Monthly Archive for January, 2009

The Power of persuasion

Published
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Andy
on January 27, 2009
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[UPDATE Feb 11 2010] I now have a dedicated blog about public speaking. You can and read an updated version of this article and read more write-ups of workshops I have attended.

Last night I attended a workshop called “The Power of Persuasion” lead by Simon Bucknall, twice winner of the Toastmasters Great Britain and all Ireland public speaking championships. The course contained lots of insightful advice about persuasion in public speaking.  Furthermore there were two prepared speeches (both number nine in the CC manual: “Persuade with Power”) followed by group discussions to analyse what worked and what didn’t.  Overall it was a fantastic workshop and I extend my thanks to everyone involved in the organisation.

I took lots of notes during the workshop.  To further familiarise myself with the content, and for the benefit of others, I’ve typed up some of the key points that were made.

First Half: Audience Buy-in

Passion - Simon asserted that that passion for what you are selling is the most important aspect of persuading effectively.  He described how, in previous jobs, he found his ability to sell was hindered by his lack of enthusiasm for the products.

Emotional Response - If you win the heart then the mind will follow.  The most powerfully persuasive speeches illicit an emotional response.  A previous international speech winner’s method for creating passionate speeches: take your inspiration from books/films/media and think about your emotional response to it - then try and recreate that emotional response within the audience.

Audience Buy-in - The audience should have a reason for listening to you - a “buy-in” for your speech.  He suggested using the following three steps:

  1. Establish the mindset of the audience. Identify the emotional state of the audience by doing research or asking directly.  Are they already sympathetic to the cause? Are the bored and don’t want to be here? Many people are too keen to focus on the end result or make assumptions about the audience’s situation.
  2. Reference/address what that might be. Empathise with the audience situation “Who doesn’t want to be here?”.  This will help to make a speech a “shared journey” rather than one person ordering the other.
  3. Setup and incentive. Why they should listen to you?  Why they should join you on this journey? What they can get out of it?

Use of the stage.  Use different parts of the stage to make the story a physical journey.  An area of the stage may represent a goal; you can point towards it when you refer to it then move into it when you describe achieving it.

Avoid inviting a response to a question - The prepared speaker proposed a question to the audience and an answer was shouted out that did not support his point.  It was suggested that rhetorical questions should be open question that invites the audience to reflect on a topic rather than prompting them for an answer. “What gives you the right to …?”

Leading a debate - At one stage Simon was asked “What is the difference between persuasion and selling?”, rather then attempting to answer he asked for a show of hands for “they’re the same” and “they’re different” then asked members of each group for their thoughts before inviting the original questioner to comment. What an excellent technique for answering questions that you don’t know the answer to, or tackling a question with a subjective or non-existent answer.

Second Half: Demonstrate your points effectively

Stories - Simon reminded us that Stories are an effective way of making points.  He suggested that powerful stories “place our audience in the scene”, meaning that the audience should imagine themselves in the situation you’re describing.  He describe some points for doing this effectively:

  • Use the word “you” - A reactive word that causes the audience to take note
  • Give your characters dialogue - You can be a lot more forceful or critical when you are “repeating” what someone else has said.

Branding your idea - Can your point be distilled into a single sentence of less than ten words?  Can you repeat this phrase three or more times during the speech? Like Obama’s “Yes we can”.

At the end of the presentation Simon asked two questions (I badly paraphrase). “Which ONE of the points discussed tonight will you incorporate into future speeches?” “What would be the result of not taking notice of any of the points?” Those two questions were very persuasive in their own right and I would invite you to reflect on them now.

Buying Books

Published
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Andy
on January 23, 2009
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When I was in India last year I read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, a fantastic book that won the Man Booker Prize in 2008.  I had brought my copy from a street seller who laid out a collection of books on a pallet on the pavement, most of which looked a bit worse for ware: the text was miss aligned or faded and the colours on the front coveres were poorly saturated. Initially I thought it was a rejected run from a printing press, books that wouldn’t make the grade of western bookshops.  I had selected the best quality book but even that had the odd missing letter or faded type face.  After coming across handwritten notes and arrows I was convinced the entire book had been photocopied

So all in all a successful purchase - a fantastic book, “stuck it to the man” by buying a pirated book and spent £1.50 on something that would cost me £12.99 in Waterstones.  Books are getting so expensive in the UK that I have been exploring other avenues for obtaining books (despite their relative value for money).

Second hand books are a great way to go.  There is a great open-air bookshop on the South bank, London, next to the British Film institute, which has a vast selection of second hand books for about £3 a paperback. Second hand book shops always seem to have the classics, but are also overstocked with last year’s blockbusters (Dan Brown etc.).  Another great resource for second hand books is Amazon market place, most ot the classics are available for 1p + £2.75 shipping, but often the shipping price will cancel out the saving if you’re buying in bulk.

Borrowing books from friends is a great way to get hold of books.  Personally I feel I’m getting more value for money, out of a book, the more friends I can persuade to read it, and I enjoy being able to discuss it with them afterwards.  I think most people are the same, and as long as you don’t crack the spine or fold the pages, most people will be very willing to loan out their personal library.  However I’ve now reached a point where I avoid looking at friends’ bookshelves as I have shuch a backlog of borrowed books to get through.

Pirate books, with the exception of the few I brought in India, haven’t really featured in my personal library that much. I’ve downloaded the odd ebook or audio book from the piratebay but neither are ideal. I find ebooks are only suitable for reference material, in fact the ability to quickly search through them gives them adavantage over “traditional” paper books; as for novels I don’t like staring at a screen for hours.  And audio books just take too long, I’m not the fastest reader but I can always go faster than someone reading it out loud.

I’m sure the local library would be a great resource.  I’ve not taken the time to find one close to me.  I think I’m seduced by developing my own personal book collection and not having to commit to a return date.

In 2009 I’m going to do my best to read fifty two books.  I have got about twenty unread, or unfinished books gathering dust on my bookshelf, so they’ll be the ones I’ll tackle first.  The rest I’ll try and source as cheaply as possible.

Taking notes

Published
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Andy
on January 22, 2009
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Last year I read lots of books and I intend to keep up the momentum this year.  One thing I have learned over the last year is that after reading a non-fiction book, however interesting or inspirational, the knowledge seems to seep away very quickly.  Even if I have found the content fascinating it just doesn’t stick after a single read through.  I’m often able to recall general topics or memorable anecdotes but the specifics just aren’t there.

I’ve started making notes in books that I own, usually underlining a quote that I Iike or a concept that I find particuarly insightful.  Any page that I mark I will draw an astrix in the top corner of the page so I can flick through the book and quickly locate anything of interest.

But I’ve realised that this isn’t an ideal solution.  I can’t write in borrowed books.  I’m unwilling to lend my own annotated books as I might lose the notes.  But most of all underlining and brief margin notes aren’t sufficient to recall large topics without re-reading large sections.

“Information is useful only to the extent that you can find it when you need it” - Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss seem to be on the right track with his note taking system.  He takes handwritten notes while reading, and when he fills a page he writes a brief description of its contents on a index page.  When scanning or revising the information the index page can act as a distilled version of the book with pointers to more detailed notes. One thing that strikes me about the examples he has posted is that they do not look very accessible.  They are a monotone scrawl of dense handwriting.   I think  a useful complement to to an index page would be a mindmap of the key concepts.

I have been using mindmapping quite a bit over the previous year mainly so that I can quikly revise materials for a course I deliver, but also for brainstorming ideas.  I’ve attempted to create a mindmap of a book after I’ve read it, but it usually lacks detail as I haven’t taken notes throughout.

Mindmaps are great for quickly revising information due to the use of colour, space, images and the emphasis on logical connections.  Creating mindmaps is fantastic for forcing you to think about the logical flow between topics.  Unfortunately they are time consuming to draw, but I always seem to understand the topic better after competing one.

 

So for 2009, a semi-resolution, I intend to practise and develop a note taking system and possibly re-read some of the better non-fiction books from last year and create some easy-to-revise summaries.