enteRETAINment

SpeedReaching People

I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a fantastic one day instructor led workshop by a company called SpeedReadingPeople. The workshop teaches a two part process; SpeedREAD & SpeedREACH. 

• SpeedREAD helps you to quickly identify key personality type characteristics of others based on easily observable clues such as demeanor, body language, appearance, energy level, vocabulary, and speech patterns. It is based on the Myers-Briggs personality typing and breaks out into 4 type preferences . . .  Extroversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving.
• SpeedREACH teaches the techniques to adjust your communication style so you can present information in a manner that is more comfortable for the person you are engaging with.

An interesting observation from the workshop was how engaged the attendees were for the entire all-day session. They all seemed excited about the content and how the training might help them better communicate with managers, peers and direct reports. During workshop down time, the attendees seemed to enjoyed trying to guess each other's personality types.

Another interesting  take away from the session was the section on presenting to groups. The strategy takes into consideration the various personality types of the audience and the suggested style/order of reaching the audience is Intuitives - Sensors- Thinkers - Feelers. This fits nicely with the concept of enteRETAINment and specifically storytelling. Drawing all personality types into a story early by presenting the content in an order and style that appeals to each can pump up the engagement level significantly.

With so many companies having both internal and external communications as an top challenge the SpeedREAD/ SpeedREACH concept seems like a great tool for all,especially executives, managers and sales folks. The CEO of the company. Paul Tieger, has written several books one of which is The Art of Speed Reading People which I just finished reading and recommend .

Storytelling by Storytellers: Dan Pink

I recently had the opportunity to interview one of my favorite authors, Dan Pink. We did the interview via email and I thought I'd post it using a bit of Flash so it wasn't just text. We discussed his writing process, storytelling and his fantastic new book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need . . .

(fyi, there is no audio in the clip below)

Presentation Tips

Presentation Zen is a blog  by Garr Reynolds that I have been reading for some time that I feel is a great resource on presentation design. Learning content designers/developers can take a lot of info from this blog. Yesterday 's "Zen" posting titled BusinessWeek: Rethinking the Presentation mentioned a very brief article in BusinessWeek with tips that can easily be applied to learning whether instructor led or e-learning:

• Prepare in analog. Most professional designers plan on paper, not by opening their slide software.
• Cut the noise. "Noise" refers to elements that distract from the central message of your slide. Minimize the noise by eliminating inappropriate charts, lines, shapes, and symbols.
• Avoid bullet points. Use bullet points only in rare circumstances and only after you have considered other options to display the information visually.
• Picture superiority. Pictures are more easily remembered than words, yet most PowerPoint decks contain far more words than images. Create presentations that have more in common with a documentary film than an overhead transparency.

Reynolds also shares a video clip by communications coach Carmine Gallo on learning how to present from Steve Jobs that includes tips like:

• Create a headline that sets the direction of the presentation
• Make it easy for your listeners to follow your story
• Make numbers and statistics meaningful
• Make it visual
• Paint a simple picture
• Identify a memorable moment and build up to it

Nine Old Men

This past Monday, Ollie Johnston, the last of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” died at the age of 95. Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” were the pioneering animators responsible for Disney feature-length animated classics including “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia” and “Lady and the Tramp.”

In his April 16th blog posting, Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer said “Today we live in an age of computer animation, technologically spectacular but sometimes wanting creatively. Too many films substitute artistic detail for story, something that Walt Disney didn’t tolerate, especially in the early days.”

Leopold’s comment can be applied to training and education, specifically e-learning where a common weakness is to use new technologies, in your face graphics or animations, and other bells and whistles in an attempt to engage the audience. The lesson we all can learn is to follow the "Nine Old Men" and Walt Disney’s lead and focus on story.

Meet The Greens

While reading the TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) blog I discovered a kids website created by WGBH in Boston called Meet The Greens. The TED conference is a supporter of this website that teaches kids how to live green. They have some short educational Flash animations that use storytelling to teach kids how to care for our planet.

Why Stories Matter

Seth Godin recently wrote a blog entry titled Which comes first (why stories matter) in which he talks about how the work we do every day tells a story, but if we haven't taken the time to develop a good story to wrap around our work first, before the work, then the work can be random and the story confused, bland, indifferent, or doesn't spread easily. I see a great correlation there with e-learning courses. Most courses start off with objectives . . .

What you will learn

• Recording Sales Transactions
• Submitting Sales Transactions
• Sales Transactions Resources

. . . then it goes right into the meat of the course . . .

"When recording your sales transactions . . .  it is important that all sales associates record and submit sales transactions within 24 hours. This is done by clicking on the Sales Transactions icon . . ."

Try dropping the objectives and start with a powerful story that engages the audience while sharing what they will learn. The story will stick and the association between the "storified" objectives and the content will be locked in . . .

"John Smith is a new hire that wasn't sure how to correctly record his daily sales transactions. One day, John got a call from the accounting department . . ."

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

Author Dan Pink's new book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need launches on Monday and it promises to be a good one. Dan uses the Japanese comic format known as manga to tell the story of Johnny Bunko and the six essential lessons for thriving in the world of work. Check out this great trailer for the book . . .

Storytelling at Pixar

I found an article from 2007 on the Animation World Magazine website titled The Secret of Pixar Storytelling that gives good insight into the Pixar process. Some article highlights below from Pixar Writer/director Andrew Stanton. . .

• "Be wrong as fast as you can." Get your ideas onto the page. The real gold is mined later. This advice is similar to that of Chuck Jones on drawing -- make your mistakes early and fast, so you can get them out of the way. Refine your efforts until you get to the good stuff."Genius" looks effortless only because there are 100,000 bad drawings (so-called failures) already behind you.
• Empathize with your main character, even if you don't like all of his/her motivations or qualities. (For example, Woody in Toy Story initially masked his selfish desires as being selfless.)
• Unity of opposites. Each character must have clear goals that oppose each other.
• You should have something to say. Not a message, per se, but some perspective, some experiential truth.
• Have a key image, almost like a visual logline, to encapsulate the essence of the story; that represents the emotional core on which everything hangs. (For example, Marlin in Finding Nemo, looking over the last remaining fish egg in the nest.)
• Cast actors with an appealing voice, and whom the microphone loves. Test their voice performance with animation to see if it fits.
• Know your world and the rules of it. (Such as in Monsters, Inc.)
• The crux of the story should be on inner, not outer, conflicts.
• Developing the story is like an archeological dig. Pick a site where you think the story is buried, and keep digging to find it.
• Animation should be interpretive, not realistic.
• "Just say no" to flashbacks. Only tell what's vital, and tell it linearly.
• Consider music as a character to anchor the film. Music is a keeper of the emotional truth.

Bringing Visual Art to Life through Stories

I just stumbled across an interesting project/website developed by the Delaware Art Museum called The Art of Storytelling: Bringing Visual Art to Life through Stories developed to encourage and celebrate children's appreciation of the visual arts. The project's aim was to inspire children's interest in visual art through an audio series of narrated stories and featured participating writers, artists and dramatists telling stories about the visual art works.

Richard Garriott Part 4: Developing Characters

Here is part 4 (4 1/2 minute clip) of my conversation with legendary video game programmer and designer, Richard Garriott during which he discusses development of the characters and the challenges of doing so in a game environment.

Check out Richard's new online game Tabula Rasa or keep up on his training to become Earth's sixth private citizen to conduct a space mission aboard the International Space Station (visit his space mission website).