Five Common Pieces of Advice for Public Speakers That Are Totally Stupid

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In her latest book, Karen Hough addresses the importance of public speaking. However, Karen takes a firm stance against the standard tips doled out to speakers and in fact argues that following your heart and passions, not overly-generalized prescriptions, is what can make all the difference. Actually, most of the prescribed tips are rather silly and pointless, really.

Here are five common pieces of advice for speakers that are just ridiculous, and why:

1. Picture the audience in their underwear
This is supposed to put you at ease by imagining the audience in a compromising or "exposed" scenario. But do you really want to imagine Bob from Maintenance and Supplies in his tighty-whities? This technique takes way too much energy and can actually distract you from what you should be focusing on, which is speaking. It's also a matter of respect -- you are not there to belittle the audience purely for your own comfort, you are there to tell them something which will help them. These are people you want to help, so don't reduce them to caricatures in strange underwear, but see them as the professionals they are and do right by them (they'll notice and be grateful for it).

2. Practice in front of a mirror.
Yes, do this over and over again until you thoroughly impress yourself. Here's the catch: impressing yourself is not the problem -- impressing others is. All you learn from talking into a mirror is how best to talk into a mirror. And mirrors are lousy at giving feedback, too. In fact, the only thing you will get from practicing in front of a mirror is actual recognition that you sometimes have a pool of saliva form at the corner of your mouth or that you have a strange nervous tic -- the sort of things that a regular audience can't see but now you will drive yourself crazy worrying about. So now instead of conveying your emotion and passion through your facial expressions, you will hold your face in an unemotional and wooden way, like some over-botoxed debutante. Good job, mirror.

3. Your goal is to give a good/nice presentation.
Remember when one of your colleagues gave that absolutely dreary talk accompanied by that PowerPoint that was used on detainees at Guantanamo before it was deemed too cruel and inhuman? And do you remember what you told your colleague afterwards? Yep, you said "Nice presentation! Good job!" "Good" or "nice" is almost an insult (like when someone says "Nice hat" because that is never a compliment). Your goal is to make something happen and to provoke action on the part of the audience, not to have them casually remark that your presentation was nice and then promptly forget all about it. Being told your presentation was "good" or "nice" is pretty bad because it guarantees no one will remember or do anything. Heck, at least people remember you when you're really bad. Your goal is not to give a good presentation. Your goal is to make something happen because your presentation is not the goal, but what people do because of your presentation is.

4. Apologize when you screw up.
Apologizing for presentation-related mistakes -- either for ones you have made or ones you feel you are going to make -- only makes the audience dread your presentation more. When a presenter starts by saying how he or she hasn't had a chance to review certain things or that he or she isn't the best at something, the audience lets out a silent but collective groan. Congratulations, you've just informed these good folks that they are in for torture because you're a moron. Everyone makes mistakes and making a couple of them can even endear you to your audience. Why? Because they've been there, too, and they have made mistakes and when you do likewise, you are forming a bond with them. Everyone knows when you've made a mistake, so just carry on. Don't make it a point to stop and apologize because that's a bit like saying "Oh, look! Everybody play a game now where they can spot all my screw ups!" And that's what they will focus on and remember the best: your screw-ups. Don't apologize, just acknowledge it, make a joke if you can, and just move on.

5. Scan the back of the room to make it look like you're making eye contact without actually having to make eye contact.
Making eye contact with the audience members can scare some presenters. It can make you nervous when you lock eyes with someone and a weird thought enters your mind ("He looks like a serial killer!"), or it can be distracting when you look at someone who is digging their nose or slowly falling asleep. To counter this, speakers are often told to "scan the back of the room" so it looks like you're making eye contact with people in the rows behind the rows watching you. Here's the problem, everyone knows what you're doing and it is faker than that girl you knew in high school. Worse yet, now the audience knows that you are faking it so they've lost all respect for you. Meanwhile, your eyes are still blankly darting around like Al Pacino's character from Scent of a Woman.

Five Things the US Government Would Prefer You Didn't Know

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As Bea Edwards latest book reveals, the US government, in cahoots with private companies, is taking away rights from citizens while also prying more and more into our personal lives. So it's only fair that as concerned citizens, we pry right back to determine exactly what kind of government supposedly represents us.

As it turns out, our government has a few secrets of its own that it would prefer people not know. Here are just five:

1. They run legitimate-sounding companies as fronts for intelligence gathering.
There are certain kinds of companies that never pay taxes, don't have office space, and have few if any legitimate employees. These are usually intelligence fronts or shells. The Gibraltar Steamship Company never actually shipped anything, they were created exclusively for activities related to the Bay of Pigs invasion. Air America was supposedly a commercial civilian air carrier that traveled all over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war but actually carried out clandestine CIA operations. And let's not forget Brewster Jennings & Associates at 101 Arch Street in Boston, MA -- a thoroughly fictitious company that counted CIA operative Valerie Plame as an "employee."

2. They do not share information with the public and offer no reasons why.
The Freedom of Information Act was at one time heralded as a major step towards a transparent government serving a citizenry that wished to remain informed. While some documents are considered important for national security, others seem to be protected for no obvious reason. For example, there are seven reports on US naval mines and a few reports on "secret inks" being used by German forces that remain sealed to this day despite being from 1918. They are:

+ "Detection of Secret Ink" (January 1, 1918); Report

+ "Memo: Heingelman to Marlenck (October 30, 1918); Memo

+ "Invisible photography and writing, synthetic inks" (January 1, 1918 and June 14, 1918); 2 pamphlets

+ " US Naval Mines, Mine Anchor, Mark VI" (January 26 and May 1,1918); 2 reports
Ordnance Pamphlet 575 "Enemy Mines" (June 1, 1918); pamphlet

What possible security threat could such documents from almost a century ago pose? Or rather, do they contain details about something else?

3. They do not always take citizens' safety into account.
Nuclear tests are meant to be conducted under stringent controls and yet there have been confirmed reports of radiation leakage into civilian-populated areas. These events happened as recently as April, 1986 (code name Mighty Oak) where radiation reached Medlins Ranch, NV; in March, 1986 (code name Glencoe) where radiation reached Lathrop Wells, NV; and in 1985 (code name Misty Rain) where radiation was detected at Reed Ranch Road and Rachel, NV.

4. They can be hypocritical when it comes to money and powerful corporations.
There are certain key nations that are considered enemy states to the US -- that is, these countries are supposedly involved in actions that intentionally undermine the US government and plot against the nation in several ways. These nations include North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan, and others. Just the same, the following US corporations have been permitted to conduct business in such nations: Chevron, Dupont, Down, Exxon, Halliburton, JP Morgan Chase, American Express, Honeywell, and about forty others.

5. They will lie outright.
There are too many examples here but the one that most comes to mind is the "absolute and conclusive" proof that Iraq had WMDs under Saddam Hussein, despite inspectors and others finding no reason to suggest as much. Watergate, Guantanamo, the Pentagon Papers, and so on -- there's a stretch of lies that goes all the way back to the violated peace treaties with American Indians.


Sources: Nevada Operations Office, US Dept. of Energy DOE/NV-317 (Rev.1) UC-702, Aug 1996; National Archives and Records Administration FOIA request NGC04-003; Foreign Relations, Guatemala, 1952-1954, State Department; False Claims Act and Qui Tam Quarterly Review, various issues 1995-2004; and The Book of Lists by Russ Kick, MJF Publishers, New York, 2004

Thirty Examples of Successful Nonviolent Action

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In Michael Nagler's latest book, he explains how to use the practice of nonviolence for the sake of progress and challenging injustice. It is literally a weapon of spirit. Many have dismissed nonviolence, however, and think that it may have worked in India during the independence movement, but otherwise has no proven track record. They would be wrong.

Nonviolence has been used as a tool for change since before the time of Christ all the way up to just a year ago, and here are just thirty global and historical examples of nonviolent action achieving real results:

494 B.C. -- The plebeians of Rome withdrew from the city and refused to work for days in order to correct grievances they had against the Roman consuls. 

1765-1775 A.D. -- The American colonists mounted three major nonviolent resistance campaigns against British rule (against the Stamp Acts of 1765, the Townsend Acts of 1767, and the Coercive Acts of 1774) resulting in de facto independence for nine colonies by 1775. 

1850-1867 -- Hungarian nationalists, led by Francis Deak, engaged in nonviolent resistance to Austrian rule, eventually regaining self-governance for Hungary as part of an Austro-Hungarian federation. 

1905-1906 -- In Russia, peasants, workers, students, and the intelligentsia engaged in major strikes and other forms of nonviolent action, forcing the Czar to accept the creation of an elected legislature. 

1917 -- The February 1917 Russian Revolution, despite some limited violence, was also predominantly nonviolent and led to the collapse of the czarist system. 

1913-1919 -- Nonviolent demonstrations for woman's suffrage in the United States led to the passage and ratification of the Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. 

1920 -- An attempted coup d'etat, led by Wolfgang Kapp against the Weimar Republic of Germany failed when the population went on a general strike, refusing to give its consent and cooperation to the new government. 

1923 -- Despite severe repression, Germans resisted the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr, making the occupation so costly politically and economically that the French and Belgian forces finally withdrew. 

1920s-1947 -- The Indian independence movement led by Mohandas Gandhi is one of the best known examples of nonviolent struggle. 

1933-45 -- Throughout World War II, there were a series of small and usually isolated groups that used nonviolent techniques against the Nazis successfully. These groups include the White Rose and the Rosenstrasse Resistance. 

1940-43 -- During World War II, after the invasion of the Wehrmacht, the Danish government adopted a policy of official cooperation (and unofficial obstruction) which they called "negotiation under protest." Embraced by many Danes, the unofficial resistance included slow production, emphatic celebration of Danish culture and history, and bureaucratic quagmires.

1940-45 -- During World War II, Norwegian civil disobedience included preventing the Nazification of Norway's educational system, distributing of illegal newspapers, and maintaining social distance(an "ice front") from the German soldiers.

1940-45 -- Nonviolent action to save Jews from the Holocaust in Berlin, Bulgaria, Denmark, Le Chambon, France and elsewhere.

1944 -- Two Central American dictators, Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez (El Salvador) and Jorge Ubico (Guatemala), were ousted as a result of nonviolent civilian insurrections. 

1953 -- A wave of strikes in Soviet prison labor camps led to improvements in living conditions of political prisoners. 

1955-1968 -- Using a variety of nonviolent methods, including bus boycotts, economic boycotts, massive demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, and freedom rides, the U.S. civil rights movement won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

1968-69 -- Nonviolent resistance to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia enabled the Dubcek regime to stay in power for eight months, far longer than would have been possible with military resistance. 

1970s and 80s -- The anti-nuclear power movements in the US had campaigns against the start-up of various nuclear power plants across the US, including Diablo Canyon in Central California. 

1986-94 -- US activists resist the forced relocation of over 10,000 traditional Navajo people living in Northeastern Arizona, using the Genocide Demands, where they called for the prosecution of all those responsible for the relocation for the crime of genocide. 

1986 -- The Philippines "people power" movement brought down the oppressive Marcos dictatorship. 

1989 -- The nonviolent struggles to end the Communist dictatorships in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and in East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1991.

1989 -- The Solidarity struggle in Poland, which began in 1980 with strikes to support the demand of a legal free trade union, and concluded in 1989 with the end of the Polish Communist regime.

1989 -- Nonviolent struggles led to the end of the Communist dictatorships in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and in East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1991.

1990 -- The nonviolent protests and mass resistance against the Apartheid policies in South Africa, including a massive international divestment movement, especially between 1950 and 1990, brings Apartheid down in 1990. Nelson Mandela, African National Congress leader, is elected President of South Africa in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison for sedition.

1991 -- The noncooperation and defiance defeated the Soviet “hard-line” coup d'état in Moscow.

1996 -- The movement to oust Serbia dictator Slobodan Milosevic, which began in November 1996 with Serbs conducting daily parades and protests in Belgrade and other cities. At that time, however, Serb democrats lacked a strategy to press on the struggle and failed to launch a campaign to bring down the Milosovic dictatorship. In early October 2000, the Otpor (Resistance) movement and other democrats rose up again against Milosevic in a carefully planned nonviolent struggle.

1999 to Present -- Popular protests of corporate power & globalization begin with Seattle WTO protest in Seattle, 1999. This is what set the trend for the Occupy movement which is still alive.

2001 -- The “People Power Two” campaign, ousts Filipino President Estrada in early 2001.

2004-05 -- The Ukranian people take back their democracy with the Orange revolution.

2010 to Present -- Arab Spring nonviolent uprisings result in the ouster of dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt and ongoing struggles in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. 

Five Companies With Negative Social Impact -- Within Their Own Ranks

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Marc Epstein's latest book discusses how companies and organizations can measure and improve their social impact. While this is a very noble pursuit, there are many companies who are actively having negative social impact by not only infuriating their partners and customers but their very own employees!

Here are five companies where the organization's actions upon its own employees has had a very negative social impact:

1. Dish Network (35,000 employees): Not only does this satellite television company have a record number of customer complaints and the lowest customer satisfaction rates in the entire industry, Businessweek called it "The Meanest Company in America." In reviews at Glassdoor the employees complain consistently about the poor pay and benefits. "The benefits are pitiful and the salaries are not current with industry -- I should know as I work in a department that sees the salaries," said one manager. In 2013, Dish Network was named by PRNewser as the worst place to work in America.

2. Express Scripts (30,215 employees): One of America's largest managers of prescription drugs services, this company fills over 1.4 billion prescriptions a year. A major workforce consolidation in 2012 led to Walgreen's breaking their agreement with them as partners because of the number of complaints received from pharmacists and customers alike (see their Consumer Affairs ranking here). Employees are also dissatisfied with the company and complain that the entire company is run on metrics and number-related goals with no attention given to customer service or employee well-being.

3. Dillard's (27,740 employees): Dillard's is a chain of about 300 department stores in 29 states that remains in tight competition with Macy's and Kohl's. While the company's profits are non-existent, the three family members that run the company (Mike, Bill, and Alex Dillard) have pulled in a total of $54 million in salary over the last three years. Dillard's employees are especially unhappy about their hours and pay as well as their sales targets which are not based on daily sales but hourly. The CEO of the company has an approval rating of just 23%.

4. Radio Shack(34,500 employees): You may have seen the Superbowl ad this year by RadioShack where they insist they are going to break out of their 80s image. The problem is that while they pay their executives well and even sponsor a Tour de France team, their employees are paid below industry standards, according to anonymous postings and interviews. In addition to low pay, the hours are strenuous and irregular and supposedly middle-and-upper-level management likes to play favorites with store managers and assign seemingly arbitrary sales quotas.

5. Sears (274,000 employees): Sears Holdings, which owns both Sears and Kmart has been pretty much run by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert since a merger in 2005. Over the last few years, they've gone through a number of CEOs before Lampert decided to be CEO himself. Lampert currently enjoys a 19% approval rating among employees -- one of the lowest ever for a major company. The company ranks next to last in customer service (which isn't that great if you consider that the company in last place is Kmart, which they also own). Morale among employees is considered almost nonexistent as complaints about the availability of work hours and the constant pressure to have customers open new credit cards mount. It is widely believed that Sears may not be standing in 2015.

Five Signs of a Shallow Community

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In his new book, author Paul Born explores what makes a strong and sustainable community. One of the things Paul warns about is how many are often lulled into a false sense of security by participating in "shallow" communities -- communities that seem, initially, to be strong and supportive but whose foundations are flawed.

Here are five signs of shallow communities:

1. Communities of Fear: These are groups formed of people who share a common fear. The problem is that fear is not something that bonds people to each other; all it does is make people more paranoid by validating that paranoia by bringing in others who share the same fear no matter how irrational it may be.

The Alternative: When groups are afraid they can share their fears with each other, bringing what they know, have heard and observed to the whole and in turn make sense of the fear going on around them. We realize how irrational many of our fears are when we deal with them together.


2. Communities of Hate: Aryan Nation groups and others like them claim to be about self-preservation but in fact they are more about hating others unlike them. Whenever you have a group that stands against something as the foundation of what they stand for, it's a sure sign of instability and irrational thinking with foundations in negativity. Nothing good can come of a community founded on hate.

The Alternative: There really is no alternative here. If you are part of a community of hate, please get out and find one that is caring, open, and accepting of debate and diversity. Collective hate will create an “us vs them” scenario every time. Find a Deep community that is welcoming of who you are, all of you.


3. Communities of Elitism: Gated communities and those of the very wealthy are surprisingly poor and lacking in community spirit in comparison with middle class and working class neighborhoods, and the reason for this is simple. Communities of the elite are focused on exclusivity, not inclusivity. However, the same mindset that detaches such people from others will often detach them from their "own kind." There's always elitism even among the elite.

The Alternative: Enjoy all of the differences in your community. Gated communities are most often beautiful and orderly spaces but they are also uniform and homogenous, so you don’t experience or learn anything new.. When you live in a diverse community, you build new skills and are constantly learning. 


4. Communities of Hedonism: “We are here for a good time not a long time, so have a good time the sun can’t shine every day”, is one of my all-time favourite musical lines from the band Trooper. Though living excessively for pleasure, going from one joyful experience to the other comes at the expense of engaging in the lives of people all around you and the real problems that face us. Hedonism is an escape from reality but as we all know, we can never actually escape reality.

The Alternative: The simplest way to deepen your experience of community is to have fun together with the same people over time, which builds reciprocity and trust. Reciprocity and trust are the gate ways to mutuality and caring for one another and the world around you. So go ahead have a good time, just remember at least some of those experiences should be with people who get to know really well over time.


5. Communities of Loneliness: I cannot tell you how many people I know that live in apartment buildings who no few or any of their neighbours by name. Living in close proximity to one another can cause us to create space and boundaries around ourselves. We feel secure in our anonymity. Anonymity has but one friend and that is loneliness.

The Alternative: We all love our own space so I will not ask you to give that up. It is always a good idea to know you neighbour and I can almost guarantee when you do you will find out they love their own space as much as you do. Humans have co-existed for a long time mainly because we are pretty good at enjoying each other, relying on one another, working together and still finding plenty time for ourselves and the things that matter to us. 

Five Reasons Why Execution Needs to Happen More Quickly Now Than Ever Before

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In her latest book, Laura Stack talks about the need to respond to challenges and changes quickly and efficiently -- so much so that execution is, in fact, an actual strategy and not the process of carrying out a separate strategy.

Why are response times getting faster and the need for reactions getting quicker? Here are five reasons:

1. The unprecedented speed of change. Technological evolution and instant worldwide communications means that business can change faster than at any other time in history. We need the ability to execute immediately—not just to take advantage of new trends—but to implement our strategies before change passes us by.

2. The need to execute strategy in the moment. In order to stay ahead of the race, front-line employees must be empowered to execute on the spot, without waiting for permission to percolate down from the top. If management ties their hands, the battle is lost before it begins. Actions are communicated upward, which allows the strategy to course-correct.

3. The convergence of manager and worker. Managers are now members of the team. The leader acts more as guide, facilitator, and cheerleader than dictator; they provide the vision and shape direction, while the professionals execute in the moment. Workers need the flexibility to make their jobs their own so they can execute on the spot and shape strategy upward.

4. Strategic plans age too quickly. When business speed was more sedate and you knew a piece of technology wouldn't become outdated within six months, it made sense to plan company strategy years in advance. That's no longer true. Modern strategic plans must be able to jerk to a stop and turn on a dime. Anyone who doesn't review theirs at least quarterly—if not monthly—runs the risk of failure.

5. Only results matter. Swift, productive strategic execution puts black ink on the bottom line, unlike adherence to a strategy that’s out of date soon after it’s printed. Empower your team members to succeed by executing from experience or experimenting as conditions change.

Learn more, do more, and stress less by checking out the book and other goodies here.

Five Things That Elevate Us from Mediocrity

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In their latest book, authors Harry Paul, John Britt, and Ed Jent present the humorous story of when excellence (personified) is kidnapped and what happens in such cases where a crucial quality goes missing. But underneath the story is real research that outlines the causes of excellence breakdowns in organizations and individuals.

For this newsletter, the authors present the Five Things That Can Elevate Us from Mediocrity to Being Our Best:

1. Real Passion
Passion is the primary building block for excellence, and more importantly, is less of an emotion and more of a daily choice in our attitude. For the employee, it might be the choice to see past the shortcomings of a colleague and rather than distance him or herself from that person, maintain a positive attitude and even help the other person in improving his or her work.

2. True Competency
We often relate competency to the technical skills required to do the job. But competency is not just the technical aspects of our work and lives but also in our relationships with one another. The construction worker who is great at reading blueprints, but lacks the interpersonal skills to be able to relate well with his employees and customers can’t be considered “competent.”

3. Proactive Flexibility 
The only thing that remains constant is that everything changes. Those in the excellence category understand that change happens and they look for positive, practical and professional ways to adapt to the changes. The worker who resists changes and hangs on to the philosophy of “that’s not the way we do things around here” may find himself not only in the land of average but also in the land of the unemployed.

4. Deep Communication
 Perception is everything, and perception is primarily created by communication. Those who understand that there is a delicate balance between listening and talking and that listening is more than just paying attention to the words are on a path to excellence. Some managers think they are “managing” when they hear employees’ concerns, but if they don’t actually listen (instead of just hear), they are not receiving the communications accurately and so can’t act effectively in response. 

5. Personal Ownership 
Who among us has washed a rental car? OK, there are a few of you. But most of us have not. It is not part of the expectation. We are more likely to take care of the things we own. You can go into work with an attitude of just meeting the basic expectations of the job and you may, in fact, be able to fly under the radar screen. Or you can come to work with a perspective of how you would work and operate if you owned the company, your department, your specific work. That is a perspective of excellence.