The FORUM Effect

Preparing to Present … Be Present

I look forward to guest blogging additional content related to my January/February FORUM article on honing your presentation skills.  I find the best blogs are the ones that have a vibrant dialogue in the comments section, so I promise to respond if you read and write.  You are reading, right?

Let me kick things off with my final point in the article: prepare to be present.  Most presenters do a decent job at tactical preparation, the other points I outline in the article.  Less common is strategic preparation (a term from consultant/facilitator Marybeth Fidler that I recently heard ASSH CEO Mark Anderson use).

Strategic preparation isn't about slides, handouts, or teaching techniques.  It's about advance anticipation and consideration for all the situations you may have to manage during a presentation or workshop.  This advance strategic thinking allows you to be fully present during the actually program, deeply listening to and connected to the participant and their needs and calling audibles in your format and flow based on your read of the group. 

Preparing to be present is perhaps the greatest gift you can give to participants because it allows you to engage with them and to respond to their needs and cues.  Failure to prep at this strategic level means you're tied to (or held hostage by) your outline or slides, neither of which may advance the learning or change you hope your presentation creates.

What questions about preparing to be present (or any of the tactical prep areas) can I respond to?  Let's get the conversation started.

Making Culture Change a Reality

In this month's article we outlined a process that helped the Academy of Dermatology move from organization-wide training on the principles of collaboration to making a culture of collaboration part of our everyday way of working.  But how do you make the right decisions about what kind of culture you want your organization to have?  We used feedback from staff surveys, combined with the desired state as defined by executive staff and senior managers.  How have you successfully defined your desired state?

Does your whistleblower policy have teeth?

Most associations have a whistleblower by now, as they should.  Even the IRS wants to know if non-profits have a policy because it is now a question on the new 990 page 6.  It is an important part of an internal control structure and the idea of having one makes a lot of sense.  It is one thing to have a policy, but is a completely different thing to have an effective policy.  Communication is the most important part of an effective whistleblower policy.  It doesn't do a whole lot of good to have a whistleblower policy that the employees and board members don't know about or understand.  Handing an employee a handbook when they are hired does not communicate the purpose and function of the policy.  Most employees only browse through the handbook and read the sections that interest them.  It should be verbally communicated to employees when they begin their employment and pointed out in the manual or handbook for further reference.  Ideally, it should also be mentioned on a periodic basis during staff meetings, by memo, or by email to remind employees of its existence.  Communicating this to employees also acts as a deterrent to inappropriate behavior because it appears that management is concerned and watching.  The procedures for filing a complaint or making a claim also need to be communicated so that all parties know what to do if a situation presents itself.

Some people have even turned to a fraud hotline.  At a very small yearly cost, an outside company will provide an anonymous voice-mail box for all calls.  The outside company dictates the calls and communicates directly with management or the board.  Then the board can decide how to address the issues.  Having a fraud hotline acts as a deterrent to fraud just by being in existence.  It proves to the staff that your management is taking an active role in preventing fraud.  A hotline can be particularly effective when management personnel frequently travel and are not always around to monitor the work environment.  In addition, a hotline can be effective if their are too few management personnel to monitor all employees.  The same general rule applies here too, the communication of the purpose and procedures is vital to the hotline's success. 

How Relevant Are These Communication Maze Results to My Organization?

One of the benefits of membership in the Association Forum is benchmarking.  The May 2009 article on “Finding Your Way Through the Communication Maze” on pages 32-35 is an example.  The information on the 14 organizations for the article on communication techniques (email, listserv, etc.) used for the different segments (board, committees, etc.) can help you determine the relevance for your specific situation. 

The descriptions are from page 175 of the 2008/09 Forum Directory.  Budget size is the first factor.  A single respondent has a budget under $500,000.  There were 2 organizations surveyed with budgets between $1 - 2.5 million.  Three were budgeted between $2.5 - 5 million.  Five are between $10 and $30 million and one is over $30 million.  Two management companies do not list budgets.   

 

Ten respondents are categorized as Professional/Society/Individual membership types.  There were no trade only associations in this sample, but two represent both Professional/Society/Individual and a trade association.  There are three multiple management companies.  One commented but did not respond to the survey and is not included in the 14 respondents.  The other management company responses referred to single organizations.

 

The final category refers to geographic scope, with all being national and international.  There were no responses from regional, state or local organizations.

 

As you compare your association to the ones here, please comment on how these results reflect the tools used by your organization for the various segments.  Specifics on tools, segments and size and type of membership are very appropriate and desirable, and will increase the value of this information.

 

The Tale of Two Tracks

I recently visited several stores in a local mall. Two stops in particular drew a startling contrast.

 The first represented what many would consider to be a typical retail hobby shop. The store consisted mainly of shelves filled with boxes of model race cars, board games, and the like. The window display, while nice, contained an assorted mish-mash of merchandise with no apparent theme.

 In one corner of this store, a small table held two small cars completing endless laps on a circular snap-together track. There were no controllers to operate the cars - they apparently were set to "demo" mode. Toward the back, an employee manned the register while another roamed the shop floor, occasionally asking that most cringe-inducing line in all of retail: “Can I help you?”. To which, of course, I replied, “No. Just looking.” Needless to say I quickly exited after a few minutes, unimpressed and barely noticed by the staff.

 Later that day, I found myself in front of American Hot Rod Racer where I encountered a completely different kind of toy store.

 My first clue that this was not a typical retail store: the storefront windows clearly were not intended to display merchandise or “stuff”. Rather, the windows were there to provide an unhindered view of the live action inside the store.

 Inside, the focus wasn’t on shelves of pre-packaged toys or models in shrink-wrapped boxes. Center stage was occupied by a real, working racetrack -- easily 50 feet around and three feet wide, with dips and S-curves along the way. Three enthralled boys and one beaming grownup (Dad perhaps?) were racing their newly-built remote control toy cars, swerving and passing each other with great abandon. Several other people looked on,  pulling for the drivers or clutching their own racers.

 Along the sides of the store, well-lit themed displays showed a wide variety of car parts, tools, and accessories to create and build hot rods. Toward the back, several kids proudly assembled the custom-built racers they themselves had designed, occasionally getting advice from employees who collective called themselves the “Pit Crew”.

 For the next hour, I watched races and chatted with racers (they don't call them customers!) and employees. I learned the store hosts frequent for-fee birthday parties -- starting at $250 and going to $600…and up! In addition the store holds regularly scheduled racing events for both adults and kids of all skill levels. Competition at these races is fierce, one member of the Pit Crew told me, and the store sees significant sales from racers upgrading their cars -- or building new ones -– as they pursue the checkered flag for the next race.

American Hot Rod Racer is NOT in the goods or services business. They are in the experience business. The cars are merely props. The races are the real offering, driving demand for the store’s goods – over and over again. One key measurement supporting this observation: the total square footage allocated for building and racing cars far exceeds the space dedicated to the sale of the physical goods!

 For any organization in the business of providing goods or services, American Hot Rod Racer provokes a worthy question: What revenue-generating experience or portfolio of experiences could you stage in order to generate increased demand for your offerings – over and over again? Companies able to successfully answer that question will be well on their way to Victory Lane.

Making Sense of Meetings

Whether you’re putting together a small roundtable discussion for a dozen people, or producing a ballroom gathering for hundreds, the list of activities necessary to host a successful and engaging meeting can pile up quickly. 

Under pressure to meet deadlines, coordinate event logistics, and manage vendors, it’s often easy to forget that when the doors open, your participants’ first impressions will greatly influence their evaluation of the overall experience.

 So the rhetorical question becomes: Do you want to leave those critical first impressions to chance; or do you want to specifically manage impressions to create a positive, comfortable, and engaging experience?

 One powerful way to achieve this is to perform a sensory assessment on your meeting space. It’s an easy but often overlooked exercise that can both reduce negative impressions and lead to creative ideas.

 To conduct a sensory assessment, enter your meeting space as if you were a participant. For a minimum of one minute each, isolate and focus on the impressions you get via each of the five senses - sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste.

 Sight: What do you see? What should you not see? Look for specific details. Is anything out of place, or in need of repair or cleaning. Can you take advantage of visual elements in the room – a great view, artwork, or interesting architectural elements? Consider how to best control the natural and artificial lighting throughout the meeting; including upon entering, exiting, and during breaks.

 Sound: What do you hear? What do you want to hear? Is a rattling air conditioner going to distract your group? What type of music – if any – is appropriate, and when? Is there a tuba convention tuning up on the other side of that airwall?

 Touch: What is inviting to the touch? What is not inviting? Include not only the input from your hands, but also your feet and derrière. Are the sagging cushions on those older conference chairs going to lead to distracting discomfort? Should you cover that newly waxed floor with an area rug so presenters don’t break their legs on the way to the podium? Be sure to include room temperature in this category -- a few degrees either way can make or break a meeting.

Smell: What do you smell? What should you smell – or not? Are those salmon platters in the back of the room going to be an issue after a couple hours? Take a cue from the Venetian in Las Vegas, which employs a light floral scent throughout the casino – an inviting upgrade from the stale cigarette smoke of many casinos. One easy approach: use scented flip chart markers.

 Taste: What sense of taste is evoked? How can it be used effectively? Have a balanced and appropriate menu planned. An inexpensive popcorn popper in the afternoon is often a big hit with groups. Often even some simple mints or hard candy can chase away those distracting mid-morning energy dips. One favorite appeal the sense of taste: candy dishes filled with cinnamon fire balls!

 Observe Behavior: This is an additional element that is not one of the five senses, but crucial nonetheless. Take a moment to observe both worker and participant behavior. Make sure staff are keeping private discussions out of earshot. Watch participants to see if they’re encountering problems. Perhaps they can’t find the restrooms or have lost their pen. By observing behavior, you’ll be able to quickly and effectively keep participants focused on the reason they’re there: the meeting.

 Remember, whether you want them to or not, your meeting-goers will form a first impression. It’s better to actively manage those impressions than to let them form in a haphazard fashion.

 So for your next event, reexamine the impressions you want to convey, then conduct a sensory assessment to help ensure a truly memorable meeting.