‘Business communication’ Archives
How to be late to a meeting.
You're late, you're rushing and it seems that people and things are not cooperating with your schedule. Why won't they get our of your way?! Finally you arrive at the meeting, slightly out of breath. You burst into the room, everyone looks up and you begin a familiar pattern: Apology followed by details about why you were late [...]
You, Social Media and business.
Social media is not social. Social media is all business. This works from the providers’ point of view and your point of view. Their Point of view: Advertising is the financial driver behind all media. Local newspapers have seen their advertisers moving to the web in larger and larger numbers. (This may explain why the newspapers have [...]
Do you know what you’re selling? Do you know what they’re looking for?
You are in business, right? I mean you're offering your services or products in exchange for money. One of the things I offer for sale is The Playbook (Improv Games for Performers). Using a tool from Google, I was able to track the terms people searched for, if they clicked and if they purchased. The statistics surprised me. It [...]
The Four Rules of Engagement: How to Create Trade Show Communication That Works
You’re a company that needs to communicate your messages to an audience. These messages are key to achieving your business goals and increasing profitability. So how do you ensure that your audience listens to your story? Take a lesson from the movies! Theater is about telling stories. If you have doubts, look at the big films of 2010! The [...]
Pleasure or Pain (Me-me-me vs. Not-Them!)
Why is it that political ads are so successful (or obsessed) with pushing you away from the 'other candidate' instead of attracting you to their candidate? Neurology tells us that 'fear' has a more direct path to the brain than pleasure. For example, if we are walking through tall grass and see a stick the signal of danger (snake) will [...]
What to say after the performance?
You're standing in the lobby of the theater...the audience is leaving and a few are staying behind to greet the performers. Finally your friend emerges from the theater face flush from the rush of performance. They look to you...their eyes widen a bit and their eye brows rise up....they're asking for your thoughts...your opinion ...your [...]
What day is that job?
What day is that job? I had traveled across the country to deliver a workshop for a company that was facing a tough challenge: their business focus was shifting and the team was resistant. I had arranged with a colleague in the area to work with me to lead exercises designed to reveal personal stories of the team members’ first encounter [...]
3 warning signs that your meeting is going wrong.
How many times has one of your meetings gone wrong? When a meeting goes wrong, it's as if no one is at the meeting at all. Even worse, a bad meeting can damage the group's effectiveness. When I've seen this happen, I've wanted to rewind the tape and see what happened. One minute we're moving smoothly through the agenda: getting things [...]
How Rebecca Solnit writes – might change the world
“Books are boxes” she said with a light in her eye, “I discovered them when I learned to read. Reading allowed me to open the boxes and unpack all the treasures inside.” Rebecca Solnit was speaking to a group of about 30 people on the Stanford Campus as part of a free program called How I Write . Books, Beautiful Books I [...]
7 Business Fashion Rules: Jeans at an off-site
Somethings about business never change....like the neck tie. Men still wear neck ties as a symbol of seriousness about the business. Heck, some men even fret about their neck tie knot cleavage! (You do know about knot cleavage don't you? The little wrinkle under the knot of the tie.) But blue jeans have definitely come into the [...]
Turn your Doodles into a Career
Can your doodles be a new career? Lynn Carruthers turned her doodling into a career and she can teach you how you can too. Now she attends meetings and conferences and draws images on a big piece of paper. She captures the ideas that are being talked about in words and images. It's called Graphic Recording and it's a powerful tool in [...]
How connected are you and why?
These three men were sitting in the Austin Airport. I looked over at them and was struck by the sight. I imagined that they were all texting to each other. How often do you check your mobile device? And why? There is a battle for our attention...for our focus ...for our personal 'bandwidth'. When do you pull out your mobile [...]
Howling At The Moon
Assignment: NRF speaker support. January 19, 2010 One of my favorite scenes in the movie Moonstruck is when the grandfather played by Feodor Chaliapin Jr. is walking his dogs. When they arrive at the bridge, the full moon shines down on them and the old man asks, “Why do you keep me waiting? Come on, howl! Howl!” The dogs stare at him as [...]
When you present: Who is it about? You or them?
When you make a presentation either live or written who is it about? For a clue, take a look at the first word of the sentences in your outgoing emails. Did you look? What is the word? In most cases it's the word "I". "I am writing this email to let you know that I expect action by..." Most of us make presentations because of an internal [...]
