Presentation Tip 2: The ACIDS Test (TM) Is your Call

End your presentation delivery with a direct call for your audience's attention in one of the directions listed in the "ACIDS Test"(TM). Your conclusion should include or imply your call. Call for Agreement or Action: Do you want a vote or the next step? Finding agreement is a precursor to identifying an appropriate plan of action. Call for Caution or Celebration: Do you want to reduce speed or reward? Determine if additional time, information, or other resources are necessary for an appropriate course. If all the resources are assembled, then a compelling vision and mission will inspire a following. Along the way to the goal and at the end of the goal, take time to acknowledge accomplishment and initiative with lunch or a party. Call for Information or Instruction: Do you need more data or a skill? Assess the situation and identify the missing links and performance gaps. Call for Discussion or Decision: Do you need more input or a plan? Determine if informed, reasonable progress comes next, or if more points of view and evidence are needed. Call for Sales or Solution: Do you encourage revenue or conclusion? Will you provide a service or product that serves the customer, or will you create a solution to resolve the current dilemma? Use the "ACIDS Test" in your next presentation conclusion.

Presentation Tip 1: Start with PIECE (TM) when Planning your Presentation

Presentations are designed to influence audiences. We use our spoken words to engage our listeners about our topic and our point of view. Many presenters fight anxiety while preparing to deliver their presentation. One way to quell the anxiety involves planning what the audience will deliver as a result of the presentation! Begin your presentation planning with the answers to the following questions. Persuade: What do you want your audience to do? If your audience is willing to agree, use a direct approach. If your audience is reluctant to agree, use an indirect approach. Inform: What do you want your audience to know? Tell them how this information will benefit them. Educate: What do you want your audience to understand? Tell them why you want them to understand. What is the benefit for them? Convince: What do you want your audience to believe? Use faith, facts, and feelings to arrive at the truth. Engage: What do you want your audience to feel? Take them through a pertinent experience to bring forth the emotions that drive your point. What "PIECE(TM)" of your topic will you serve your audience? You can reduce your anxiety by beginning here.

Greetings from Veterans' Day

After WWII, volunteer veterans were hailed as heroes. Korean Conflict veterans were confusing--was it a war or not? During Viet Nam, volunteer and conscripted veterans were dismissed, disgarded, and disregarded. In the past 20 years, distant wars in the Middle East have taken their toll on our veterans, including more women soldiers than ever before. One Vet of three wars, asked me if I thought Truman was correct in releasing the bombs over Japan to end WWII. He cared about my response. He had struggled to justify the deaths of innocents and agonized over how to stop the killing while preserving democracy and world stabilization. Nightmares plagued him. My father-in-law weeps seven decades after experiencing horrid events that haunt his memory. More Viet Nam Vets have killed themselves than those who died in action. US Vets are completing suicide every hour of every day. My brother has not spoken about his months on Viet Nam soil. We are just now understanding how important it is to recognize service and sacrifice in defense of our country and constitution, so we often say "Thank you."My step-son told me how proud he was when anyone stopped him on the street while he wore his uniform and said "thanks." Yet, he served state-side only, never went into battle. He sleeps pretty well at night. Finally, old evidence shared in VFW bars and VA hospitals is being published as new information on "Moral Injury" for civilians to read. The need for chaplains exceeds the need for psychotherapists with returning warriors. Perhaps "Thank you" creates a conflict within a soldier's conscience in today's warfare against non-uniformed enemies who can be any gender and age. If a soldier's action on duty has resulted in the death or injury of innocents, he or she may feel guilty when thanked. Perhaps, out of sentitivity, we should say, "I am glad you are alive and home again." Welcome home.

A Rare Sight

This week I am watching my college business communications class prepare for the semester final. The final exam is customized, individualized, and personalized, so there is no way to cheat. The test defies proving what each student does not know, as most tests are designed to do. Instead, each student records learnings that are applicable to one's own career choices from the array of concepts covered in 16 chapters and 8 weeks of discussions and activities. I am observing the epitome of teamwork: each individual feels supported by the team and contributes to the team's (the class's) success. The commitment to work together to ensure that everyone passes with a C or better is demonstrating peer teaching, taking inititive, asking for and receiving help and clarification, accepting and rejecting information accumulated, making affirmations, and showing empathy under the stress. Their continuing homework after the course ends is to influence all work groups in their futures to achieve this willing and trusting collaboration and cross-training in the name of excellence!

Let the Subject Line Work for You

Do you get tired of people ignoring your emails? Did you know that your subject line may be why? People are more likely to open emails that have effective and specific subject lines than those with a boring or confusing line. Essential components of your subject line include an action verb, an adjective and noun with a prepositional phrase (a qualifier or condition). Optional components include a code and multiple prepositional phrases. An example of a common subject line follows: "Budget Mtg." A revised line reads: "CPA: Attend 3rd Qtr Budget Mtg on 3/4 at 2:15 p.m. in rm 12 #." All CPAs are to attend the meeting at the date, time, and location given to discuss the third-quarter budget items and balances. If the full message is in the subject line, add "#" to indicate end of message. The quality of your subject lines can determine the quality and quantity of the reader responses you get.

Miscommunication by Omission

Recently, a young man I know was given aprescription for pain after injuring his knee. Being wary of medications, he minimized the dosage. The bottle label said "take for pain." Later, his sister, a registered nurse told him his prescfription was for pain as well as infamation. By reducing the dosage and enduring the pain, he prolonged his discomfort because the inflammation remained. It would certainly have been helpful to him if the doctor or the pharmacist had informed him of the anti-inflammatory propereties of the drug. That reminds me of a time when a friend was to undergo surgery. He had been told to avoid food for 12 hours before the surgery. He did so. He arrived for pre-surgery prepping and was scolded. The nurse saw him chewing gum, which stimulates the juices in the stomach and that can cause vomiting while under anestesia. A surprise to realize that gum is considered a food! When we know and assume so much more than we are telling, no wonder our receivers are clueless and feel betrayed by the information omissions. Errors of omission cause miscommunication--and mistrust.

Immigrant: Gift and Loss

The word immigrant plays a significant role in today's politics. I am grateful for the immigrants I have had the pleasure to meet in my college classes. A partial list includes a Russian medical doctor, a South Vietnamese general, two Muslim sisters, an Iraqi soldier, a Monrovian soldier, an Indian business manager, a Chinese dissident and entrepreneur, three Columbian cousins, a Congolese spiritual leader, an Ethiopian lottery winner, an Iranian wife and mother, an Afghani cab driver, a Mongolian exchange student, several Korean pastors, and a Ukrainian husband and wife. Granted, each of these students were self-motivated to learn the spoken and written language of a new homeland--whether for permanent or temporary residence. I recognize these people as well-educated, potential citizens of the United States. They are not looking for handouts, and they are playing by the immigration rules. Only one would distress me if they were to become neighbors--the Iraqi soldier had a serious and scary demeanor. It took me all semseter to get him to laugh! The Monrovian soldier fell in love with an Albanian woman one summer. How wonderful two people from warring countries could meet in the US and fall in love. Yet, he explained to me, he could not ever take her home to his family in Eastern Europe without one of them or both being killed. The cab driver honored me with an Afghani dinner--home made by him! The general, who had been tortured as a POW by the Viet Cong, led his entire class to sign a card for me at the end of the semester. The two sisters prayed for my father and family when he was dying; my mother had thought all Muslims were terrorists. The man from the Congo has been a great friend of mine for many years; One day I would like to travel to Africa with him. Each of theses people were national gifts. Yet, not all immigrants are well educated and legally living in the US. Ricardo, Chole, their three children and Rey, the brother, were not either. I am equally as honored to have been in their presence one summer in New Mexico. Chole could not speak English; I could not speak Spanish. Nonetheless, we discussed husbands, children, birth control, recipes, and cleaning tips! I discovered nonverbal communication between two dedicated friends crosses language barriers. I cried when her family left to look for work and a school for the children. I wished we could have found a way those 30 years ago to invite them into citizenship--their work ethic and honorable character would have given us several generations of productive, contributing citizens. That family was our national loss. I hope our immigration reform will include maximum gifts and minimal losses for us as a nation. I have learned much from these friends, and they have much dignity and diversity to share with all Americans.