Free tips library · 19 techniques
19 techniques you can use before your next meeting.
No sign-up, no email, nothing. Each tip has a short video, a drill that takes under two minutes, a plain definition, and references if you want to check the source. Give it 10 minutes and you'll hear the difference.
Voice
Breath, pitch, pace and silence. The physical instrument.
Breathe from below
Your voice shakes when you're nervous because you're breathing in the wrong place.
Diaphragmatic breathing: Breathing that moves the belly rather than the shoulders and upper chest.
Open the tip and drillTip 2Lip trills to warm up
For the first minute of every meeting, your voice is cold. Everyone can hear it.
Lip trill: Blowing air through closed, relaxed lips so they vibrate while you hum a slide.
Open the tip and drillTip 3Land the last word
If your recommendations sound like questions, this is why.
Falling inflection: Pitch moving down at the end of a phrase.
Open the tip and drillTip 4The deliberate pause
The most powerful thing you can say in a meeting is nothing.
Pause: A planned silence.
Open the tip and drillTip 5Slow down by a fifth
Nerves make you talk faster. Faster sounds junior.
Speaking rate: Words per minute.
Open the tip and drillTip 6Lose the fillers
Engineers: your ums aren't endearing. They make you sound weak.
Filler: A sound or word that fills silence while you think: um, ah, so, like, you know..
Open the tip and drillStructure and presence
What you say first, how much you say, and how you hold the floor.
Say the point first
You're presenting in the wrong order.
Bottom line up front: Opening with the conclusion or request, then giving the support.
Open the tip and drillTip 8The rule of three
Nobody remembers your seven reasons.
Rule of three: Grouping ideas in threes.
Open the tip and drillTip 9Explain it to a non-engineer
The council doesn't care about the torque rating.
Consequence framing: Describing a technical issue by its effect on what the audience cares about (money, time, safety, reputation) rather than by its mechanism..
Open the tip and drillTip 10Answer a hard question
The question you dread is coming. Here is what to do.
Restating: Repeating the question in your own words before answering.
Open the tip and drillTip 11When you're talked over
Someone just talked over you. Again.
Turn-taking cue: A signal that a speaker is finishing, such as a falling pitch or a long pause.
Open the tip and drillTip 12Speak off the cuff
Put on the spot and your mind goes blank?
PREP: Point, Reason, Example, Point.
Open the tip and drillStage craft
Techniques borrowed from actors and directors: range, stillness, story, inflection, emphasis and intention.
Mechanics, then range
You've read the books. You've done the courses. Why have you stopped improving?
Range: The span of ways you can deliver the same material: pace, pitch, energy, warmth, stillness.
Open the tip and drillTip 14Stillness
The best actors can stand completely still and still move you.
Stillness: Deliberately not moving while speaking, so any gesture you do make carries meaning..
Open the tip and drillTip 15The project story
Your project update is a list. That is why nobody remembers it.
Story spine: A simple sequence that turns information into a story: situation, obstacle, action, outcome..
Open the tip and drillTip 16Keep the ball in the air
Every time your voice drops at a full stop, your audience relaxes. And stops listening.
Continuation rise: A rise or held pitch that tells the listener more is coming.
Open the tip and drillTip 17The operative word
The simplest way to make any sentence land? Pick one word.
Operative word: The word in a line that carries its meaning or intention, given the emphasis.
Open the tip and drillTip 18Give every line a verb
Same sentence. Four completely different meetings.
Actioning: An acting technique: giving each line a transitive verb (I warn you, I reassure you) so the delivery has a clear intention.
Open the tip and drillTip 19Yes, and: train with improv
The meeting just went off-script. Now what?
Improv: Improvised theatre: scenes made up on the spot with no script.
Open the tip and drillWant these applied to your own presentation?
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