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Presentation Zen

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Slideshare's World's Best Presentation Contest

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 11:58am PDT by Garr

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As I sit here waiting for a flight to Wellington via Sydney, here are a few things...
(1) Slideshare announces another "Worlds Best Presentation Contest"
Slideshare announced the "World's Best Presentation Contest" again. Entries are due by July 31st. Judges include Guy Kawasaki, Bert Decker, Nancy Duarte and me. The prizes include a MacBook Air, Amazon Kindle, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, and even copies of Presentation Zen. Check it out.

(2) PZ in Sydney on the 4th of July!
Wow! I am humbled and honored that the response has been so big in Sydney (and Wellington as well; first seminar sold out). I'm really looking forward to presenting In New Zealand and Australia. I know I'm going to fall in love with both countries (can't believe I have not been Down Under yet).
(3) Lessons are all around you.
The mantra I repeat always: the lessons are all around. So here are a few snaps I just took in the airport in Tokyo a few moments ago. It is said (and Nancy Duarte does say it in her new book) that presentations slides have a lot in common with billboards (they need to be big, get the message across, be clear, easy to understand, etc.).

Above: Here is one that is a good reminder that black and white photography makes for really good contrast with warm, big, sans serif text on top.

Above: Proximity.Text elements (or other elements) which are close together will be seen as being part of the same group, so make sure you are clear when a text element belongs to another group (through spacing, color, size, etc.). This sign above looks OK you may be saying (and I suppose it is OK), but while walking fast and being just a big confused, I at first made a mistake. The space indicates that the numbers belong to two different sets (go left or right). For me the spacing was not enough to prevent my confusion (though as a photo frozen in time it looks fine). But the sign below has better spacing between the sets making it clear that there are two different sets even when you are rushing.

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Webinar: Creating Powerful Presentations with Nancy Duarte

Posted: June 24th, 2008, 8:05am PDT by Garr

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The VizThink people hosted a cool Webinar recently with Nancy Duarte and it is now online for all to see. Lots of good tips in there by Nancy and some good Q&A at the end. (Here's a photo I snapped after Nancy's talk which she made live from her office at Duarte Design in Silicon Valley. Notice the audience she assembled above her display. I dropped by to get some pz books before heading to HP in Palo Alto and Nancy's assistant Paula prepared healthy snacks for me — such nice people!) Watch the webinar now.
Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
In the webinar it's also the first time Nancy talked about her new book and gave the title: Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (O'Reilly). I received a pre-release copy a few weeks ago and loved it. Slide:ology is not a how-to-use-slideware book, but it does teach solid fundamentals of how to make fantastic visuals that support your narrative. And Nancy knows what she's talking about. If she can help turn Al Gore into an Oscar-winning presenter, imagine what she can do for you (see sample slides from Al Gore's deck). Slide:ology is in full color and is as beautiful as it is illuminating and instructional. An absolute must-have book that will not only enhance your presentation and presentation-design skills but will make you a better visual-thinker in general. It's a good idea to pre-order it to ensure that you can get it as soon as it's released in September. This book is definitely going to make a dent in the universe...a very big dent. (By the way, notice anything about the front cover?)

A couple of more things...

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)
This is an updated version of the 'ol Where the Hell is Matt? video. (I first linked to Matt's original video presentation a couple of years ago in this post called Balls, cheekiness, cogs, independence, travel, & high boots). It appeals to me somehow (and many others). It's a simple video montage of his travels yet it touches and inspires viewers. So simple, so visual, so memorable. Evocative and inspirational. You'll enjoy it I'm sure (in high-rez this time).

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
Presentations Roundtable podcast: Comedy and the art of presenting.
While I was in Silicon Valley earlier this month I was able to chat again with Microsoft's Ric Bretschneider and Howard Cooperstein (I appeared with Nancy Duarte and Howard on Ric's first Podcast in December). This conversation went long so Ric edited it into two separate podcasts. This is part I. (Part II is coming soon.) We focused on the issue of stand-up comedy and how we can learn a lot about presentation in general from that art form. Howard knows a lot about the stand-up comedy world and is actually very funny. Ric and Howard are very smart and creative; it's a lot of fun to hangout with them. Kind of makes me want to go to work for Microsoft. (I mention at the start of the podcast the 12 or so languages that Presentation Zen will be translated in so far; that number will likely go up soon. Korean looks to be one of the first to come out.). Listen to podcast.

(Note: It's odd timing that I point to this podcast today. Last night one of America's greatest comedians George Carlin died of heart failure. He was just 71. Carlin was the first guest host ever on Saturday Night Live and I still remember how popular he was in the 60s and 70s when I was a kid — and he's still popular today. He was a true legend in his own time. Very sad to see him go. (Time Magazine: How George Carlin Changed Comedy.)

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Logos, seals, & your identity

Posted: June 22nd, 2008, 11:51am PDT by Garr

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It seems that every two years I comment on a logo in the news (see this post I wrote on the World Cup logo in 06). A logo, of course, is part of the presentation of your brand and it matters (though I'm not fond of logos on slides used in live talks). Today (at least back in the USA), the blogosphere is abuzz with comments about the Obama Campaign's "new logo" (though I can't confirm if this seal/logo is more than a one-time thing). On Friday, according to CNN, "Barack Obama sat down in Chicago...to discuss the economy with visiting Democratic governors, but all eyes were on the Illinois senator’s podium bearing, what might be described as, a quasi-presidential seal – a new Obama campaign logo."

The reaction to the seal (above left) — even among his supporters — is generally not good. I don't think Obama was involved in this or even knew much (if anything) about the logo on his lectern in Chicago. Perhaps because his talk was with fellow Democrats and in his "home" of Chicago they were just having a little fun (or testing it out?). CNN, the New York Times, etc. made it sound like this was a new official logo, yet Obama's website does not mention the logo as far as I can tell. Hopefully that was the first and last time we see that logo/seal. I do not have an issue with the design of the logo per se except that it's just too close to another famous logo, the presidential seal. Part of me likes the simple design and the chutzpah, but my first gut reaction was "hmmm...just a bit over the top?" I assume it's legal, but what about this?) Obama has a good campaign logo already, I'd stick with that. My guess is this is the last we'll see of the seal (but who knows?), but it brings up the issue of logos that look suspiciously similar to others even if they are different enough to survive a legal challenge.

Distinctive and unique
Logos should be distinctive and unique, and if you're lucky enough to have a powerful brand, you'll work hard to protect your unique image including your logo. Starbucks is a good example of a brand that has had to defend its logo quite aggressively (some say too aggressively). You may be familiar with the case of the cafe in Shanghai called Xingbake (roughly meaning "star" plus "ba-ke" which is phonetically close to "bucks") which got into trouble a few years ago. Seems pretty comical, but according to this article the owner says it was all just a coincidence and that he'd never even heard of Starbucks (you start a cafe chain in 2000 and you never heard of Starbucks?). Here's how it went down.
Photo: East Midlands China Business Bureau

In Japan, many cafes sprang up after Starbucks became big here about ten years ago, many of them such as Excelsior, were seemingly inspired by the Starbucks brand, but their trademarks I assume were different enough not to cause confusion. But one that always seemed odd to me is the Mt. Rainier logo used by the company Morinaga Milk for their popular coffee drink brand called Caffé Latte (see the Caffé Latte homepage featuring a full page video commercial staring Scarlett Johansson). The logos may look different enough (or do they?), but when you consider that Mt. Rainier has a strong association with Seattle (photo) you find yourself saying "what the....?"

The Mt. Rainier logo is not used for cafes which is perhaps why it was allowed to go unchallenged. But now that Starbucks sells latte drinks in convenience stores on the same shelves as Mt. Rainier in Japan, it seems like people would be easily confused. I can not confirm it, but I heard rumors that Starbucks may go after them on this one. So what's the moral of the story? I say be different, find your own voice and your own identity, and that goes for logos and other forms of identity including the design of your presentations. It's great to admire the leaders and the front runners, but who needs another Nike, or Starbucks, or Apple, or Sony, etc. As the Funky Business cats say, "Being different is key."

Learn more
Logo design and corporate identity is very specialized work, but it is something all entrepreneurs should have at least a fundamental understanding of. Below are links to a plethora of discussions on what makes a good logo. (Here's one on trademarks called "Think Locally, Protect Globally.")

• Design and the World Cup: what can we learn? (PZ)
• Famous logos (on the LogoBlog).
• Top 10 logos of all time.
• What makes a good logo design? (David Airey)
• What makes a great logo? (Logoworks)
• What Makes a Great Logo? (code-interactive)
• What makes a great logo? (Light box graphics)
• Keys to a great logo.
• Key features of a great logo.
• Great Logos Are Key to Success.
• Brand Channel (everything about branding by Interbrand)
• Seattle Trademark Lawyer blog

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Postcard from Oregon

Posted: June 16th, 2008, 10:38am PDT by Garr

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I talk a lot about the importance of getting away from the computer, getting off the grid and finding time alone. This is crucial to keeping the creative spirit alive. Time alone is necessary, and time alone with nature is even better. It's important for fueling and nurturing the creative spirit to take the time to be completely present and appreciate nature's unaffected beauty and simplicity. The famous Zen scholar Daisetz Suzuki (1870-1966) often discussed the importance of being connected with nature and how the yearning for that connection was something deep in all of us (even if all too often neglected in modern life). An entire chapter is devoted to discussing nature and Zen and the special affection Japanese have for nature in his book Zen and Japanese Culture:
"However 'civilized,' however much brought up in an artificially contrived environment, we all seem to have an innate longing for primitive simplicity, close to the natural state of living."
— Daisetz Suzuki
While in one of my favorite spots in the world yesterday, I took out my tiny handheld Nikon camera and recorded this one-minute spot below to give you a feel for the location (Ecola Park near Cannon Beach, Oregon).

Note:The digital postcard was made in Keynote (three slides). The video was shot with a tiny Nikon Coolpix. Video is imported as a Quicktime movie. The images of masking tape are set to about 70% opacity in Photoshop (could have been done directly in Keynote as well) and sit atop the video. Recorded with "Record Slideshow" feature (File menu) and exported as a Quicktime movie. Simple. The final slide says "From Oregon with Love" (Oregon Kara Ai) which was the title of a famous TV show in Japan in the '80s.

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Next stops: Osaka, Wellington, Sydney

Posted: June 14th, 2008, 4:43pm PDT by Garr

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Just wrapped up the Voices That Matters Web Conference. My presentation today was the last one of the week. Just a fantastic conference with some really great people (New Riders did an excellent job!). Nashville is an incredible place for a conference (had a terrific early morning run on the campus of Vanderbilt University across the street from the conference site; beautiful campus. I'm going to the beautiful city of Wellington in New Zealand soon for two 6-hour seminars (June 30, July 1) hosted by the cool people at Webstock. Here is a seven-question interview I did with Webstock a few days ago. And below is one of the questions from the Webstock interview:
Webstock: Good presentation skills and presenting well are well and good, but it’s really just the sizzle added on top of the substance. If you’ve got a good idea or the right information, that’s all that matters in the end.” What’s wrong with that viewpoint?
GR: Good ideas and information are a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. It is not about dazzle, and sizzle, nor slickness — these are words I abhor. But it is about clarity, and evidence, and engagement, and story. If the content has structure and is true and honest and designed with the audience (or end user) in mind, then chances are it will be a beautiful design as well. It’s not an issue of substance over style. The issue is how do we design visuals (and other messages) that are in balance and in harmony with our narrative in a way that amplifies and augments our spoken words. The best style is the one that is a result of careful reflection on the material and the audience and the selection of a creative approach that is the simplest without being simplistic. “Too simple” can be just as confusing as information overload. The key word is always balance. In all things: balance.
Read the rest on the Webstock site.
Sydney Australia is on!
Thank you to all the people who expressed interest in hosting an event in Sydney. I may be speaking around the 3rd or 5th at the Apple Store in Sydney if we can swing it (Topic: the process of writing/designing a book), but for sure there will be one public presentation on the 4th of July in downtown Sydney hosted by Step Two Designs. Step Two made this short Slideshare with the details or go here to register. It's a two hour event, but I'll be in no rush if people want to hang around and talk more after the two-hour seminar and discussion.

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Presentation Zen at Microsoft
The PowerPoint Team Blog wrote a nice article about my second presentation at Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus last week. That was a really good audience with lots of questions. We did an interesting podcast after the presentation talking about standup comedy and presentation with one of the Microsoft managers who does standup for fun and knows a lot about it; standup has a lot to teach us about presenting better. (Podcast available soon.)

Steve Jobs in 60 seconds (WWDC 08)
I've talked about the solid presentation skills of Steve Jobs so many times (example, example, example); let me just point you to this 60 second highlight real of Steve last presentation at the WWDC in San Francisco earlier this week. Go here at Apple to see the whole thing.

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New Alltop topic: presentations & speaking

Posted: June 10th, 2008, 6:03am PDT by Garr

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A couple of months ago I talked about Alltop, which is something I use like an online magazine rack. Alltop collects stories from “all the top” sites on the web and they group these collections into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, celebrity gossip, Macintosh, politics, etc. One of the new categories is called Speaking which is a collection of the top sites on the net that focus on presentations and public speaking. (I didn't know there were so many sites dedicated to talking about speaking and presentation.) The Alltop Speaking page makes it easy now to scan the latest posts across a variety of blogs and sites related to this genre. Check it out.

The future of presentation?
(Below) Cisco CEO John Chambers was live on a Bangalore stage when he ‘beamed up’ Martin De Beer and Chuck Stucki live from San Jose, California. Chambers then had a "face to face" discussion with De Beer and Stucki on the same stage. Not sure what this means for the future of presentation, but it is very cool. Watch it. (H/T Guy Kawasaki.)

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The back of the napkin

Posted: June 1st, 2008, 1:33am PDT by Garr

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Brain Rules may be my favorite book of the year, but The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam is also one of the most important business books of the year (educators will find it valuable as well). The Back of the Napkin is an incredibly useful and practical book. Remember, using multimedia is not the only way to present, whiteboards, flipcharts — and for smaller audiences — a legal pad or even a napkin at the bar can be used well as a way to illustrate your ideas. Even if you do ultimately present in slideware, you can use the techniques Dan Roam discusses to illustrate your ideas in the preparation stage, and I've even seen some people scan their hand-drawn visuals and use them in PowerPoint or Keynote later.

In The Back of the Napkin, Dan Roam says that we're all born with a talent for visual thinking, but we were often not encouraged to develop it. In the video below, the author shows how anyone with a pen and some paper can use their imagination to work through any business problem in a visual way.

Below is a video clip on Dan's appearance on Fox Business.

Here's Dan on MSNBC's "Your Business." Checkout The Back of the Napkin website (and link to Dan's blog).

Now for something completely different
Later this week I'll have the pleasure of speaking at Microsoft again about some of the ideas behind Presentation Zen, etc. So I have a question: If you could say anything (constructive) to Microsoft about PowerPoint and presentations, etc., what would you say? This includes the good, the bad, and the not so attractive. What's your opinion? What do you like about ppt? How has it improved over the years (or not)? If you no longer use the tool, why not? As a longtime user of PowerPoint — and someone who made multimedia presentations before PowerPoint was invented — I have a pretty good feel of what people like and where they struggle, but I'd love to hear from you. In fact, your input is vital. I would love to incorporate your feedback into my talk. Please feel free to use the comments section below or send me an email directly. Thanks very much!

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Brain rules for presenters

Posted: May 19th, 2008, 7:50am PDT by Garr

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As I have said many times: if you want to learn how to be a great presenter, look outside the public-speaking and presentation-skills literature, and certainly look beyond advice on how to use ephemeral software apps like PowerPoint and Keynote. Every year it seems a new book comes out with practical applications for presenters and speakers, even though it's not a book about presentations at all. For example, best-selling books like A Whole New Mind, and Made to Stick had valuable lessons and applications for presenters; some of the ideas from those two books ended up in Presentation Zen. This year, thanks to the Authors@Google speaking series (where I also spoke in March), I stumbled across this 50-minute talk by Dr. John Medina outlining a few of his key points from Brain Rules. I was impressed with the content, so I bought the book. Then I read the book, and was blown away. In a way, we already know the rules put forth by Dr. Medina in his book, such as vision is the dominant sense (rule#10). We certainly know the power of the visual — a picture is worth a thousand words, etc. — yet we fail to take advantage of this properly in the area of presentation design, web design, document design, and so on. We all know that people don't pay attention to boring things (rule #4), yet the majority of presentations on this planet are less than compelling (to say the least).

Using our brains
Because most of us are not brain scientists, we have virtually no knowledge of how the brain works. If we did, we wouldn't try to drive and use our cell phones at the same time, or create high-stress office environments, or design schools where most of the real learning is done at home, or live on 3-5 hours of sleep a night, etc. What Brain Rules attempts to do is explain what brain scientists know about the brain in ways that we can use to improve our daily lives at school and work. I highly recommend the book. Brain Rules is one of the most informative, engaging, and useful books of our time. Required reading for every educator and every business person. My favorite book of 2008. Seriously – if you can get only one book this year, make it this one. At about 20 bucks on Amazon.com (with a nice DVD with useful video segments), it's a great value. Still, depending on where you are in the world or your current economic situation, even $20-30 is a lot more than free. But you're in luck. John Medina was very gracious in building such a good website and giving many of the ideas from the book away for free on his site and in videos on YouTube. And the Google talk has some good stuff too. The segments on the website also cite the sources of the original research.

12 brain rules
All 12 brain rules have practical applications for our personal and professional lives. I read the book (twice, so far) with presentations in mind. I created a slide presentation below which is a rough compilation of some key ideas and quotes from just three of the chapters. (1) Exercise. People who exercise "outperform couch potatoes in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem solving," says Medina. (2) Attention. "You've got seconds to grab someone's attention and only 10 minutes to keep it." (3) Vision. "Professionals everywhere need to know about the incredible inefficiency of text-based information and the incredible effects of images." People should "burn their PowerPoint presentations," says Medina, "and make new ones."

| View | Upload your own Above: I started creating slides to use for my own talks based on some of the ideas in Brain Rules, then I thought I might as well share them. The slides may make better sense if you read the book or spend some time on brainrules.com. This deck is meant to be viewed online in about 10-12 minutes or less; it contains far more text than I would use in a talk. (Note: for some reason some of the slides got resized a bit in the Slideshare viewer which ruins some of the "animation." But if you download the PDF deck the slides look fine.).

Brain Rules video clips
The Brain Rules book includes a nice bonus DVD. Below are a few clips from the DVD related to the three rules I focused on in the presentation. After an introduction of the Brain Rules objective, this clip discusses the importance of the first rule, exercise. (YouTube link.)

Attention: the myth of multitasking
We can do many things at once, but when it comes to paying attention, is "multitasking" really effective? (YouTube link.)

Vision trumps all other senses
The power of images. How can we communicate more with visuals? (YouTube link.)

Death by PowerPoint
As much as possible, make it visual...bullets can be dangerous.(YouTube link.)

LINKS
• Seattle Times interview with Dr. Medina by Richard Seven
• One chapter and videos on iTunes
• Brain Rules on YouTube
• 12 brain rules from his website
• Harvard Business Review on Brain Rules
• Brain Rules in the media, podcasts, etc.

Other books I highly recommend
They're not about PowerPoint or presentations/public speaking, but they'll help improve your presentations.

• The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media
• Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
• Universal Principles of Design

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Hillary Campaign sends "docu-point" to House Dems

Posted: May 10th, 2008, 3:15pm PDT by Garr

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Talking Points Memo (a political blog) reported today that the Hillary Clinton campaign emailed an "electability" PowerPoint deck to all House Democrats. It's slideuments like this that have given PowerPoint a bad name over the years. Nine slides, approximately 275 words, one table, three bar charts, and two pie charts. Why not just write a proper, concise, well-designed document and send it as a PDF? Unfortunately, sending this kind of docu-point/slideument as a quick alternative to a well-crafted paper or handout, etc. is all too familiar.

A note about PZ on Twitter
I received several emails from PZ readers about this Hillary PowerPoint today (thank you everyone!). In future I will be posting certain links to presentation-related videos, news stories, etc. on my Twitter page that may never appear on presentationzen.com. People use Twitter in different ways. In my case, I find it useful to post links (such as hot books, bad/good ppt, etc.) that might not be worthy of a proper post on the PZ blog but are still something I think most of you will enjoy or find useful/educational in some way. This Hillary Campaign PowerPoint is a good example: it's not really something I would post on the PZ blog normally, but it is the kind of thing I will link to on the presentationzen Twitter page. Hope to see you on Twitter. (Speaking of Twitter, my pal Mitch Joel had an interesting post about his use of Twitter for Six Pixels of Separation.)

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David Heinemeier Hansson presents at Startup School 08

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 1:54pm PDT by Garr

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David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals shares his ideas on creating a profitable startup company in a presentation titled "The (a) secret to making money online." I was tipped off to these presentations from Startup School '08 because a reader found the online presentation of the talk noteworthy. I watched the talk initially just to see how the video works, but then I got interested in David's talk. Actually, it's quite good (raw and honest, no bullet-point snoozer, etc.). Although the audio quality and camera work are not great (not the presenter's fault) I thought this is a really good talk. Smart content from a credible source and a simple straight-forward delivery. Checkout the talk in the format below (click on the arrow to go to full screen view), or go to the source here. If you'd like to just watch the video of David's talk (low-rez) see the video on the 37signals site here.

As for the online display of the presentation (slides on the left and below with video on the right) I think it's really interesting and it might work very well in some cases. Personally, I prefer to see the presenter and the visuals in the same frame with some good camera work, something like the videos you see on TED. This seems simpler, but it requires a good video footage of the presenter and the on-stage visuals and some good editing in post. I also watch a lot of video presentations on my iPod where videos of presentations like those on TED work pretty well so long as the slides used in the talk are simple and very visual. (Nonetheless, I'll have to play around with Omnisio in future.)

Checkout the other talks at Startup School 08.

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Six pixels of separation: A conversation about presentations

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:12pm PDT by Garr

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Mitch Joel is the President of the award-winning Digital Marketing agency Twist Image. Marketing Magazine dubbed him the “Rock Star of Digital Marketing” and in 2006 he was named one of the most influential authorities on Blog Marketing in the world. Mitch, from Canada, is also a great presenter and is in high demand for his informative and inspirational talks on issues such as marketing in today's world, digital marketing, personal branding, etc. Mitch has shared the stage with former US President Bill Clinton, Anthony Robbins, Dr. Phil, Sir Ken Robinson, and many more. Go to his speakers page on the Speakers' Spotlight to get more detail on Mitch and his speaking topics. Watch this sample video of Mitch on stage.

Mitch Joel has a great blog called Six Pixels of Separation (a book by the same title is in the works as well). If you have any interest at all in marketing, branding, entrepreneurism, and new media then you really should checkout Six Pixels. But it's the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast that I really want to turn you on to. This week marks episode #102 and Mitch has an amazing following across the globe. I've been listening faithfully since January when I discovered SPOS (listen to episode #102 to find out how I learned about it). I love the freshness and rawness of the delivery and I always learn something new from Mitch's informal show. Go here to subscribe on iTunes, etc. Last week I had the honor of being Mitch's guest. Our conversation about presentations and communications in general ended up taking the entire podcast. Download the podcast to your iPod, etc. and give it a listen when you have some free time. It's just a frank conversation (me on a cell phone in Japan, Mitch on a phone back in Canada). Here's the link to podcast #102 on the SPOS page.

PODCAST: Digital Marketing guru Mitch Joel from Twist Image and Six Pixels of Separation called me from Canada last week to talk about presentations and other issues related to communications and marketing. Click map above to listen. (Time: 51:07).

Links
• Twist Image
• Six Pixels of Separation
• Mitch Joel's Facebook page
• Mitch Joel's Twitter page
• For Americans (just in case)

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Dr. Edward de Bono on creative thinking

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 2:30pm PDT by Garr

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If you are not aware of the psychologist and physician Dr. Edward de Bono, then you owe it to yourself to at least explore his contributions. I knew of Dr. de Bono from his book Six Thinking Hats, but recently my interest in his work was renewed when I spoke with an executive of a famous multinational firm in Hong Kong who said they'd really benefited from some of his methods. Dr. de Bono says that so-called Western thinking, using analysis, judgement, and argument, is largely concerned with "what is." This is all well and good, he says, but it's not sufficient. There is another aspect of thinking which is concerned with "what can be." This type of thinking involves creative thinking and "designing a way forward." Dr. de Bono is credited with coining the terms Lateral Thinking and Parallel Thinking (See Dr. de Bono's site for detailed definitions). Lateral thinking is about changing concepts and perception and reasoning about a problem in ways that would not ordinarily be possible with traditional forms of logic. The idea is to get away from predictable, expected ways of thinking about problems using techniques that help people approach problems in very different ways. Lateral thinking methods can lead to creative and so-called "outside the box" thinking. One of the techniques is Provocation which de Bono touches on in the short video below. (Watch YouTube video.)

Summary of some of Dr. de Bono's thoughts from video
• If our brain is a computer, then the software we're using was largely designed 2,400 years ago. We've done virtually nothing about thinking since the days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. (In his book Six Thinking Hats de Bono suggests that thinking systems based on analysis, judgement, and logical argument are excellent in the same way that the left front wheel of a car is excellent. That is, there is nothing at all wrong with it, but it is not sufficient).

• Creativity is a skill, not just a matter of individual talent (therefore it can be learned). But it's not merely a matter of inspiration, etc.

• Creativity is more than just being different. The creative idea is not just different (for the sake of being different). Creative ideas must necessarily have or add value.

• People are reluctant to be creative out of fear of making "a mistake." Problem is (at least in the English language) we don't have a good word to describe creative ideas that just don't work...except to call them "mistakes." That is, we do not have a good word for this: "Fully justified venture which for reasons beyond our control did not succeed." If you do not succeed with your creative idea this is called a "mistake." And people generally like to avoid "mistakes." (We need a better word!)

• Provocation is one of the methods of lateral thinking. Provocations runs opposite to our normal logical thinking. Provocations put you on a new path and open up new ideas (even though this may not seem obvious at first).

• Thinking outside the box. Escaping from, breaking out of the box to change concepts, change perceptions, change constraints and rules. Developing an idea that would not have been expected in our usual behavior and our usual thinking.

Six Thinking Hats
Dr. de Bono is perhaps most famous to many people for his Six Thinking Hats method, a method designed to help people break away from traditional argument or adversarial thinking. From Edward de Bono's website: "Adversarial thinking completely lacks a constructive, creative or design element. It was intended only to discover the 'truth' not to build anything." Parallel thinking methods help two or more parties, then, engage in more cooperative and coordinated forms of thinking that lead to creative solutions. Rather than explaining the Six Hats in detail here, simply watch the video below where Dr. de Bono, in his typical de Bono analog style, presents his ideas to the audience (an effective method for him). The book is useful, but you can get the basics of the method from the materials available online. You might consider using the Six Thinking Hats method in the preparation stage of your next big group presentation project.

Links
• Edward de Bono
• de Bono Consulting

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The Miami Herald's Richard Pachter on the PZ book

Posted: April 29th, 2008, 2:33pm PDT by Garr

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The Miami Herald's Business Books columnist Richard Pachter wrote an article yesterday praising three new business books, including Presentation Zen. Richard writes a really nice column, so I'm most honored indeed to get a thumbs up from him. Richard talks about two other new books in the article that I have not read yet, but based on his recommendation I have ordered both or them. The first book he reviews is Powerlines: Words That Sell Brands, Grip Fans, and Sometimes Change History by Steve Cone. Actually Steve Cone's other book from 2005, Steal These Ideas!: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star, looks like a good book as well if you want a good refresher on fundamentals of marketing (I ordered this one too). The second book Richard recommends is Subliminal Persuasion: Influence & Marketing Secrets They Don't Want You To Know by Dave Lakhani. It looks like this may be useful to people outside of sales an marketing as well (Lakhani's Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want looks good too). Finally, Richard says some nice things about the PZ book. Go checkout the article on The Miami Herald's website -- More than words: Books tell you how to motivate.

• Other reviews and articles by Richard Pachter.

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Business manga: presenting Daniel H. Pink's latest book

Posted: April 25th, 2008, 6:24pm PDT by Garr

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Best-selling author Daniel H. Pink is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. His second book -- A Whole New Mind -- is so spot on for our times, I dedicated 5-6 pages of my book outlining how the key ideas in his book can be applied to the world of presentations. I am a huge Dan Pink fan. So I was very happy to receive Dan Pink's latest book -- The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need -- last month. I read it just an hour after I received it (during lunch; 160 pages of manga so it reads fast, and I eat slowly). When I met Dan last year in Japan, he was in Tokyo for a few months on a Japan Society Media Fellowship studying the manga industry. I didn't know he was going to write a business book in manga exactly, but we did indeed discuss many of the same issue that are in his brilliant new book. We're the same age and share a similar perspective on work, careers, education, etc. There are more than six lessons that a young person needs to know in order to be successful, of course, but the six that Dan touches on in his book are fundamental. This book is simple, memorable, and presented in a creative and evocative way. I loved it! I'm purchasing several to give as the perfect graduation present this year.

Watch the trailer of Dan Pink's latest book below (link)

A presentation about the book
I highly recommend this wonderful book. I have given one informal presentation on some of the principles in the book as part of a presentation on personal branding. Below, you can see the slides I used in that presentation (though I have added some text and some slides to make them a bit more meaningful sans narration). The illustration of myself was whimsically made by my wife (a designer and artist) several years ago on a piece of scratch paper in a Kyoto Starbucks. I scanned it and altered it a bit to give it different looks for this presentation. Yes, it's crude and very, very simple, but that's the idea. All slides either have only text or photographs from istockphoto.com. Very simple slides to create. These slides are very beta at this point, but perhaps they can be of use to you.

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• BusinessWeek article on Dan's book: Career Advice from a Comic Book

Note: If you would like to download the slides in pdf format, go directly to the slides on the Slideshare site, you'll see the download option there under the slide deck.

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BusinessWeek: Rethinking the Presentation

Posted: April 23rd, 2008, 2:21pm PDT by Garr

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Earlier this month, BusinessWeek ran a short article called Rethinking the Presentation by columnist and famous communications coach Carmine Gallo. In this article, Carmine features some tips from Presentation Zen as well as tips from Cliff Atkinson and Nancy Duarte. You already know that presentations with slideware today are largely ineffective. But it can be hard to convince your boss, for example, that speaking to slideuments (or docupoints) is a practice that should be tossed. Bad habits and conventional wisdom are hard to overcome. Well, this is a very short article (which means your boss may actually read it), but it comes from a very credible source: BusinessWeek. So print this out (it's one page), highlight the keypoints, and give it to your boss or other key people in your organization than can actually have an impact on the "PowerPoint culture" within your firm (or school, etc.). It's not much ammo, but it's a start (and it's free and easy).

While I'm on the topic of Carmine Gallo, checkout his website (lot's of videos, etc.) and watch his video presentation below on how we can learn a thing or two about presentation from the Grand Master of the keynote, Steve Jobs. I have been pointing to Steve Jobs's keynotes for years now, beginning with this post comparing Jobs with Bill Gates and the Zen aesthetic.

Carmine Gallo on learning from Steve Jobs

Carmine is the author of a really cool book on communication and presentations called Fire Them Up. (Here's a video about the book.)

• How to Present Like Steve Jobs (article with tips).

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Simple & visual: Tales Of Mere Existence

Posted: April 22nd, 2008, 1:58pm PDT by Garr

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OK, this example is mostly just entertainment, yet there are some simple life observations in this material as well that are evocative if nothing else. In terms of presentation style, however, Levni (Lev) Yilmaz -- the creator of Tales of Mere Existence -- has found a unique way of creating visuals that are supremely simple and support the narrative in a way that adds both clarity and emotion. Apparently, his technique is to film himself drawing the simple cartoons from underneath a pane of glass. This means he has to draw the letters backwards. It's an interesting effect. There are many good ones on his YouTube site. Below are a few of my favorites (the first one reminds me of my own dating experience in college

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