4Us of Influencing Presentations

Few weeks ago a senior person in our company approached me to help one of her manager. She and this individual had agreed on a development. One of the aspect in his plan was to develop influencing skills. She gave me some background and asked me if I can help. I immediately said yes.  Few minutes later I started wondering, why did she approach me? I never worked with her or in her business group. We hardly spoke in last several months. Okay, may be couple of times in common meeting but never one on one. So why did she think I can coach someone on influencing skills. My mind immediately went into evaluation mode. Option A: She tried all good known resources and everyone was too busy to take it up. Option B: She thought I’m really good (if not the best) at influencing others. Options C: Her manager specifically asked for me, and she agreed with his view. I had to rule out option A. Obviously; I had to believe in myself. I was perfectly & equally fine with both option B & C :)

 A week later, this gentleman came to meet me. He & I had worked on some metric related project few years ago. He explained how this project never came to closure, how he and few others kept trying but something or other kept delaying its implementation. Conversation soon moved on to his current work and responsibilities. He highlighted how he has been trying to convince few of his business partners on something he strongly thinks is the right thing to do for his client. He explained his suggestion to me, and I saw nothing wrong with it. In fact, I thought his suggestion must be implemented. Question is; why would someone not want to implement something that’s good for their client and their organization? If there is nothing wrong with the idea, then what can this person do differently to ensure people adapt it? Or at least pay serious attention to it.  We spoke at length. We discussed his views and reasons of above idea not been accepted by others. 

This wasn't something that someone asked him to do. He was trying to pro-actively improve the process. As a result of this failure, his motivation to come up with other such ideas or initiatives has come down. I gave him few suggestions on how he can restart this discussion with his business partners, and how should his approach be different this time. We concluded the discussion by agreeing to meet again after a month.

After he left, I started reviewing my notes and scribbles which I made to explain gap in his current approach. I sat & reflected upon them for few minutes. I questioned myself; what if my suggestions aren't correct, what if there is a better solution to it? I thought of validating my views with our company’s internal best practice contents. I searched our internal training content & offerings; nothing explained how one can be a better presenter, especially in our day to day operational environment. I decided to go back home and research further about it, and what better way to start than to Google them. That night at home, few hours and several web pages later, I realized there wasn't any clear source to look for such information. There are HBR articles, several blogs, TED videos and much more but I wasn't able to find what I was looking for. Perfect opportunity for a blogger, isn't it? So here is my suggestion to improve your presenting & influencing skills.

4Us of Influencing Presentations

Understand your Objective – As with anything, you must have a clear aim in mind. Your pitch can be in person or over electronic media; it can be in front of hundreds of people or in a closed room with board of directors, you objective should be clear. It can be about selling your idea, it can be about presenting a progress report; it doesn't matter. You must know what you expect at the end of your presentation. As you can see in the image, everything else revolves around your objective. It is important to note that your objective may or may not be listed on your presentation content. For instance, Steve Jobs never wrote on his slides that he wants people to applaud but his definite objective was to create excitement.

Understand your Audience – Once you have a clear objective, next important thing is to know your audience. In my experience, most people skip this part. Who are you presenting is much important than what & how are you presenting it. Understanding your audience doesn't simply mean listing down the names & roles of people who will attend your presentation. It requires you to understand who can potentially support you or oppose you, who can influence the rest of the group, who can make it easy or difficult for you. People generally address their pitch to the highest authority that may have the decision making authority, which is not wrong. But you cannot be oblivious to the people who may influence this person’s decision.

Other aspect about understanding your audience is to know “how” to present to them. For instance you cannot expect sales guys to appreciate your presentation about emotional intelligence unless you can explain them how emotional intelligence may increase their sales. Ultimately you have to connect to your participants to achieve your objective.

Understand your Content – Let us start with Albert Mehrabian’s research. Dr Mehrabian, author of “Silent Messages”, conducted several studies on nonverbal communication. He found that only 7% of any message is conveyed through words, 38% through certain vocal elements, and 55% through nonverbal elements (facial expressions, gestures, posture, etc). You must design your content knowing the fact that not everything can be communicated through words. Your content, your words and your body language should work in perfect harmony. I have seen people putting up too much data, numbers or graphics on the slides. These things should not overpower your objective. Let me elaborate it with help of an example. Let’s say you have to present yearly business summary to your business leader in 30 minutes. Why would you want to waste 25 minutes of the meeting in going to through tons of data. I would rather focus on the core objective, which is to prove our team & systems competence and ask for help we need it. It can be done by comparing results of key performance indicators and talking about business leader feels about our functioning. You must tie your objective with your audience and then design your content.

Understand your Strengths – Last but not the least, you must understand your core strengths. Remember, the audience will judge you in the first 30 seconds they see you. You may not be a good orator but that doesn't mean you cannot present successfully. There is no denying the fact that good speakers will have higher success rate but I have seen people with relatively poor language skills delivering effective presentations. These people play on their strengths or leverage others in their teams. If you have a great sense of humor, use it. If it doesn't come to you naturally, don’t try it. Instead, focus on what you do best. Do you have a great story to tell? An interesting fact your audience hasn't heard? Frame your speech around your message — and around who you are as a person. Thoughtful and thought-provoking is every bit as powerful as dynamic and entertaining.    

Above all don’t forget to smile. I hope it helps you develop into a better presenter/ speaker/ trainer. Share your experiences if it worked for you. All the best !!

What if LUCK runs out? (Part 2)

Before I dwell deeper in to factors that could determine outcome, I read more about what others say or think about instincts. Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winning psychologist, co-wrote a research paper with Amos Tversky, which Daniel termed as his favourite; “On the Psychology of Prediction”. Contrary to Richard Wiseman’s view of relying on your instincts, Daniel argues that intuitive judgments are often unreliable because people base predictions on how well an action or event fits their story. Paper argues; successful outcome depends on three key factors (a) Prior or background information, (b) specific evidence concerning the individual case, (c) and the expected accuracy of prediction.

Let me elaborate it with an example. Let’s say it’s about my chances of winning a lottery. Statement 1: Only 2% of people, who play lottery, win. This is our background information. Statement 2: Lottery agent claims that last five people, who bought the tickets from him, won the lottery. This is our specific information. Key to accurate prediction is to give correct weightage to each factor. In my case, despite of last three people winning the lottery, my chances of winning will largely be based on prior or background information, i.e. only 2% of people eventually win the lottery. Fact that last three people won the lottery doesn't increases or changes my chance of winning the prize.

Both Richard & Daniel are experts on psychology. Both suggested their own ways to achieve successful outcome. Difference to me lies in the scope. While Daniel’s recommendation focuses on successful predictions, Richard’s research shows how to be successful person. However, their contradictory view on intuition confused me further.

Let me now shift focus on to Luck. What is Luck? According to the classic Noah Webster's dictionary, Luck is "a purposeless, unpredictable and uncontrollable force that shapes events favourably or unfavourably for an individual, group or cause". Author Max Gunther defines it as "events that influence one's life and are seemingly beyond one's control". Alright, so luck is beyond control and luck is unpredictable. So why do they say; Harder you work, Luckier you get? It’s true in the sense that it improves the success rate but working harder doesn’t really change your luck. So what does it really do? It adds to your effort rate, resulting in greater push to reach the finish line.

Without digressing much, let me get to what I summarized as the factors impacting final outcome. I feel any outcome is net total of four factors; Skill, Effort, Environment & Luck. While Skill & Luck have been featured in lot of articles, including Michael’s book on Success Equation, I haven’t seen much about influence of effort & environment on outcome. In a way, these two are my twist to existing tails. I have already explained a lot about luck, let’s look at other factors.

Skill - Skill is the learned ability to carry out a task with pre-determined results often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skill can be acquired & can be enhanced through persistent practice. There may be tasks that don’t need skill, like; predicting outcome of a coin toss. Quick way to identify if an activity relies on skill or not, is to ask yourself; can you loose on purpose? If the answer is yes, outcome doesn't solely depend on luck, because you can only loose on purpose if you control part of outcome through your skill.

Effort – Effort is defined as a vigorous or determined attempt. It is different from skill. To me, it basically includes the passion or desire, creativity to achieve better results. One may have all the skills but without enough motivation or passion degree of success can be lower. Would you agree? For instance, great cricketer like Sachin can also fail if he is not focused. Of course there are other reasons of failure but magnitude of your effort & your motivation definitely plays its part.

Environment – This one is the trickiest. It exists but not always visible, it can be influenced to some degree but can’t be controlled. To me, it’s different from luck. Remember, luck cannot be influenced or controlled at all. Environment is at the realm of your task. Consider it as combination of human & natural circumstances that will impact your outcome. It can best be dealt with better foresight. In business sense, it is the planning part of your activity. Identifying risks, preparation to handle your stakeholders, mode of communication etc. are part of Environment. Remember Environment can be your catalyst or barrier.

Now that I have explained the factors, here is the Equation:

We corporate people (including me) are always in hurry. We don’t have time for theoretical gyan. If we can’t apply it, it’s of no use. So, this is how equation can be leveraged for task specific self-evaluations.

Evaluate first three factors (S, E, & E) for your task. Assign a number from 0 to 3 to each of these factors. Consider Low, Medium, and High for 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Add all numbers. Why did I exclude luck? We cannot predict luck; hence no number can be assigned to it. Luck can be good or bad. It can either increase or decrease your total. This is how you need to interpret the result:

• Assume final Outcome is equal to 12
• Closer your total of S, E, and E is to 9, better is your chance of succeeding in your task and lower is your dependency on luck
• If your total is below 6 or lower, you relying too much on luck. You should stop and try to improve your skill, increase your efforts, and understand your environment better

Let me explain this with an example. Amrita wants to be a successful baker. She wants to run a profitable bakery shop of cakes & deserts. This is her task. I asked her to score on Skill, her answer was 2. On Effort, she gave herself a 3. She thinks Environment is a 1. Environment in this case can be support or challenges she can face from family, friends. It will include the competition she may face from market; after all making good stuff is irrelevant if you cannot sell it. Her total lands at 6. She can start the venture but she is relying too much on luck, unless she improves her skill score or prepares well for the environment. You can apply this equation to any project or task at any point when you wish to ascertain its success.

To conclude, we can’t control luck but we can improve three other factors that influences outcome, after all successful outcome is all we aspire for. Hopefully, luck will never run out. I know it doesn't solve my mystery of car accidents but I learned new stuff in the journey to decode luck, I hope you did too.

I don’t claim to be a research scholar on this subject. This article is merely my interpretation of said topic, which I represented with all my heart. Share it with others if you like it. If you did not, I feel for the time you invested in reading through this blog. Nevertheless, I appreciate your attention to my interpretation of luck & successful outcomes. Cheers !!