This last Saturday, June 21, I finished reading "What is the What" by Dave Eggars. It is billed as a novel but is essentially a biography of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan who fled a civil war in Sudan.

Thousands of boys died during their 1,000- mile walk to Ethiopia, most from starvation and dehydration, some from man-eating lions, and others from attack by the murahaleen; Sudanese government-armed Arab militias. The boys live for a time in relative peace in a refugee camp - Pinyudo.

Then, Valentino and all refugees at Pinyudo are forced to leave Ethiopia when that country's dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, is overthrown. They were run out of the country at gunpoint and forced to swim the Gilo River where two thousand lives were claimed by shooting, drowning or crocodiles.

They ended up in a huge refugee camp - Kakuma in Kenya. Eventually, Valentino made it to the United States where he met Dave Eggars, a Bay Area writer who agreed to write his story. Valentino has created a foundation and uses his web site to tell the story of his efforts to rebuild his village (Marial Bai) in Sudan.

The setting: In the vast camp of Kakuma which houses 72,000 refugees from all over Africa, Valentino has achieved a position of leadership. He's been a model student in the camp's schools gaining an education he never would have had in his village in Sudan. He's participated in the camp's drama program and even performed plays in the other-worldly, bustling metropolis of Nairobi. He's gained the lofty status of coordinator for the Youth and Culture Program, a paying job with an office, unheard of for a Sudanese boy without any family.

More on Public Speaking enhances leadership of famous African refugee, Valentino Achak Deng

“Stump the Chump” refers to an audience member who may be disruptive or hostile; often expressed through repeated questioning meant to challenge a speaker’s authority and possibly steal the spotlight.  Here are some tips on dealing with this demanding dynamic:

1) Keep a very warm, friendly "interface". This allows you to maintain control over your state of being and will keep the rest of the audience on your side.

2) Play the role of "helpful facilitator." 
"I am just trying to be as helpful as I can be."

3) Let the person trying to stump you be "the expert". 
"Wow, you really know a lot about this!"

4) Engage them with humor and have fun with them.  
"Maybe you should be up here delivering this presentation."
"Let's check with Bob.  He IS the expert, after all."

5) When the expert starts to take you down into the weeds, get the group to help you out.
"Gee, I'd love to talk more about this.  At the same time, I want to make sure that others in the group get what they need from our time together.  (To the group)  Do we want to dive deeper into this topic right now?"  Then the group can be the bad guy, saying no, while you remain the "helpful facilitator."
"Bob, I want to make sure that you get what you need.  How about you and I can take this offline?"

6) Operate from the assumption that there is no conflict.  My experience has been that conflict will not survive if not given oxygen.  By assuming there is conflict, we tend to get into a debate-based mode of communication and thought.  That tends to exacerbate the situation. 

7) Seek out areas of agreement.  Work with the group to outline key ways in which you all agree.  “What can we all agree on?”  Write down those areas of agreement.  At minimum, you will gain a clearer understanding of where your perspectives diverge.

8 ) Let go of the need to be right.  After all, do you want to be “right” or do you want to get what you want?

More on How to deal with the "Stump the Chump" dynamic in Public Speaking

Recently, a freelance speechwriter called me about a post I'd made on his blog.  Colin Moorhouse asked if he could publish my comments on his blog and I agreed.  We talked about the various styles of the candidates: Obama, Clinton and McCain.  After reading his latest post  I googled the videos and was struck by the differences in content, delivery style, settings, and TV analysis of the two candidates. 

Here are some thoughts from a presentation perspective:

• McCain lacked energy in his voice.  How to scale up the energy?  Expand your vocal range for greater emphasis.  Not only will it help to hold audience attention, but also you'll telegraph how you feel about what you are saying.  Scaling up the energy will command more attention and project more confidence and charisma.
• McCain displayed an awkward, phony smile.  His coaches are telling him to smile, but he hasn't figured out how to make a smile sincere.  Smiling is a universal expression of warmth and approachability.  Be sure to keep your non-verbal behavior in alignment with your message.  How to smile sincerely.
• McCain is echoing Obama's theme of change, not publishing his own message/theme.  There is a common phrase at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center: “Point of view is worth 80 IQ points.” 
• McCain demonstrated awkward hand gestures.  Broader gestures draw the eye and project dynamism.  Develop a vocabulary of gestures.  They are both an effective and efficient way to communicate.

In contrast, Obama utilized sustained, driving rhythms.  His campaign seemed to take into account the message communicated by setting: a stadium filled with a big, raucous crowd [Obama] vs. a small anemic crowd for McCain.  The background: an ugly green board for McCain vs. banners shaken by an enthusiastic cheering crowd for Obama.  Candidates' pitches lack punch, experts say…

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The psychedelic 60’s phrase coined by Timothy Leary, “Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out” is being replaced with Silicon Valley's new mantra “Turn Off, Tune in and Unplug.” 

The latest meeting model encourages us to leave our laptops at our desks and keep our smart phones out of sight. If you can endure the initial anxiety and craving, this progressive trend in business paths the way to connecting with our coworkers, rather than what has become the ubiquitous distraction of our personal devices.  Meeting productivity, focus and teamwork are the goals of disconnecting from our technology for a short time.

Todd Wilkens, who works at a San Francisco design firm Adaptive Path, waged a "personal war against CrackBerry."  

His colleague, Dan Saffer, coined the term "topless" as in laptop-less. Mobile and smart phones must be stowed on a counter or in a box during meetings. "In this age of wireless Internet and mobile e-mail devices, having an effective meeting or working session is becoming more and more difficult," he wrote on his company blog in November. "Laptops, Blackberries, Sidekicks, iPhones and the like keep people from being fully present. Aside from just being rude, partial attention generally leads to partial results."  LA Times Article

"It's increasingly difficult to get people's undivided attention," said Stanford University Professor Pamela Hinds, who studies the effects of technology on groups. "People would argue they are attending to the most important information without any loss of participation, but in fact they aren't fully there." The culprit: Etiquette has not kept up with technology, said Sue Fox, author of "Business Etiquette for Dummies." 

Below, a pharmaceutical cure for Blackberry addiction (comedy):

More on The Topless Meeting

Some of the seeds we offer will bear fruit immediately, others will germinate for a time and pop up to surprise you in communications to come.

Do not become discouraged if at first your mind is numbed by the number of things we are encouraging you to be aware of and to try.

Little says more about you to those with whom you interact with than how you answer their questions.

Some people show annoyance when a question derails their monologue. Their body language reflects the thought, “why is this person interrupting?”

A question indicates interest in your subject — embrace it.

1. Pause one second before answering.
2. Answer the question simply and directly. Don’t skirt it but also don’t answer more than was asked.
3. Confirm, “Have I answered your question?” Anything but a clear yes means no.

Continued >>

How customers view you or your products is garnered by a framework of assumptions, stories and images in their minds.

If you really want to influence someone, your first task is to understand how they think. An individual’s perspective on the world can be identified and “mapped.”

A model for asking questions:

Step 1. Neutral Prompts

Step 2. Define the Universe with Wide Questions

Step 3. Prioritizing Issues with Priority Questions

Step 4. Pursue Detail with Deep Questions

More About The Discovery Process In Business >>

Below, Toastmaster Trey Gramann gives a thoughtful and humorous speech entitled "A Map for the Soul."

This video was sent to me by my meditation teacher.  It's a talk by neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor.  Having a stroke the thought hits her, "This is so cool." 

As the caption reads on the TED Talks page:

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

From a public speaking / presentation skills standpoint:

• Dr. Taylor uses movement extremely effectively. 
• Her use of a very surprising prop may shock you but will certainly compell you to pay attention.
  
• Her expressive (though thin and reedy) voice expresses her emotional journey very effectively.
• She also demonstrates great humor, vulnerability, and passion.

She also offers her personal and scientific observations about how the two halves of the brain function:

• She uses an ineresting metaphor comparing the Right to a Parallel Processor and the Left to a Serial Processor. 

She says that the Right:

• Is concerned with This Present Moment.
  
• Thinks in pictures.
  
• Learns kinesthetically.
  
• Unites and connects us with others.

Meanwhile, the Left:

• Thinks linearly and methodically.
  
• Is focused on the past and the future.
  
• Picks out details, categorizes and organizes.
  
• Thinks in language. 
• Is the voice that says, "I am" and, hence, separates us from others.

It's a compelling and powerful story - well worth watching. BTW, this is an 18 minute video and it takes awhile to load. Or you can go directly to the TED Talk video here. 

photo credit:

Dialogue has been in the news of late concerning the violent clash between Tibet and China:

The Dalai Lama has recently affirmed, “It is my sincere belief that if the concerned parties were to meet and discuss their future with an open mind and a sincere desire to find a satisfactory and just solution, a breakthrough could be achieved. We must all exert ourselves to be reasonable and wise, and to meet in a spirit of frankness and understanding.”

Britain, along with other Western countries, will use this year’s Beijing Olympics to put measured diplomatic pressure on the Chinese Government. Continued violence in Tibet will add to calls for Western nations to boycott the opening ceremony at the Games, or even the whole event.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told MPs: “I made it absolutely clear that there had to be an end to violence in Tibet. I also called for restraint, and I called for an end to the violence by dialogue between the different parties.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Beijing since a deadly March 14 anti-government riot in the Tibetan capital, said he appealed to Chinese leaders to engage their critics. "I expressed our concerns about the violence and urged a peaceful resolution through dialogue." Paulson said.

With less than five months before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing, China's sharp criticism of the foreign news media comes precisely when China wants to present a welcoming impression to the outside world. Chinese officials have blasted the foreign media as biased against China, castigated the Dalai Lama as a terrorist "jackal" and called for a "People's War" to fight separatism in Tibet.

"The language they are using about everything has been Cultural Revolution hyperbole," said Susan Shirk, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs and author of "China: Fragile Superpower." "This does not look like the reaction of a strong, confident leadership."

What can we recognize about dialogue from these headlines? If your trust diminishes along with your patience and good will, you are likely in discussion. Discussion is about being "right", appearing "strong". Dialogue has the potential to convert detractors into supporters and conflict into consensus.

The profound efficacy of dialogue requires much of us:

• Listening more deeply and for longer periods of time.
• Inquiring of others and paraphrasing their ideas when every cell in your body wants to attack, defend or explain.
• Becoming aware of your mind drifting and repeatedly returning it to the topic at hand.
• Examining our thoughts and separating assumptions from facts.

Whenever your conversation tends toward a discussion, where positions harden and frustration flares, turn the conversation around by asking questions.

Instead of making statements about what we believe, begin asking questions about what others believe. This is in accord with a principle articulated by Saint Francis and popularized by Stephen Covey:

“Seek first to understand; and then to be understood.”

When I attack your position and repeat my own, I strengthen your attachment to your position. When I ask you about your position in a spirit of inquiry, however, and empathically paraphrase what you say, you tend to hold your viewpoint more gently. You are more open to other perspectives, increasing the shared potential for influence and understanding.

Perusing Craig Senior's excellent blog on presentation and public speaking, I found this video.

Often referred to as one of the greatest speeches of all time, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is remarkable in many respects.  King was a master of speech and the classic art of rhetoric.

Here are a few of the speech's many outstanding elements:
A) Research
It was well-researched with references to the Bible, The Gettysburg Address and the US Declaration of Independence.

B) A compelling opening
He opens with, "Five score years ago" - a direct reference to The Gettysburg Address.

B) Repetition of themes
The repetition of a series of themes:
1) "Now is the time"
2) "When will you be satisfied?"
3) Finally, "I have a dream"

C) Powerful use of poetic metaphor
1) "But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice."
2) "we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
3) "The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges."
4) "the red hills of Georgia" hints at blood, pain and sacrifice.
5) "Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression"

D) Use of alliteration
Which is the repetition of consonants.
1) "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.  We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence …"
2) "…they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." (Say it aloud and enjoy the strong percussive sound of the Cs.)
3) "We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating 'for whites only.'"

E) Passionate non-verbal delivery
The energetic, passionate and rhythmic, musical quality of his delivery building to a powerful concluding crescendo.  This provides a moving and satisfying emotional drive to the speech.

F) A powerful conclusion
"When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

There is a terrific analysis of the speech here.

[Rhetoric] is “that art or talent by which discourse is adapted to its end. The four ends of discourse are to enlighten the understanding, please the imagination, move the passion, and influence the will.” — George Campbell