Posts Tagged ‘presentations’

Have you heard of:

• The kidneys thieves urban legend?
• Jared of Subway fame?
• The commercial of “this is your brain on drugs?”

If so, you’ve got something “stuck” in your brain. What made it stick?

Chip and Dan Heath wanted to know the reason so they studied “sticky” messages. The result is an excellent probe into communication in their book Made to Stick: Why Some Messages Survive and Some Die.

The book details six traits of “stickable”messages. Messages that are made to stick are

Simple

Unexpected

Concrete

Credible

Emotional.

The Heaths illustrate their results with actual examples of memorable and forgettable messages that compel the reader to confront his own communication style. Many use language and style that not only obscures the meaning but makes the message so forgettable that it goes in one ear and out the other. (I had college classes that left me at the speed of dull.)

One example particular caught my attention. It was about a man who ran the mess hall of a unit in Iraq. His was not just a steel spoon dishing out barely-edible meals. He dressed his staff in chef’s hats, put table clothes on tables, and took time to serve good food. He did all of this with the same exact supplies as any other Army unit. What made the difference was one sticky idea. He told those under his charge, “We don’t fix meals. We build morale.” That simple, concrete, dramatic message transformed a forgettable experience into something about which soldiers raved.

To enhance the learning experience, the Heaths include some thinking sections where the reader gets to check the “stickiness” quotient and how to improve the same message.

I found the book particularly useful. As a church leader, I deliver more than an average share of messages. Some take the shape of a sermon. Others are dimmed-light devotionals. Others are proposals about programs and problems to meetings. Since reading Made to Stick I have changed my approach to communication. I craft each one against the six-fold measure of the Made to Stick. My work found a new energy and anticipation.

If I had my way, I throw away most speech texts and using this book in their place. It would provide high polish to dull communications (whether letters, speeches, or ads).

The next time you make a presentation, when the final syllable is spoken ask, “What stuck?”

Made to Stick:  Why Some Ideas Survive and Some Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Random House, 2007. 304 pages.

Sunday started out as a normal day–until the quiet evaporated with the ringing of the phone. At 6:45 a.m. my day shifted dramatically.

The call informed me that our preacher had fallen ill during the night and I was on tap to preach. I now had three hours to prepare and polish a message for an audience of 1000 listeners.

The sermon went well and was well-received. While that may be true, it is difficult to go from 0 to total presentation in three hours. How do stay ready so you prepare effectively when under the gun?

It doesn’t start when the call comes. Someone once asked me how long it took to prepare a sermon. My answer is simple–it took 30 years. All immediate preparation is a reflection of years of training. If you don’t put the hard hours in the cool of the day, you won’t be ready when thrown into the fire.

Yet, you need to do some things regularly to prepare for the last-minute situation. (These are also essential for the routine preparation of sermons.)

Read widely.

Reading is the river that fills the mental reservoir. Reading puts ideas into the mind and into notes. Read novels, self-help books, biographies and books on Bible topics. In addition, find some mind-stimulating blogs and read them daily. All will allow ideas to haunt the mind, reading it for the call when it comes.

Reflect daily.

Sermons take place at the intersection of text and current events. Think daily about what is happening. Analyze the news and think through reading. What do the events mean? What kind of implications are there for living? This kind of thinking is a tumbler turning rock into gemstone.

Write regularly.

One reason I write a blog post is to force me to do focused thinking. I write in a journal, put words into letters and memos, and make presentations. All are the whetstone of thinking. If the knife is not sharp, there’s no time to do it at the last minute. Too many preachers are dull because they don’t sharpen themselves regularly.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t enjoy the pressure of hurry-up preparation. I would never recommend it as a steady habit of life. However, when you take moments to prepare yourself daily, you are ready to prepare a message in a pinch.

Making an Effective Mission Report

I’ve seen the yawns and the wiggles-and I’ve had them as well.

Over the years, I’ve endured hundreds of reports from mission fields. Most, if not all, had the interest of dust settling on an old table.

The problem was the focus.

• The focus was on the missionary. Inevitably, the theme was “look what I did…”
• The focus was on disasters. One missionary related how he had selected a place to worship associated with a cult in that town. Now, the church was suffering. Now, his lack of forethought was the devil’s fault.
• The focus was on the pictures. Many reports are glorified travelogues. The rhythm of the presentation are punctuated with the phrase, “this is a picture of…”

The result of this focus was a presentation out-of-focus!

In January of 2009, I was part of a medical mission to Nicaragua. The Waterview Church of Christ (where I serve as a staff minister) is a supporter of the church in that location. It came my time to give the report. I decided I would not repeat the mistakes I had heard many times.

Out of that experience, I learned what an effective mission report demands.

It demands organization.

Too many times, the only organization is putting pictures together. A great presentation is a story with a strong theme. It has points which are parallel. It is clear and moves in a direction. For my presentation, my story was how three different people saw our work in Nicaragua through their own eyes.

It demands knowing the audience.

My audience was church members who had heard some about our work, but did not feel the impact of the work on people. They needed more than data. They needed deep appreciation. My aim was not the subject but the audience.

It demands faces and feelings, not facts and figures.

My pictures were face shots. The eyes tell the story. As the faces appeared on the screen, I described pain, suffering, need, and yearning. The audience had to identify with the people they saw. They did not need to know the dates or the travel routes or the itinerary. Above all, avoid cluttered slides and bullet points. The strangle the life out of presentations.

It demands preparation.

I worked for over 12 hours on the presentation. I rehearsed and refined it 8 times. Every presentation to a new audience demands focusing on the needs of particular audience. Take time to learn about each audience. Canned presentations smell of opened tins of sardines.

The result of the presentation was humbling. Tears were shed. Hearts were changed. Wallets were opened. Souls were pricked. And hopefully, God felt the glory due him.

Does he demand anything else but that kind of presentation?

(To hear the presentation go to http://www.waterview.org/mp3/20090222pm.mp3