Garr Reynolds's Blog, page 18

The power of a voice, hope, and second chances

If you have even only peeked at the media over the past two days you have surely stumbled upon the Ted Williams story this week. I first saw the video of Ted Williams via Digg and Reddit before it turned into one best feel-good stories of the year (so far). At first I was going to put the link on my other blog, but this inspiring story actually does relate very well to many aspects of presentation. It first begins with this amateur video shot by a young man in Ohio. Watch it here on YouTube or below.

Like everyone else, I was  blown away by Williams's golden radio voice. That first line out of his mouth was very unexpected and made me laugh with amazement. Wow. His voice is a natural talent, obviously, but he has worked on it as well he says. But what is the most interesting thing to me — and is frankly a large part of the reason the whole nation took to this gentleman and wanted to either hire him or see him do well — was the short interview included in the video that he did right there next to the freeway, where he essentially told his story. In that short clip he told his story with naturalness, honesty, and brevity. "Wait a minute," you say to yourself as you listen to Mr. Williams speak, "this man has an incredible speaking voice and he speaks with great clarity and a humble yet emotional tone that is very down-to-earth and human." You say to yourself, "This is a smart man with a very marketable talent, why is he homeless?" Without going into detail he tells us why in a way that most people can relate to (alcoholism derailed my own father's life and eventually killed him when he was just 48). In that very short interview Ted Williams does something most politicians and media stars rarely do, which is to just tell it like it is with heart, honesty, and clarity. His great talent *plus* his clarity of speaking and general likability which he projects so naturally is a large part why he is getting his huge break.

The video goes viral and the story grows
Williams started receiving many invitations from media outlets like CNN and CBS, etc. Below you can see an emotional Ted Williams being interviewed on the CBS Early Show in New York (he was in Ohio). You can't help feeling good for this guy; when he talks about his mother, well, I almost lost it myself. Watch it on YouTube or below.

Cinderella story
Well, thanks to the power of the speed-of-light media today, in a 24-hour span Ted Williams goes from "homeless man" to a job offer to work full time for the NBA's Cleveland Cavilers organization, and gets a house on top of that. An amazing story! At the 3-minute mark of his radio appearance yesterday you'll get to hear the whole thing unfold. Listen on YouTube or below.

Things are not always as they appear
After college and a stint in Peace Corps, I managed a homeless shelter for men in Oregon. I was about 25 or 26 at the time. It was then that I learned that my preconceived notions of homelessness were far too simplistic. The issue is not black and white. Every man who I interviewed who needed assistance had his own unique story about how he fell on hard times and had no place to go or no one in which to turn. Lots of sad stories. Usually it was a matter of bad choices or bad luck, but the men themselves, with very few exceptions, were not bad by any means. It's easy to forget, as we look away, that the "homeless guy" on the street corner is just a fellow human being. In Japan we have the famous story of Kaneto Kanemoto who spent two years homeless sleeping on park benches and scavenging through bins at convenient stores in Tokyo. While homeless he had the idea of starting a new kind of internet company. Today he is CEO of that company which is worth millions called OKWave, and he is a very successful and respected business leader. Yet how many people looked at him during his homeless days as being pathetic or worthless? Things are not always as they appear. In any event, I hope you will forgive me for this little digression. But I just thought that this is a great story in which to start off the new year. No matter how bad things may be, if you believe in yourself and never give up, great things may be just around the corner. 頑張ってください!

Here's to a happy and naked new year!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2011 brings you much peace and happiness throughout the year. Here's to wishing that 2011 is also the year that more and more of us — researchers, teachers, business people, students — become truly naked communicators and naked presenters. Naked communication is one of the keys to improving our professional and personal relationships, and to gettings things done. Individuals and organizations, and the people they interact with, can benefit greatly by approaches to communication that open up the kimono and let others in. Transparency is paramount. Maybe this is the year, then, in which we'll see a reduction in fear-driven risk aversion, cluttered messages, insincerity, and obfuscation. Maybe this is the year that we'll see an increase in honesty, simplicity, transparency, clarity, and meaning. At least we can do our own small part by removing the barriers to clear communication whenever and wherever we can, and by embracing the tenets of presenting naked. I will continue do whatever small bit I can here to share information and resources and point you to many different kinds of people who present naked regardless of whether they use technology or not.

The Naked Presenter (the book)
A few weeks ago my book called The Naked Presenter was quietly released. "The naked book" as people are calling it, focuses more on the delivery of presentations, regardless of whether you use multimedia and other visuals or not. Presenting naked with technology (or without) is an idea I have shared with people for many years. When I first moved to Japan a long, long time ago, I learned of the great beauty and importance of the Japanese onsen (hot spring). Soaking naked outdoors in the middle of nature, often as snow fell in the winter months, was something I found extraordinary. At this time I learned of a Japanese expression called hadaka no tsukiai (裸の付き合い) which means naked relationship or naked communication, the idea being that naked we are all the same. So in the naked metaphor, then, the idea is to strip away the superfluous and the nonessential and focus on what is important. When you present naked you remove the walls and obstacles to what really matters most, which is to make a connection with the audience, engage them with the content, and create a change. By design, the Naked book is a little bit smaller than the first two books in size so that it would be easier to take with you. The page count is 208 with healthy amounts of white space. Here are the seven chapters below:

Naturalness and the Art of Presenting Naked

Begin With Solid Preparation

Connect with Punch, Presence, and Projection

Engage with Passion, Proximity, and Play

Sustain with Pace and Participation

Finish with a Powerful Ending

Continuous Improvement Through Persistence

The book also features special 2-page callouts by contributors Phil Waknell, Christopher Craft, Les Posen, and Pam Slim.

Connect, engage, sustain
Assuming that we know our material and that we have prepared well and have kept the audience's needs foremost in our mind, the real questions we have to ask ourselves then are (1) How can we connect? (2) How can we engage? (3) How do we sustain that engagement? Logic and structure are necessary, but so too is an emotional connection. In the book I talk about those aspects of delivery and also the idea of closing strong and improving your own skills through in the long-term through persistence.

Debuting The Naked Book in Europe
The first people to actually get their hands on the analog version of the naked book were here in my home of Japan in November and then in Italy, England, and France in snowy December. During my European tour I gave copies away at a special event in Milano, and later at the Apple store in London, and then after my lecture at Oxford University, and then every single participant at the Presentation Zen European Seminar held on the Microsoft campus in Paris got a surprise free copy of the Naked book as well as their own Presentation Zen Bento Box. (Thanks to Ideas on Stage and Pearson Publishing in France for those surprise gifts.)


A great crowd gathered in beautiful Milano. (More pics.)

 
Fantastically lively crowd of faculty and grad students at Oxford University. Right: Freezing with my host Andy Cotgreave. (More Oxford pics.)


During the PZ European Seminar held Dec 7 in Paris at Microsoft France.


Signing the Naked book at Microsoft in Paris. More Paris pics here, and here.

Presentation and the Japanese bath
I do not have a presentation up on the web yet which covers the material in the Naked Presenter, but back in August I gave a presentation and Q&A session on the Japanese bath as it relates to presentation at Duarte Design. Also, to get a better feel for the contents of the book, you may Download chapter 4 from The Naked Presenter on the Peachpit Press website.


Watch video of presentation and discussion held at Duarte Design in August, 2010.

本当にありがとうございます! (Thank you!)
Although the book has been out a just short time, I really appreciate the kind emails I have received from around the world. A million thank yous! If you should find the time to write a review or mention the book on your blog, please let me know and I can point people to your post. No word yet on the translations, but German and Japanese versions of the Naked book will be coming out quite soon for sure; I'll let you know about other languages in future. Once again, I hope you have a fantastic 2011 and thank you so much for your support and encouragement over these many years. 今年もよろしくお願いします.

Upcoming presentations

Last night I presented at Presentation Reloaded, 6:00pm here in Milan. Today I am off to snowy London. Here are a few of the places I'll be making presentations over the next couple of weeks.
• Dec 2, London. Apple Store Regent Street, Dec 2 in London, 7:00pm
Presentation is free and open to the public.
• Dec 3, Oxford. Presentation Zen at Oxford University. 11:45 am
The presentation is booked up but there is a waiting list for students.
• Dec 7, Paris. Presentation Zen European Seminar.
This is a 5-hour seminar hosted by Ideas on Stage and Microsoft.
• Dec 14, Tokyo. Apple Store Ginza. Presentation is free and open to the public.

The need for connection & engagement in education

Anyone who wants to make better presentations should be interested in how people learn. If you are interested in how people learn, you are obviously interested in education. And if you are interested in education, you surely have strong opinions about schools and other institutions of formal instruction and learning. As Sir Ken Robinson said in his first TED talk a few years ago, education is one of those things like religion and money that people have very strong opinions about. Few people think that the formal education systems around the world are perfect. In fact, virtually everyone realizes that changes — even massive paradigm shifts — are needed. As scientists and other specialists learn more about how our brains work, for example, many of the traditional instructional methods used for the past 100 years (or more) seem to be out of kilter with how human beings really pay attention, engage, and actually learn something. From time to time, I will continue to share presentations and talks that deal with education and learning.

"School sucks"
Please set aside 30 minutes sometime to watch this talk by American Physicist Dr. Tae. The professor touches on many things you already know about the short comings of modern formal education, but it is provocative enough that I am sure you will find it worthy of your time. There are many points that Dr. Tae makes that deserve a lot more discussion than a 30-minute presentation allows. I agree with much of what Dr. Tae says here, but what I really am in agreement with is his utter incredulity concerning the continuation of the old one-way large lecture hall. The massive lecture rooms are not designed to produce an ideal learning situation but rather to get a great amount of people through the material on a large scale. In the presentation Dr. Tae touches on the depersonalized nature of the large lecture hall with the "tiny professor somewhere down there" in front going through the material but without engagement or connection with the students. If one of the goals of education is to "have a lively exchange of ideas," the depersonalized one-way lecture seems to be an outdated method for stimulating this exchange. Watch the presentation below or in three parts on YouTube.

Dr. Tae — Building A New Culture Of Teaching And Learning from Dr. Tae on Vimeo.

Do they just sit there?
Dr. Tae tells an amusing story of one of his colleagues who was giving his daughter a tour of the physics department one day. As they stumbled upon a physics class the 8-year old daughter said to her father the physics professor, "Daddy, what are those people doing?" The father replied that they were studying physics. "Do thy just sit there?" she replied. Yep, they just sit there. It seems even an 8-year old girl can see that "just sitting there" seems like an odd way to learn something.

Get them doing something
In the presentation Dr. Tae mentions how he scraps the traditional lecture format and gets students to work together on problems. As much as possible, I try to do they same, however, in large lecture halls this can be challenging. Still, it is possible even given the constraints of the lecture hall to engage the audience and have them engage with each other.


Above: Although I am speaking in front of nearly 300 students in a large hall in Japan, I still have them get up and *do* something relevant from time to time. (This picture is from page 157 of the Naked Presenter book.)



Above: The typical lecture hall like this in Japan with chairs and tables which can not be moved does not lend itself to engagement (I took this photo before the seminar). I set up my computer away from the lectern on the elevated podium and came down closer to the students. While not ideal, it at least removed some of the barriers and we did our best to do some group work as well in spite of the rigid set up. I further attempted to remove barriers by often walking into the audience, especially during the short activities.




Above: In the seminars I hold around the world the set up is usually like something above (in Tokyo) and the participants are often doing and discussing, not just listening and watching.

 
Above: These photos are from yesterday's 4-hour seminar at the Kyoto Institute of Technology.

13 communication and life tips that children teach us

We can learn a lot from a child. Plenty of adults engage in childish behavior, but not enough adults allow themselves to truly become childlike and exhibit an approach and display behaviors that exemplify the very best of what being a child is all about. Obviously, the point is not that we should become literally like children in every way—a group of 4-year olds is not going to build the next space shuttle or find a cure for an infectious disease this year. But as an exercise in personal growth, looking at the innocent nature of a small child offers illuminating and practical suggestions for changing our approach to life and work as "serious adults," including the work of presenting, facilitating, and teaching. You could probably come up with 100 things children do that you'd like to be able to still do today—here are just 13.

(1) Be completely present in the moment. In the words of David M. Bader: "Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?" We adults are often living in the past (or have our heads in the future). Many adults carry around preconceptions, prejudices, and even anger about something that happened years ago—even hundreds of years ago before anyone they even know was born. And yet, very young children do not worry and fret about the past or the future. What matters most is this moment. "The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence," says Thich Nhat Hanh.

(2) Allow for spontaneity. We are often overly rigid and worry too much about what others may think or say, so we edit ourselves before we even try. I am not talking about anarchy, I am talking about bringing back some of that childlike behavior where you acted more on intuition and allowed your whims and momentary impulses to take you on all sorts of accidental discoveries. Our fear and our tendency to keep our minds fixed on the past and the future keeps us from being spontaneous in the moment.

(3) Move your body! To move is to live and to grow. When we were kids, no one had to tell us to get out of the house and exercise. We'd play football in the front yard until it got so dark we couldn't see the ball. Movement and exercise are how kids learn, and physical exercise improves cognition and memory for adults in both the short term and over the long term. Homo sapiens have evolved to move far more than your average person moves today. Moving is the most natural thing of all, certainly more natural than sitting on one's arse all day staring into a box or enduring lecture after lecture while remaining motionless on uncomfortable chairs. Move, and encourage others to do the same. "Our brains were built for walking—12 miles a day!" says Dr. John Medina.

(4) Play and be playful. To play is to explore and discover. Play helps us learn and discover new insights. You can be a "serious person" and play. NASA astronauts are serious, wickedly smart, and physically fit men and women of science. Yet, they're doing jobs they dreamed of as kids, and they are not above playfulness as Apollo 14 Commander Alan Shepard demonstrated by using his makeshift 6-iron to hit golf balls on the moon. Playfulness is a creative attitude that brings out the best in you and in others. Confucius said, "Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life."

(5 ) Make mistakes. Children make lots of "mistakes"—that's how they learn. Even though we are professionals, we can learn from mistakes as well, if we're willing to risk making them. Even experts make mistakes. An old Japanese proverb says "Even monkeys fall from trees." (Saru mo ki kara ochiru — 猿も木から落ちる.) Worry not about mistakes—learn from them. "Failure is the key to success." said The Great Teacher Morihei Ueshiba. "Each mistake teaches us something."

(6) Do not concern yourself with impressing people. Eventually peer pressure will set in, of course, but from what I have seen, very young children are naturally able to be in the moment and unafraid about what others may think of their "silly" behavior. "Do not try to make somebody believe you are smarter than you are," says writer Brenda Ueland. "What's the use? You can never be smarter than you are." In the words of Benjamin Zander, "This is the moment — this is the most important moment right now....It's not about impressing people. It's not about getting the next job. It's about contributing something." When you are in the moment and truly engaged with your work and your ideas, the idea of trying to impress others is an uncomfortable distraction.                                                    

(7) Show your enthusiasm. "Mere enthusiasm is the All in All," says Brenda Ueland. You do not have to tell little children to be enthusiastic about just about anything (save broccoli, perhaps). Many years ago when I used to visit numerous schools in Japan, I noticed the elementary schools were abuzz with activity and filled with totally engaged, enthusiastic students. This would even carry on into the first weeks of Jr. High School, but the level of enthusiasm took a big hit as they progressed through the exam-driven system of secondary education. That energetic elementary student is still inside of you — imagine what could happen if you combined that child you used to be with the skilled, knowledgeable and wise person that you are today.

(8) Remain open to possibilities and "crazy" ideas. This is related to the idea of beginner's mind. Shunryu Suzuki famously said "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." You may be an expert, but in order to learn, your cup must be empty. But for many adults, their cups runneth over with excuses and negative close mindedness disguised as skepticism. Healthy, unbiased skepticism is a good thing, but too many adults can tell you a million reasons why it can't be done or that has never been done. Curmudgeons abound, but life is too short to hang out with chronic sourpusses and others with closed minds.

(9) Be insanely curious, ask loads of questions. We think of formal education only as getting the answers, but questions are often more important. Knowledge is important, obviously, but "what if?" and "I wonder why?" is the stuff of imagination and engagement with the material. First come the questions, then begins the exploration and the discoveries—that is, the learning. Children are kind of like miniature scientists in the sense that they are naturally and unstoppably curious about the world around them. An adult with an insatiable curiosity will never stop learning and growing. It is curiosity that pushes us forward. Yet, as adults, we may have become complacent. The best teachers and the best presenters stimulate our natural curiosity. "You never learn a thing when you get the right answer, but are rewarded for doing so in schools," says TED founder Richard Saul Wurman.

(10) Know that you are a creative being. Ask any first grade class who among them is an artist, and watch every hand go up. By the time they are in college, you can barley get a single hand to go up in a class when you ask "who here considers themselves creative?" Is this because they've been educated out of their creativity as Sir Ken Robinson suggests? Regardless of your profession or education — whether you are an artist, design, teacher, or engineer — you are a supremely creative individual. If you doubt this, you rob the world and yourself of your true potential and a great contribution.

(11) Smile, laugh, enjoy. Take your work, very, very seriously, of course. But there is no reason to take yourself so seriously. The genuine enjoyment you project with your smiles and spontaneous laughter are infectious. Your dispassionate solemness is a mood that is also infectious. Which mood is more engaging? Which mood do you want to see reflected back at you? Laughter and a smile are gifts to yourself and to others.

(12) Slow down. Yes, of course focus is important, but not all distractions are a bad thing. Stop and notice the world around you. This stimulates your imagination. Says Brenda Ueland: "The imagination needs moodling — long inefficient, happy idling, dawdling, and puttering. People who are always briskly doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp, staccato ideas...But they have no slow, big ideas." A small child walking on a path will stop and notice the novelty all around, while we impatient adults just want to get to our destination as soon as possible. Adults feel this way about happiness as well. Happiness is always in the future, over there, if I can just get "over there" to some place or situation in the future. This constant future-orientation causes many of us to step over the remarkable things in life that abound right here and now. Slow down and allow yourself to be distracted from time to time by the wonders of life around you.

(13) Encourage others. It is an amazing thing to see even very small children helping and encouraging others. Good teachers and good leaders inspire and encourage as well. Anatole France said "nine tenths of education is encouragement." But what should you do when you yourself feel discouraged? An old Zen proverb has a simple answer: "Encourage others."

There are many more things we can learn from children, of course. Please feel free to share some of those here for others to see.

What children teach us about freedom and naturalness

Seven months ago, my first child was born here in Japan. A beautiful girl (pictured right). Anyone who has kids knows that they change your life like no other event can, and though you are in the role of parent and teacher, it is your child who actually teaches you far more than you ever expected. Children remind you that genuineness, naturalness, and the immediacy of the moment are what life is suppose to be all about. What is missing for many of us in our professional and personal lives is freedom, naturalness, and spontaneity, the three things that young children have in abundance. Whether we use multimedia or not, what is missing too often from presentations in the modern era is that human-to-human connection that exists where naturalness is allowed to breathe.

Natural like children
In Zen and Japanese Culture, Daisetz Suzuki says that in each of us there is a desire at some level to "return to a simpler form of living which includes simpler ways of expressing feelings and acquiring knowledge." In other words, there lives in each of us a desire to return to our inner nature or a natural way of life. This does not mean that we want to return to a primitive life of a prehistoric people, Suzuki insists. Going back to nature (or Nature) means a return to a life of freedom and emancipation. "When we speak of being natural, we mean first of all being free and spontaneous in the expression of our feelings, being immediate and not premeditating in our response to environment...." If we reflect on our own lives we realize we were the most free and most natural when we were children. Suzuki says in fact that "naturalness means to be like a child" — not in the sense of being "a bundle of egotistic impulses" — but rather like a child in the sense of being free, in the moment, with an open mind, and behaving with a true genuineness of motives.


"When there is no crookedness in one's heart, we say that one is natural and childlike." — Daisetz T. Suzuki

You had it once. You can have it again.
Pablo Picasso once said, "All children are born artists. The problem is to remain artists as we grow up." Here in my home of Japan, we are not known for producing many remarkable orators or engaging presenters in the business world. Audiences endure more than they are engaged and inspired. Yet, when I visited elementary schools here in Japan, I found the young students there were always amazingly engaged, energetic, and happy to participate and share their ideas and stories. I suspect elementary schools in your town are filled with similarly energetic, hopeful students as well, no matter where you are in the world.

As very young children, we were naturally authentic communicators and conversationalists. But then somewhere down the line we began to be guided away from that natural, human talent as a shift occurred in our education that emphasized "the correct answer" and demanded careful, formal speech—speech that did not encourage engagement and dissuaded our true personalities from coming out, lest we run the risk of ridicule. But you are an adult now and you can change your destiny. You can find again that naturalness, creativity, and energy you had as a child and combine it with your knowledge, skills, and passion to make real human-to-human connections that lead to remarkable change. (photo source)

Tomorrow: " Communication and life tips that children teach us"

The art of connection, contribution, & change

Presenting naked is about expressing a naturalness in delivery that brings more of your own unique personality to your presentations in a way that amplifies your message. There are many components to an effective, naked presentation, but one simple way to think about it is in terms of what I call The Three Cs : Connection, Contribution, and Change.

• Connection. To make an impact and to make a difference, we have to make a solid connection with others in the room. Where there is no connection, there can be no contribution. If we can make a solid and lasting connection with others, then we create the space for our contribution to be heard and take root. Connection amplifies the experience for both the audience and the speaker. Instead of 1+1=2 with a one-way didactic approach, it's now 1+1=137 (or a million, etc.).

• Contribution. Some people think that a presentation or an invitation to speak is a burden, or at best and obligation that can't be avoided. This is the wrong attitude. Instead, think of presentation as a welcomed opportunity to make a difference. Every presentation or speech is a chance to make a contribution. We all live for the opportunity to contribute, it's what makes us human. A contribution is never about us—it's always about them. We show respect for them by being well prepared. We show we care by sharing a bit of ourselves and a small part of our own humanity. Do not allow yourself to get bogged down in a haze of self-doubt and worry about whether or not you are good enough. To win or to lose is not the point. Boston Philharmonic Orchestra conductor and presenter extraordinaire Benjamin Zander says something similar while encouraging one of his talented students: "We are about contribution. That's what our job is. It's not about impressing people. It's not about getting the next job. It's about contributing something." We can apply this spirit to the art of presentation as well.

• Change. Through contribution we make a difference—we make a difference because we change things. Sometimes the change is big, and sometimes the change is virtually imperceptible, but it's real. As a result of our contribution the audience may have gained new knowledge or a skill, or a fresh perspective—or they were inspired to learn more. Because of our talk, presentation, or lesson, there was a change. This positive change resulted from an honest, transparent contribution in the moment. These tiny contributions in the aggregate are what keeps humanity moving forward.

Create art and make change
I've always said that presentation is more art than science. So what is art? In a recent interview with David Siteman Garland, Seth Godin said this about art in the context of work. "Art," says Seth Godin, "is a generous action—it's when a human connects to another human and makes a change." The work that we do could be art, but if we are just following the rules, playing it safe, and sort of working-by-the-numbers (as in paint-by-the-numbers) then the work lacks connection and difference, and therefore lacks art. The best presentations are art in a sense because the best presenters necessarily connect in the spirit of contribution and generosity and help people make a change. The worst presentations or speeches are the usual ones, the ones that are perfunctory, routine, safe, and utterly forgettable. No one ever got fired for doing the expected and the safe, at least they did not in the old world. But it's a new world now. And the professionals who are remarkable and who want to make a difference — teachers, doctors, engineers, aid workers, and business people of all types — are the ones who create art. Today, more than ever, there are opportunities to speak in front of others to make a connection and contribute to lasting change—that is, to create art.

Connections make all the difference
Everyone can make a difference and make art, no matter the profession. Teachers obviously, but it applies to the waitress at your favorite local diner as well, the waitress who remembers your name and makes you feel better about your day every time you go there.

   
These slides feature the same Seth Godin quote that I have used in presentations recently. The text stays the same as different professions come in one after another to make the point that it does not matter what job you have, the little human-to-human connections are what can make all the difference in the world. 

Lessons from the world of Aikido

At some point in a future presentation you may encounter tough questions or even a hostile audience member who may be more interested in making you look foolish or derail you during your talk than getting at the truth. It happens. Even if an audience member does choose to assume the role of "opponent," your irritation or any display of anger will surely not do you or the rest of your audience (98% of whom may support your views) any good at all. The modern Japanese martial art of Aikido (合気道) has many lessons for us about dealing effectively with everyday challenging situations, including difficult questions and difficult people. Aikido means "the way of spiritual harmony" and was established in the 1920s by Morihei Ueshiba. Aikido is practiced on the dojo but it also offers us everyday life applications of harmony and peace that extend far beyond the mat. Aikido is an effective response to conflict as well as an approach to living and way of life which seeks to promote harmonious solutions.

Nonresistance, harmony, & assertiveness
Ueshiba-sensei, also called O-sensei (the great teacher), was not a large man but his skills as a martial artists are said to be unparalleled. And as pointed out in John Steven's Budo Secrets, Ueshiba was also a philosopher and a very spiritual man who spent much time talking with his students about the deeper meanings reflected in Aikido. "The universe is always teaching us Aikido, though we fail to perceive it," Ueshiba said. O-sensei thought that the universe is our greatest teacher and our greatest friend. Aikido is non-violent and stresses the concept of blending rather than opposing the force of another person or a situation. "The way of a Warrior is not to kill and destroy but to foster life, to continually create." In Aikido one does not attack. "If you want to strike first to gain advantage over someone, this is proof your training is insufficient," said O-sensei. Yet, one does not run or cower from attack either. Aikido is not passive. Rather, the Aikidoka lets the other attack and uses the attacker's aggression or energy against him. In this way one can defeat an opponent through non-resistance by leveraging the other's force rather than one using his own brute strength to resist.

Here are a seven practical lessons from the spirit of Aikido which we can apply to communication in general and dealing with an aggressive audience member in particular.

(1) Be here now. In Aikido, Harmony, and the Business of Living (Zanshin Press), Richard Moon calls the practice of being fully present and fully aware "Feel Where You Are." If you are to truly listen, engage, and empathize with someone challenging you then you yourself must be completely aware of your situation and aware of their situation and all the subtle signals. One who is fully in the present cannot be caught off guard. "Feeling where you are," says Moon, "refines awareness into attention." Everyone in your audience deserves your full attention. There is energy in your presence, that is, when you are fully present.

(2) Size matters not. Aikido is not about brute strength. A well-trained Aikidoka can neutralize a much larger opponent, not by opposing his force, but by blending with the opponent's energy and guiding it, controlling it. You need not feel intimidated by the fact that others may prejudge you or assume you are in a weaker position. Perhaps you are new or young or an outsider, but these things do not matter. What matters is that you are prepared, ready, and fully listening—with your ears, and also with your eyes, and your heart.

(3) Strive for harmony. Ki (気) can be translated as "life force" or "vital force" or more commonly as "spirit" or "energy." It is the living energy that flows through all things. Aikido teaches the student how to be in harmony with the spirit/energy of the universe and how to use this energy of life rather than resist it. In Aikido, force and energy is not about strength of the body, which is limited, but about the power of ki, which is limitless. "We can't control ki but we can create the ideal situation within ourselves for ki to work," says the late Aikido master Kensho Furuya. Proper mindfulness, stillness, presence, as well as relaxation of movement can help create the ideal situation for which this energy can flow.

(4) Do not become defense. If an audience member is aggressive or even hostile toward you, do not react by being hostile back. This kind of resistance never works. When you allow stress in the form of feelings related to defensiveness such as irritation, fear, impatience, and anger your thinking becomes cloudy and your actions — including speaking — may become impulsive and foolish. Remember that we are not concerned with winning or losing, only with "the true nature of things." During Q&A or discussion we are interested in truth just as our challenging questioner may be. If we are presenting truly naked with honesty, integrity, and good intention, we need not fear exposure since we have nothing to hide. We aim not to dominate people and situations, but are thinking more in terms of collaboration. By remaining calm we can give measured responses instead of emotional reactions. "Impulsiveness and stubbornness give way to patience and understanding," says Richard Moon, when we remain calm, focused, and centered.

(5) Remain balanced. Proper breathing is one crucial way to create the ideal situation for our ki to flow. Practice proper breathing at all times, but especially if your emotions try to kick in once you sense an attack. Become aware of your center. Kikai tanden is your body's center located in your belly about three finger widths below your navel. This center is your inner compass. You must maintain good posture in which you are well balanced physically and mentally. When dealing with a tough question one should not be leaning to the side or have more weight on one foot than another. This imbalance can make you feel (and look) weaker on some level, though you may not be conscious of it. When you breathe, imagine that your breath is centered in the kikai tanden. Breathing from this center is a common technique in many forms of meditation.

(6) Do not regard others as the enemy. Those who may challenge us are not the enemy. The only real enemy is inside us. O-sensei said "I know not how to defeat others. I only know how to win over myself." Obviously O-sensei thwarted all attacks, but this preparedness was made possible through constant training and knowledge that the real enemies are fear, self-doubt, anger, confusion, and jealousy and other emotions inside us that can disturb the flow of ki. The important thing is to remember that they are never the enemy. Think instead in terms of mutual welfare and benefit. A key tenet of the martial arts is mutual respect for an opponent. In Aikido you can neutralize or deflect an attack by blending with the other's energy without causing harm to the opponent. If you think of your exchange as fighting then you are resisting. Fighting is resisting and generating more conflict which wastes energy and is ultimately fruitless. Fighting the other does not change minds or hearts. In business and in life, attempts to make the other look foolish or engaging in ad hominem attacks is ignoble, unwise, and counter productive.

(7) Go with the flow. This may sound to you like some groovy expression from the '60s, but it is actually very practical. "Going with the flow" does not mean to act passively—quite the contrary. Going with the flow comes from a place of total awareness and an understanding of how things actually are in reality. Remember the universe and nature are our greatest teacher. The energy of a stream, for example, flows through the forest smoothly having created its path around rocks and myriad natural obstacles. Or look how the bamboo in the same forest sways and bends in the wind but never breaks. When you remain calm and in harmony with your own personal state and the state of your surroundings your natural energy can flow smoothly, but if you resist and push back from a place of stress and anger your energy creates a discordance leading to bad results for all concerned.

There may be times, particularly during a Q&A session, when the line of questioning may seem especially challenging and even hostile. But there is no reason to feel intimidated. The only person who can get you off balance is yourself.

 
Slides: We can't control how people think or behave. Yet, the only real enemy is inside us; this we can control. How we respond to a tough situation is entirely up to us.

Talking clearly & visually about plastic pollution

Here is another short presentation on an important topic that combines a rational yet emotional narrative with high-impact graphics to get your attention and make a memorable point. This is another good example of using a flat panel display rather than a projector. The advantages of using a display are that you can keep all of the lights on and there is no beam to shine in your face if you move in front of the screen at times. Dianna Cohen does a good job — with no notes at all — of delivering her story in sync with the visuals. She also does a good job of positioning herself right next to the screen so that both the graphics and she are in the viewer's visual frame. Watch it below or here in TED.




























Above: Dianna Cohen uses story, facts, reason, and emotion to make a connection and make her case.

Above: The visuals would have had more impact had they been designed for a 16:9 display instead of in 4:3 (note the large black voids on the sides). Make sure you know the apect ratio of the screen you will be using ahead of time.

 
Above: Examples of high-impact visuals. The albatross photo is especially illuminating and visceral. The rotting corpse reveals intestines filled with plastic that the albatross consumed, mistakenly thinking it was food. The adult birds feed plastic to their chicks as well, which kills them. You can see many more images like the one above here.

Turning plastic into oil
Here is a story about a man in Japan who goes around the world giving presentations on the idea of turning plastic garbage into useful fuel. Crazy idea? Watch below or on YouTube. Video is in 日本語 with English subtitles.



















Related
• Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic

The animated Sir Ken Robinson

This short animation below was adapted from a much longer presentation given by Sir Ken Robinson at the Royal Society of the Arts in London. In some ways I prefer the original one-hour version for the additional information and also for the richness of actually seeing Sir Ken and all his non-verbal signals. Seeing someone speak adds a layer of richness and engagement over just narration. However, I very much liked the animation-enhanced version as well, mainly because the audio was edited, which I think made the message tighter, stronger, and more memorable. The graphics are impressive. Having the entire animation canvas (which you could have on something like Prezi, for example) would be excellent for reviewing parts of the talk and going back and forth for review. I found the animation extremely helpful as I went back to review several parts of the talk.



















The "aesthetic experience"
One of the most relevant things Sir Ken said related to presentation and engagement is when he touched on the issue of students being increasingly distracted and brought up the issue of aesthetic experience:

"The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. An 'aesthetic experience' is one in which your senses are operating at their peak. When you're present in the current moment. When you're resonating with excitement of this thing that you are experiencing. When you're fully alive. An 'anaesthetic' is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what's happening."

"We're getting children through education by anaesthetizing them. And I think we should be doing the exact opposite. We shouldn't be putting them to sleep, we should be waking them up to what they have inside themselves."

Keep them engaged
We don't usually think of "aesthetic experience" as described by Sir Ken above when we think of presentations or lectures or public speaking in general. But why not? We should be so lucky as to have our audience fully alive and in the moment with us as their senses are totally engaged with our message, a message that resonates and encourages participation. Public speaking and teaching is not fine art, but there is very much an art to it. When we are engaged with an audience in a manner that generates connections, participation, and conversations that affect change, we are speaking of an activity that is far more art than science. And while each audience member — or student — has a personal responsibility to make an effort to understand, it is our responsibility to "wake them up to what is inside themselves" by creating content that is relevant, including them through participation and dialog, and delivering material passionately in a way that stimulates their senses and emotions such as curiosity and amusement gained through discovery and learning something new.

Interview with Sir Ken Robinson
Here's a really nice interview with Sir Ken on Studio Q.