Talk Good: Giving Effective Presentations
Note: See related post from October 2008
Since I started doing Toastmasters about two years ago I’ve been Furling every good piece of information I could find on how to be a better speaker and presenter. I mentioned this recently to some of my fellow Toasties and they asked me to share my links.
The pieces speak for themselves (no pun intended), so without extensive annotations, here are my top 10:
- Garr Reynolds (see also: his great blog, Presentation Zen):
- 10 Tips for a Killer Presentation, Neil Patel
- Get Your Message Across by Creating Powerful Stories, Kevin Eikenberry
- How to Change the World: World’s Best Presentation Contest Winners There are some great examples of how to effectively use powerpoint.
- Bert Decker (Also see his blog, Create Your Communications Experience)
- How to Get a Standing Ovation, Guy Kawasaki
- Kathy Sierra (See also: her blog Creating Passionate Users which, sadly, is no longer being updated; but there’s great archived content!)
- Effective Presentations: More than one way to impress an audience Dave Pollard
- All Presenting is Persuasive Guila Muir (see also: Guila’s other training/presenting resources)
- A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods From Visual-Literacy.org. Great ideas for how to use visually represent your ideas.
- BONUS LINK: The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging, Brian Clark.
Ostensibly written for bloggers, I’m finding that the “5 Laws” (provide value, have a hook, etc.) are also helpful in organizing talks and presentations.
I’d love to get feedback on your favorite resources and tips. What’s helped you be a kick ass speaker or presenter?
Can libraries adapt this idea?
Yesterday was my birthday and I was home for the day due to my preschooler having a fever. Had I been at work I may have missed out on this great customer service idea that really brightened what was otherwise a dreary winter day cooped up in the house.
For 5+ years I have been a member of a very large health and wellness center run by a local hospital. It is a beautiful facility and I’ve always been impressed with their exceptional customer service, especially in comparison to other gyms that I have belonged to in years gone by. In prior years I have received a postcard in the mail from them wishing me a happy birthday. It was not personalized in any way and, although a nice gesture, usually just went straight to the recycling bucket.
I did not get a postcard this year, instead I got a phone call wishing me a happy birthday, thanking me for my five years of membership and asking for feedback. I have not been using the facilities as much lately (and they noticed) and they wondered if there was a reason why. I explained that it was mostly a child care issue and a lack of time. We chatted for a few minutes and by the end of the call I felt a new sense of resolve to use my membership more frequently and get back in to my gym routine.
Is there a way that libraries could do something similar? Would library customers appreciate a birthday phone call or would it feel too intrusive? I am honestly not sure. The phone call yesterday from my gym made me feel like they valued my membership and my opinion. Would library patrons welcome the same chance to provide solicited feedback?
At the very least this type of birthday call is a way to systemically ensure that you make annual contact with your members for feedback and input. I would imagine that the gym would have left me a voice mail had I not been home asking me to call back if I wanted to talk.
If a birthday phone call is not appropriate or feasible for libraries, then perhaps an annual campaign where you call a percentage of those in your community with library cards to thank them for using the library and asking them for feedback. It is simple, personal and would likely generate lots of good ideas as well as constructive advice.
At MPOW we have done focus groups and we have done a variety of surveys over the years to get feedback. While very useful, they require the customer to make the effort to either show up for the group or to fill out the form. If it is the library calling them, they can simply talk for a few minutes (or not) and it requires no effort on their part. It makes the conversation easy. I am going to be giving this some thought and trying to devise a plan for how we can implement something similar to get feedback on our public programming. Let me know if you have done this before and have any advice.
Friday Fun: Test Your Technology Type
PEW Internet and American Life Project has a quick 10 question test for people to see what kind of technology user they are.
When looking at the different types of users, I was pretty suprised to see that the American population was well dispersed between the 10 different categories.
My results pegged me as an Omnivore, which comprises 8% of the general population. The provided description was pretty accurate, the only big miss being that I do not own a Blackberry/iphone.
But I will…. oh yes, I will. bwahahahahahaha!
Carnival of the Infosciences #88
The bloggers of Library Garden welcome one and all to the February 4th, 2008 edition of the Carnival of the Infosciences. Only two submissions this week, but not to worry as the LG blog team submitted lots of favorites for inclusion. And now… one with the show!
Iris Jastram, the Pegasus Librarian, points us to her post in which she tackles the question Is “Traditional Reference” Dead? — a question she has been mulling for quite some time. While fully acknowledging that her experience is based upon being a librarian at a residential liberal arts college, she illustrates how reference can be and still is vital. She firmly states:
I think reference is alive and well just like the English language is alive and well. It isn’t bound by the same rules and expectations as it was once, and new rules have emerged over time, but that doesn’t mean that the basics have fundamentally shifted or become irrelevant…… Rather than being gatekeepers of information, we’re now expert in weeding through too much information, but we’re still helping people fill their information needs.
We also heard from Sol Lederman at the Federated Search Blog who submitted his post One-stop access to multiple federated search applications. In this post, Sol is offering up his time and energies to create a comparison site for federated search applications, but to do this he needs input and he asks:
In order to make this a fair comparison tool and one not biased by any particular party, in particular Deep Web Technologies who is sponsoring this blog, I ask for everyone who wants to participate to add a comment to this post listing up to 20 sources they would like to see in everyone’s demo. Remember, anybody can submit source requests, not just vendors.
So please stop by and leave your list of sources for Sol so he can get this project underway.
Next up is the selections by the LG bloggers and we will start with Ty’s selection, which was a post by Carlie Webber over at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy entitled “Unpopular Opinions and the Edwards Award“. Ty, in selecting this post, writes:
Robert Lackie weighed in with his selection by writing:
I spent a lot of time catching up on what’s been going on in the blogosphere this week, and although I found many interesting and intriguing posts, I will have to go with Gary Price’s post about the possible new MicroHoo (also known as YahooSoft ; ) as my top pick.
Although various posts provide interesting statistics or historical perspectives on both Yahoo! and Microsoft and the possibilities and pitfalls of a merger, Price’s post “Acquisition Time: MicroHoo?” early this morning at Resource Shelf provided an outstanding overview of the possible merger, outlining “fast facts” about tech mergers, the real news from each of the search companies for the public and their respective employees, and most importantly to me and many others I am sure, such as the ramifications of mixing of these corporate cultures, the duplication of jobs and projects, and the possible search index and platform(s) to be used, among others. I certainly found Gary’s post to highlight and bring together the most pertinent issues at hand, even mentioning the Facebook/Microsoft investment plan and linking to some of the best posts, letters, and emails to hit the blogosphere on this intriguing proposition. Fantastic post!
Pete nominated Kate Sheehan’s “Sam’s Club” post. In sending me his submission he wrote: In the flurry of recent posts on Library 2.0, Kate does a great job of distilling the value of library 2.0 (personfied as “Sam”). She writes:
Sam loves libraries, Sam is devoted to libraries, Sam wants libraries to thrive. Sam wants librarians to love their jobs and patrons to adore their libraries. Sam hopes that everyone will be filled with so much love for the library, they will all be library evangelists. Sam likes technology and thinks there are some really useful tools out there. More than that, Sam is paying attention to the web-driven shifts in culture. Sam sees that people are coming to expect transparency, engagement, amazing service, responsiveness and efficient, convenient results from the organizations they interact with. Sam is a little worried about libraries. Libraries can be awfully good at getting in their own way and putting up well-intentioned road blocks between potential patrons and the wealth of resources the library has to offer. Additionally, libraries may be missing the boat when it comes to taking advantage of the information and perspectives offered by patrons.
Kate wraps it up by urging librarians to get over the semantics and “assess, meet and grow with the needs of our patrons”. Bravo!
Cynthia, our newest blog team member, makes her first ever pick for the COTI with the following:
My pick is the Annoyed Librarian’s January 30th post: Courses I wish I had in library school.
Why? Because it made me laugh out loud (as the AL often does), but also because this post points out something that library students seem to miss all the time–being a librarian is a job. As such, it means politics, it means jobs you don’t want to do (like fighting my nemesis the copier), it means smelly patrons, it means you have a boss who will be upset when you screw up and let you know, etc. All too often library students think their job is going to be all sunshine and happiness.
While I agree the job rocks and I am happy all the time, because I work in the best damn library on the planet (where all the patrons are above average and the staff is exceptional), on Sunday when someone stole my box of tissues, I was pissed! It’s a job and like all jobs, it has hard, stupid, and dull stuff attached to it and yes, politics! AL does a good job of making this clear without being a “mean” librarian.
Amy’s selection for the carnival were the posts by Rochelle over at Tinfoil+Racoon in which issues with loaning the Kindle were explored. In specific, Loaning Kindle to Patrons a No-No for Libraries and the more recent Never Mind Legal Issues; Kindle not good choice for most libraries. Both posts, and the ensuing discussion on the first, were very illuminating, especially as many libraries are currently trying to decide if/when to buy/circulate Kindles.
My pick? Well, I never managed to come up with one. I was on vacation in Vermont enjoying some time on the slopes at Smugg’s with my family and took a break from the blogosphere. My role was to coordinate the carnival for LG so I am going to take a pass on madly searching for a submission on my first day back in the office after a 12 day vacation (my voice mail and inbox are in serious need of my attention).
Oh, wait… a late breaking submission came in from Pete who sent me an email just now to say:
If it’s not too late, I’d like to nominate Aaron Schmidt’s post “More thoughts on a café branch“. Aaron asks, “Libraries are…putting coffee shops in libraries, why not go all the way and put a library in a coffee shop?” I admire the way Aaron both thinks outta the box, while grounding his ideas in reality, and anticipating and addressing possible objections.
Aaron writes:
Now before anyone gets bent out of shape, let me be clear. I’m not saying that all libraries should be like this, just that this model is an option. Libraries can certainly be much more than what I’m describing here, and they should be. However, libraries don’t always have to strive to be their full incarnation 100% of the time. Just like a small neighborhood branch probably doesn’t have an extensive collection of periodical back issues, so my hypothetical cafe library could shed some library baggage to free it to explore new territory.
And Pete exclaims: Right on dude, right on!
The next stop for the carnival is at A Passsion for ‘Puters on February 18th and they are on top of things and already have a call for submissions posted. Remember, participation is the key to keeping the carnival on the road, so be sure to submit early and submit often!
Carnival of the Infosciences #88: Call for Submissions
COTI is back in the LG!It has been well over a year since we last hosted a carnival and apparently I should have put up this call for submissions last Sunday since the carnival is now bi-weeekly. My apologies for missing that detail — I was actually proud to be up early on a Sunday posting this and it turns out I am still late.
Not to worry though as I have complete faith that the info carnies will be out in full-force with lots of submissions and sending us links to great blog posts from last week as well as this week!
This edition will cover all posts from January 21st to February 3rd and submissions will be accepted until 6 pm on February 3rd. I am up in northern Vermont on a ski trip all week so I am sure I will enjoy reading all the submissions by the fireplace after a day on the slopes.
You can send entries to janieh at gmail dot com or you can use the Carnival Submission Form.
Thanks for participating and keeping the Carnival going!
Five Questions Every New Employee Should Ask….
Pete’s latest post on 10 questions to ask every new employee got me to thinking: Wow, I am really glad that none of my employers has ever asked me what I think is just bat-shit crazy because knowing myself, I would probably answer!
After that, I began to think about the questions I have found helpful as a new library employee. I only have five that I think are critical, but the list could just as easily been 20 questions. The main thing is that when you are a new employee, ask questions.
- How does the phone work? – Don’t laugh! This is often not shown to new employees (after all it’s ‘just’ the phone). The thing is, there are a lot of tiny things to learn: what is the customary greeting–organization name, department name, employee name, other?; how do you transfer calls?; Do you transfer a call you can answer, when it is about a different department?; Does the phone get answered if a patron is standing in front of you?; How do you retrieve messages? There is nothing worse than realizing you don’t know some these basics when you answer the phone and it is the Director looking for your boss.
- If there is an emergency, what do I do? Who do I contact? – Most training is not disaster related. Maybe there is a blurb in manual (which you should read, but I know you might not get to it right away). Find out if you have to dial 9 for an outside line before you dial 911 (see #1, I told you it was more important than it sounds).
You don’t want to realize you have no idea who to call after the pipe breaks in the bathroom…. - When the copier breaks, what do I do? Can I refund the patron’s money? – Look, the copier is going to break. The sooner you learn about taming the beast, the happier your work life will be. Remember, the copier will break—they are evil!
- What is the login information for everything you use? After working several afternoons and nights, my first morning shift made me realize I had no idea how to log-into the computers or what passwords to use. It simply was not needed in my normal work week so it was not reviewed. Learn your passwords—nothing slows you down like having to look them up or ask for them after they are needed…
- I’m sorry, what was your name again? At the beginning, everyone is really nice and very understanding that you don’t know them. Two months down the road, it just looks rude and unprofessional. If you are lucky, the library will have an updated facebook of employees (Princeton Public Library does and it is the single most innovative and useful thing I have encountered at any job). Most of the time, you will need to find a way to remember people you do not work with regularly. Take advantage of your ‘new’ status and ask now….
There are plenty of questions I did not include—things like where to eat, what is the normal attire, how do breaks work, etc. Lots will be covered as you are trained, and some will simply come from talking with co-workers. Again, now is the time that you are expected to ask questions, so take advantage and do it!
One final note: So far in my short library career, I have learned more from one question I ask my co-workers than any other: ‘Can I help you with that?’
Good luck to all new library employees!
I am Napster’s B*tch
I feel like such a chump. I feel like I just went back into an unhealthy relationship and, despite my hopes that things will be better this time around, I know it will all be the same.
I went back to Napster. I’m giving them a second chance…
I know, I know what you are going to say to me. You left Napster eight months ago because of the way it treated you! They’re going to treat me the same as before. Napster is still going to put those programs into my computer and mp3 player. It is still going to pseudo-forbid me from using players b/c it likes to be controlling. It’s still going to make me link to it once a week, because Napster always wants to know what I am doing (it is jealous of me using other programs).
But, can’t you see that Napster was good to me price-wise?!And I’ve tried to break the habit. I’ve used other music programs and, although friendly at first, all they really wanted to do was get deeper into my pockets. I even tried buying individual albums, but that only made me realize how much money I was spending and how much I was still missing out.
I’m sorry, but I had to go back for something that was going to offer me better financial stability. If not for me, for the children… Birthdays are coming up for crying out loud. Do you want me to get them nothing!?
So, okay Napster, you got me back. I hope you are happy. You will see me linking my mp3 player to you and letting watch who I’m listening to, but that doesn’t mean I love you!
Ten Questions to Ask Every New Employee
Kate Sheehan had a wonderful post a week or so ago, Customer Service Mind, Beginner Mind, in which she writes about the value of looking at things with a fresh eye. It reminded me that every time I ever started a new job, I was hyper-aware of all the wacky things about my new organization; the signs that had been taped to the door since 1973: the restrictive (or just plain arbitrary and weird) policies that seemed to have no rhyme nor reason; the lack of basic equipment available for staff (no sliderules or abaci, but close.)
These awarenesses weren’t always negative. Sometimes I was aware of the amazing benefit package that everyone else seemed to take for granted (or even grumble about) ; or an incredibly efficient work flow or communication mechanism — like a wall in the staff room with everyone’s picture (Facebook 1.0), or a Director that was actually available to speak with employees.
NEW EMPLOYEE AWARENESS FADES AWAY
But no matter how strong or strange these awarenesses were, they always faded away within the first few weeks on the job. It didn’t take long before my new environment would simply register as “normal.” Seriously, there could have been a chimpanzee in a tuxedo singing the star-spangled banner in the lobby; but if he was there on day 1 and day 2, by day 3, I’d be nodding and saying, “morning George, you sound good today. Nice job on the bow-tie…” In other words, I can’t underestimate the power of our brains to adapt and reset the benchmark for normal experience.
I always thought that those first few weeks as a new employee, when everyone told me everything and more, but no one asked me for MY thoughts or impressions, were a wasted opportunity. So when I became a department manager I made it part of the orientation process to squeeze these observations out of all new employees. I would literally take new employees to lunch and tell them that for the next few weeks, their perceptions were extremely valuable and encourage them to share with me if there was ANYTHING that we did that seemed odd, inefficient, wasteful, or stupid. Or amazing, creative, and blazingly brilliant.
If you can manage to get this data — heck, even one tiny piece of datum — from your new employees (give them a break now and then from reading the 250 page employee manual), you’ll have gotten some very useful information.
So. Submitted for your approval, here are my [drum-roll please…]
TOP TEN QUESTIONS TO ASK EVERY NEW EMPLOYEE
- What was your first impression when you walked into the library?
- What are your impressions of the aesthetic environment inside the building? What could we do to improve it?
- What are your impressions of the aesthetic environment outside the building? What could we do to improve it?
- What are we doing that strikes you as wasteful — of time or money?
- What services are you surprised to learn that we are offering, for better or worse?
- What services are you surprised to learn that we are NOT offering, for better or worse?
- Are there any policies that you don’t understand the rationale for? Are there any policies that strike you as just plain nuts?
- What are your impressions of our website?
- What was your experience like when you called the library? What are your impressions of our phone system?
- What are your impressions of our customer service orientation? Are we customer-focused? What could we do to be more so?
BONUS QUESTIONS (for the brave ones out there)
- How friendly (or unfriendly) did the staff seem when you first walked in the door?
- What are we doing that strikes you as straight-up bat sh*t crazy?
If you consistently ask these questions of your new employees, you’ll have a wonderful opportunity to recapture the newness of seeing, if only briefly, through borrowed, “beginner mind” eyes.
Advocate in 2008 – Wait, don’t tune me out!
You might think this doesn’t really apply to you, or that it won’t really affect you, or (most likely) that you do care but you don’t have time for it . . . but the truth is, we all must be advocates for libraries all the time, especially here in NJ, and what better time than 2008?
2008 provides us with the easily rhyme-able number 8 and is a “great” year that provides us with many ways to call for action:
Advocate in ’08!
Be Great in ’08!
Communicate in ’08!
Demonstrate in ’08!
Personally, I really love all of these, but we have to do much more than just come up with cute rhyming mottoes.
I know you have been bombarded with information about contacting Governor Corzine’s office to request that the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative (NJKI) be fully funded. As you probably know, NJKI was funded for $3 million dollars. Then, it lost $1 million of it’s funding. If it isn’t fully funded we will lose it on February 29. BUT PLEASE, stick with me here.
By now, you have all seen this:
Special Message from New Jersey Knowledge Initiative staff:
“Access to RefUSA (and other databases) may end on February 29, 2008 due to a cut in state funding for the NJ Knowledge Initiative. To help keep this resource for NJ, please call Governor Corzine’s office at (609) 292-6000 and ask that the Knowledge Initiative be fully funded for 2008.”
You might not think it really matters if you call. You may think this really isn’t your fight – that this is for the State Library and for NJLA and Pat Tumulty and others to do. Well, this IS all of our fight and making a phone call DOES matter and only takes literally about two minutes.
You pick up your phone and dial the number. Someone answers. You literally say, “I am calling to request that the Knowledge Initiative be fully funded.” The person says okay I’ll put down the message. You say thank you and hang up. THAT IS IT. I’m not kidding. I don’t mean to be condescending, but sometimes it is the simplest things that we don’t do.
For those of you who have placed the call, and I know there are many of you, thank you! I also appreciate everyone who has echoed my testimony that this is a very quick and simple thing to do.
Does it matter if you do this or not? Well, yes. They are counting all the calls. I personally have always believed that one person can make a difference. I can’t promise that your call will be the one to put us over the top, or that this phone campaign will definitely work, but I personally would feel terrible if I didn’t call at least once and we lost the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative.
Do you know what NJKI is?
There is information here. There is also an article from the Daily Targum that is very informative here. Also, SJRLC Connections provides a lot of good information. You can find information from NJLA and the New Jersey State Library.
You might think if you don’t work in or use an academic library, a special library, a scientific or business environment or governmental agency that this doesn’t matter. If you work in a public library, you probably use and know the popularity and value of at least ReferenceUSA. If you work in a school library you may not use the resources of the NJKI. Does this mean you don’t need to call? No, saying that this isn’t a resource you use and so you can ignore these pleas is like the old refrain, “First they came for the Communists, but I wasn’t a Communist so I did nothing.” We all know how that ends. (I know, it’s controversial and possibly incorrect, but….you get my meaning here.)
Now, I am not picking on school libraries – many school library staff have called, and this may sound extreme, but if we do not learn how to, and commit to, doing a better job of speaking up about our value, we literally will not be around anymore.
Even after this NJKI challenge passes – whether we win or lose – there will always be other issues to face. Please think about the ways in which you can become a true advocate for libraries in 2008.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to say Celebrate in ’08 and beyond!
Library Garden 