Project Junction

Fortune asked 25 accomplished people to relate the best and worst advice they ever got. They didn’t ask me, but if they had … here’s what I would have shared.

The best advice I ever got came in the 70’s when hair was long, shirts were silk, and Pablo Cruise ruled the airwaves. That’s my brother Truck in this picture sporting a “cool” white suit with a peach fluffy shirt to set the mood for this post. Notice the canal in this shot. Back then I worked dockside with my dad repairing boat engines.

The Problem

A customer, who we will call Mr. Rich, had a nagging problem with his engines overheating. He’d already called two other mechanics who dismantled and changed the impeller, risers, and heads … but the engines still ran hot. Can you imagine shelling out over $1,000 and still see the temperature dial turn red?

Eventually, Mr. Rich found my Dad in the yellow pages(fn) and we visited him on his boat.

The Simple Solution

After listening to the problem, Dad turned to me and told me to strip down, jump in the water and check the hull. I was a little annoyed. Stripping down to my tidy whitey’s didn’t bother me as much as working in wet underwear the rest of the morning. There was no saying “No” to my Dad so I took a deep breath and jumped feet first into the water (in case it was shallow). When I touched the murky bottom, I pushed up with my hand above my head to feel for the hull and then followed it to the water intake scupper. Sure enough there was a plastic bag stuck in the hole. A simple yank to extract the bag and the problem was resolved.

The perception of work

After I came up out of the water, I told Mr. Rich that I “fixed” the problem by clearing the water intake. “That will be $30.” He looked perturbed. I figured he was upset with the other mechanics that failed to solve his problem. After an uncomfortable pause, Mr. Rich reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and paid my fee.

“Make it look like you expended some effort.” –Salty

Dad forgot to thank me for making quick work of the job. Instead, he stopped at a light a few miles down the road and gave me a healthy tap to my left arm. He then dispensed the best advice I ever got: “Don’t you ever charge someone $30 for 30 seconds worth of work! Next time, dive down at least three times and pound on the bottom of the hull to make it look like you expended some effort.”

The lesson: even though $30 was the right price for the job, if you want repeat business, you must give the customer the perception of value.

Now it’s your turn to share. What’s the best (or worse) advice you ever got?

_______________________

fn Yellow pages were an ancient manuscript once used to find telephone numbers

I live in an IBM world enamored by pointless presentations. PowerPoint decks choke our mailboxes with pointless data. Meetings present these decks in a variety of formats delivered by emotionless wonks.

My personal growth mission over the last six months has been to improve my own presentation skills so that I don’t contribute to the wasted air on conference calls. This is the sum total of presentation wisdom that I’ve gleaned from formal classes, searches on the internet and tips from people I consider to be effective communicators.

PowerPoint mechanics

• Blank the screen whenever the discussion drifts off the slide by pressing the “B” key in slide show mode.
• To go directly to a slide, just type the slide # followed by the Enter key in slide show mode.
  • If you print out a cheat sheet in slide sorter view, you’ll be able to quickly find the slide number and go to it during a meeting.
  • You’ll never need to create hyperlinks again.
• Don’t use transitions. If you can’t overcome your addiction to special effects, then use Fade smoothly with a fast speed.
• Use a san serif font.
• Use no more than 3-5 bullets per slide.
• Text should be 20 point font size or larger.
• Watch this Death by PowerPoint slide show.
• Use pictures not silly clip art for impact.
  • The eye is naturally drawn to the bottom right quadrant of your slide. Place smaller pictures there.
  • Remember to compress the picture to web/screen resolution before you choke the network with a massive file. The picture toolbar gives you a convenient icon to compress pictures with an option to compress every every picture in the presentation at once.

Presentation mechanics

• Target no more than 3 takeaway concepts. The human mind seem to like collections of threes.
• Keep your arms at your side (not in your pockets or covering your jewels).
• Balance on both feet without rocking back and forth. Sound simple? It’s not. Watch yourself in the mirror.
• Look people in the eye when you speak. If you must look at the slide to find your place, stop talking.
• Pause after every sentence.
• You only get two minutes to score. Net out your presentation with the problem, your recommendations, benefits and requested action before you even show your agenda slide.
• Write titles for each page that tell a story.
  • Use full sentences.
  • Don’t use boxes anywhere on the slide to “summarize” the key points; a well written title should cover the key point(s).
• Prepare your responses to tough questions, but never jump to your response without first acknowledging the facts and empathizing with the emotions.
  • This can be as simple as saying, “I understand your concern …” or “I can appreciate your point of view. Here’s mine.”
  • Don’t say “Great question” unless you plan to say it after every question … or someone is going to feel stupid.

Illustrations, metaphors and hyperbole will be remembered long after a pretty slide has faded away. In fact, there are many times when discussions and debates can be vetted properly without any slides. See the chapter of my book titled, “Fireside Chat” to pull yourself out of the presentation salt mine.

Do you agree with everything on this list? Do you have any more useful tips and techniques to add to my toolkit? I’d love to hear from you.

You’ve probably noticed a significant cosmetic change in this blog page. I’ve created a WordPress blog right inside my own projectEZ domain. I won’t bore you with the reasons, but let’s just say I’m trying to move up the Google search hierarchy.

In this blog you will find insights on topics such as Project Management, Leadership and Team Building.

Look here every Monday and you’ll find something new. That’s my publishing commitment. This is my primary communication page going forward though I will continue to post my confidential materials on the IBM internal blog.

Give me your feedback. Don’t hold any punches as we explore some new ways to deliver your project.