Concision: Put Yourself on the Clock

I spent yesterday evening at a "Speed Venturing" event. Entrepreneurs got 12 minutes to pitch their business to potential investors. Most chaffed at the time constraint, especially when the 'winners' had to summarize their business in 1 minute. Hearing their stories during the un-timed networking, I could tell why: most were technologists and engineers that had really cool concepts. They innovated around some really hard constraints and the results were worth talking about. Most could talk for a half hour without even getting started.

But I'm still a fan of the 12 minute constraint. (As were the investors.)

Constraints foster the best creativity. When you have to get the point across in a few minutes, you come up with the most ingenious ways of doing it. Even if you have an hour for a pitch, I'd practice getting it done in ten minutes. Concision makes you crisper and easier to understand.

Practicing Concision
Materials: a timer and a whiteboard.

• Identify the question you're answering. Write it at the top of the whiteboard: constantly seeing it will give you a clear standard for editing your answer.
• Take your business plan (or other documents) and pick out the important ideas that answer the question. Write these, bullet point style, on the whiteboard.
• With all your potential ideas on the board, answer the question a few times out loud without the timer. Try a few different arrangements and begin to group the ideas in ways that sound connected. You're trying to build a logical order.
• Introduce the timer first as a diagnosis tool. Give your best answer and see how long it takes; then start cutting and rearranging. Set the timer to countdown mode and practice a few more times. You're trying to hear what can be left out without leaving the question unanswered.

Concision is not the same as speed. Talking too fast can make you completely unintelligible. Tease out your most important thoughts and express them with the fewest words possible, leaving time for appropriate pauses and emphasis. Concision should help you be understandable and convincing.

Concision Sample
For an example of taking the complex and making it concise, check out the work I did for Donny Palmertree, a real estate entrepreneur. While this example is in writing, the methods we used were largely the same for spoken presentations.

Technology is a Poor Substitute for Everything

Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Technopoly tells us that technology has an inherent viewpoint, a 'take' on reality. That's obvious. More unsettling is that Postman argues we adopt the viewpoint of the technology we use. For example, by naively citing social science we adopt Scientism--a scarily amoral view of reality. Postman's Technopoly is a negative description of modern American society--wholly taken into technological development, wholly sapped of social mores and the traditions that uphold them. Religion and liberal education have been replaced by bureaucracy and science. God and learning have been replaced by efficiency and progress. Postman is less interested with renewing the vigor of God and learning than with remarking on the stupidity of this exchange. As with any social critic, he's long on problems and short on solutions. Nonetheless, his chapter on Scientism is upsetting enough to make awareness of the problem the beginning of the solution.

If you have a computer or a phone, or have ever used one, read this book.

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Charles Spurgeon - Daily Help

God is glorified by our serving him in our proper vocations. Every lawful trade may be sanctified by the gospel to noblest ends. Turn to the Bible, and you will find the most menial forms of labor connected either with most daring deeds of faith, or with persons whose lives have been illustrious for holiness. Therefore be not discontented with your calling. Whatever God has made your position, or your work, abide in that, unless you are quite sure that he calls you to something else. Let your first care be to glorify God to the utmost of your power where you are. Fill your present sphere to his praise, and if he needs you in another he will show it you.

Sent from the Daily Help Devotional. For devotionals like this one for your iPhone, visit us at 43rdElement.com

Sent from my iPhone

Telling Stories

Communication starts with telling good stories. Stories start with characters.

In the 9/28 episode of This American Life, some economy-wonk-ish journalists update us on the housing crunch story they first told a year and a half ago. They told the stories of people that got ridiculous loans, brokers that almost lied to sell these loans, and the brilliantly near-sighted financiers that connected the dots on some monumentally bad deals. The economic update stood out from the 2 minute news stories we hear every day because they told it through these characters.

But the character that made the biggest impression on me was the "big pool of money," as the journalists dubbed the world's total liquid, investable wealth. By taking this macroeconomic concept and giving it a clever label and almost human emotions, they painted an effective picture of how the market, in a macro sense, works. I remember the big pool of money. And I remember its story, and thus theirs.

Memorable communication starts with characters and stories.

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The 9/28 episode in iTunes.

Google Wave: The Question Behind the Questions

The technophiles are asking: what will people use Google Wave for? What does it do best? What will it do to email and chat? Will it flop?

These questions are obvious, thought-provoking, and cool. But they miss the point. Technological 'advancement' is change--never neutral, never the status quo. Thus we should move less quickly from considering its morality. What will we destroy by accepting it? What does it force us to leave behind? What does accepting it force us to accept about ourselves?

I am no moral philosopher, but after watching a few videos about Google Wave, I wonder: what does it mean that any part of conversation can be edited by any participant? The Wikipedia crowd will say: it means the sum of human knowledge. But what does it mean for wisdom? If everyone can own every word, can anyone? Will we be responsible for what we produce in a google wave? This technology alters our interaction, hence ourselves. Is this alteration desirable? Why?

Maybe that is a poor attempt at asking the question behind the questions. But we should start here.

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I am reading Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, by Neil Postman.

How Businesses Should Use Social Networks

I read this Wall Street Journal article per the recommendation of @actonmba. The author chronicles the strategies small businesses use in social networking: from paying consultants to do it for you--to getting training--to doing it on your own. As a consultant working on these projects, I like the article's conclusion: use social networking in a way that works for your needs.

Doing Twitter Yourself
Over the summer, I worked with Isaiah McPeak, to begin using Twtter to connect with his customers. As I explain in my portfolio page, his primary customers are teens and their parents--he needed a way to connect with them beyond maintaining a blog. I proposed he begin using Twitter and it be a centerpiece of his new website. Now he connects directly with 50 followers and every site visitor (400-500 per month) can see his latest tweet.

Maintaining Twitter himself enables Isaiah to build a direct connection with his customers and stimulate a conversation about educational debate. It wouldn't make sense for me to maintain his Twitter--the idea is a direct connection from his expertise to his customers.

Ghost Writing Blogs
This fall, I've been working with Yellis & Foley CPA on their marketing efforts. In addition to building their first website, their LinkedIn presence, and their local search listings, I've implemented a 'Tax News Blog.'

The partners at Yellis & Foley use the blog to disseminate updates on tax news and online planning tools. However, because they are simply publishing information, they don't need to actually post each entry and manage the feed themselves. Contracting this service out to me increases the effectiveness of their campaign. I can optimize each entry for search engine placement and publish the feed in appropriate channels--things they'd have to invest significant time to learn before doing.

Conclusion
I think there is a general rule here. When businesses want to use social networks in to further an essential conversation, they should own the effort themselves (with appropriate training and support). When businesses use social networking as part of their marketing scheme, they can outsource its implementation.