I do go on about it, but RSS feeds are an excellent resource for ANY learner. Its just finding the most appropriate feeds. My RSS feeds bring a wonderful world of learning opportunity direct to me, to my Google Reader and via my iTunes account to my iPhone.
Last week it was Apple’s former chief evangelist, Guy Kawasaki, sharing his insight about the art of changing hearts, minds and actions courtesy of the #LWF vodcast. Not only is he a very accomplished speaker, he is also very balanced and modest and his concepts of business ‘enchantment,’ make for great reflection. My education takeaways may not necessarily match Guy Kawasaki’’s ‘business’ insights, but is that not the point? The point is to interpret and apply, to contextualise and that is what I have tried to do?
Customize the introduction
Never present the exact same presentation twice, never send the exact same CV to two different application. Personalise.
Achieve Likability
Avoid ‘Pan Am’ smile, make a Duchenne smile. Smiling with your eyes, conveying a spark of confidence and joy. Dress for a tie. Under dress and you will give your audience the impression of not caring but overdress and you will give your audience the impression you think you are better than they are. Dress like your audience and build rapport. Show your passion, reveal who you are.
Achieve Trustworthiness
First, you trust others and then they trust you.
Trust others. Default to ‘yes’ attitude. Always think how you can help the other person. (Prototype – more of that later.) Be a ‘baker’.
Eaters want a bigger slice of an existing pie; bakers want to make a bigger pie. Adapted Kawasaki .
DICEE
Make things Deep, Intelligent, Complete, Empowering, Elegant. Great products make you more productive. Make it appealing. In the case of education, how do we make ourselves, educators, or our lessons DICEE? Guy Kawasaki introduced the concept of a pre-mortem? An exercise in envisioning the potential pitfalls of your product, of why it #failed. In education, a strategy or even the teaching itself.
Launch Simple Stories
Tell a great story. Stories with purpose and relevance. Use salient points, give meaning to numbers by putting them into a context your audience can understand. In education, don’t talk about percentages, show the students names or iconise the data. Here, 82% of girls passed the exam compared to 73% of boys.
Social Proof
Guy Kawasaki introduced the concept of social proof. His example, was white ear buds of the iPod. As soon as you saw more people using white ear buds you thought more people are buying iPods. How do we add social proof in schools to show that learning or positive behaviour, for example, is the aspiration? This is one question I need to consider.
Invoke reciprocation
When you do something for someone, let the other person should thank you. Don’t simply say ‘you’re welcome’, say ‘I know you would do the same for me’. I believe this has a strong connect to the ‘default to yes’ aspect. Answer your email, your @ and DM (in Twitter) quickly.
Presentation Skills
10 slides. 20 minutes. 30 point font is a fair model, that is, if you are not Guy Kawasaki.
A bad presenter can make a 10 slides presentation feel like its lasted 40 minutes. A good presenter can present 40 slides, but make it feel like its only been 10 minutes.
Less is often more, especially when you want to make your presentation memorable.
Enchant Up
If your boss (client) is asking you something, do it right now. Prototype fast. Deliver bad news early…. .and even better than early, deliver it with a solution.
Enchant Down
Do the dirty jobs. Do them with your team.
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