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*Repost with Video* Presentation Content vs. Delivery

One of the more-effective speeches to be delivered in the UK recently – effective in the sense that it inspired protests shutting down central London and sparked a debate over whether to accelerate clean energy targets – was given to Parliament by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish girl. Intrigued? Here it is: My first reaction […]

Your Brain’s “Law of Large Numbers”

Those educated in statistics are familiar with the law of large numbers: the larger the sample size (or the greater the number of trials run), the closer the sample’s mean gets to that of the overall population. In brain science there’s a completely unrelated law of large numbers, and it’s this: the larger the number, […]

A Communications Lesson from the NBA Playoffs

Imagine two people witness the exact same event. They are the same age, same gender and same education. You would expect that when asked, they would give you roughly the same narrative description of the events they witnessed, right? Actually… wrong. That is totally incorrect. Their interpretation of the events will be massively influenced by their personal predispositions A […]

Your Audience is Watching – Will They Know Your Purpose?

As an avid theater-goer, I generally find myself lost in the text of the play, a lyric from a song, or attempting to untangle the crisscrossed plot lines… all in order to make sense of the story and thereby be able to draw a conclusion about what “it” all means. This reflective, almost meditative, state […]

How a Jury Duty Summons Helped Me to Become More Audience-Centric

  Your Audience Has a Problem  Recently I was called to jury duty. We all know how we’re supposed to feel about jury duty: serving our country, playing a vital role, etc. Of such suppositions cognitive dissonance is made. There’s a reason it’s called jury “duty.” In the realm of community service volunteering opportunities, you […]

Making Your Message Stick: Tim Pollard Article on Forbes.com

In addition to our informative (and humorous) blogs, we also want to share with our readers some of Tim Pollard’s other writings.  Tim is a regular contributor to the Forbes Coaches Council, and recently wrote about the power of making messages and conversations “sticky” or memorable through the lens of the O.J. Simpson Trial.  You can read […]

What I Learned Learning to Tie My Shoes at 41

A couple years ago I saw an article about a 3-minute TED talk, “How to tie your shoes.” I was pretty sure I knew how to tie my shoes. Nope. You’ll want to check out the talk to see what we are all doing wrong. Here’s what happened when I did, and I’ll bet you’ll […]

When is Tea like Sex?

OK…if you’re English, as I am, tea is the driving force behind everything – important before and after every major event, which answers the question in the title. But that’s not quite what I’m getting at here. As many of you know, whenever we teach the Oratium class, we stress the importance of engaging the […]

How Bad Presentations are Like Flying East: Finding and Losing a Precious Commodity – Time

Sunsets are usually quick. From the time the bottom of the sun hits the horizon, it is just a couple minutes until it is gone. But for me today, that transition took 45 minutes. I also found 3 extra hours in my day today. They cost a bit, and I’ll have to give them back […]

The Qualities of Great Communications, Both Large and Small

A Delightful Moment A dear friend, Michael, just wrote me. He was covering a few topics, but in his email he also forwarded as an attachment a very touching announcement he had received on the passing of a beloved, elderly family member, Harry. He told me to open it and look at the departed’s final […]

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