Now think about when you’re responding to questions during a presentation.  How to do you lead into your response?  If you’re using “Yes, but…” then you may be shutting down lines of communication.  Even if you need to correct some facts in the person’s question, it’s better to use the “Yes, and…” approach because it acknowledges common ground (even if small) and keeps the flow of interaction moving, rather than stopping it.

Thanks to the Product Four blog for sharing some details of the Second City session.

You were at it again last night. When your speaker says “Thank you” a few times, that’s a clue they’re ready to begin; when they say it 14 times, that means “Shut up.”

Sincerely,

Your Speaker

Perhaps in an effort to try and best the Democratic crowd at the opening of Obama’s acceptance speech, Republicans at last night’s speech by VP nominee Sarah Palin had their own clapfest.

Now I get that you want to clap long and hard for someone you’re enthusiastic about, but enough’s enough. Sarah Palin waited 50 seconds before she said her first “thank you,” plenty of time for adoration to be poured out, but the crowd continued for another two minutes, amid a total of 14 “thank yous” from Palin.

In case you’re keeping track, Obama’s cheering section only lasted for 1:59 total, but Obama wins on the thank yous, with a total of 32.

Please let your speaker get on with their speech.

Sincerely,

Your Speaker

Last night, it took 1:59 for the crowds at the Democratic Convention to let Barack Obama begin his speech. For those who were counting, he did 32 “thank yous” in an attempt to get them to stop. Adulation is one thing, but this is just time-wasting. Bill Clinton had a similar problem the night before – at one point pleading with the crowd to let him get on with the speech.

It reminds of people who don’t pick up on cues to end conversations – cues like “well, it’s been interesting chatting…” or “glad we had a chance to talk…” When a speaker has said “thank you” at least twice, and you’re still not letting them get on with it, that’s just rude.

The Associated Press kindly posted the whole clapfest for Obama on YouTube:

As a confirmed “slide minimalist” I was curious about Oracle’s experiment and did a bit of digging. Turns out that, while the zone was free of slides, it was certainly not free of visual communications in other forms. Here’s the description on one blog:

…the No Slide Zone track prohibited the use of projected “slideware” decks, instead encouraging presenters to engage in creative and interactive presentation formats.

Sessions included a Jeopardy spoof focused on database security, a caged death match between old school and new school database admins, a content management cook-off, and a mad scientist laboratory cooking up “Enterprise 2.0” experiments.

I think interactivity along these lines has a place in some presentations, but it seems to me that in the absence of slides, people had to substitute other forms of visual stimulation. Anyone ready to try an “Only Speaking” presentation zone? Now that’s a Luddite .