The Broadband Connection. Alan Carroll
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was suspended by a rubber band. When the ball connected to the motor started to move, it sent a wave through the water. The other ball was soon vibrating at the same frequency as the motorized ball; when the motorized ball was turned off, the ball on the rubber band also stopped. During a presentation, you are the ball with the motor. If you are relaxed, you send out a relaxed vibration; if you’re tense or nervous, you send out a nervous vibration. It is only when you pause that you can relax your body.
• Energy flows smoother through a relaxed physical body. Imagine a garden hose that is crimped. The flow of water is reduced. When the garden hose is uncrimped, the flow of water increases.
• The only time you can consciously determine if you have a solid, grounded connection to the floor and release any muscle tensions is during a pause. Having your body grounded in the space has the same benefits as grounding the flow of electricity. It gives you stability and a smooth transfer of your energy to the audience. I call this a body check. When you first start body checking, you become aware that your consciousness has not been connected to your body. As a presenter, you have been unconscious of your body. But your body is the physical machine that is delivering the communication packets and space packets. The more aware you are of the machine, the more body control you will have, and the more effective the delivery of the information will be.
• The only time you can take a deep broadband dive into your database of knowledge and pull up the appropriate next thought is during a pause. When presenters are not pausing, they are not thinking on their feet. They are talking from surface memory or reading PowerPoint slides.
Communication that comes from the depths of your stillness has greater impact than communication that comes from the ripples on the surface. I refer to this as the ability to generate the conversation. The quality or taste of data that is generated from below the surface is far more enjoyable for the audience than data regurgitated from sketchy surface memory.
• The only time you can take a look at your game plan for the conversation and make sure you are still on track is when you pause. If you use written notes, you can quickly check where you are in the conversation.
• The only time you can take a conscious breath is when you pause. Breathing is one of the basic ways to keep your consciousness centered and your body relaxed. You’ll often notice that when you take a deep breath, the audience breathes with you.
• When you pause, you are not speaking, and if you are not speaking, then you are listening. You are listening not only to your body but to the space around you. As you become more aware of that space, you will increase your appropriateness and manifest your intention.
• During the pause, you are giving the audience a chance to absorb, digest, and appreciate the information (data food) you have served them. I call this creating a space for understanding.
• During the pause, you can see the space and the things in space. You can do an agenda check to see if you are covering everything.
• The ability to pause and create space allows you to think about how you want to create and package the next expression of yourself. What words, video, voice, mass, and two-dimensional tools do you want to use to get your thoughts across to the listener?
Not allowing the audience to digest the data is rude and socially inept. Because you’ve allowed the audience to process the data food, they will recognize you as a professional speaker who cares about their understanding of the data.
In the IT world, it is not the quality of the food but rather the quality of the service that counts. The question is “Are you delivering the data at a one-star level of service or at a five-star level of service?”
Creating space when pausing moves you toward providing a five-star level of service. Pausing before speaking creates the impression that what you say is thoughtful, which makes listeners pay more attention.
How long do you sustain the pause? Imagine your communication is like dropping a rock into a pond. The rock hits the surface of the water and sends out waves. You sustain the pause until all the waves have ceased and the quiet calm of the water has returned. The larger the rock—that is, the more significant the point—the longer the pause should be. As you move into being present with the audience, you will know how long to pause because you will be aware of the time it’s taking the audience to absorb and digest your point.
Word Symbol
All words are symbols that represent a thought. In other words, a symbol is a thing that represents something else. For example, when we say the word table, we mean a flat piece of wood with four legs that we can rest things on. When you speak, you are encapsulating thoughts with word symbols and sending those symbols across the wireless space.
The accuracy of the word symbols you use is essential.
Although most people believe they have a clear understanding of the words they use, if they looked up some of these words in a dictionary, they would discover that even if their understanding is in the ballpark, it is definitely not on home plate.
Clearing yourself on the key words and acronyms you are going to use in the presentation will give you a solid foundation to stand on and confidence when delivering your data. It will also give you the advantage in managing any resistance that comes from the audience because you can bet they have not cleared themselves on the words and acronyms.
Following several steps will allow you to satisfy yourself that you are using the words correctly. First, look each of the words up in the dictionary, then look up each of the words in the definition of each word. Check for any synonyms of the word and, finally, demonstrate the word using physical objects or what I call mass (see footnote on page 2).
Think of it like the ringing of a bell. When you strike the bell, it sends out a sound vibration. Once the sound vibration has ceased, you strike the bell again. Dropping data into the space is like striking the bell. Once the sound vibration has stopped, go ahead and drop another communication packet. The more important the point is, the louder the ring and, therefore, the longer the pause.
This completes this section on wireless communication. Your power as a speaker will increase enormously when you shift your awareness from the content to focusing on creating space packets between the communication packets. This ability is the mark of an extraordinary professional speaker.
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* Mass: Most presentations employ PowerPoint® slides, whiteboards, and flip charts, which are two-dimensional tools, to explain abstract concepts. One of the barriers to clarity is that people don’t have enough mass around the concept. Mass is the use of physical items in the space. As a presenter, you should always be looking for mass to help the audience understand abstract IP concepts.
Through the Firewall and Beyond
A firewall is a network device that protects a private network from public network attacks. Everybody in the audience, including the presenter, has their own psychological firewalls created by their minds.
Where Did the Firewall Come From?
We can draw an instructive analogy from dinosaurs. When a dinosaur woke up in the morning and looked out over the Jurassic plain, it might have seen either dinosaurs that were larger than itself or dinosaurs that were smaller. If it saw a dinosaur that was larger, its reptilian brain would tell it to turn around and run away. If it saw a smaller dinosaur, its brain would tell it to attack and have breakfast. Therefore, one of the primary design functions of the