The Queen of Presentation

With these words, Apple Inc., and its leader, Steve Jobs, catalyzed a movement. Whenever Jobs took the stage to talk about new Apple products, the whole world seemed to stop and listen. That’s because Jobs was offering a vision of the future. He wanted you to feel what the world might someday be like, and trust him to take you there.

As a leader, you have the same potential to not only anticipate the future and invent creative initiatives, but to also inspire those around you to support and execute your vision.
In Illuminate, acclaimed author Nancy Duarte and communications expert Patti Sanchez equip you with the same communication tools that great leaders like Jobs, Howard Schultz, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to move people. Duarte and Sanchez lay out a plan to help you lead people through the five stages of transformation using speeches, stories, ceremonies, and symbols.

This visual and accessible communication guidebook will show you how Apple, Starbucks, IBM, charity: water, and others have mobilized people to embrace bold changes.To envision the future is one thing, getting others to go there with you is another. By harnessing the power of persuasive communication you, too, can turn your idea into a movement.

Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.

slide:ology covers the whole visual presentation process, from concept generation to delivery. Examples and case studies abound throughout. The twelve chapters are:

- Creating a new slide ideology.
- Creating ideas, not slides.
- Creating Diagrams.
- Displaying Data.
- Thinking like a designer.
- Arranging elements.
- Using visual elements: background, color, and text.
- Using visual images.
- Creating movement.
- Governing with templates.
- Interacting with slides.
- Manifesto: The five theses of the power of a presentation.

Question: One of the themes present throughout slide:ology is that of continuous refinement toward an end goal. (e.g. from idea to sketch to final image) The same process of gradual improvement over time holds true for speaking skills. As a speaker, what is one skill that you are currently working to improve?

There are two development areas I’m hyper conscious of right now. First, my gestures feel HUGE to me but are pretty wimpy. When on stage it feels like I’m as flamboyant as Dolly but in reality I’m pretty closed in. The other area I’m working on is relaxing my freakin’ forehead. When I am thinking through something, the muscles between my eyebrows contract creating a huge crevice and I look angry. My kids call it my butt head. It’s gotta go!

No matter where you are on the organizational ladder, the odds are high that you've delivered a high-stakes presentation to your peers, your boss, your customers, or the general public. Presentation software is one of the few tools that requires professionals to think visually on an almost daily basis. But unlike verbal skills, effective visual expression is not easy, natural, or actively taught in schools or business training programs. slide:ology fills that void.

Written by Nancy Duarte, President and CEO of Duarte Design, the firm that created the presentation for Al Gore's Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, this book is full of practical approaches to visual story development that can be applied by anyone. The book combines conceptual thinking and inspirational design, with insightful case studies from the world's leading brands.

Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they've wasted their time? All too often, presentations don't resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action.

Just as the author's first book helped presenters become visual communicators, Resonate helps you make a strong connection with your audience and lead them to purposeful action. The author's approach is simple: building a presentation today is a bit like writing a documentary. Using this approach, you'll convey your content with passion, persuasion, and impact.

Nancy Duarte analyzes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech using principles from her book, Resonate. Mapping the speech to her “presentation form”, Duarte reveals the magic that makes it memorable.

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As all of you know who follow my blog, I’m amazed at the sheer number of bad presentations out there! My mentors in changing the world, one presentation at a time, include Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen, Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design, and Scott Schwertly of ethos3.

A quick snapshot of important leadership lessons learned in business. Success hinges on teamwork, trust, ethics and a new lesson—lead by example.

I heard about this contest on www.slideology.com

There are so many times when average ideas are adopted and run with, and brilliant ideas die solely based on how they are communicated. Nancy Duarte shows how you can communicate your ideas in a compelling way.

I delivered one talk at TEDxEast and was thrilled to look up at the clock just as it was ticking down with :06 seconds left on the clock. Victory! Then, I delivered a similar talk at the INK conference in India but was restricted to 15 minutes. Even though I practiced like mad and timed it to a perfect 14 and a half minutes, I was medicated for a severe chest cold and my time somehow spread and I got the dreaded “hook” because I ran one minute over, but would have run two minutes over if I hadn’t had tip #10 in place. Here are the ten steps I went through in rehearsing for my talks.

November 8, 2012
Your guide to becoming an explanation specialist.

You've done the hard work. Your product or service works beautifully - but something is missing. People just don't see the big idea - and it's keeping you from being successful. Your idea has an explanation problem.

The Art of Explanation is for business people, educators and influencers who want to improve their explanation skills and start solving explanation problems.

Author Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft, a company known around the world for making complex ideas easy to understand through short animated videos. He is your guide to helping audiences fall in love with your ideas, products or services through better explanations in any medium.

You will learn to:

Plan: Learn explanation basics, what causes them to fail and how to diagnose explanation problems.
Package: Using simple elements, create an explanation strategy that builds confidence and motivates your audience.
Present: Produce remarkable explanations with visuals and media.
The Art of Explanation is your invitation to become an explanation specialist and see why explanation is now a fundamental skill for professionals.