Senior Seminar

1
Senior Seminar

• Lecture Two - Effective Briefings
• Chapter Four - Structure
• Chapter Five - Delivery
• Chapter Six - Impact
• Chapter Seven - Motivation
• Chapter Eight - Informal Feedback
• SYST489
• How to Give Effective Business Briefings, Colin
  Clark, Kogan Page Ltd. 1999

2
Agenda

• Structure
• Delivery
• Impact
• Motivation
• Informal Feedback

3
Structure

• Information that is communicated in an organized
  way will have a higher impact on the people you
  brief
• Review - box page 23

4
Structure

• Topics
• The introduction
• The summary
• Structuring individual topics
• Headlines
• Structure checklist

5
Structure

• Introduction
• A short outline of the main content and objective
  of your briefing
• Review - page 24

6
Structure

• The summary
• A recap of what you have said in your briefing
• Keep eye contact with your audience
• Review - page 25

7
Structure

• Structuring individual topics
• Mark the start and finish of each topic you raise
• Review - page 26

8
Structure

• Headlines
• An announcement of a new topic area
• Sustaining level of interest and attention for
  the duration of a topic
• Review - figure 2, page 28
• Headlines should be interesting, short and set
  the tone for what follows
• Three step strategy to invent a headline
• Review - top page 29

9
Structure

• Structure checklist
• Review - top page 30

10
Delivery

• Topics
• Brevity, clarity and understandability
• Providing high quality information and advice
• Visual aids, handouts and confirming notes

11
Delivery

• Brevity, clarity and understandability
• Express yourself clearly, efficiently and
  informatively
• Review - page 3
• Review - exercise, page 32
• To increase interest, modulate your
• speed - speak slower when saying something
  serious, faster when you are conveying enthusiasm
• tone - avoid flat, dull monotone
• rhythm - vary the length of your sentences
• amplitude - speak louder to stress key words
• Keep eye contact with your audience

12
Delivery

• Body language is very important in briefing
• Avoid
• pacing about like a caged animal
• repetitive or overly theatrical gestures
• fidgeting with your hands
• touching our hair, neck, parts of your face or
  upper torso

13
Delivery

• Dealing with problems of inattentiveness
• unexpected silences by briefer
• random and unpredictable eye contact
• random and unpredictable questions

14
Delivery

• Providing high quality information and advice
• Fully explain and support with facts, statistics
  and examples your most important points
• Increase the quantity and quality of the advice
  you provide to assist the people you brief to
  accomplish their tasks

15
Delivery

• Visual aids, handouts and confirming notes 1
• Spend more time on the spoken content of your
  briefing than on producing professional looking
  slides
• Visual aids should clarify, reinforce and enhance
  peoples understanding of the point you are
  making
• Review - page 37
• Review - page 38

16
Delivery

• Visual aids, handouts and confirming notes 2
• Never show a chart, etc. and then simply repeat
  what is on the chart
• Make your illustrations simple and unambiguous
• Keep the number of typefaces, fonts and colors
  you use to a minimum
• Restrict the amount of visual material you use
• When using a flipchart, write down what is going
  to be on it before your briefing
• Do not turn away from your audience when you are
  using a visual

17
Impact

• Topics
• Reinforcing what you say
• Repackaging what you say

18
Impact

• Reinforcing what you say
• Repetition - repeat key words and phrases
• Alliteration and poetics - use words that share
  the same first letter or vowel sound or have a
  rhyming quality sound
• Review - page 42
• Superlatives - preface with strong adjectives
• Review - page 43

19
Impact

• Repackaging what you say
• Lists of three items
• Review - page 43
• Contrasts
• Review - page 44
• Visual words
• Review - page 45
• Avoid cliches
• Review - page 46
• Humor
• Review - page 46

20
Motivation

• Topics
• Negative attitudes and expectations
• Tone as a motivator
• Praising and criticizing as a motivator

21
Motivation

• Negative attitudes and expectations
• Usually exists when people have low levels of
  confidence in their ability or high expectations
  of failure with regard to the tasks you have set
• Do not use rah-rah phrases
• Come on guys! I know you can do it.
• You can achieve it, if you believe in yourself
  and if you put your minds to it
• Lets get out there and behave like winners
• To motivate, draw a parallel between your new
  objective and some current behavior that is
  acceptable to the audience
• Review - page 52

22
Motivation

• Tone as a motivator
• Be positive and upbeat
• Review - page 53

23
Motivation

• Praising and criticizing as a motivator
• Use praise when it is deserved
• Review - page 55
• Use criticism, when warranted, but with tact and
  sensitivity
• Review - page 56

24
Informal Feedback

• Topics
• Silent feedback
• Informal verbal feedback

25
Informal Feedback

• Silent feedback
• Body language
• Table - pages 59, 60
• Seating arrangement
• Figures - pages 60, 61

26
Informal Feedback

• Informal verbal feedback - interjections
• Highly positive interjections - page 64
• Positive interjections - page 64
• Negative interjections - page 65

27
Topics Covered

• Structure
• Delivery
• Impact
• Motivation
• Informal Feedback