It's All In How You Look At It

Punctuation is Powerful

An English professor wrote the words:
"A woman without her man is nothing"
on the chalkboard and asked his
students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing."

All the females in the class wrote:
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

Punctuation is powerful.

Marketing Spin

We all know that presentation is important, whether it is for a good meal or a good proposal. One way to show the range of what can be changed or modified is to get your participants to look at the pictures featured on this website.


I find these pictures remarkable.

http://thirdeyedumb.com/2007/04/the_power_of_makeup_different.html



How I Would Use This

I would show participants a handful of these pictures and ask them to match the girl with the job:

For example:

Secretary
Lawyer
Teacher
Cabaret Singer
Housewife and Mom

etc. You make up the categories.
I would not tell them that this is the same model in each picture.

Build to a discussion about how spin and marketing and presentation affect how we feel about things.

Famous Nay-Sayers

"Everything that can be invented, has been invented."
-Charles Duell, Director of US Patent Office, 1899

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
-Harry M. Warner, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1927

"Sensible and responsible women do not want the vote."
-Grover Cleveland, 1905

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."
-Robert Millikan in 1903 - 1923 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics

"Heavier than air flying machines are impossible"
-Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895

These are fun arent' they?

How I Would Use This

1. I think I would take the dates off and the authors and see if the group could get them into chronological order.

2. One thing I notice is that the comments are made by people who are "in the know", experts in their field, so to speak. I think that makes an interesting point about how sometimes we get too close to the action to ever be able to visualize a different outcome.

Open With A Bang

A great way to start a presentation is to connect your topic with something that happened on this day in history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

This site is a good place to get ideas. Let's look at April the first.

1991 - First female Premier of a Canadian province takes office. Rita Johnston succeeds William Vander Zalm, who resigned, as Premier of British Columbia.

So here is an idea. I am giving a talk about stress. I see the above information and turn it into a point I am making about how being the first to do something new and different can be exciting but can be stressful too. I talk about Rita, "imagine her feelings", "the first woman in the job" etc.

Then I connect the point that stress doesn't have to be something negative to affect us. Sometimes it is just something new or a change.

Get the idea.
Ramble through the days in history to dig for new ideas. Give the brain a kick start.