The Recipe for Great Communication
Posted On May 13, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
If we look at our communication as if it were a meal that our audience will consume, we’ll of course want to prepare a communication “meal” they will enjoy. A meal that will satisfy their hunger for simple, valuable communication. And in order to do that, there are 5 ingredients that must be included in […]
Explaining Baseball to a Five Year Old
Posted On May 12, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
My son Zach has made a few guest appearances in our blog here. He frequently says or does something that makes me see connections between my work, and my conversations with him. Despite his age, he seems to have a knack for saying the simple little things to inspire me. Anyway… he did it again […]
The Many Benefits of Clarity and Brevity
Posted On April 27, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
We are learning to deal with details and data, enormous amounts of it. We have spent the last 20+ years making massive improvements to the ways we create it, gather it, store it, share it, and analyze it. But it is only recently that we have realized that all this information and data and details […]
Speaking, Retention, and the Audience Experience
Posted On April 22, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
Your audience will only remember a small percentage of what you say. Some studies suggest it will be less than 20%. Fact. Other studies suggest that the average adult attention span is now about 8 seconds. Bummer. So what do you do about it? Focus on all three aspects of the audience experience: 1. Make […]
When People Listen to You
Posted On April 20, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
We all know how it feels to have our time wasted. Have you ever been in a meeting/presentation/conference call that seemed to have no purpose? Or where the speaker could not get to the point? Or where you wondered why you were even there? [Pause for you to nod in agreement…] Have you ever listened […]
The New Competitive Advantage
Posted On April 16, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
We recently wrote about the shift from the Information Age to the newly sprouting Communication Age. Information is now fully a part of our lives. It is baked into everything we do. And we are now on the back side of this massive shift towards more, better, more-easily-accessed information. The new competitive advantage will come […]
The Lost Art of Compromise
Posted On April 14, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
On April 9th, The U.S. marked the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War. While I’m not a historian, history (American military history, specifically) is a favorite subject of mine, so this week’s commemoration has me thinking. In the wake of General Lee’s surrender to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, President Lincoln […]
A Simple Tip for Communicating More Value
Posted On April 2, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
When you are giving a business presentation, do you tell people what you think is most important? Or do you find ways to demonstrate value from their perspective? When we are talking about being more persuasive, this is one of the most important things to consider. If you want to persuade anyone of anything, you […]
Are You Ready for the Post-PowerPoint World?
Posted On March 30, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
How many PowerPoint presentations are given every day? No one really knows, but there is an oft-cited number of 30 million daily that seems to make its way around the internet. But this number has no apparent source, and there really is no way to truly know the correct number. But here is something we […]
What’s at the Heart of All Great Business Communication?
Posted On March 25, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
The hardest thing for any subject matter expert (SME) to do is to explain his or her area of expertise in simple and clear ways. When we are “in” it, when we are living the topic every day, and when we know a lot about it, it is really hard to distance yourself from it and […]