Create Your Communications Experience

The Green Light Approach

The Green Light Approach

Most successful people have a 'forward lean.'

In our Communicate To Influence program we draw a parallel to the Ready Position, a posture that comes from all types of athletics, where you are on the balls of your feet. You can't be back on your heels and be "ready" - ready to move fast in tennis, basketball, skiing - any sport. You have to always be fast on your feet to move in any direction.

In speaking, when you are habitually in the Ready Position you are physically and psychologically forward. You WANT to get out there and talk, and convince and influence - you can move!

My friend Ben Sottile has been CEO of several companies, and coined another name for moving forward that I've found very useful. He calls it the Green Light Approach. We all operate under one of the three traffic lights, and he advocates Green.

• Those who are ruled by the red light stop themselves - or never get started.
• Those who always see yellow are very cautious about making a move.
• But those who go for the green light are staunch advocates of their positions and DO move forward. While they certainly slow down if they see yellow - and stop at the red signals - they see life as a green light. Moving forward unless directed otherwise.

Same in communicating. Business would be vital and vibrant if more people had a forward lean and looked at communicating, much like life, as a green light.

Four Voices from SXSW

Speaking and Twitter dominance

The experience of South by South West (SXSW) in Austin is like the Wild West - it's the frontier of Social Media converging with traditional conference, dominated by Twitter. After experiencing it, I've modified my opinions since my last Twitter post here, and more will be coming on that (for a very good post on this subject today see Mark Ivey's blog.)

First, four important (read 'Rock Star') voices from SXSW on the question "Is Twitter distracting, additive or what?" I recorded our conversations spontaneously on my iPhone - here are highlights:

@Armano     - (Listen to iPhone recording here)

• Good thing, not a bad thing
• Speaker can broadcast his/her message
• When I tweet in conference, use it as notes
• Tweeting causes disconnect but you store up info and come back to it

@GuyKawasaki     - (iPhone recording here)

• Very good for speakers, can reach thousands through tweets
• I like big numbers!
• Tweeters disconnect - It's like taking notes
• Not too distracting for me as a speaker. But embarrassing when I'm speaking and someones sees a live tweet from one of my surrogates...

@Pistachio     - (iPhone recording here)

• Tweeters can take over a conference - last SXSW
• Great as back channel, speakers can see what audience wants
• Opens up ways to broadcast our content world wide in seconds
• Tradeoffs - can distract speaker, be rude, discount audience
• Can connect with individuals in room and conference
• One more things for corporations to assimilate, change "laptops down" policy

@ChrisBrogan     - (iPhone recording here)

• Important to be able to free flow and multi-task well
• Many conversations can take place at the same time, all can express themselves
• Note taking useful for in house audience
• Real audience is the thousands outside the conference room
• Twitter is like hamburger helper for the conversation - makes a little go a long way
• We'll learn to speak in 'twitter bites' (as Chris Brogan does!)

There's a unanimity of opinion by those who are in the Twitter elite of course, and I share their enthusiasm for the possibilities. But there's another side to the story in the traditional and more bureaucratic business world - which is perhaps 80% (or more) of the business population. They still think Twitter is the answer to the now irrelevant question, "What are you doing?" (The other day I asked the CEO of a billion dollar investment banking firm how he used Twitter and he said "What's Twitter?")

More to come on this important communication experience, and Twitter tips for the mainstream business population...

@BertDecker

A New Level of Communicating Habits

Maxwell Maltz said it takes 21 days to change a habit. In training over 300,000 people over the last 30 years our company has found that to be precisely true (give or take a week or two!)

Our communications behavior is made up of literally dozens of habits, which we need to know first (through video feedback), and then practice to modify, improve or change. (Remembering 'Perfect practice makes perfect.') Maltz proved this in his self help classic Psychocybernetics.

How we think is also a matter of habit, so in our workshops we teach people new ways to look at their content - to focus, have a Point Of View, and avoid data dumps. And with the advent of new technology (ie. Twitter) we ALL have to look at modifying our habits in our approach to our audiences. (More to come on how to handle this challenge, and opportunity.)

In our coaching and consulting, the biggest obstacle we encounter is clients who just don't want to practice. If you don't like to practice either, think of what Malcolm Gladwell found in his research for "Outliers." The people with the most success in ALL fields were those who had either 10,000 hours of practice, or 10 years of experience (give or take an hour or year or so.)

We are all communicators. Gain mastery in this most important skill where you influence others every day at several important touch points. And those who have mastery and leverage in those formal speaking opportunities with large groups are those who know their habits, and practice at them.

Eloquence In His Brevity

Sully Sullenberger spoke publicly for the first time after his "Miracle on the Hudson." He spoke for exactly 21 seconds - three sentences. There was eloquence in his brevity.

We of course wanted more - we were yearning to have him tell us how he did it, of the heroic efforts, and the drama. But Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger would have none of it at this celebration of the hometown hero in Danville, CA (my former hometown BTW.) All indications in the press to date show him to be a humble, highly competent man of integrity. And his 'speech' reflected nothing less.

Now I hope we hear more. We need heroes to emulate and to learn from. He is certainly a hero, and I hope he allows us to get to know him in book and person. I think he has a lot to teach us. About preparation and leadership, and teamwork.



This was like that first potato chip - tasted great, but leaves us thirsty, yearning for another, and another.

There was eloquence in his brevity, and now I want more. How about you?

Believed To Be Heard in Audio

Short post here - but we had to announce that "You've Got To Be Believed To Be Heard" has just been published by MacMillian Audio - released on audio CD from Amazon and for download on Audible.

When I heard it I liked it! Now that may seem weird, but normally we don't like the sound of our own voices, and I'm no exception. Our recorded voice comes to our ears through sound waves and air - and we're used to hearing our own voices inside our heads, sound conducted by bone. Different - so I was pleased.

You can hear an audio sample here. (And of course I'd love you to hear the whole thing.)

Connection Trumps Everything

Dave Paradi had an interesting post this week titled, "Does Great Content Trump Poor Visuals." (Another in my weekly Best of Alltop on Speaking.)

As he told the story of an academic presentation with powerful content but terrible slides, he noted that flashy visuals can't make the case with little content, but wondered if the reverse was true. I'd say neither.

You need connection. With dull visuals, with reading a speech, with no substance - you will have no connection. And no impact. Boredom, disinterest and tuneout. Twitter time for the audience.

Only if the audience is interested solely in the content and not the person and the experience (like college kids listening to a lecture for a test) does content reign supreme. At conferences and in business settings I've seen that happen only once in over 20 years - at a Pharmacist Convention during a research presentation (that would have been best presented in writing anyway.)

To make an impact you need connection, and that's people connection, emotional connection and action connection. It comes from high energy, use of stories (SHARPS), knowing your audience and relating, looking, moving and having a beginning, middle and end, etc. You can have a connection with no visuals, (if you have to), but you can't have a connection with boring and flat content and slides and behavior. If you have brilliant content but don't feel it needs connection, submit a paper. The written medium is faster anyway (just not as powerful.)

Dave said it well when he said to NOT go to the PowerPoints first:

"Next time you start to develop a presentation, don't sit down at your computer. Go to a quiet place with a pen and paper and allow yourself the time to concentrate on your desired outcome and the best way to achieve it. Only after you've got great content should you look to create persuasive visuals."

And if you're smart, then you will add some great visual ideas from Presentation Zen or Slide:ology.

Rule of Three - List of Three

Max Atkinson has a great blog that you will want to visit if you are at all interested in speaking and communications (which is why I assume you are here!) He is the speaking expert from the UK behind "Claptrap", which is an outstanding movie classic on the use of oratorical devices. Sounds boring, but the 30' film dramatically takes a woman with moderate education and makes her into a "standing ovation" parliamentary speaker. With Max Atkinson's help. (Unfortunately the film's only available in PAL.)

His great post on Barack Obama's advanced use of alliteration, list of three, and other oratorical devices is not to be missed. Atkinson is a master at coaching and analyzing the written speech. As he mentioned in his email to me, Obama "included 27 three-
part lists at a rate of about one every 30 seconds!"

And keep in mind that the "list of three" is not just a device of rhetoric. As a proven principle in physics, it is also used in communicating for

1. organizing ideas on the spot
2. creating presentations, and
3. putting together agendas of any kind

(and a lot of other uses beyond those three.)

It is one of the organizing principles for The Decker Grid, which we use in every program we teach and train. So if you use the Rule Of Three you will be

1. More prepared,
2. More persuasive, and
3. More powerful!

Alltop - Inspiring New Ideas

Guy Kawasaki has a brilliant new product in Alltop. It's an aggregator - what he calls a 'magazine rack' of the best of the internet - and a lot more.

I noted it before for speaking, but after using it for awhile now, I find it to be the fastest for the best of whatever you're interested in. So...

Since this blog is about communicating and speaking, I'm going to feature here the best, or most interesting, or otherwise unusual post I can find from Alltop that relates to getting your message across, influencing, and making a difference.

Here's the first:

From the blog Speaking About Presenting:

Scientific Evidence for Banning Bullets

Multitasking is a delusion - which at a minimum should revolutionize anyone's use of PowerPoints or Keynotes. Tests prove (and experience shows) that you cannot be talking and have someone supposedly listening while they are reading your slides. (BTW - use Black Slides!)

Who's In Your Top Ten Speakers

It's almost time for our annual Top Ten Best and Worst Communicators of 2008 - and we'd love to hear what your choices might be. Comment here, or send an email, or Twitter me at bdecker, with the good and the bad - who you think should be on the list.

As a reminder, here is last year's 2007 list, and remember that Barack Obama was #1 Best in 2006. 

We have someone in mind already for #1, but maybe he can be ousted by someone you think of that hasn't been on our radar. And there's someone who probably will be on BOTH the best and the worst - that would be a first, and who could she be?

It's fine to think of public speakers, but keep in mind we're talking about communications here - and that is a lot broader than speech making. We'll publish the list on December 31st.

Video and Speaking

Because I'm on vacation using a slow internet connection from a cruise ship in the Sea of Newfoundland - I'll be brief. I couldn’t help drawing some attention to the following comments on a blog - unsolicited - from Chris Spagnuolo. And he is one who knows about communications.

“…something happened this week that I would have to say is probably one of those rare life-changing events.

“…If you’ve never seen yourself deliver a talk on video, try it.  It’s an eye opening experience.

“…Good speakers will become great, and great speakers will become phenomenal.”

The nice comments are good, but most important here is the power of video feedback. I’m still amazed at the great majority of people in business who still don’t know how their most important tool works – themselves. Delivering ideas, information, motivation.

Observed behavior changes. See yourself as others see you – it’s transformational.