PPP2

What are Public Private Partnerships?

Public Private Partnerships are at the heart of the government's attempts to revive Britain's public services.

BBC News Online picks through the jargon to explain the bewildering variety of private sector involvement in the public sector.

What is a Public Private Partnership?

Any collaboration between public bodies, such as local authorities or central government, and private companies tends to be referred to a public-private partnership (PPP).

Tony Blair is keen to expand the range of private public partnerships because he believes it is the best way to secure the improvements in public services that Labour promised at the last election.

He believes private companies are often more efficient and better run than bureaucratic public bodies.

In trying to bring the public and private sector together, the government hopes that the management skills and financial acumen of the business community will create better value for money for taxpayers.

Many public sector unions, however, remain sceptical - and are particularly concerned about the extension of the private sector into new areas like schools and hospitals which have traditionally been publicly run.

What is PFI?

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) was a creation of the Conservative government in the early 1990s - but it has been enthusiastically embraced by Labour.

Governments and local authorities have always paid private contractors to build roads, schools, prisons and hospitals out of tax money.

But in 1992, the Conservatives hit on a way of getting the contractors to foot the bill.

Under PFI, contractors pay for the construction costs and then rent the finished project back to the public sector.

This allows the government to get new hospitals, schools and prisons without raising taxes.

The contractor, for its part, is allowed to keep any cash left over from the design and construction process, in addition to the 'rent' money.

However, critics say that the government is just mortgaging the future - and the long-run cost of paying the private sector to run these schemes is more than it would cost the public sector to build them itself.

What has been done so far?

PFI may still be in its infancy for hospitals and schools, but it is already well-established as a way of paying for new roads and prisons.

For example, there are now eight new private prisons - with more in the pipeline, and major road schemes like the Thames crossing and the Birmingham relief road are being financed through PFI.

The complex nature of PFI contracts and the political obstacles involved in getting big, controversial schemes such as the London Underground PPP off the ground mean that progress in some areas has been slow.

The National Health Service (NHS) has probably seen the most new PFI activity recently.

Six major PFI projects have been completed within the NHS, with a further 17 hospitals and other facilities under construction and a further 45 in the pipeline.

It has been estimated that trade in public services could ultimately net the private sector an extra £30bn a year.

This breaks down roughly into £10bn in central government contracts, £5bn in education and £5bn in local authority contracts.

In January 2002 a Scottish fire service became the first in the country to consider the use of PPP.

The Highlands and Islands Fire Brigade commissioned a £500,000 study into the use of private cash to build 35 new stations at a cost of £26m.

Controversially, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers wants to partially privatise the London Underground and give maintenance of the network to commercial firms.

The Tube's PPP bids received in January will be compared to the £13m bond scheme proposed by the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone.

How far could it go?

Labour has embraced the concept of PFI with enthusiasm at the recent general election, and it has also widened the concept of public-private co-operation.

If privatisation represents a take-over of a publicly-owned commodity, advocates say, then PPP is more like a merger, with both sides sharing the risks and, hopefully, seeing the benefits.

Given that the health and education sectors represent 13% of Britain's GDP the potential rewards for industry of opening up the public sector to private finance are huge.

However, the government is not clear how far it wants to go in these areas in the face of union opposition.

There have been a number of high-level meetings at Number 10 to try and reassure union leaders.

But the government seems determined to involve the private sector in managing failing schools.

What are the drawbacks?

Critics argue that taxpayers will end up footing the bill for PPP.

According to a survey conducted for by Labour Research Department for the GMB union, the 'rent' for PFI projects in the health service alone will top £13bn.

The union says profits for the companies involved will total between £1.5bn and £3.4bn over the next 30 years, about £5 a year for every tax payer in the country.

In some cases, such Fazackerly prison in Liverpool, the initial cost of the project has, it is claimed, been paid back within two years, leaving 23 years of pure profit from the construction.

There is also evidence that some early PFI projects have not been up to standard.

Private companies have been accused of cutting corners in order to maximise profits.

One big criticism of PFI is that the only way companies can turn a profit is by cutting employees' wages and benefits.

Unions talk of jobs being 'privatised'.

Their members are shifted into the private sector, where they have fewer employment rights and benefits such as pensions and childcare.

One of the most famous privatisations under the Conservative government, British Rail, has been widely criticised.

Railtrack - responsible for track, signals and stations - has been taken into administration by Labour amid huge debts, and the rail network may in future be run by a not-for-profit company.

What are the arguments for PPP?

Advocates of PPP say that many hospitals and schools would not be built at all if it was not for private finance - the public money was simply not available.

They claim that PFI will lead to a dramatic increase in the quality of public services.

Performance-related penalties that are now built into most PFI contracts will ensure a continuing improvement in standards, far in advance of anything that could be achieved in the public sector, they argue.

The government has staked its reputation on delivering better public services but it is also aware that there is a limit on how far taxes can be raised.

PFI is a fast, effective - and in the short term at least - cheap way of getting new facilities built.

The biggest hospital-building programme in living memory is currently underway thanks to PFI.

Will direct funding of new schools and hospitals eventually cease?

It is important to keep PPP and PFI in perspective.

The majority of public works are still directly funded by government.

And the government insists it has not written off the public sector altogether.

However, it is gearing up for a massive increase in private involvement in public services in the years ahead.

Local authorities are increasingly being steered towards PPP.

There are some areas where public-private schemes may ultimately prove unsuitable.

Some PFI projects, such as Capita's managing of the housing benefit system in Lambeth and some IT projects, have already proved disastrous.

But the government is hoping that the current hospital and school building programme will demonstrate to sceptics - and the unions - that it is the only way to revamp the country's ailing public services.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1518523.stm

Obstacles to Goal Setting

Take Action to Identify and Eliminate Obstacles to Goal Setting Success

Simply tracking your goals daily is not enough. If you’re unhappy with your progress, you need to assess what is keeping you from accomplishing the goals. Ask yourself questions such as, “Is this goal really important?” (If not, why did you pledge to accomplish it; maybe it’s not important, or less important than other goals.)

”Are there specific obstacles you are experiencing which are interfering with your ability to accomplish the goal?” (In this case, make action plans to remove the obstacles or seek help from a co-worker, friend or family member.)

If you are not making progress on a particular goal, attempt to do a root cause analysis to determine why. Only by honestly analyzing your lack of progress can you determine steps to take to change this picture. In this era of the hand-held computer and PDA cell phones, picture your goals automatically forwarding for 365 days. Talk about a daily reminder about failure!

http://humanresources.about.com/od/performancemanagement/a/goal_setting_3.htm

The Importance of Goal Setting

Goals are notions about future desired conditions and are usually embedded in a set of ideas parties have about their plight and what can be done about it.[1] Factors that influence the formation of goals include the aspirations of leaders, the particular culture and social system, and the specific grievances of group members. What goals adversaries seek from each other profoundly influence the settlements they reach and their subsequent relations. Just as you cannot walk to a destination if you do not know where it is, you cannot achieve your goals if you do not know what they are. For this reason, goal setting is an important part of conflict management and resolution.

Parties in conflict generally have three types of goals.

First, they have a vision of a preferred future in which certain conditions are instituted, relationships established, and needs met.

Second, parties have ideas about what they would like their opponent(s) to do to bring about that future.

Third, they have ideas about what they would like to accomplish themselves to bring about their desired future.

To minimize the costs and harms associated with conflict, parties should carefully sketch out their goals and objectives. This helps to define the nature of the conflict more clearly, so that parties are able to respond more effectively. While goals may change somewhat over the course of conflict, beginning with a reasonably clear image of what they hope to achieve can help parties move toward their preferred future.

Goal clarification is largely a matter of defining one's interests and values and getting clear about the interests and values of one's opponent. It is important for parties to be clear about what it is they want their opponents to do and how best to encourage them to do it. What sort of preferred future do parties want their opponent to help them create?

Goal Setting Obstacles

It is not always easy to set clear and productive goals. One complicating factor is that goals may change significantly as the situation changes. While goals sometimes become clearer and more narrowly defined, at other times they become broader. Parties may discover that their own goals are utterly incompatible with those of their opponent. When conflicts escalate, the parties' goals can change from an initial goal to get one's own way to a later goal of depriving the other or hurting the other. When the goal shifts to damaging the opponent rather than helping oneself, conflicts tend to become protracted and destructive.

In addition, too many conflict interventions involve initiatives that are not clearly connected to parties' goals, often because their goals are formulated too vaguely. Often people who are confused about what the conflict is really about or what is important to them will have ambiguous or unclear goals. The failure to set clear goals may result in ineffective actions that needlessly confuse or even enrage the other side. Goal confusion can therefore lead to escalation of a conflict, which makes resolution more difficult.

Ambiguity about goals is also a problem for third parties who enter a conflict to "help." If they do not understand what their own goals are for involvement, they can easily do more harm than good. Third party intermediaries must clearly understand what the parties want them to do, what they themselves want to do, and how both of these goals relate to what is actually possible. If they see that their initial goal of helping the parties deal with the conflict more effectively cannot be achieved, they should be sure to withdraw from the conflict before they do more harm than good.

Another problem that parties may encounter stems from a failure to set reasonable goals. Success in conflict resolution is often a matter of focusing on a few key goals. All too often, well-meaning efforts fail because of excessive and unrealistic expectations. People must set goals to which they will be committed and devoted. If they begin to pursue goals that they have no chance of achieving, they are likely to become disillusioned and burn out quickly. [2] Also, it is reasonable to suppose that in some cases, the more an adversary seeks, the greater resistance it may face in achieving its goals. [3] Setting reasonable goals makes it more likely that parties will find a way to resolve their conflict or dispute.

Parties should also be aware that while some goals are relatively easy to achieve, others may be beyond reach in the short-term and may require more struggle and patience. Once parties have considered the feasibility of particular objectives and the appropriate time frame for achieving them, they can begin to identify and implement the strategies needed to reach their goals.

Goal Setting, Action Evaluation, and Facilitation

Setting goals is an integral part of conflict intervention and the design of effective conflict resolution initiatives. It plays a central role in Envisioning, Action Evaluation, facilitation, and negotiation.

Envisioning or future imaging is essentially a goal-setting process, where parties try to envision ideal futures. This is often surprisingly difficult to do. People become so used to conflict situations that they lose any notion of what life could be like without conflict.

Action Evaluation incorporates goal setting, monitoring and evaluation into a conflict resolution initiative. It seeks to make explicit the goals and motivations of all stakeholders so that they can define explicit criteria of success for intervention projects and then design those projects to maximize the possibilities of success. [4] Groups meet separately and then together to develop a successive set of goals and eventually collaborative goals. The action evaluator facilitates the continuous monitoring and assessment of these goals throughout the life cycle of the intervention. This process of collaborative goal setting clarifies the purpose of an intervention and allows the shared goals of the stakeholders to evolve over time. By making the participants more aware of their goals, action evaluation seeks to promote a reflection about, and shared commitment to, the intervention itself. [5]

Helping parties to set goals is also an important task for facilitators in mediation, consensus building, and negotiation. Intermediaries help parties to define their own goals and agenda, devise ways of achieving them, and assess whether a particular option or decision meets those goals. In some cases, they may ask the group to brainstorm about goals, needs, problems, alternative solutions, and strategies. [6] As group members begin to think about their goals, they can list and prioritize objectives. The broad consensus that emerges is directed toward specific aims and the design of an action plan to implement these goals. Collaborative goal setting in negotiations can help parties to discover compatible interests, learn each other's priorities, and discover mutual goals. Clearly defining one or more shared goals can also encourage parties to take a more cooperative approach to conflict. Getting clear about goals is also helpful in reconstruction efforts and peacebuilding initiatives. In cases where civil society has broken down, international NGOs may play an important role in training local organizations in advocacy skills, goal setting, and option analysis.

Goal setting is also an important part of the work done by action coalitions. A variety of stakeholders join forces in these coalitions in order to achieve specific aims or objectives. Collective goal setting is a crucial first step in public policy advocacy, government lobbying, legislative initiatives and media campaigns. [7]

Note the goal setting is an incremental process. Participants' concerns, understandings are constantly changing, and the contexts in which conflicts are situated are continuously shifting. As the intervention proceeds, various obstacles to implementation will force parties to reconsider their goals. In addition, project participants may discover that there is a gap between their espoused goals and the goals implicit in what they are actually doing. Therefore, it is not wise for initiatives to fully articulate project goals at the outset and to refuse to modify them over time. Instead, there should be room to incorporate incremental changes in goals into project designs. The task of setting goals should continue throughout the life of a project.

References:

---

[1] Louis Kriesberg, Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution, 2^nd edition, (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2002), 78.

[2] Norm Riggs, Facilitating For Results: A Task-Oriented Approach To Reaching Consensus And Taking Action. Iowa State University Extension. Available at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/communities/tools/facilitate/homepage.html

[3] Kriesberg, p. 304.

[4] Marc Howard Ross "Action Evaluation in the Theory and Practice of Conflict Resolution," Available at: http://www.gmu.edu/academic/pcs/Ross81PCS.htm

[5] ibid.

[6] Norm Riggs, Facilitating For Results: A Task-Oriented Approach To Reaching Consensus And Taking Action. Iowa State University Extension. Available at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/communities/tools/facilitate/homepage.html

[7] Janice Forsythe, "A Guide to Coalition Building," Cypress Consulting. Available at: http://www.cypresscon.com/coalition.html

Resources:

http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/setting_goals/

Essential Presentation Skills

Essential Presentation Skills - the three things YOU MUST KNOW.

Here we expose the three essential pieces of information that can make your presentation fly. Most of these are common sense, but you'd be surprised how often they are missed out.

The Three Presentation Essentials

- Use visual aids where you can

- Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

- The audience will only remember
three messages

OK? Want to know more? We have built a number of lessons that will take you through the whole process.

Click on this link to take you to the first of the essentials.

Use visual aids in your next presentation.

Why should you use visual aids?

1. How we take in information during a presentation

Professor Albert Mehrabian did a lot of research into how we take in information during a presentation. He concluded that 55% of the information we take in is visual and only 7% is text.

There are some important conclusions that we can take in from this information

1. Use visuals (pictures, graphs, tables, props) whenever you can

2. In a speech you are only using 38% of the communication medium

3. Ditch the bullet points

2. Making the presentation memorable

In a Study at the Wharton Research Centre they showed that using visual slides had a dramatic effect on message retention. The effect of using visuals is truly staggering!

The old adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words" is as true today as it has always been.

3. Achieving your objectives

If I said that I could double your chances of achieving your objectives in a presentation with just one piece of advice you would probably be very skeptical. And yet if you use visual images that is just what happens.

This study by Decker Communications showed that by using visuals in your presentation you could expect roughly to double the chance of achieving your objectives. And if you are trying to make a sales presentation or a job interview presentation, this piece of advice could have a major impact on your bank balance.

The conclusion: Use visual aids

So hopefully by now you have got the message loud and clear. Use visual aids in your next presentation.

Click on this link below to take you to the second of the essentials.

Rehearse your presentation and it will get better.

Sorry to sound like a bit of an old nag. It's obvious - rehearsing - isn't it? But it's also a bit of a drag and one that is easy to forget. It is probably the most common mistake of all presentations that I have seen.

You wouldn't dream of going to see a Shakespeare play at the RSC only to find that they hadn't properly learnt the script. You wouldn't dream of going to the opera to hear the band play out of time because they hadn't got round to rehearsing properly. Yet in presentations and in speeches we see this happening all the time.

The impact of inadequate rehearsal on the audience

Rehearsing could make the difference between a good and an average presentation.

1. Plan to rehearse your presentation out loud at least 4 times.

We suggest that you should rehearse at least four times, and if you can get word perfect so much the better. I know that you haven't got the time, but we have seen so many presentations that have been let down due to a lack of rehearsal.

Make sure that one of your rehearsals is in front of a really scary audience - family, friends, partners, colleagues; children. They will tell you quite plainly where you are going wrong - as well as providing you with the support that you need.

2. Rehearse against the clock

If you have to give a presentation in a short period of time then try to practice your presentation against the clock. This is particularly true with something like the five minute job presentation. You can add in parts from the script or take them out to fit the time. Allow extra time in your presentation for questions and watch out for nerves - this could mean that you talk faster on the day.

In the actual presentation you could take in a clock or take off your wrist watch and put it on the podium. This way you can see how the timings can develop.

3. Take a leaf out of Winston Churchill's book - memorize your script.

He is widely attributed as being one of the great speakers. It took him six weeks to prepare his Maiden Speech in the House of Commons and he learnt it word perfect.

4. Video or tape record yourself

A very simple trick that could help you with your performance is to video or tape record yourself. This will give you some immediate feedback and will enable you to fine tune your performance.

Videoing a rehearsal is the staple of many presentation training companies - so why not save time and money and do it yourself?

Does it work? - Just read this bit of feedback from someone who got a new job using these techniques

"Then I practised, I think this is the key.
I practised in front of my husband, my brother in law, my 12 year old daughter.
Then my 4 year old son on the day, he wasn't impressed, he just wanted me to put the telly on.

I blew their socks off!! he he

Definitely could not have done it without your help"

Rehearse and you will get better.

The Rule of Three - We remember three things.

The rule of three is one of the oldest in the book - Aristotle wrote about it in his book Rhetoric. Put simply it is that people tend to easily remember three things.

Remember as a kid when your mum sent you down to the shop to buy a number of things. But when you got to the shop all you could remember were three things. This is the rule of three

Odds are that people will only remember three things from your presentation

What will they be?

1. The audience are likely to remember only three things from your presentation - plan in advance what these will be.

Believe it or not, the chances are, people will only remember three things from your presentation. So before you start writing your presentation, plan what your three key messages will be. Once you have these messages, structure the main part of your presentation around these three key themes and look at how they could be better illustrated.

2. There are three parts to your presentation

The beginning, the middle and the end. Start to plan out what you will do in these three parts. The beginning is ideal for an attention grabber or for an ice breaker. The end is great to wrap things up or to end with a grand finale.

3. Use lists of three wherever you can in your presentation

Lists of three have been used from early times up to the present day. They are particularly used by politicians and advertisers who know the value of using the rule of three to sell their ideas.

Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) - Julius Caesar**
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears" - William Shakespeare
"Our priorities are Education, Education, Education" - Tony Blair
A Mars a day helps you to work, rest and play - Advertising slogan
Stop, look and listen - Public safety announcement

A classic example of the rule of three was Winston Churchill's famous Blood, Sweat and Tears speech. He is widely attributed as saying I can promise you nothing but blood sweat and tears. What he actually said was "I can promise you Blood, Sweat, Toil and Tears". Because of the rule of three we simply remember it as Blood sweat and tears.

There are lots of other examples of the rule of three on this link

4. In Presentations "Less is More"

If you have four points to get across - cut one out. They won't remember it anyway. In presentations less really is more. No one ever complained of a presentation being too short.

Presentation Essentials

Three Presentation Essentials

Use visual aids where you can

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

The audience will only remember three messages

So there you have the presentation essentials. I suggest that you print out this little box and stick it in your work book for future reference.

So does it all work? Well it works most of the time - but don't take my word for it Read these three posts on the Forum and make up your own mind....

"Got the job"
I Blew their socks off!!
Images in presentations

Good luck and happy presenting.

http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/Essential_Presentation_skills.htm

Presentation Skills

Big Dog's Leadership Page - Presentation Skills

O U T L I N E o Introduction o The Voice o The Body o Active Listening o Nerves o Questions o Preparing the Presentation o Habits o Tips and Techniques For Great Presentations Templates PowerPoint Visual Aid Presentation Presentation Outline and Training Outline

Introduction Presentations and reports are ways of communicating ideas and information to a group. But unlike a report, a presentation carries the speaker's personality better and allows immediate interaction between all the participants. A good presentation has: o Content - It contains information that people need. But unlike reports, which are read at the reader's own pace, presentations must account for how much information the audience can absorb in one sitting. o Structure - It has a logical beginning, middle, and end. It must be sequenced and paced so that the audience can understand it. Where as reports have appendices and footnotes to guide the reader, the speaker must be careful not to loose the audience when wandering from the main point of the presentation. o Packaging - It must be well prepared. A report can be reread and portions skipped over, but with a presentation, the audience is at the mercy of a presenter. o Human Element - A good presentation will be remembered much more than a good report because it has a person attached to it. But you still need to analyze if the audience's needs would not be better met if a report was sent instead. The Voice The voice is probably the most valuable tool of the presenter. It carries most of the content that the audience takes away. One of the oddities of speech is that we can easily tell others what is wrong with their voice, e.g. too fast, too high, too soft, etc., but we have trouble listening to and changing our own voices. There are four main terms used for defining vocal qualities: o Volume: How loud the sound is. The goal is to be heard without shouting. Good speakers lower their voice to draw the audience in, and raise it to make a point. o Tone: The characteristics of a sound. An airplane has a different sound than leaves being rustled by the wind. A voice that carries fear can frighten the audience, while a voice that carries laughter can get the audience to smile. o Pitch: How high or low a note is. Pee Wee Herman has a high voice, Barbara Walters has a moderate voice, while James Earl Jones has a low voice. o Pace: This is how long a sound lasts. Talking too fast causes the words and syllables to be short, while talking slowly lengthens them. Varying the pace helps to maintain the audience's interest. o Color: Both projection and tone variance can be practiced by taking the line "This new policy is going to be exciting" and saying it first with surprise, then with irony, then with grief, and finally with anger. The key is to over-act. Remember Shakespeare's words "All the world's a stage" -- presentations are the opening night on Broadway! There are two good methods for improving your voice: 1. Listen to it! Practice listening to your voice while at home, driving, walking, etc. Then when you are at work or with company, monitor your voice to see if you are using it how you want to. 2. To really listen to your voice, cup your right hand around your right ear and gently pull the ear forward. Next, cup your left hand around your mouth and direct the sound straight into your ear. This helps you to really hear your voice as others hear it...and it might be completely different from the voice you thought it was! Now practice moderating your voice. The Body Your body communicates different impressions to the audience. People not only listen to you, they also watch you. Slouching tells them you are indifferent or you do not care...even though you might care a great deal! On the other hand, displaying good posture tells your audience that you know what you are doing and you care deeply about it. Also, a good posture helps you to speak more clearly and effective. Throughout you presentation, display: o Eye contact: This helps to regulate the flow of communication. It signals interest in others and increases the speaker's credibility. Speakers who make eye contact open the flow of communication and convey interest, concern, warmth, and credibility. o Facial Expressions: Smiling is a powerful cue that transmits happiness, friendliness, warmth, and liking. So, if you smile frequently you will be perceived as more likable, friendly, warm, and approachable. Smiling is often contagious and others will react favorably. They will be more comfortable around you and will want to listen to you more. o Gestures: If you fail to gesture while speaking, you may be perceived as boring and stiff. A lively speaking style captures attention, makes the material more interesting, and facilitates understanding. o Posture and body orientation: You communicate numerous messages by the way you talk and move. Standing erect and leaning forward communicates that you are approachable, receptive, and friendly. Interpersonal closeness results when you and your audience face each other. Speaking with your back turned or looking at the floor or ceiling should be avoided as it communicates disinterest. o Proximity: Cultural norms dictate a comfortable distance for interaction with others. You should look for signals of discomfort caused by invading other's space. Some of these are: rocking, leg swinging, tapping, and gaze aversion. Typically, in large rooms, space invasion is not a problem. In most instances there is too much distance. To counteract this, move around the room to increase interaction with your audience. Increasing the proximity enables you to make better eye contact and increases the opportunities for others to speak. o Voice. One of the major criticisms of speakers is that they speak in a monotone voice. Listeners perceive this type of speaker as boring and dull. People report that they learn less and lose interest more quickly when listening to those who have not learned to modulate their voices. Active Listening Good speakers not only inform their audience, they also listen to them. By listening, you know if they are understanding the information and if the information is important to them. Active listening is NOT the same as hearing! Hearing is the first part and consists of the perception of sound. Listening, the second part, involves an attachment of meaning to the aural symbols that are perceived. Passive listening occurs when the receiver has little motivation to listen carefully. Active listening with a purpose is used to gain information, to determine how another person feels, and to understand others. Some good traits of effective listeners are: o Spend more time listening than talking (but of course, as a presenter, you will be doing most of the talking). o Do not finish the sentence of others. o Do not answer questions with questions. o Aware of biases. We all have them. We need to control them. o Never daydream or become preoccupied with their own thoughts when others talk. o Let the other speaker talk. Do not dominate the conversation. o Plan responses after others have finished speaking...NOT while they are speaking. Their full concentration is on what others are saying, not on what they are going to respond with. o Provide feedback but do not interrupt incessantly. o Analyze by looking at all the relevant factors and asking open-ended questions. Walk the person through analysis (summarize). o Keep the conversation on what the speaker says...NOT on what interest them. Listening can be one of our most powerful communication tools! Be sure to use it! Part of the listening process is getting feedback by changing and altering the message so the intention of the original communicator is understood by the second communicator. This is done by paraphrasing the words of the sender and restating the sender's feelings or ideas in your own words, rather than repeating their words. Your words should be saying, "This is what I understand your feelings to be, am I correct?" It not only includes verbal responses, but also nonverbal ones. Nodding your head or squeezing their hand to show agreement, dipping your eyebrows to show you don't quite understand the meaning of their last phrase, or sucking air in deeply and blowing out hard shows that you are also exasperated with the situation. Carl Roger listed five main categories of feedback. They are listed in the order in which they occur most frequently in daily conversations (notice that we make judgments more often than we try to understand): 1. Evaluative: Makes a judgment about the worth, goodness, or appropriateness of the other person's statement. 2. Interpretive: Paraphrasing - attempt to explain what the other persons statement mean. 3. Supportive: Attempt to assist or bolster the other communicator 4. Probing: Attempt to gain additional information, continue the discussion, or clarify a point. 5. Understanding: Attempt to discover completely what the other communicator means by her statements. Nerves The main enemy of a presenter is tension, which ruins the voice, posture, and spontaneity. The voice becomes higher as the throat tenses. Shoulders tighten up and limits flexibility while the legs start to shake and causes unsteadiness. The presentation becomes "canned" as the speaker locks in on the notes and starts to read directly from them. First, do not fight nerves, welcome them! Then you can get on with the presentation instead of focusing in on being nervous. Actors recognize the value of nerves...they add to the value of the performance. This is because adrenaline starts to kick in. It's a left over from our ancestors' "fight or flight" syndrome. If you welcome nerves, then the presentation becomes a challenge and you become better. If you let your nerves take over, then you go into the flight mode by withdrawing from the audience. Again, welcome your nerves, recognize them, let them help you gain that needed edge! Do not go into the flight mode! When you feel tension or anxiety, remember that everyone gets them, but the winners use them to their advantage, while the losers get overwhelmed by them. Tension can be reduced by performing some relaxation exercises. Listed below are a couple to get you started: o Before the presentation: Lie on the floor. Your back should be flat on the floor. Pull your feet towards you so that your knees are up in the air. Relax. Close your eyes. Feel your back spreading out and supporting your weight. Feel your neck lengthening. Work your way through your body, relaxing one section at a time - your toes, feet, legs, torso, etc. When finished, stand up slowly and try to maintain the relaxed feeling in a standing position. o If you cannot lie down: Stand with you feet about 6 inches apart, arms hanging by your sides, and fingers unclenched. Gently shake each part of your body, starting with your hands, then arms, shoulders, torso, and legs. Concentrate on shaking out the tension. Then slowly rotate your shoulders forwards and the backwards. Move on to your head. Rotate it slowly clockwise, and then counter-clockwise. o Mental Visualization: Before the presentation, visualize the room, audience, and you giving the presentation. Mentally go over what you are going to do from the moment you start to the end of the presentation. o During the presentation: Take a moment to yourself by getting a drink of water, take a deep breath, concentrate on relaxing the most tense part of your body, and then return to the presentation saying to your self, "I can do it!" o You do NOT need to get rid of anxiety and tension! Channel the energy into concentration and expressiveness. o Know that anxiety and tension is not as noticeable to the audience as it is to you. o Know that even the best presenters make mistakes. The key is to continue on after the mistake. If you pick up and continue, so will the audience. Winners continue! Losers stop! o Never drink alcohol to reduce tension! It affects not only your coordination but also your awareness of coordination. You might not realize it, but your audience will! Questions Keep cool if a questioner disagrees with you. You are a professional! No matter how hard you try, not everyone in the world will agree with you! Although some people get a perverse pleasure from putting others on the spot, and some try to look good in front of the boss, most people ask questions from a genuine interest. Questions do not mean you did not explain the topic good enough, but that their interest is deeper than the average audience. Always allow time at the end of the presentation for questions. After inviting questions, do not rush ahead if no one asks a question. Pause for about 6 seconds to allow the audience to gather their thoughts. When a question is asked, repeat the question to ensure that everyone heard it (and that you heard it correctly). When answering, direct your remarks to the entire audience. That way, you keep everyone focused, not just the questioner. To reinforce your presentation, try to relate the question back to the main points. Make sure you listen to the question being asked. If you do not understand it, ask them to clarify. Pause to think about the question as the answer you give may be correct, but ignore the main issue. If you do not know the answer, be honest, do not waffle. Tell them you will get back to them...and make sure you do! Answers that last 10 to 40 seconds work best. If they are too short, they seem abrupt; while longer answers appear too elaborate. Also, be sure to keep on track. Do not let off-the-wall questions sidetrack you into areas that are not relevant to the presentation. If someone takes issue with something you said, try to find a way to agree with part of their argument. For example, "Yes, I understand your position..." or "I'm glad you raised that point, but..." The idea is to praise their point and agree with them. Audiences sometimes tend to think of "us verses you." You do not want to risk alienating them. Preparing the Presentation After a concert, a fan rushed up to famed violinist Fritz Kreisler and gushed, "I'd give up my whole life to play as beautifully as you do." Kreisler replied, "I did." To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail. Great presentations require some preplanning. First, read Meetings for an outline of preparing and conducting a meeting, such as acquiring a room, informing participants, etc. A presentation follows the same basic guidelines as preparing for a meeting. The second step is to prepare the presentation. A good presentation starts out with introductions and an icebreaker such as a story, interesting statement or fact, joke, quotation, or an activity to get the group warmed up. The introduction also needs an objective, that is, the purpose or goal of the presentation. This not only tells you what you will talk about, but it also informs the audience of the purpose of the presentation. Next, comes the body of the presentation. Do NOT write it out word for word. All you want is an outline. By jotting down the main points on a set of index cards, you not only have your outline, but also a memory jogger for the actual presentation. To prepare the presentation, ask yourself the following: o What is the purpose of the presentation? o Who will be attending? o What does the audience already know about the subject? o What is the audience's attitude towards me (e.g. hostile, friendly)? A 45 minutes talk should have no more than about seven main points. This may not seem like very many, but if you are to leave the audience with a clear picture of what you have said, you cannot expect them to remember much more than that. There are several options for structuring the presentation: o Timeline: Arranged in sequential order. o Climax: The main points are delivered in order of increasing importance. o Problem/Solution: A problem is presented, a solution is suggested, and benefits are then given. o Classification: The important items are the major points. o Simple to complex: Ideas are listed from the simplest to the most complex. Can also be done in reverse order. You want to include some visual information that will help the audience understand your presentation. Develop charts, graphs, slides, handouts, etc. After the body, comes the closing. This is where you ask for questions, provide a wrap-up (summary), and thank the participants for attending. Notice that you told them what they are about to hear (the objective), told them (the body), and told them what they heard (the wrap up). And finally, the important part - practice, practice, practice. The main purpose of creating an outline is to develop a coherent plan of what you want to talk about. You should know your presentation so well, that during the actual presentation, you should only have to briefly glance at your notes to ensure you are staying on track. This will also help you with your nerves by giving you the confidence that you can do it. Your practice session should include a "live" session by practicing in front of coworkers, family, or friends. They can be valuable at providing feedback and it gives you a chance to practice controlling your nerves. Another great feedback technique is to make a video or audio tape of your presentation and review it critically with a colleague. Habits We all have a few habits, and some are more annoying than others. For example, if we say "uh," "you know," or put our hands in our pockets and jingle our keys too often during a presentation, it distracts from the message we are trying to get across. The best way to break one of these distracting habits is with immediate feedback. This can be done with a small group of coworkers, family, or friends. Take turns giving small off-the-cuff talks about your favorite hobby, work project, first work assignment, etc. The talk should last about five minutes. During a speaker's first talk, the audience should listen and watch for annoying habits. After the presentation, the audience should agree on the worst two or three habits that take the most away from the presentation. After agreement, each audience member should write these habits on a 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper (such as the word "Uh"). Use a magic marker and write in BIG letters. The next time the person gives her or his talk, each audience member should wave the corresponding sign in the air whenever they hear or see the annoying habit. For most people, this method will break a habit by practicing at least once a day for one to two weeks. Tips and Techniques For Great Presentations Eleanor Roosevelt was a shy young girl who was terrified at the thought of speaking in public. But with each passing year, she grew in confidence and self-esteem. She once said, "No one can make you feel inferior, unless you agree with it." o If you have handouts, do not read straight from them. The audience does not know if they should read along with you or listen to you read. o Do not put both hands in your pockets for long periods of time. This tends to make you look unprofessional. It is OK to put one hand in a pocket but ensure there is no loose change or keys to jingle around. This will distract the listeners. o Do not wave a pointer around in the air like a wild knight branding a sword to slay a dragon. Use the pointer for what it is intended and then put it down, otherwise the audience will become fixated upon your "sword", instead upon you. o Do not lean on the podium for long periods. The audience will begin to wonder when you are going to fall over. o Speak to the audience...NOT to the visual aids, such as flip charts or overheads. Also, do not stand between the visual aid and the audience. o Speak clearly and loudly enough for all to hear. Do not speak in a monotone voice. Use inflection to emphasize your main points. o The disadvantages of presentations is that people cannot see the punctuation and this can lead to misunderstandings. An effective way of overcoming this problem is to pause at the time when there would normally be punctuation marks. o Use colored backgrounds on overhead transparencies and slides (such as yellow) as the bright white light can be harsh on the eyes. This will quickly cause your audience to tire. If all of your transparencies or slides have clear backgrounds, then tape one blank yellow one on the overhead face. For slides, use a rubber band to hold a piece of colored cellophane over the projector lens. o Learn the name of each participant as quickly as possible. Based upon the atmosphere you want to create, call them by their first names or by using Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms. o Tell them what name and title you prefer to be called. o Listen intently to comments and opinions. By using a lateral thinking technique (adding to ideas rather than dismissing them), the audience will feel that their ideas, comments, and opinions are worthwhile. o Circulate around the room as you speak. This movement creates a physical closeness to the audience. o List and discuss your objectives at the beginning of the presentation. Let the audience know how your presentation fits in with their goals. Discuss some of the fears and apprehensions that both you and the audience might have. Tell them what they should expect of you and how you will contribute to their goals. o Vary your techniques (lecture, discussion, debate, films, slides, reading, etc.) o Get to the presentation before your audience arrives; be the last one to leave. o Be prepared to use an alternate approach if the one you've chosen seems to bog down. You should be confident enough with your own material so that the audience's interests and concerns, not the presentation outline, determines the format. Use your background, experience, and knowledge to interrelate your subject matter. o When writing on flip charts use no more than 7 lines of text per page and no more than 7 word per line (the 7 7 rule). Also, use bright and bold colors, and pictures as well as text. o Consider the time of day and how long you have got for your talk. Time of day can affect the audience. After lunch is known as the graveyard section in training circles as audiences will feel more like a nap than listening to a talk. o Most people find that if they practice in their head, the actual talk will take about 25 per cent longer. Using a flip chart or other visual aids also adds to the time. Remember - it is better to finish slightly early than to overrun.

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