The story goes that if you put a frog in hot water, he’lll jump straight out.  But if you put him in warm water, he’ll relax and stay put.  Then you gradually apply more and more heat until the water is scalding hot.  Because the temperature increase is gradual the frog doesn’t jump out and before he knows it he’s cooked.

This analogy can be applied to change management with regard to the people it affects, and I recently had a couple of conversations which reminded me of this.  If one’s environment gradually moves away from where one would like it, it can often happen slowly enough to not cause any immediate alarm.  Until one day a person wakes up and discovers they are living with unmanageable stress that can take it’s toll in worse ways than just the day job component of life.

It’s worth asking yourself if the heat is pleasant or if it’s cooking you, and to reassess often.  If it’s cooking you (we’l take that as bad in this case), you have a few options.  You can try cool things down.  You can shout out for help.  You can get out the water for a break or forever.  Or you can cook.  

Ultimately each of us is responsible for looking after ourselves. And in my humble opinion if you plan on being useful for a long time, “cooking” is probably not the best of the options.

As Garr said, most of his content is already available through the website, my notes follow:

Intro

• Currently living in Japan. Some humorous talk about “Garr”
• From the US originally, from Oregon
• Touches on Manga and Kawaii culture
• Talks about the clutter and how busy things look in Japan, and contrasts buying a fridge which is so covered in promo material with buying a desk, where oyu can see the whole thing
• On ABC Radio National at 09h00 tomorrow (Saturday 5 July – I recomend tuning in to listen) 
• Used to work for Sumitomo Electric – A global Japanese corporation
• Today, he is a tenured professor of management at Kansai Gaidai University
• Also Runs “design matters” design group  in Osaka, like a mini-TED
• Also a Musician, plays in a jazz band for fun.
• Quotes Sir Ken Robinson “I always think of public speaking as a little bit like playing Jazz”
• Worked at Apple.  Learned to prepare his presentations away the computer there.  

On presentation, quotes: “Presentation is the ‘Killer Skill’ we take into the real world. It’s almost an unfair advantage” - Quoted from The McKinsey Mind

Defines the principle of “Presentation Zen” – basically “simple presentation”.  Remove the noise and clutter.

spoke about Duarte Design who turned this into a business.  They do Al Gore’s presentations.  Check out their website, it’s fantastic.

Has consulted at Microsoft.

Did a presentation as part of the Authors@Google series -his presentation from there is on YouTube and I have it on authority from the Delicate Genius that the content is similar to today’s (haven’t watched yet)

Mentioned Seth Godin and “The Idea Virus” – Garr’s Idea Virus is spreading the idea that bad powerpoint must go.  (My observation: Metcalfe’s law applied to ideas).  The value of the idea virus goes up exponentially with the number of people who have it.

Guy Kawasaki – “Eat like a bird, poop like an elephant” - “I poop therefore I am”.  What does this mean?  Go out, attend seminar and events and get ideas, then spread them around and make your world a better place.  “In the end, put a dent in the universe”

At Apple, Steve Jobs asks “who are you and what do you do for me” in the elevator, and you have to be able to answer.  If you know how to talk, to present, to pitch you would be able to do your elevator pitch and get out on your floor and still have a job

Genesis

• Garr started off playing in clubs at 17.  Also did his First multimedia presentation at 17
• Realised it’s about storytelling.  Images, narration, audio.  It’s about standing and delivering a story.  Using photographic slides was the original method.  Then digital tech meant you could use a computer, and have text overlays, transitions.  

“It’s not about tools” - it’s still about storytelling, not showing the audience what you can d with powerpoint.

• “Most ideas you can do pretty darn well with a stick in the sand” – Alan Kay, pioneer of object orientation
• “You can play a shoestring if youre sincere” – John Coltrane
• (Garr says he always uses very simple presentation technology, don’t want to get caught out when a tool fails)
• Went out for Bento, and saw a guy freaking out over a powerpoint deck.  Saw that his Ekiben was beautifully arranged with great content.  Thought this is how presentations should be.  And that was the birth of Presentation Zen
• Learned as a kid, “it’s about being in the moment”

“Be here now, be somewhere else later”

- Old Zen Riff

Presentation Zen is an approach, not a method.

It’s a “Do” – a way, a path..  there are many paths that go in the same way.  You may follow a different one to the same outcome.

Three principles:

1. Restraint
2. Simplicity
3. Naturalness

• “It’s hard to be simple”.  Restraint and simplicity take work to keep.
• Its really about telling a story.  Not about powerpoint.
• Recommended book: “The Back of the Napkin” 
• “Takahashi Method” – All white slides, super big letters, in black on plain white.
• Each case is different.  You don’t have to use slides at all.

Dont use MS style slides (refers to old photo of Bill Gates presenting, inserts Mr Burns from the Simpsons)

Example of waste in products �
- refers to starbucks with a few photos showing waste in masses of packaging.  Point is made that you “get it” vs a single slide of stats talking about waste.

Why it matters

• (Photo of Sumos)  In Sumo the difference between winning and losing is in the small details.
• “The little things matter” – Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan.  Carlos Ghosn learned to use chopsticks when he went to live in Japan.  Understood he may not speak Japanese but he needs to do what it takes to have the respect of his people.
• You need to differentiate.
• “Be interesting or be invisible” – Andy Sernovitz, in the book “Word of Mouth Marketing”

What makes you different?

• Purple Cow – Seth Godin, referenced as source of concept.  Nobody remembers seeing a cow.  Everyone remembers seeing a purple cow.
• Don’t be good – it’s not enough.  Great is not enough either.  You have to be insanely great.
• President of Toyota banned powerpoint for document creation.
• Look for little ways to make a difference.   One way is communication.  I f one way is presentation then Presentation Matters.
• “Most presentations are boring but most people are not boring”.  Most professionals are interesting and smart, but are boring when presenting.

<breakout – discussion of bad presentations and good presentations>

Bad points 

• Reading slides, presenting without knowing the presentation, turning the lights out (puts audience to sleep and breaks engagement)
•  Abuse of special effects and transitions
• Awful clipart, photo cliche’s
• Too much visual clutter on slides.  Too much detail in presentations.
• Too many fonts.  How many should you have?  “Enough”   Fonts matter.
• Misreading of the audience – pitching at the wrong level.  Must be able to drop the presentation and “change gears” if you find the audience at a different level to your presentation.  Some people say it’s about your story, Garr disagrees.
• Presenters talking to the screen or hiding behind the lectern.  You have to engage the audience -Referenced a concept in Japanese called “Hadaka no tsukiai” or “Naked communication”.

Good presentations:

• Lots of stories
• Personal but relevant
• Demonstrable expertise – the audience knows you know your subject
• Use of Metaphor – Book reference: A whole new mind
• Engaging the audience – asking them questions, even rhetorical questions.
• Being thought-provoking
• Presenters who don’t believe in what they are presenting
• Don’t over-deliver on the number of messages
• Audience comment: People generally remember the name of the presenters who gave good presentations
• Zoom out, zoom in to detail, zoom out to set context.  Give them the big picture, then zoom in.
• Good use of humour.  Garr says good presentation is like stand-up comedy.  Says Adam Hill is a great oone he has seen.  Doesn’t use a lot of vulgar language to be funny.
• A good presenter knows when to make the message more important than the messenger.

“The sound of one room napping”

- Shows slide with audience passed out, talks about boring the audience to sleep

Pet peeves about powerpoint

Common misuse #1: Using powerpoint as the handouts – “Killing two birds with one stone”.  Slides meant to be visuals, not handouts.  Page numbers on slides- useless

Common misuse #2 – as a report.  References Columbia disaster – “The board (find this quote)… re powerpoint as a documentation tool”

Common misuse #3: As a teleprompter

1-7-7 Rule: One idea per slide. 7 lines of text max. 7 words a line max.  Shows a slide with this applied and how it can go wrong.

Here’s a “Bright idea”: Put the ideas in the notes field.  Put a key graphic and just a few words in the slide.

Do not read the presentation.  Know it.  Practise it and know what comes next and when to cue to the next slide

Quotes Guy Kawasaki (I typed as much as I could get ) : “By having a 30 pt font … it forces you to have a lot less text.   If you need to have an 8pt font its because you dont know your material.  If you read your slides, your audience will think you’re a Bozo.  They’ll think I can read faster than this bozo speaks, I’m going to read ahead”

Death by powerpoint is so common its accepted as normal

Book reference: Brain Rules, and brainrules.net (all the content is apparently on the site)

Slideshare on Brain Rules by Garr Reynolds – Take-aways, what all presenters need to know

Book ref: Multimedia Learning.

“No visuals is better than bad visuals”.  John Sweller – visuals help people learn better.

Default powerpoint – who’s default is it anyway?

Keynote is inherently simpler than powerpoint (Garr says it’s better)

Suggestions for Microsoft and the Powerpoint team gathered on Presentation Zen blog: boil down to:

• Make it simpler
• Make it easier
• Remove distractions

Al Gore got help and got better at presenting.  As he got better he got taken that much more seriously.  He got help from Duarte Design, who do nothing but presentations.  They redefined Al Gore, and made him this much better.  Ref to inconvenient truth.  Not saying presenting will make you Al Gore, but it will make you get your message across better.

Simplify without dumbing down.  Hans Rosling – the data is out there (epidemiology).  It’s inacessible or its just plain boring

Talks about Steve Jobs – always stays front and centre, and keeps it simple, even when presenting technical content.

“Darth Vader Method”: death by powerpoint

“The Yoda method”: Front and centre, “Zen master” style.  start with a blank slate.

Preparation, Design, Delivery

(Garr says hes going to start skipping around because of time pressure)

Restraint <– preparation. 

• Control, moderation.  
• Like a Zen Garden.  Whats there looks accidental, but its by specific design.
• (shows the “If Microsoft designed the iPod package” video.  
• Garr’s comment as it plays “Don’t do this )

Bad Habits – we suffer from bad habits.  Clutter is a bad habit.  

Preparation:

• Focus on Simplicity
• Step back.  Find some alone time.  Get off the grid.
• “Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth”

“Making the simle complicated is commonplace.  But making the complicated awesomely simple is pure genius”  - Charles Mingus

Sir Ken Robinson:

• “If you’re not prepared to be wrong you’ll never come up with anything original” – Sir Ken Robinson
• Sir Ken Robinson video from TED: He presents with no slides, and is very amusing 
• We run our companies like this – we stigmatize mistakes.  (makes point that this thinking is getting into education)

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilies but in the experts mind there are few” – Shunrya Suzuki

Dr Jill Bolte-Taylor’s TED presentation – Memorable because she does something so unexpected.  she brings a real human brain on to stage

Book Reference: Heath Brothers’ book – Made to Stick – what makes ideas sticky

• Simplicity
• Unexpectedness
• Concreteness
• Credibility
• Emotion
• Story

It’s not the sum of their parts that is the problem; it’s the way human beings relate with each other, interact with each other, that is causing the problem.

This is an interesting (and I believe accurate) observation, and he alludes to an effect which is in essence that as the number of people that are involved in something increases so too does the number of people that each person has to negotiate with. It’s an O(n^2) problem  [Edit: It's actually on Wikipedia and described as Metcalfe's Law] Every stakeholder you add to a situation increases the management complexity (and cost and risk) exponentially.  I believe this is key to why entrepeneurialism thrives with less than ten stakeholders and dies with much more As hugh says in closing,

The sad truth remains that everything in business is about people, their interactions with each other and the ideas and assumptions that shape those interactions.

And right there he’s hit the nail on the head.  It’s not about resources or heads or hands or bums on seats.  It’s about people.  It’s about empowering, trusting, delegating and supporting.  It’s about asking how the weekend was and chatting for a few minutes between crises.  I’ve had my share of underperforming teams in the past and the easiest way to fix them is by restructuring or restaffing them.  That’s good management.  But it says nothing about my leadership.  Leadership is about providing the inspiration – not just the vision. An inspired person can change the system from the inside because he feels like he’s soaring above the crowd.  when an inspired person works until midnight it is not because he’s trying to get ahead.  It’s because he wants his team to win.

If you want to keep your customers try not to alienate them – especially when they are having issues with your service.

Google announced an open interchange that allows users to take their social graph with them from one site to another. MySpace just joined in. This changes the rules for FaceBook, because now users have a choice of picking from dozens, soon to be hundreds of open sites… or just one closed one.

Let me make my point using find-and-replace. Google –> *nix, MySpace –> IBM, FaceBook –> Microsoft. open sites –> operating systems.

[*nix] announced an open interchange that allows users to take their social graph with them from one [operating system] to another. [IBM] just joined in. This changes the rules for [Microsoft], because now users have a choice of picking from dozens, soon to be hundreds of [operating systems]… or just one closed one.

See the flaw here? If you read The Dip (by Seth Godin) you might look at this and think “meh”. Still not no 1. It doesn’t change the game if every second-tier player adopts an open standard. It doesn’t change the game. All that it means now is that All the long tail players make it easier for their audience to move between themselves.

My bet would be (unless there’s some license restriction against it) it will only be a matter of time before someone writes a “FaceBook Container app” that loads into this new open platform, and hosts Facebook apps inside itself. Voila! Uberdominance for Facebook. Checkmate.

In my opinion, changing the game is not tweaking the game. It’s about the big guns. Its the “go big or go home”. Not the “meh”.

Rule #1: Anyone who sells commodities must have a branding strategy to survive
Rule #2: Everyone sells commodities

I love the truth of what she says, and the “brand quotient” test is a real eye-opener.

The essence of what Seth is saying is that being a “me too” is almost always going to offer diminishing returns for each successive “me too”. So how can someone succeed in the same market? Assume you can’t. Then what do you do? Go somewhere else. Or better still, change the market. Disrupt it. Change the boundaries. Be an opposite, as Seth touched on yesterday. Polarize your market. Excite some people, upset some people. Avoid mediocrity. As my (soon to be ex) boss told me in my performance review, Change the Game.

From the google blog post:

First of all, we want to welcome the team from Tonic Systems to Google. Tonic, which we’ve just acquired, is based in San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia. They have some great technology for presentation creation and document conversion, and it will be a great addition as we add presentation sharing and collaboration capabilities to Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

The whole point of presenting or pitching is the ability to be prepared. Being prepared means eliminating every possible risk of something going wrong. When I used to present as a consultant I used to have a backup of my powerpoint on my USB key. I would take printed copies with me. There is no way I would walk into a presentation and say “I need an internet connection before I can start, please”. It is for this reason, combined with Powerpoint’s core market (I know I’m making an assumption here) that I think the response from Microsoft as well as from business people would be something along the lines of “meh”. And this is why I think Read/WriteWeb are a little off the mark with their headline article captioned by a graphic saying “Microsoft vs Google”.

I’d be interested to see the demographics of who actually ends up using the Google product – using, not trialling – and to somehow determine who of those people actually owns a licensed copy of powerpoint personally or through work. The bit that interests me much more than the “meh” is the collaboration and sharing thing. that’s largely overlooked and understated in the posts I’ve seen, and I’d see that as an on-the-back-foot move responding to whats in Office 2007 – Groove. Groove rocks. If you don’t know Groove check it out. That’s a tough act to follow.

You get to decide what you will perceive it as, and what you will allow it to become. The realist says "It’s a bag of crap". The pessimist says more or less the same thing. The cynic says "Yeah, that’s about right for a Monday morning". The optimist says "maybe it’s here for a good reason". The visionary, however, says "Ah. fertilizer for my roses".

Too often people cloak their real motives (or lack thereof) in alleged optimism, and they call "Maybe someone else is going to sort that out" optimism.  That’s not optimism, that’s laziness or, more dangerous, apathy.  Whatever you call it, I don’t have time for it.  The people I find myself respecting more and more are the visionaries.  I am learning more and more about people, and about myself now.  I am discovering that I have less and less time for passengers and more and more for pilots. 

No matter how you try and regard a sack of animal excrement, no matter what attitude you adopt, it is and will remain a sack of excrement.  Until someone makes it change.  The person who steps out and says "I am not scared or lazy or frightened of failing" might be at the bottom of a corporate ladder, might be the quiet guy who works hard and battles with English.  But he or she is a pilot.  The guy who sits by and watches, he’s the passenger.

Pilots are visionaries.  They can assess where they find themselves and can formulate a plan to get to where they want to get.  They put themselves out there to see what will happen.  And they will see you through to arrival.  Pilots can understand a vision from their Squadron Leader and can understand their part of that vision.  Passengers, no matter how skilled or smart or amiable, are passengers.  They are here for the ride.

And as an afterthought, in a futile effort to tie my shocking analogies together,  the smell of manure after it’s been worked into the ground is usually the smell of imminent success.

Some of the key things we did were: 

• Established a more scalable architecture
• Introduced more effective use of css and table-less layouts 
• Introduced nUnit 
• Threw out SourceSafe and moved everything over to Subversion, eliminating checkouts blocking work and allowing a more structured branching release process. 
• Introduced some key Agile development ideas like continuous integration, user stories, code reviews and more 
• Moved towards Scrum as a management technique 
• Eliminated the old 1.0 and 1.1 framework bits and pieces and rolled out our first asp.net 2.0 systems. 
• Eliminated Crystal Reports (hurray!) 
• Brought in the use of more .net goodies like caching, master pages, section handlers and more 
• Introduced and rolled out the concepts of syndication and extensibility 
• Extended the dev team with some really good new people and grew with some really good old people  
• Shifted our culture towards being more inquisitive, more technically aware, and learning more of how to be creative (my personal favourites are no 9 and 29) 
• Extended the concept of offline processing for asynchronous tasks based on a simplification of a design I’ll admit to having pilfered from Seth

We didn’t acheive all that I would liked to have acheived, but all in all I would say that the team is operating a league above where we started out this time last year and I would call our efforts very successful.  And worth it