The Breath of Life

The importance of breathing when speaking publicly is clearly demonstrated in the well known video of ABC News Correspondent, Dan Harris, having a meltdown on national TV. Mr. Harris has bravely and generously shared his fail with ABC in the video link below (see the 56 sec mark for the beginning of the end of his reportorial composure.)

You can tell he is in trouble when you hear the sudden speechless exhale of breath. It is as if the air in his lungs decides to abandon a ship that is starting to take on water. This is followed by additional deflations a few sentences later and that is when the serious foundering begins and the ship sinks. Without breath, speech is unsupported and the body begins to want for oxygen. The voice weakens and becomes unsteady, the head dizzies, the heart starts to work harder, and a rising panic ensues as the mind can't understand why alarm bells are going off and it is losing control. The immediate response is to try to push on, but without the necessary oxygen and force of breath it is a lost cause.

The first and most important thing in this situation is to get your breathing under control, supplying a steady flow of oxygen. You feel helpless because you are robbing yourself of life sustaining breath. Thankfully, Mr. Harris now has a remedy in hand: meditation.  The foundation of meditation is, of course, controlled breathing. Controlled breathing is the best triage and the best way to avoid this kind of situation in the first place.   

The communication of information requires physical action. In this case, speech. Speech requires breath. Without it the body fails to communicate and starts to implode upon itself. Too much (rapid) breathing can bring on hyperventilation which is also not good. The key is steady, measured, moderated breathing. It is indeed life giving and life saving.

So take a deep breath and then have at it.  

Engagement Not Entertainment

Too often in business presentations we equate engagement with entertainment. When we say a presenter was engaging, we usually mean he or she was entertaining: that we enjoyed the presentation.

This, I think, is an artifact of what Neil Postman identified years ago as the media and public's emerging compulsion to "amuse ourselves to death". In modern [especially digital] business culture, this propensity re-emerges as an imperative to create products that "delight" the customer. It is no longer sufficient to meet the needs and satisfy the customer, the customer must be delighted. A similar imperative compels the executive to attempt to delight their audience. To provide not just bread, but circus.

But audience engagement should not automatically be equated with entertainment. Sometimes (not always by design) others may find us entertaining and that may even be appropriate to the occasion. But audience engagement carries with it a more weighty responsibility than to simply be amusing.

I have observed before that Love + Engagement + Energy = Charisma. No one would argue that Winston Churchill lacked charisma. He demonstrated unshakeable love of country and brought boundless energy to office, but when he engaged the House of Commons and by extension the British people with his famous address "...we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;...", I doubt any of the listeners were amused or characterized the speech as highly entertaining.

Engaging with an audience means knowing and recognizing the audience, listening to (and yes, even loving) the audience, giving the audience what they need to hear, and satisfying them that you understand, in this case, the gravity of the situation and have matters well in hand. That can be quite engaging. 

Innovation

Walter Isaacson, in his book The Innovators asserts that innovation requires articulation.  Innovation can be frustrated if you can't effectively articulate just what it is that you are trying to do.

Rapid innovation requires rapid communication, broadly and consistently, throughout the organization. The most efficient way to accomplish this is presenting to groups. If you want a company that innovates well, you need managers that present well.

Charisma

If you love what you do... If you love the audience... If you want to do right by both of them... Charisma will follow your lead.

Passionately Unemotional

Adding a narrative to your presentation can help you get beyond the paradox of being Passionately Unemotional.

The Business Audience as Chorus

The character of the audience in a business presentation is found somewhere between a traditional citizen audience and a Greek chorus. Like a Greek chorus, the business audience is a group that is made up of individuals. Together they bring institutional knowledge to the presentation. They represent the culture and interests of all executives and employees. They serve as a foil to the presenter and senior managers in the audience are often eager to participate and be heard.

A skillful presenter can leverage the chorus attributes of their business audience to advantage: challenging them, wooing them, and letting them give voice to and become advocates for the message of the presentation: averting tragedy rather than courting it. 

From the National Theatre:  Modern Interpretations of the Greek Chorus.

Enriching a Corporate Culture

Employing performance art to broadly inculcate a company's value system is infinitely more powerful and effective than relying on the typical static "motivational poster" displays scattered throughout the office. If you attract the attention of employees through the compelling use of performance art in all of your business presentations, you will attract and retain employees of value and begin to cultivate a true company culture.

Pizza and foosball are small material benefits masquerading as culture. Watching managers and staff, who know what they are doing, give great presentations is exciting, inspiring, and culturally enriching. It says, "we know how to communicate."