Making Numbers Come Alive

Often in presentations we need to give our audience numbers or statistics. So often I just glaze over when a bunch of numbers are thrown at me, and if the lights are off and the projector is going it is even worse. So, when I can, I try to make the numbers come alive, become real, become images.

I am reading a novel called Suspect by Michael Robotham. This book is just a good read, nothing deep, nothing special, but a paragraph caught my eye:

The narrator, a clinical phychologist, is talking about the number of people who hurt themselves. He writes,

"One in fifteen people harm themselves at some point in their lives: that's two children in every classroom, four people on a crowded bus, twenty on a commuter train and two thousand at an Aresenal home game."

I believe Arsenal is a football team.

So why am I telling you this?. Well, the first part of the paragraph, one in fifteen people was sort of interesting, but when I could picture the classroom, the bus, the train and the game, I got a completely different impression.

So I challenge you to look in your work where you are using numbers and see if you can bring them alive with images.

By the way, did you know that here in Vancouver we make enough garbage each year to fill the BC Place Stadium to the rafters twice? Go figger.

Double Blind Tests

www.planet-science.com/news/#6

Today I refer you to this excellent website which explains about a scientist who created double blind clinical trials. Now this has me thinking. In a double blind test, not only does the participant taking the test (let's say a drug) not know if he or she is getting a real drug or a placebo, neither does the person giving them the test.

So, human nature being what it is, I imagine there are lots of clues that we give away as we give tests and lots of clues we pick up as we take tests. Just food for thought.

Now off to take an aspirin (or is it really an aspirin)

MInd Reader Metaphor

Here are the two ideas I have for a metaphor for the activity found in Mind Reader.

1) When we make assumptions we stop looking for solutions.

2) It isn't always just about us. (the focus is only on your card)

Anyone else?

Mind Reader

My friend Raymond Nakamura sent me this site:

http://www.gamesforthebrain.com/game/mindreader/


I really enjoyed playing with this activity and think it is a wonderful metaphor. I will let you play with it first, and I will put my idea for a metaphor into the next posting. In the meantime, what would you use it for?

Asked and Answered

I have been working on some ideas for adding zip to the review portion of a training.

I am not sure where I first saw this idea, but it might have been at this site: http://www.eureka-tp.com/
This fellow has some amazing ideas, all of them extremely practical, and has made an art out of fine tuning fun and exciting training.

Activity

Let's say the group has been working on a topic for half the day and there was quite a lot of information dispersed. At the end of the morning I give out index cards. Half the group gets question cards and the other half get answer cards.

Then everyone walks around looking for their match. Once the match is found, we discuss the questions and answers and bring up any additional points.

For example: let's say I am teaching a class on how to enter contests. Here are a few question and answer cards. Go ahead, try to match them up for yourself.

Questions
How many times can you enter a contest if it says "one entry only"?
How can I get my name and address and details filled in on forms automatically?
Do we have to pay tax on our winnings?
Is there any mailing costs I have to pay on a prize?

Answers
In Canada we don't pay tax on our winnings.
You can enter it only one time or you will be disqualified.
You shouldn't have to pay mailing costs, but you might have to pay customs.
Roboform fills in contest forms automatically.

Should be an action-packed, fun way to create a review and give people an opportunity to add their comments.

100 Words

Quick now, can you think of 100 words that do NOT contain the following letters:
C,J,K,M,P,Q,Z.

Are you coming up with some of the words? Good.
I can do it faster. Ready, let's go.... I will give you a headstart of ten words.


..................

Here are my words, one, two, three, four, five...... and so on until I get to one hundred.

I am not sure how I would use this activity, but it might have something to do with systems. Got an idea for this activity, let me know, just post your comments here.

By the Way : June 18 is our next Wizbanger Workshop in Vancouver. contact me at info@calderonconsulting for more details.

Ride a Bike

You have to see this bike. It is really a marvel and looks likes lots of fun for teamwork sessions.

http://www.conferencebike.com/


Just take a look.

Name Those Planets

Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

Did you know the order of the planets without having to read it here?

Okay, look away from the screen and name the planets again in order.
Could you do it?

Sometimes a learning aid can be indispensable. I have used a mnemonic since I was a small child; perhaps you know it too.

My very easy method, just set up nine planets!

I take the first letter of each word and it stands for the first letter of the planet. You just have to remember that Mercury comes first.

There are so many ways to help people learn, mnemonics, rhymes, stories and the like. Get creative with chunking the information that you are giving the participants and see what they can remember.

If you have any ideas on how to get people to remember information that you use in your presentation, please feel free to post them.

Very Important Memo and Communication

Here is an idea I heard about, but, sorry to say, I can't remember who told me.
Key Learning Point: Miscommunication and how easily it happens.
Setup: One large group, three volunteers.

Make up a VIM, a very Important Memo from someone terribly important to the group. Could be the president of the university, the CEO, a star of the industry or whoever. Make sure the memo has lot of detail in it, facts, instructions, descriptions, details, details and details.
Ask three people to volunteer and send two of them outside of the room. With a lot of pomp read this memo to the volunteer left inside. Make sure he or she understands that it is a VIM and they need to pay attention to all the details. Once they have heard the memo there is no going back to check details, they have to catch it all the first time around. No note taking is allowed.Then ask one of the volunteers to come back into the room. In front of the rest of the group, have the first volunteer repeat back everything from the memo that they can remember. Repeat this with the last volunteer, the second one tells the memo as he or she remembers it and then the third volunteer recites it to the whole group.

Meanwhile, the group listen for areas of accuracy and places where the details are hopelessly lost.
Lead to a discussion of communication, how it can be watered down, and how we can ensure that all the people get all the information they need. You might also use it to look at which details got across to the group and why.
If you have a unique way of creating this same point, or another way of using this activity, let me know.

Here is a memo I would use:

To all trainers
from Presentation Wizard, Deb Calderon on May 13, 2005.
I want to make sure that you will all be available for an all group training session in Vancouver on June 18th. This training session will cover the following aspects of training: warm ups that work, how to get groups learning and laughing, how to add hot spice, what to do when things are lagging and how to handle props. There are only 30 spaces in the workshop and last time it was a sell out with over 35 people showing up. The workshop takes place in a very nice room at Slocan and Grandview in Vancouver which is on Vancouver's East Side near the boundary with Burnaby. The nice thing about the room is that is it held in a housing co-op so lots of light and window. You will even get a cup of coffee and a cookie, perhaps vanilla, but more likely chocolate.
I will be presenting with Ken Bellemare, fellow Presentation Wizard, who is the co-author of Wizbangers. He is not only a trainer, but a magician too. The workshop will start at 9:30 and go until 12:30. We like to keep the costs really low so that as many people can come as possible, so it will be a really good deal. Conact me at 604 874-7390 to get more information, or if you prefer, email me at debcalderon@telus.net
Cheers
Deb Calderon

Keystone Moments

Quick - what is a keystone?
You've heard of it, but what is it?

According to Westwind Design a Keystone is: In unit-masonry (e.g., stone block or brick) construction, the keystone is the central stone which completes the construction of an arch and permits it to carry vertical loads. The keystone is wider at the top than at the bottom, so that it acts like a wedge which uses the weight placed on it to force the other blocks forming the arch together, thus preventing them from falling.

When I think about the keystone or look at pictures of one, I realize that within the arch it doesn't look exactly like the other stones or bricks. It is is wider at the top. I am not sure where I am going with this metaphor, but I think it is interesting that this wedge is required to maintain the force required to keep an arch standing.

What would be a keystone within an organization? Could it be a particular person, an event, an activity, or a vision. Without the keystone the rest of the arch would not stand, yet it is added at the completion of the building of the arch.

So, think about keystones, where they are in our lives and what they mean. The amazing thing about the keystone is that it helps all the other stones or bricks maintain a pressure that allows them to stay upright.

Shakleton's props

A wonderful film comes from A& E television and is simply called Shakleton. It stars Kenneth Branagh as Sir Shakleton on his journey to the south pole. I highly recommend it as a film which features a outstanding characteristics of a leader.

Now the props.

There is one point in the movie, in which Sir Shakleton tells his crew they must abandon their ship as it is ice-bound. The expedition will proceed on foot until it reaches the water. At this point, he tells the crew that they can only carry 2 lbs each of equipment including their journals.

Then he holds up a tray filled with all kinds of his personal belongings and turns the tray over, letting all his personal items fall onto the ice, making him the first person to let go of his extra baggage. He goes on to take a bible, given to the expedition by a member of the royal family, takes 3 pages from it as a remembrance, and then discards that also.

What a powerful message. He could have, as leader of the expedtion, simply given the orders to the crew. But by using the real items or props in a live demonstration, he makes the point so much more effectively.

Movies offer us all kinds of teachable moments. This one jumped out at me because of the props. Do you have any favourite movies for making key learning points?

www.calderonconsulting.com

Anti Gravity

Here is an idea that comes from our Wizbanger book - http://www.calderonconsulting.com/products.html

It is a great way to energize your training, and create memorable key learning points.

Anti- Gravity #82 of over 101 of these activities

key learning points: trust, faith

Hold a water glass upside down to make a dramatic point.

Here's What You Do
Fill a glass with water right to the brim and place an index card on it so that the entire surface is covered. Holding the card in place with your hand, turn the glass upside down. Do this carefully and quickly. Slowly remove your hand from below the index card. The water should stay in the glass supported only by the index card. Air pressure from outside is holding the card against the water.

This trick can be used to illustrate trust; trust in the process, trust in the situation, trust in the operator, etc.
Invite a volunteer to join you in the demonstration and turn the glass upside down above the person's head.

Keep in mind that occasionally the card will slip and water will spill out, so make a big production out of dressing your volunteer in a raincoat and hat. Practice this trick to perfect if before you use it in a presentation.

A variation: Write a word that represents something powerful to your group on the index card. Examples: love, commmitment, partnership, loyalty, the company name, etc. Then show the group that the word is so powerful that it can hold back the water (let the water represent something negative, e.g. evil, hysteria, the competition, the falling dollar, stress, rap music, what have you)

Okay, I just threw the rap music bit in - it isn't really in the book.

Anyway, I learned this trick a long long time ago. I have used it in a number of situations and it really gets the audience's attention.