Dahle Communication

What we can learn from the State of the Union

Last week President Obama gave his second State of the Union. Instead of talking about the politics in his speech, I wanted to touch on the idea of expectations.

Expectations can be both a good thing and a bad thing. If people have an expectation that you are a good speaker, they are more likely to listen to what you have to say and will want to see you speak. This usually comes with you being an effective speaker, so that means that you are a good speaker and people want to listen. However, the problem is that if you don't meet those expectations, people are going to walk away feeling disapointed.

This is how I felt during the SOTU. I have high expectations of President Obama's oration ability. He has consistently shown his powerful and engaging speaking style during his 2008 campaign and in his speeches since then. However, he did not come close to that in this speech. 

So what can we learn from this? Make sure that you know what your audiences expectations are of you and work on meeting that expectation. If you don't, be prepared for people to be somewhat disappointed. When that happens, it could decrease the effectiveness of your speech.

There are several lessons we can learn beyond this, which I will be looking at in February's newsletter.

 

My favorite posts from 2010

Two years ago I wanted to have a website up where I could talk about my ideas regarding communication. I've had a lot of ideas over those past two years and it is time for another year in review.

If you want a quick run-down of my thoughts on communication, you can take the abridged version and check out last years top posts list and then check out this years.

There were a lot of issues that I looked at over the past year, but these were my favorite:

Get off line to get some perspective - and work done. - Do we all spend far too much time on-line these days? It seems that sometimes we are so focused on keeping up to date with Twitter and Facebook that it kills some of our focus. I was off-line during the day for several days in a row and I got a lot accomplished in that time.

 

Is President Obama Speaking Too Much? - While I do think President Obama is a great public speaker, he seems to be on TV all of the time. At a certain point, saturation can get overwhelming - causing your effectiveness to decrease. In fact, the Decker blog once again put Obama on the top 10 worst speakers in 2010.

 

100 Posts! What's our focus been? - This was a fun post looking at what I had been talking about with my 100 posts since I had started my blog. Using Wordle to see what I was talking about was a great way to make sure I was focusing on the right things.

 

Are Super Bowl Ads Worth the Cost? Maybe, but what can we learn from them? - Super Bowl ads almost always have some very memorable ads each year. Is it worth the money spent? It depends on how effective it is.

Avoid making the big mistakes - what the Minnesota Vikings can teach us about public speaking - Being from South Dakota, I am surrounded by Vikings fans and saw the devastation of the fans when they lost the NFC championship game to the Saints. However, the mistakes that the Vikings made can also teach us a thing or two about presentations

 

Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr. and Style. - I loved the new Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Guy Ritchie and starting Robert Downey Jr. The style that was used is a great example of how changing up a style is a good way to give some new life to an old presentation.

 

Educators need some new branding. - This one is a bit personal for me since I am in education and my daughter wants to be a teacher. However, I think it brings up some interesting points on what educators need to do if they are going to be respected.

I Hate Public Speaking song. - I found this song and a lot of people really seemed to like it, so I wanted to make sure to include it here as well.

Know who you are following on Twitter - don't just use Keywords. Being on Twitter, I am used to people just following you at random times. However, I got really annoyed one weekend when I was being followed by a lot of wedding people because I had posted a couple of comments about the wedding I was at - the following post was my response to those people.

Native American Day versus Columbus Day. - This is an issue that I feel strongly about. In South Dakota, we celebrate Native American Day - the other 49 states - Columbus Day. Once I learned the entire history of Columbus and his treatment of Native Americans when he reached the new world, my thoughts on this matter got even stronger. What are your thoughts?

Should Obama become the Hulk? - This relates mostly to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and how Obama was responding to it. Our body language and voice inflections tell us a lot about how we are thinking and feeling. A lot of people felt that Obama needed to be a lot angrier at BP and felt that his attitude was far too light.

 

Foursquare Badges Tell Stories - Which One is Another Story. - I use FourSquare and I remember the old foursquare game. The badges can tell some stories that might not be what you want to be told.

 

 

Is President Obama Speaking Too Much?

In 2008, then candidate Barack Obama revolutionized the way campaigns were done. His fundraising on-line, using his organization skills to create OFA (Obama For America - now known as Organizing For America) and his bevy of volunteers helped propel him to the Presidency. However, it was his speech making that defined him. He truly is a gifted speaker who is very comfortable getting in front of an audience and giving an impassioned speech. In 2008, Bert Decker had him as the top communicator in his annual best and worst communicators, Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for President in Denver at a football stadium in front of a massive audience and I was lucky enough to be one of the millions to watch him be sworn into office in January of 2009. 

 However, I think Obama is a little too comfortable speaking in front of an audience. To me, Obama is starting to hit the point of diminishing returns. For those who are not big into economics think of it this way: Let's say you can eat all of the donuts you want. The first one is pretty good - the second one, also good - the third one...well, it was okay - the fourth one you are done, no more please. Diminishing returns mean that after a while, you are no longer getting the same output value from the input. Let me put it this way: Obama's speeches can be very effective, but they are becoming watered down because he is speaking so much.

While I still feel that Obama is an effective speaker, he needs to realize that the power of his speeches are starting to diminish because he is speaking too much. People are starting to not pay attention because they figure they have already heard it and he's just going to repeat himself.

What are your thoughts? Is he speaking too much? Is he doing it out of necessity? Should he decrease his speeches or keep them they same?

A Good Story Helps Propel Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor

There are many people in the communication field that have talked about the importance of telling a compelling story when giving a speech. Duarte Design, Bert Decker, Garr Reynolds, Guy Kawasaki, and Dr. Simon Raybould of Presentation Skills have all talked about the importance of telling a good story when giving a presentation or a speech.

Beyond that, if you had any doubts as to the importance of having a good story, then all of us were given a great example with President Barack Obama's nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Right away there were various newspaper accounts discussing her story and not her judicial record. A New York Times article summed it up well by starting a major article on Sotomayor with the following:

She was “a child with dreams,” as she once said, the little girl who learned at 8 that she had diabetes, who lost her father when she was 9, who devoured Nancy Drew books and spent Saturday nights playing bingo, marking the cards with chickpeas, in the squat red brick housing projects of the East Bronx. She was the history major and Puerto Rican student activist at Princeton who spent her first year at that bastion of the Ivy League “too intimidated to ask questions.” She was the tough-minded New York City prosecutor, and later the corporate lawyer with the dazzling international clients. She was the federal judge who “saved baseball” by siding with the players’ union during a strike. Now Sonia Sotomayor — a self-described “Nuyorican” whose mother, a nurse, and father, a factory worker, left Puerto Rico during World War II — is President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, with a chance to make history as only the third woman and first Hispanic to sit on the highest court in the land. Her up-by-the-bootstraps tale, an only-in-America story that in many ways mirrors Mr. Obama’s own, is one reason for her selection, and it is the animating characteristic of her approach to both life and the law.

Notice how there wasn't anything that dealt with her decisions on certain cases or her stance on certain issues. This was not a coincidence. The Obama administration is using a good story to help them ensure that their candidate gets through the senate confirmation hearings and placed on the Supreme Court.

Don't get me wrong - I am not claiming that Sonia Sotomayor is not qualified for the position or that the Obama administration is trying to fool anyone. I have not researched her qualifications nor have I delved into the debate about if she should be appointed to the Supreme Court or not. My point is simply this: the Obama administration is doing what all great speakers and presenters do. They are using a compelling story to get people on their side. 

In the same way, this can help your speeches and presentations. Knowing how to tell a good story gets people interested in what you have to say. Regardless if you agree with Obama's choice or disagree with it - you should recognize how effective their story is.

Travis

Timothy Geithner Needs a Speech Coach

When I was on the high school debate team, my partner and I were by far the most succesful team from our school during our junior and senior years. We may not have been the smartest people on our team, but we were the best debaters. The reason for this is simple: we could communicate our ideas and arguments more persuasively than our peers on the team. The lesson we learned was a simple one: while you want to be smart and knowledgeable, you also have to be able to communicate those ideas persuasively if you want to be effective. Unfortunately, Timothy Geithner didn't learn that lesson until recently.

The Seattle Times had an interesting piece about President Obama's economic team and how most of his top advisers were selected on their expertise and NOT their abillity to communicate. The first time Geithner stepped in front of a TV audience to explain the generalities of the plan to save the economy, the Dow dropped 382 points. Last week when those generalities were made specific, Geithner didn't go in front of the TV cameras...the Dow went up 500 points. Needless to say, if Geithner needed to defend himself in an Athenian court in front of 500 people, he would have gone the fate of Socrates.

The point is simply this: it doesn't matter how good your idea is if you can't effectively communicate that message to your targeted audience. You could have a plan to save the planet, but unless you present it in a way that is engaging and interesting, the message will be lost. Look at what An Inconvenient Truth did for Al Gore and his message on global warming. No one really listened to Al him except for people who wanted to believe him already or were previously involved in the green movement. However, once the movie came out, because it was done so well, people sat up and listened.

President Obama needs someone who can communicate his economic message to the public. Until he does this, he is going to have to continue to be the person talking about it, which I don't' think he minds, but it would be nice if they could find a spokesman who understood the economic policies that they are implementing and can communicate them effectively.

So ask yourself this question when you are planning on speaking: are people going to understand what you are saying or are they going to walk away more confused then ever. If they are going to walk away more confused, its time to work on your presentation.

Travis

The New York Post - Images gone awry

Using images in your speeches and presentations is an important feature that can help you deliver your message in an effective manner.  As the saying goes 'A picture is worth a thousand words.'  However, you want to make sure that your image portrays the CORRECT image.  As with most things, people can interpret the image or picture that you use in a different manner then you intended.  If you haven't heard, the New York Post is experiencing some negative feedback from a cartoon that has been interpreted a lot differently than the cartoonists intended.

Supposidly, the cartoonist and the paper are saying that the cartoon was an implication that the people running congress and our country are a bunch of chimps.  If you are thinking in these terms, it reminds me of the Career Builder commercials where the monkeys were running everything and the one human kept getting irritated by them.  In this sense, it is a pretty benign cartoon.  However, what most people are interpreting it as saying that the money is President Obama and it is a racist cartoon that should never have been run.  A Huffington Post column talked about the cartoon and at the time of this blog, there were already well over 5,000 comments.

Whether or not you think the image is benign or you think it is a racist cartoon, there is something very important that you can learn from it -- make sure you use an image or picture that is not going to be misinterpreted in a negative way.  While there is no way to ensure that 100% of the time 100% of the people are going to understand why you used a certain image, just being aware of the possibilities is a good thing.  Additionally, have a couple of other people look at it and get their reaction.  If anyone brings up a concern, take that into account.  

Are you going to be using something like the New York Post cartoon?  I doubt it.  However, being congnisent of the possibilities can never hurt and getting some feedback on the images that you use is always a good thing.

Travis

How Communication can solve problems - Iran looks to talks with America

In my post titled "Solving Problems With Communication" I discussed how President Obama's  interview with Al-Arabiya and his overtures to countries like Iran was a great move in regards to communication.  Too many times we let our problems grow bigger and bigger because we just don't communicate with each other: in our personal lives and/or our professional lives.  It now looks like Obama's communication is starting to pay off.  Over the past few years, we have listened to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran call America "the great devil" among other names and watch as their nuclear capabilities have grown and grown and our influence in the middle-east drop and drop.  According to an article from the International Herald Tribune, Ahmadinejad has stated that Iran is open to having some dialog with the United States now, mostly because of the way that President Obama has approached the situation.  

Regardless of your political affiliation, I think this shows how opening up and being willing to put aside your differences can lead to good things.  Will this lead to better relations with Iran?  Who knows, but if you are able to open up your communication with your boss, your colleagues or anyone you are around, at least you will know where you stand.  From there you can figure out if you need to do something else, but at least you will know...and that alone is worth it.

Travis

Pay Attention To Detail

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Elephant in the Room

Daily Show Full Episodes
Funny Political Videos

Important Things With Demetri Martin
More Funny Videos

Being a fan of The Daily Show and have met former Sen. Tom Daschle on several occasions, I had to include this video.  If you haven't heard, Sen. Daschle had to pay well over $100,000 dollars in back taxes when the Obama team was vetting him for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services.  I think Jon Stewart sums it up perfectly when he says "Pay you **** taxes!"  

So I ask this of you in regards to presentations, your business and your brand: Are you paying attention to the details?  Sometimes small things that you don't think are that big of an issue can become a big issue in a hurry.  This can create serious issues for you in a variety of ways.  If you are not paying attention to the details in your presentations, you can make some critical mistakes that might cost you some business.  Also, make sure you are paying attention to details in other aspects of your business...it might be a simple mistake that you had no intention of creating...but it is still a mistake that you will be held accountable for.  I don't think Tom Daschle was trying to avoid paying his taxes and create a problem for the Obama administration...but he did.

Travis

Solving Problems With Communication - President Obama Interviews With Al Arabiya

President Obama's first interview after he was sworn into office was with the Al Arabiya channel with people have been calling "Muslim TV" (which personally I think is in bad taste, we don't call CBS 'Christian TV' or anything like that).  This was a bold move for President Obama.  This is not a political blog and I don't want to get into the politics of should he or shouldn't he and what impact it will have.  From a communication aspect however it was a great move.  Too many times the problems we have in our workplace, our home lives and between nations is that we just don't communicate effectively with each other.  What President Obama did was reach out to the Arab community by granting them the first interview of his presidency.  Doing this is going to give him some good will and will hopefully bring in more dialouge with countries that have not been too keen on listening to us.

Do you do that in your business?  If you have had problems with a worker, a co-worker, a client or anyone else, do you reach out to them to try and solve the problem or do you let it simmer?  This is why effectively communicating with people from the start is so important.  We waste so much of our time trying to fix things that could have been prevented had we communicated our expectations from the beginning.  Take a look in the mirror this week and see if you are communicating effectively in your job.  If you are not, then think about what you need to do to improve it.  Believe me, it can only help you.

Travis

White House Press Briefing -- The Voice of the President

Robert Gibbs has a job that has to be one of the hardest jobs in America: he is addressing a group of around 300 people who are constantly trying to get him to give them something to write about.  The White House Press Core is not out to get him, however, they do want information and know that he does not want to give out all of the information -- so there is a lot of dancing around questions and avoiding the questions.

What skill does this require?  Obviously you have to be able to think on your feet at a moments notice.  You have to know what the audience is trying to get and what you want to give them.  While Gibbs did a fairly good job, he stumbled a lot and you could tell he was surprised by some of the questions and had to manuver around them.  He still has some work to do to become a better speaker, especially since he is the voice of the President.

How about you?  Can you think on your feet?  If you had to answer to a group of people (maybe some board members or investors) that had some tough questions would you be able to answer them in a coherent and intelligent manner?  If you are presenting to a group of people and there is time for questioning afterward (which you should allow) you need to be preparred to answer some tough questions.  In order to do that, make sure you prepare yourself to answer those questions.  There are some easy things you can do to work on this:

1. Prepare a set of questions that you would ask if you were in the audience. 
2. Present in front of someone before your presentation and have them put together some questions that would be asked. 
3. Do a drill where there is no time limit and all they are doing is asking you questions (almost like a cross-examination period in a courtroom).   

Doing those steps can help you when it is time for your presentation.  If you come off as polished during your presentations, but then sound like you don't know what you are talking about when they question you, you will lose that business or possible investor.  Being over-prepared is better than under-prepared.

Travis 

Tell People What They Need To Hear -- Not What They Want To Hear

This is a simple concept -- don't be the nice guy who doesn't want to ruffle some feathers by telling it like it is: sometimes it has to be done.  Take Barack Obama's inaugural address as evidence of this.  For a candidate who campaigned on hope his speech was not filled with a lot of it.  It was a little somber and it had a call to action for all American's to get into the game so we can change America for the better: this is exactly what we needed to hear.  There are times when just telling people what they want to hear is not only bad, it can make the situation worse.

Take this approach when you are presenting: If there is something that your company (or the company you are presenting to or consulting for) needs to work on, don't hide it!  People will respect you if you are honest with them.  Sometimes a company is blinded by their own successes or perceived success (the phrase, too close to the forest to see the trees comes to mind) and they need to hear what you have to say.  

A word of warning: use tact while doing this.  This is a pretty obvious statement, but sometimes we forget it.  While telling people what they need to hear is important, there are also times when you need to state it with caution or at least know when to say it.

When I was listening to President Obama's speech I was a little surprised at his choice of words and how serious of a speech it was.  However, the more it sank in and the more I thought of it I understood why.  Obama knows that this is not the time to say everythings going to be great and we're going to all be fine and dandy.  He knew that we needed to hear his message.  Because of this, I feel that his speech will be remembered for a long time to come because of his call to action.

So don't be shy or back down.  Take charge and tell people what they need to hear.  They may not like you for it at first, but they will appreciate you and respect you for it and your credibility will increase because of it.

Travis

Lesson # 2: Creating a Demand with your Speeches -- Barack Obama Style

The above picture was taken on Monday Jan 19th, 2009 outside of the Senate Hart Building (or Dirksen, I can't quite remember...and besides, they're connected).  The people waiting in line were going to see their senator so they could either pick up their tickets to the inauguration or beg and plead for one.  Luckily, I was in line fairly early and didn't have to wait as long.  In the line we met people that didn't have tickets, but were going to see their senator to see if there were any left that were not picked up.   It has been crazy around the D.C. area over the past couple of days.  If you haven't been here, I am sure you have either seen it on the news, the internet or read about it on-line.  The energy and excitement is like nothing I have ever seen before -- and it is all for one person.

The question now is: how can I create THAT type of excitement for my product or services for a speech that I am giving?  Well, unless you are a historical candidate for the highest office in America, you probably won't get this type of a turnout.  However, your goal should be to engage your audience to the point that they WANT to come and listen to your speech instead of wanting to leave your speech.  So, when you are planning on your speech keep a couple of things in mind:

1)  Is this information adding to my speech or is it just more information -- unfortunately most people add information and add information because they think it is needed -- it usually is not
2)  Are the special features you are adding to your slides really improving it -- or are we going to be seriously annoyed by them?  Too many people get caught up in the cool things that people can do with powerpoint and other programs like keynote -- don't be one of those people.

While these two things are small steps, they can greatly improve your speech.  While you may not be getting acolades like President Obama, you will at least become a better speaker and be more successful.

Travis

Obama Inaugural - The Excitement Builds

I am somewhat of a political junkie; I love following politics, discussing politics and being involved in politics.  I also love to study history and read about history.  The two disciplines do have a lot in common -- a lot of what happens in politics determines what our history is and what happens in history can dictate our politics.

However, on Jan. 20th, 2009 politics and history will merge like never before for President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural address.  I have never seen this much excietment and buildup to a presidential speech in my years of following politics.  The only thing I can remotely equate it to is what I have read about in regards to JFK's inaugural address.  There are a lot of reasons for this: the first african-american President in our nations history, the desire for change after the past 8 years and the speaking ability of Barack Obama.

I have been fortunate enough to get tickets to this momentous event, along with my wife and two daughters (I'm not bragging, I'm just stating).  I plan on taking a lot of pictures (which I will post on my flickr account) and will blog about his speech after I get back to the hotel that night.  I am sure there will be a lot of people out there in the blogging world who will be critiquing his speech -- everything from his content to his style.  I am going to look at it from a speaking point of view (not political) to see how effective he was to the thousands of people who will be watching him in the audience, not those in front of the tv.

I'm excited and can't wait to experience my first live presidential inaugural address!

Travis