Worth Checking Out & Participating
About Global Pulse 2010
Global Pulse 2010 is a 3-day, online collaboration event that will bring together socially-engaged participants and organizations from around the world. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is sponsoring the event, in partnership with the U.S. Departments of State, Education, Commerce, and Health and Human Services.
As the name implies, Global Pulse 2010 will take the pulse of thousands of participants on key issues facing communities around the world. The goals of the event are to connect and engage participants who are champions for the same challenges to help build new, or strengthen existing relationships, and to inform U.S. foreign assistance and diplomatic strategies on major themes emerge from the course of conversation.
During Global Pulse 2010 participants will choose from a list of challenges facing the global community within the fields of science and technology, economic development, and human development. Each challenge will have a number of recognized thought leaders and subject matter experts who will help to facilitate the discussion.
As a truly unique event Global Pulse 2010 will enable participants to influence a global conversation that helps to build partnerships across borders, strengthen understanding among cultures, and unite the human race in an effort to create innovative solutions to the most pressing social issues of our time.
https://www.collaborationjam.com/minijam3/jam/index.do?jamId=57
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Harvard Business Review - Three Steps to Make Your Next Speech Your Best
Three Steps to Make Your Next Speech Your Best
3:28 PM Friday March 12, 2010
HBR Blog
In my experience of over two decades of coaching executives in their public speaking, I rarely run across one who has both the time and the inclination to do what it takes to deliver a great speech. Most of them are satisfied with average, which is partly why there are so many bad speeches given. The bar is set very low, and most executives are content to clear the bar, just.
What's to be done about this sorry state of rhetorical affairs? Here, I offer three quick steps leaders can take right now to improve their next speech. The steps are conceptually sophisticated but relatively easy to implement, thus fitting the busy executive lifestyle and addressing the natural objections of time and inclination.
First, step out from behind the podium and choreograph your relationship to the audience.
Our unconscious minds constantly monitor four zones of space between us and other people. We've evolved this incredibly sophisticated, unconscious radar to keep us safe, and it has important implications for public speaking. Twelve feet or more is public space, and it is the coolest category. We're not very interested in anyone, in survival terms, who's more than twelve feet away from us. So we don't pay much attention.
Twelve feet to four feet is social space. Here, we're paying about as much attention as you do to someone standing in the next circle at a cocktail party. You note them, but you're OK to keep talking to someone else.
Four feet to a foot and a half is personal space, and now we're paying close attention. In fact, we want to keep our eyes on anyone in that space all the time. Again, it's a safety issue. That person is close enough to us to do us harm, so we're going to stay focused.
Finally, a foot and a half to zero is intimate space, and at this level we only are comfortable letting in people that we trust a good deal. Spouses, family members, close friends, the attractive person you just met at that party after downing seven beers — these are the people we let into intimate space.
What are the implications for public speaking? Standing behind a podium means that you're almost guaranteed to be more than twelve feet from everyone. That means that no one is very interested in you, at the unconscious level. So one of the easiest ways to up the ante on your performance is to warm up the connections between you and your audience by leaving the podium and entering into carefully chosen audience member's personal space.
Thanks to comfort monitors and hanging screens, you don't even have to leave your speech behind, but it does help to know the speech well, so that you don't forget what you're doing when you try to walk and talk at the same time.
Move toward your audience, and particular audience members, when you're making an important point, and away when you want to signal a break or a change of subject. This choreography is a simple, easy way to enormously improve the connection you make with your audience, without even raising your voice.
Second, listen to your audience.
This may sound a bit odd — isn't the audience supposed to listen to you? — but all successful communication is two-way, and listening to your audience is a great way to increase your charisma. It will get the folks in the seats basking in your attention.
So how do you listen to the audience? The best way is to put regular breaks into your speech — at least every twenty minutes, and preferably every ten — where you stop and take the audience's temperature. Ask if it has questions, ask for reactions, ask for it to relate its own experience relative to what you're talking about.
You can save Q and A until the end, but it's less effective. People forget questions they may have had ten minutes ago.
Now, here's the important part. When you ask the audience something, you must wait for a response. If you wait a nanosecond or two, because you're in adrenaline mode, and then decide that no one is going to speak up, and go on with your speech, you will be telling the audience never to respond. The speaker sets the rules.
And here's the other important part. When you do listen, listen with your whole body. That means stopping whatever you're doing physically, and turning your whole body to the questioner and holding still. That's surprisingly hard to do for busy speakers on the go, but it's essential if you're to reap the advantages of listening in charisma. Many speakers get the gist of the question half way through and start to move on before the questioner has finished. That's not charismatic. That's dismissive.
Finally, focus on your emotional intentions for approximately three minutes before important meetings and speeches.
Many executives mistakenly think that leadership means not being emotional. That's a big mistake. Think about successful, charismatic leaders, like Steve Jobs, or your favorite politician. People respond to them because of their passion for their subject, their cause, or their products. Charisma comes from the focus of powerful, contagious emotions — like joy, enthusiasm, anger — so spend a few minutes living that emotion as strongly as you can before you go out to speak or go into a meeting. If you practice this, you will show up with greatly enhanced charisma and energy, and people will be drawn to you.
How do you focus? Identify the emotion first, and then think of a time when you naturally experienced it. Recall that time as powerfully as you can, invoking each of the five senses, for several minutes just before your speech or meeting. What did the experience taste like? Smell like? Sound like? Feel like? Look like? Run through these sensory cues, put yourself back into the moment, and bring the emotion to life. Then go out and knock 'em dead.
Practice these three shortcuts to effective leadership communications and watch the bar go up — way up — on your performances.
Nick Morgan is President of Public Words Inc, a communications consulting firm, and author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/three_steps_to_make_your_next.html
3:28 PM Friday March 12, 2010
HBR Blog
In my experience of over two decades of coaching executives in their public speaking, I rarely run across one who has both the time and the inclination to do what it takes to deliver a great speech. Most of them are satisfied with average, which is partly why there are so many bad speeches given. The bar is set very low, and most executives are content to clear the bar, just.
What's to be done about this sorry state of rhetorical affairs? Here, I offer three quick steps leaders can take right now to improve their next speech. The steps are conceptually sophisticated but relatively easy to implement, thus fitting the busy executive lifestyle and addressing the natural objections of time and inclination.
First, step out from behind the podium and choreograph your relationship to the audience.
Our unconscious minds constantly monitor four zones of space between us and other people. We've evolved this incredibly sophisticated, unconscious radar to keep us safe, and it has important implications for public speaking. Twelve feet or more is public space, and it is the coolest category. We're not very interested in anyone, in survival terms, who's more than twelve feet away from us. So we don't pay much attention.
Twelve feet to four feet is social space. Here, we're paying about as much attention as you do to someone standing in the next circle at a cocktail party. You note them, but you're OK to keep talking to someone else.
Four feet to a foot and a half is personal space, and now we're paying close attention. In fact, we want to keep our eyes on anyone in that space all the time. Again, it's a safety issue. That person is close enough to us to do us harm, so we're going to stay focused.
Finally, a foot and a half to zero is intimate space, and at this level we only are comfortable letting in people that we trust a good deal. Spouses, family members, close friends, the attractive person you just met at that party after downing seven beers — these are the people we let into intimate space.
What are the implications for public speaking? Standing behind a podium means that you're almost guaranteed to be more than twelve feet from everyone. That means that no one is very interested in you, at the unconscious level. So one of the easiest ways to up the ante on your performance is to warm up the connections between you and your audience by leaving the podium and entering into carefully chosen audience member's personal space.
Thanks to comfort monitors and hanging screens, you don't even have to leave your speech behind, but it does help to know the speech well, so that you don't forget what you're doing when you try to walk and talk at the same time.
Move toward your audience, and particular audience members, when you're making an important point, and away when you want to signal a break or a change of subject. This choreography is a simple, easy way to enormously improve the connection you make with your audience, without even raising your voice.
Second, listen to your audience.
This may sound a bit odd — isn't the audience supposed to listen to you? — but all successful communication is two-way, and listening to your audience is a great way to increase your charisma. It will get the folks in the seats basking in your attention.
So how do you listen to the audience? The best way is to put regular breaks into your speech — at least every twenty minutes, and preferably every ten — where you stop and take the audience's temperature. Ask if it has questions, ask for reactions, ask for it to relate its own experience relative to what you're talking about.
You can save Q and A until the end, but it's less effective. People forget questions they may have had ten minutes ago.
Now, here's the important part. When you ask the audience something, you must wait for a response. If you wait a nanosecond or two, because you're in adrenaline mode, and then decide that no one is going to speak up, and go on with your speech, you will be telling the audience never to respond. The speaker sets the rules.
And here's the other important part. When you do listen, listen with your whole body. That means stopping whatever you're doing physically, and turning your whole body to the questioner and holding still. That's surprisingly hard to do for busy speakers on the go, but it's essential if you're to reap the advantages of listening in charisma. Many speakers get the gist of the question half way through and start to move on before the questioner has finished. That's not charismatic. That's dismissive.
Finally, focus on your emotional intentions for approximately three minutes before important meetings and speeches.
Many executives mistakenly think that leadership means not being emotional. That's a big mistake. Think about successful, charismatic leaders, like Steve Jobs, or your favorite politician. People respond to them because of their passion for their subject, their cause, or their products. Charisma comes from the focus of powerful, contagious emotions — like joy, enthusiasm, anger — so spend a few minutes living that emotion as strongly as you can before you go out to speak or go into a meeting. If you practice this, you will show up with greatly enhanced charisma and energy, and people will be drawn to you.
How do you focus? Identify the emotion first, and then think of a time when you naturally experienced it. Recall that time as powerfully as you can, invoking each of the five senses, for several minutes just before your speech or meeting. What did the experience taste like? Smell like? Sound like? Feel like? Look like? Run through these sensory cues, put yourself back into the moment, and bring the emotion to life. Then go out and knock 'em dead.
Practice these three shortcuts to effective leadership communications and watch the bar go up — way up — on your performances.
Nick Morgan is President of Public Words Inc, a communications consulting firm, and author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/three_steps_to_make_your_next.html
Nancy Snow's Recent Blog on Huffington Post
Excellent piece this week by Nancy Snow on the Huffington Post:
A Surfeit of America: Engaging the World in a Time of Excess
Full Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-snow/a-surfeit-of-america-enga_b_498516.html#comments
My Comments:
I am in violent agreement with Nancy's entire post, especially in light of the latest public diplomacy strategy report released last week. Two critical areas that I hope people take note of: 1) the need for further engagement and partnership with the private sector and 2) her call for a Ministry of Culture or some similar equivalent.
The whole of the private sector -- business, NGOs, academic institutions -- should be engaged and leveraged for public diplomacy goals in EVERY region of the world. They should also be brought into public diplomacy planning and strategizing at the outset so that their lessons learned, market research and insight can be part of the process from day one.
The Ministry of Culture concept is one that I also think deserves some deep consideration. Nancy's point about Chinese public diplomacy efforts should not go unnoticed. The Chinese have been investing heavily and strategically in public diplomacy efforts over the past several years and their focus on culture is one that is having resonance as more and more people around the globe are not only learning Mandarin but also the Chinese heritage and mindset. This is critical ground the US should be competing on.
A Surfeit of America: Engaging the World in a Time of Excess
Full Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-snow/a-surfeit-of-america-enga_b_498516.html#comments
My Comments:
I am in violent agreement with Nancy's entire post, especially in light of the latest public diplomacy strategy report released last week. Two critical areas that I hope people take note of: 1) the need for further engagement and partnership with the private sector and 2) her call for a Ministry of Culture or some similar equivalent.
The whole of the private sector -- business, NGOs, academic institutions -- should be engaged and leveraged for public diplomacy goals in EVERY region of the world. They should also be brought into public diplomacy planning and strategizing at the outset so that their lessons learned, market research and insight can be part of the process from day one.
The Ministry of Culture concept is one that I also think deserves some deep consideration. Nancy's point about Chinese public diplomacy efforts should not go unnoticed. The Chinese have been investing heavily and strategically in public diplomacy efforts over the past several years and their focus on culture is one that is having resonance as more and more people around the globe are not only learning Mandarin but also the Chinese heritage and mindset. This is critical ground the US should be competing on.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
USC CPD Blog Post...Simple is Smart
March 2010
Cari E. Guittard
I’m obsessed this month with simplicity.
Maybe it was Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki’s call last week for all of Iran’s Ambassadors to be “innovative and focused on action,” that struck a nerve. Perhaps it was the endless re-hashing of the healthcare debate that I still can’t make any sense of. Perhaps it was the FT reporting recently on the immense loss of confidence publics around the world have in their governments. Or maybe it all began when one of my board members, Alan Siegel (Founder & Chairman of the branding powerhouse Siegel + Gale), shared that he would be delivering a TED talk on the theme of America’s Crisis of Complexity earlier this month. Regardless, I can’t stop wishing, hoping, praying that our political and foreign policy leadership finally get the message (and, ironically, Siegel + Gale’s tagline): Simple is Smart.
Which brings me to this week’s release of Under Secretary Judith McHale’s new Public Diplomacy Strategic Approach for the 21st Century. There have been countless reports, hearings, strategies, and recommendations for public diplomacy efforts since 9/11. I’m afraid to even ask how much all of this introspection has cost the US taxpayer - but I digress. For all of the deep thinking on public diplomacy it is astonishing how, to this day, the goals, priorities and calls to action fail to move beyond sweeping rhetoric and endless org charts. To a certain extent, this is to be expected. After having served in the federal government at the State Department, notably in Diplomatic Security and then in the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy’s Office, I was confounded by the layers of complexity that shroud the halls of Foggy Bottom. While there was no shortage of bright, heavily credentialed foreign policy experts, finding anyone who would be willing, in a simple, clear way to explain what, why and how they engage in diplomatic efforts was next to impossible. And don’t even get me started on public diplomacy. You’d be hard pressed to find two senior officials in the Department who can agree on a clear definition of just what exactly ‘public diplomacy’ is, let alone what it means to the foreign policy making process.
On the surface, the latest strategic review of Public Diplomacy covers the bases. The sweeping rhetoric is all there – engaging, informing and influencing foreign publics while combating extremism, re-shaping the policy-making process, and pressing for new technologies to help our posts better engage and influence narratives in real time. It all seems to make the case for why State’s Public Diplomacy efforts desperately need exponentially expanded resources. The reality, of course, is that with so many priorities and so few current resources, the basic tasks outlined in the report will be next to impossible to deliver on. The strategy, while ambitious, over-reaches - and once again, as with many previous strategies, builds further layers of complexity which only serve to paralyze core public diplomacy efforts.
It is also striking to me that there was no mention of tapping into and leveraging the tremendous diplomatic assets we currently have overseas. We could start, as China does, with our diasporas, by proactively assembling and engaging American ex-pats abroad. Further, we could amass and regularly tap into our global network of Foreign Service Nationals, locals who are employed in our embassies and consulates supporting our diplomats abroad. I would have hoped, amongst all the discussion of people-to-people efforts and emphasis on building trust and support for our foreign policy abroad, there would have been some mention of engaging and informing the American public more deeply on these issues. With the United States engaged in ever more expansive and costly efforts abroad, the American public should have a clear notion of our foreign policy goals and why they matter, as well as a solid understating of what our diplomats are doing about it.
And finally, I agree with Phil Seib’s opinion that State must move beyond a Middle-East and Muslim-Community focused public diplomacy to a more balanced global view. I would only add to this that in order to pursue such a directive, State must also abandon any notion that its public diplomacy efforts should attempt to Combat Violent Extremism. Maybe I am being too naïve and simplistic in my view on the subject, but it would seem to me that undermining violent extremism is a massive effort in and of itself and one best undertaken by experts in our intelligence, security and military apparatus working in concert. Those elements within our federal government are not only trained to understand the extremist mindset but work day to day in some of the most hostile environments and are best equipped and resourced to develop strategies and tactics to respond.
Which brings me back to Alan Siegel’s TED talk. As always, Siegel has a way of brilliantly cutting through all the clutter and chaos, providing a clear directive for our policy makers and political leadership…if they would only listen. The key, of course, to delivering on Siegel’s premise is one of execution and accountability, two words that strike fear into any bureaucracy. Siegel’s call for clarity and simplicity is one that I hope Washington will finally take note of:
Simplicity is not simple-minded or simplistic.
Now is the time to make clarity, transparency, and empathy national priorities. Americans are desperate for communications from government and business that help them make informed decisions. In turn, these will help restore their trust in our public and private institutions. We have only ourselves to blame if we continue tolerating outrageously complex and confusing practices. It’s time to replace this crisis of complexity with a covenant of clarity.
He ended his remarks with a quote from Thomas Jefferson which really says it all: “When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.”
Is Washington listening? Simple really is smart.
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/newswire/cpdblog_detail/simple_is_smart/
Cari E. Guittard
I’m obsessed this month with simplicity.
Maybe it was Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki’s call last week for all of Iran’s Ambassadors to be “innovative and focused on action,” that struck a nerve. Perhaps it was the endless re-hashing of the healthcare debate that I still can’t make any sense of. Perhaps it was the FT reporting recently on the immense loss of confidence publics around the world have in their governments. Or maybe it all began when one of my board members, Alan Siegel (Founder & Chairman of the branding powerhouse Siegel + Gale), shared that he would be delivering a TED talk on the theme of America’s Crisis of Complexity earlier this month. Regardless, I can’t stop wishing, hoping, praying that our political and foreign policy leadership finally get the message (and, ironically, Siegel + Gale’s tagline): Simple is Smart.
Which brings me to this week’s release of Under Secretary Judith McHale’s new Public Diplomacy Strategic Approach for the 21st Century. There have been countless reports, hearings, strategies, and recommendations for public diplomacy efforts since 9/11. I’m afraid to even ask how much all of this introspection has cost the US taxpayer - but I digress. For all of the deep thinking on public diplomacy it is astonishing how, to this day, the goals, priorities and calls to action fail to move beyond sweeping rhetoric and endless org charts. To a certain extent, this is to be expected. After having served in the federal government at the State Department, notably in Diplomatic Security and then in the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy’s Office, I was confounded by the layers of complexity that shroud the halls of Foggy Bottom. While there was no shortage of bright, heavily credentialed foreign policy experts, finding anyone who would be willing, in a simple, clear way to explain what, why and how they engage in diplomatic efforts was next to impossible. And don’t even get me started on public diplomacy. You’d be hard pressed to find two senior officials in the Department who can agree on a clear definition of just what exactly ‘public diplomacy’ is, let alone what it means to the foreign policy making process.
On the surface, the latest strategic review of Public Diplomacy covers the bases. The sweeping rhetoric is all there – engaging, informing and influencing foreign publics while combating extremism, re-shaping the policy-making process, and pressing for new technologies to help our posts better engage and influence narratives in real time. It all seems to make the case for why State’s Public Diplomacy efforts desperately need exponentially expanded resources. The reality, of course, is that with so many priorities and so few current resources, the basic tasks outlined in the report will be next to impossible to deliver on. The strategy, while ambitious, over-reaches - and once again, as with many previous strategies, builds further layers of complexity which only serve to paralyze core public diplomacy efforts.
It is also striking to me that there was no mention of tapping into and leveraging the tremendous diplomatic assets we currently have overseas. We could start, as China does, with our diasporas, by proactively assembling and engaging American ex-pats abroad. Further, we could amass and regularly tap into our global network of Foreign Service Nationals, locals who are employed in our embassies and consulates supporting our diplomats abroad. I would have hoped, amongst all the discussion of people-to-people efforts and emphasis on building trust and support for our foreign policy abroad, there would have been some mention of engaging and informing the American public more deeply on these issues. With the United States engaged in ever more expansive and costly efforts abroad, the American public should have a clear notion of our foreign policy goals and why they matter, as well as a solid understating of what our diplomats are doing about it.
And finally, I agree with Phil Seib’s opinion that State must move beyond a Middle-East and Muslim-Community focused public diplomacy to a more balanced global view. I would only add to this that in order to pursue such a directive, State must also abandon any notion that its public diplomacy efforts should attempt to Combat Violent Extremism. Maybe I am being too naïve and simplistic in my view on the subject, but it would seem to me that undermining violent extremism is a massive effort in and of itself and one best undertaken by experts in our intelligence, security and military apparatus working in concert. Those elements within our federal government are not only trained to understand the extremist mindset but work day to day in some of the most hostile environments and are best equipped and resourced to develop strategies and tactics to respond.
Which brings me back to Alan Siegel’s TED talk. As always, Siegel has a way of brilliantly cutting through all the clutter and chaos, providing a clear directive for our policy makers and political leadership…if they would only listen. The key, of course, to delivering on Siegel’s premise is one of execution and accountability, two words that strike fear into any bureaucracy. Siegel’s call for clarity and simplicity is one that I hope Washington will finally take note of:
Simplicity is not simple-minded or simplistic.
Now is the time to make clarity, transparency, and empathy national priorities. Americans are desperate for communications from government and business that help them make informed decisions. In turn, these will help restore their trust in our public and private institutions. We have only ourselves to blame if we continue tolerating outrageously complex and confusing practices. It’s time to replace this crisis of complexity with a covenant of clarity.
He ended his remarks with a quote from Thomas Jefferson which really says it all: “When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.”
Is Washington listening? Simple really is smart.
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/newswire/cpdblog_detail/simple_is_smart/
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