience and that is it. Investing time and effort into the rehearsals will do more for a person's personal and professional brand than any other factor. I teach company presidents how to deliver their speeches and the before and after versions are comprehensive validations for why everyone should rehearse as much as possible. I am there to coach and provide feedback for them, but any speaker can get valuable feedback in rehearsal if they know how to do it. Never ever ask "how was it?". A torrent of confidence crushing critique will land on your head immediately. Instead ask, "what was I doing well and what can I do to improve it?". Do that every time and you will maximise the effectiveness of the feedback during your rehearsals.

"Persuasion Power Eats Everything For Breakfast"

"Persuasion power eats everything for breakfast", should be our business community mantra. We know this is true, but are we doing anything about honing our presenting facility? Hope is not much of a strategy for becoming a persuasive speaker. Getting professional training, rehearsing and seizing every opportunity to give talks are the keys to success. With greater responsibility comes the requirement to be highly persuasive. So let's get to work and become highly persuasive, fully primed to step up.

The prediction business is always fun. We nominate our plans so that God can laugh, according to the old Yiddish proverb. Nevertheless, we need to make some plans don't we. The Gregorian calendar beginning of the year is as good a time as any to think "start". The last two years has seen the entire speaking business metamorphise into an online venture for the most part. Standing in front of a crowd is now somewhat of a distant memory for most of us. Internal meetings have gone the same way and we chime in from home on what is happening with the results so far this month or quarter or whatever.

The world seems to have sunk into the abyss of the ordinary, when it comes to persuasion power. Meetings have moved from the usual insomnia inducing exercises in the physical meeting room to the online room, but faithfully retaining the insomnia inducing capability. The best part of this has been the boredom of listening to colleagues drone on, is leavened by just turning your camera off and doing other more interesting stuff in the background, without drawing any boss wrath. Of course, our colleagues are doing the same thing to us too, when it is our turn to speak.

Online webinars have also sunk to the bottom of the ocean, where the crush of the weight of the water saps any life from the talks. People are so amazingly adaptable. They have learnt how to move their usual boring delivery online and without any apology. Once upon time the speaker would only be impinging on the time and patience of a small crowd of people, but with the wonders of Webex, Zoom, Teams, etc., the tech has created a weapon of mass destruction.

Is this your plan for 2022? Are you writing in your organizer, "I can't wait to bore people to death again this year"? I doubt that would be the case, but I also doubt that among the many goals being set for this year, becoming a master of persuasion is in there. How could that be the case? The complexities of communication have only gone up with the advances in society and business.

We operate in the Age of Distraction and the Era of Cynicism. Social media armed mobile phones have allowed us to spend every second of our downtime endlessly scrolling for something more interesting. Our concentration spans are being measured in nanoseconds today. We have become the most distracted generation in global history. How can we gain persuasion power in this tech induced mess?

Our other problem is no one wants to believe anything they hear anymore, as everyone is more anxious about falling victim to fake news. It isn't much respite from the pressures on modern communication to know that even if we are getting our message listened to, a lot of people are doubting anything we say. Science itself is in doubt and now "alternative facts" is a thing. Where will all of this end and what does it mean for us as presenters, persuaders and advocates?

There are some sure bets, some certainties that we can rely on though. These include the fact that the majority of people in business will remain hopeless communicators and persuaders. They won't analyse the current reality for opportunities to stand out, to break through the noise and get their messages heard and believed. They won't understand that while what we say is important, how we say it is more important to being effective as a presenter. The ability to wield language and to wield its delivery are potent tools for success in business. If everyone was well versed in being persuasive, our task would become more onerous and competitive very quickly. Well, that isn't going to happen, because our colleagues and competitors will just wander into 2022 and repeat the same mistakes they made in 2021.

Let's add "I will become a master of persuasion" to our list of things to be achieved this year. Standing above the hoi polloi isn't easy, but this is one area where we can seize the advantage. If we haven't studied this art of public speaking, let's commit to doing that. If we haven't taken the training, then let's get that into our schedules for this year. The great unwashed will do nothing, so let's take action and differentiate ourselves from those who are either ignorant or lazy or both. Persuaders of the world, arise in 2022 and seize the opportunity to polish our craft and take success into our own hands.

What is our presenter vision for 2022? If it has any element of success involved (and it would be a pretty rare resolution that didn't have that), then being persuasive is going to be integral to the success of realising that vision. If you are trying to climb the corporate ladder, then getting your thoughts sorted and have others listen and agree is persuasion power. If you are the boss and you want the team to get behind your new ideas, direction, project, fresh business initiative etc., then you need them to follow you and that means having persuasive presence. If you are a peer and you seek the cooperation of your colleagues from other divisions, then you need to persuade them to elevate your needs up their priority list. If you want your clients to buy and buy right now, then your persuasion skills have to be excellent.

Great. How do we become more persuasive in business? Being a force of nature won't work. No matter how much belief, passion and enthusiasm we have mustered, the person we are talking to won't care much, unless they see something concrete in it for them. We should plan our interactions, so that we get the best result. That makes a lot of sense, however, we can't always have that opportunity. We may be in the midst of a discussion and we suddenly need to weigh in with our idea. We have no time for careful, detailed planning and scoping of how the conversation should run, because the situation it so fluid. What do we do?

Habit is a powerful tool in business. It means we can engage in high level activities without needing any preparation time. Therefore we need to build habits, so that we are in flow, reacting spontaneously without thought. The habits we choose can be destructive though and defeat us in our quest for persuasion. Interrupting others when they are speaking would have to be at the top of the "stop doing" list. This is always a problem, because it says to the other person that what they are saying has no value and we are more important than them. Finishing their sentences for them would probably rank as number two in the deadly habits list. It says we are more articulate and clever than they are. We have anticipated where they are going with the conversation and we can get there more effectively than them, because we are smarter than they are.

Instead, we need to make CEP our new persuasion habit. I know everyone needs another acronym like a hole in the head, but they are a handy short form to help us remember the content, so please bear with me on CEP. The "C" stands for "context". We start not with our proposal or suggestion, but with the background. This is a very strategic choice that guarantees we can reduce rejection and resistance for our idea. When we leap into our plan or idea, we will face two levels of resistance. The quick thinkers will be telling us why that idea won't work or that it has been tried before and failed, etc. The deeper thinkers will be doing the same thing, but they won't necessarily voice their opposition at that moment, because the bolshie, assertive few are dominating the airwaves.

Starting with the context is genius because there is nothing to disagree with. The listeners are just hearing the background which has led you to draw certain conclusions based on the details and facts of the case. The quick thinkers will be racing ahead of you and leaping to conclusions about what should be done. The deeper thinkers will be doing the same thing, just at a much more substantive level.

The "E" stands for the "execution" that you are recommending to the group. Our recommended actions won't be whimsy, accidental or fantasy. Based on the facts of the case there are some logical things which should happen as a result. The listeners in many cases will have arrived at the same conclusion as we have or are well on the way toward it. They will be more likely to agree with our idea, because they feel they have discovered it for themselves independently, based on the facts they have heard.

The final "P" is for "payoff". The idea of recency says that people tend to remember best what they heard the most recent, so we save the best for last. They have raced ahead of us to what the execution piece should be. The next thing they hear is the payoff from taking that recommended action, which makes it even easier for them to agree with our idea.

The key is to make this process our standard operating behaviour. Instead of jumping in and blurting out our idea, naked and undefended, we go straight to the context first. By making this our habitual way of introducing ideas and suggestions, we create a new habit, one which substantially eliminates opposition to what we are saying. If you make this one decision to adopt the CEP habit for 2022, then your persuasion power will get a tremendous boost.

Let's look at the designing the closes. Notice this is plural, not singular. There are two closes required when we are speaking. Usually there will be Q&A at the end and we have to account for that. We design our first close to wrap up our talk. We open for Q&A and then we have lost control of proceedings. Make no mistake. Question time can become a street fight with no rules. Anyone can ask anything they like, no matter how tangential, irrelevant and obtuse it may be. We cannot control it, so we just have to deal with it.

The problem is the final question may concern something absolutely unrelated to what we talked about. The result is the audience walk out of the room with that information forefront in their minds, rather than our carefully crafted, especially tailored key message. We cannot allow that to happen. We need to design a second close so that our message dominates the final impression of our speech. The audience must walk out of that presentation with our key message ringing in their minds or we will have failed in our fundamental task. We can give slightly different versions of the same information for each close. The key is to prepare two closes at the very start

In the delivery of our talk, we need to end on a crescendo in this last close. Many speakers let their voice trail off and then just peter out to nothing. This is a very consistent problem and speakers do not seem to be aware they are allowing this to happen. We know that final impression is key and the point is we determine what that will be. Let's have a rousing message at the end and let's hit that message hard. Here are some closes we can use:

To Convince or Impress

1. We repeat the major benefit. We will have a number of take aways for our audience and a good plan is to select only the most memorable and most powerful and repeat that benefit to the audience. Always focus on the highest priority messages, rather than diluting the key message with a host of other lesser messages, all competing for the listener's attention.
2. Use a quotation. We may be very smart and have lots of great things to say. That is just using ourselves though as the reference point. Sometimes we will employ the credibility of an established expert or powerful influencer and draw on a quotation from their words. These are usually very famous phrasings so the audience will recognise the quote immediately. We can curate pithy sayings and have them ready to go when we need them. We all run across these at different times so the trick is to keep track of some which we can use in our presentations and have them handy to draw upon.

To Inform

1. Repeat your key point. In the inform talk we will have been passing along a lot of information, much of it very detailed. It can be confusing for an audience to know which information to focus on. We select the one piece of information we believe will be the most important and we repeat it again. We don't want to make the audience work hard to follow what we are sayings. By determining the key points, we do the work for them so all they have to do is absorb what we are saying, rather than having to analyse it for themselves.
2. Recap the steps of a process or plan. In the inform talk we are often providing so much information that we have to group it into brackets for the audience to understand. We may outline "the nine steps" or "the four key data points" etc. This numbered packaging up of information makes it much easier for the audience to navigate through our talk and keep up with what we are saying. At the end, we select one of the key information pieces and then remind the audience about it.

To Persuade

1. Present the action and benefit. We won't be keen to take a recommended action unless we think there is something in it for ourselves. By combining the action needed with the benefit, it is clear to the audience the value of taking our advice.
2. Final Recommendation. We select the key course of action we have been talking about. We restate it at the very end and this makes it very clear what we hope the audience will do from now.

The final impression is in our hands, to mould and shape in the way we want it. We must dominate the final message and jettison any distractions which may have arisen during the question time. The key is to design the close very carefully and deliver it with power and conviction. If we do that, then our messages will resonate with our audiences and that is why we are doing this in the first place, isn't it.