Tappers and Listeners

Having finally reached substantial completion of my college textbook on innovation (many more blog entries to follow), I started into my most recent book - "Made to Stick". As a student of marketing, consultative sales and public relations, I am fascinated by the dynamics associated with interpersonal communications. On today's flight from Kansas City to Frankfurt, I completed the introduction and first chapter of the book. (with a brief 97 minute intermission to do some global power plant database queries and analysis). On page 19, I read another reference to the 1990 experiment conducted by Elizabeth Newton at Stanford (I've read about this study in at least 2 other books on marketing and communications). In the experiment, she had two participants. One was asked to tap out the rhythm of a popular song while the other was asked to guess the name of the song. Before each run, she asked the tapper to predict the odds of the listener accurately guessing the name of the song. Overall, they predicted average odds of 50%. In reality, the listener was able to guess the song only 2.5 percent of the time.

If you think about it (or even try it) it actually makes perfect sense. The tapper has the benefit of a lot more background and information than the listener - they can actually hear the song in their head as they tap. In the absence of this knowledge - the tapping is little more than a random series of beats and pauses. I see this in business EVERY DAY! As communicators, knowledge can be a significant burden. If there is a mismatch between the speaker's knowledge and the listener's knowledge, the results are, at best, an ineffective interchange and can even be disastrous.

Several years ago, a mentor of mine (gee, I miss having mentors) taught me the value of "Joe Stupid". "Joe Stupid" has a knowledge base of zero and communicates on a very simple and unassuming level. Because Joe is so lacking in knowledge, he tends to learn a lot during interactions. Recently, someone introduced me as the guy that is able to explain complex concepts in a simple and logical fashion the anyone can understand, it's even seen by some as a unique trait. In reality, it involves little more than explaining a concept from the viewpoint of the listener, not the tapper. Try tapping without hearing the music, and see how you do.....

The Kansas City Science Fair

There are certain annual events that I have to include on my "can't wait until next year" list. One is the annual NSF SBIR conference (that I am unfortunately missing next week) and the other, without a doubt, is the Kansas City Science Fair, sponsored by Science Pioneers. I never actually entered a science fair as a kid - can't really say why, it's just not something I ever did.

Last year, an associate at the office asked me if I could volunteer to be a judge at the KC Science Fair. Everyone knows how passionate I get when it comes to working with and around kids, so I obviously did not hesitate. As a first year judge, I started at the elementary school level, only judging papers and displays. It was actually pretty straightforward - the required attribute sheet was very complete and most all projects were well developed. The one thing I did NOT get to do was talk to the students - that's only at the junior high and high school level. For me, the best way to judge how much a student accomplished during the execution of a project is to speak to them face-to-face, without that element, I just felt like I was missing out.

This year, I signed up for the junior engineering division - where I had the opportunity to judge and speak to several 7th and 8th grade students. It was fabulous. These young boys and girls were genuinely passionate about their individual projects, and many of them really had a good time doing them. Overall, I have only one complaint (that applies to all projects I reviewed last year and this year as well) - there is not enough emphasis on celebrating failure.

I wonder if it is human nature or just the manner in which science is taught these days. It's as if the definition of a successful experiment is one in which the student can exactly predict the results, then run an experiment that fully supports their hypothesis. As I mentioned to one student "If you proved what you already knew, then what have you really learned here?" I believe that real learning starts when we encounter the unexpected. New discoveries evolve from failed hypotheses. I fear that many of these kids are so focused on creating a nice little report that neatly fits into the standard format that they avoid true experimentation and discovery....

Of course, these were my concerns and conclusions after reading the reports, prior to the students' arrival. During oral interviews, a whole different story emerged - EVERY TIME. Talking freely about their experiments, each of the students I met had a great story to tell about experimental failures, shifts in thought process and critical thinking about follow-on projects and alternate hypothesis. This was utterly delightful! I could have visited with these enthusiastic young men and women all evening.

So, the thing that's really missing is not the method and thought process, but the ability to break from the highly structured format of a science report to adequately write their story of discovery....funny thing is - you don't have to look far to see the exact same issue in the business world. We're so programmed to fill in the template and follow the predefined structure, that we lose the ability to tell our story. My advice: throw out the form, forget the template - start with a blank sheet of paper and tell your story. By the way - this is the EXACT same advice I had for several presenters at last year's NSF SBIR Phase II grantee conference. So, what's your story?

Birth of a Political Activist

Tevis.net › At the Kansas Caucuses

After reading Sean's most recent blog, I suddenly feel like I have nothing interesting or amusing to talk about. Funny how your life can seem so interesting and adventurous until you peek over the cubicle and see what the next guy is doing....I really gotta get out more often!

I just started a new book last night - "There's no Such Thing as Public Speaking". So far, it's a really good read focusing on the "physics" of public speaking and the similarities between one-to-one and one-to-many conversations. The basic premise is that there should be no difference between speaking in public and public speaking. Which, not surprisingly, is a simply stated observation made by one of the fifth graders in my son's class last month (refer to my "Signals of Change" entry). I'm pretty sure I'll use this book as a reference in my future presentation skills courses - it covers many of the exact points. More to follow on that - I need to work all the way through it and make sure it doesn't do anything ridiculous like advise you to "imagine that the whole audience is in there underwear" as a tactic for overcoming nerves. I don't know about you, but an audience full of business associates in their skivvies is not an image that conjures up feelings of relaxation! Not sure if you've ever tried that tactic, but I just don't see it working for me.

Signals of Change

Have you noticed the growing abyss between the communication standards of the younger generation? (what are they called, generation "Y" ? - Why ask "Y"?) As a father of two young boys, I become more and more aware of this every year. I feel funny trying to relate to them what life was like before the internet and email. ("wow, that was a lonnnng time ago, wasn't it dad!) Online social networking is no longer a curious fad for pubescent teens, it's moving with this generation right into the mainstream. The gap was illustrated graphically for me about a year ago at the SPX Leadership conference. One of the guest speakers polled the audience (a hundred and something corporate executives) to see how many had a "myspace" account. One hand sheepishly went up.

While myspace might not be the preferred gathering space for today's executive, it looks like the corporate world social network sites are popping up like mushrooms! Several years ago, a colleague (and networker extraordinaire), sent me a link to a site called "LinkedIn", an upstart business networking site. Seemed like a bit of a novelty at the time, but I went ahead and registered and basically forgot about it. Today, practically every person on my personal address book is on LinkedIn, and I seem to get invitations to join other networking sites every month. Just like our kids, we grown-ups are finally finding efficient ways to keep up with an ever growing network of social contacts. I love LinkedIn. Especially when I travel (which is almost weekly). Now I can quickly fill in those dead spots on the travel itinerary by having a coffee with an old friend or classmate, some whom I haven't seen in 20 years. Check it out, it's a good thing...

Speaking of generation gaps. During lunch break on Thursday, I had the pleasure of visiting my son's 5th grade gifted education class. I was introducing them to a technique of using storyboards to organize and prepare presentations, papers and speeches. During part of the class, I asked the class to explain the steps that are necessary when preparing a presentation. As I was writing the kids' answers on the whiteboard, an amazingly complete list emerged, including all of the textbook stuff; determine your topic and timeline, research, collect your thoughts, write your presentation, etc. One step that was conspicuously missing (and, from my corporate experience, the very FIRST step most adult students list) was "create visual aids" or "open powerpoint". In years of facilitating corporate communications training courses, this was the first time I had a class that failed to mention visual aids. These kids, by the way, are all proficient at powerpoint - they learn that in 3rd grade.

Puzzled (and pleased) I asked them where this step belongs in the process. Many in the class shot me odd looks, "why do you need visual aids, Mr. Dendy. Doesn't that just detract attention from the speaker. After all, the whole point of doing a presentation is to hear the speaker talk, isn't it?" Being only a week after MLK day, I also got the self-assured response "When Martin Luther King gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech, he didn't need visual aids, did he? What's the point?!"

Oh, to have the enlightened mind of a 5th grader!! I wish I had a video camera with me that day - I would play that video in every "Presentation Skills" workshop that I facilitate. When was the last time you actually sat through a corporate presentation and said "wow, what a dynamic speaker!" ? Presentations have somehow morphed away from being an exercise in interpersonal communication and are becoming a form of entertainment, where the focus is on the media and away from the speaker. In a way, it's easier now for anyone to give a corporate presentation. With such a low standard, the dynamic and talented speakers no longer stand out so much - unless they make a concerted effort to do so. Once again, the challenge remains: "Are YOU smarter than a 5th grader?"