notes and views on crm, social media, and the human side of information technology

Presentation Zen, not only for making presentations

I am reading devouring Garr Reynolds’s Presentation Zen, in that nostalgic way that comes with having read his blog for a long time and also seeing it having a definite impact on how people present. Yes, it’s that kind of book that is best enjoyed after you’ve joined the author’s camp.

Which is also why I won’t elaborate over the book’s contents. If you are unfamiliar with Garr’s approach, and perhaps keep spend too much time wondering whether six bullets is enough or not, you will be well advised to read Garr’s blog first. It will open your mind.

I believe you can use the book in different ways. Its main use case is, of course, to teach you a thing or two about presenting. The other, implicit use case, is to get you thinking about how you are presenting yourself in general.

That goes for individuals and organizations alike. In the world of Serious Business(TM), only facts are allowed. If the right brain is used at all, it produces clichés and stillborn imagery. Hence why clip art is included in office suites and everybody’s mission statement is full of crap-words like “strategic”, “customer-oriented” and “shareholder value”.

Garr’s approach recognizes that the audience, though a terrified speaker can see it only as a mass, is still composed of individual humans - who need to see, hear, touch and smell to understand. And I am looking forward to the day when organizations people inside organizations get that, too. And employ such communication strategies start talking like they want to get the attention of, well, humans.

March 12, 2008 | Filed Under CRM, Presenting & Public Speaking, Rants 

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