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Archives for May 2008

Inspirational Quotations #222

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Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher)

It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another, without helping himself.
—Gamaliel Bailey

The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
—Martina Navratilova (Czech-born American Sportsperson)

Love means the unconditional desire for the eternal well-being of a soul.
—Unknown

Before you talk about what you want, really appreciate what you have before it’s gone.
—Unknown

The satisfied, the happy, do not live; they fall asleep in habit, near neighbor to annihilation.
—Miguel de Unamuno (Spanish Essayist)

It’s not as hard to die for a friend as it is to find a friend to die for.
—Unknown

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

You have a choice. It may not be a choice you like, but it is still a choice.
—Michelle Pfeiffer (American Actor)

I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
—Marie Curie (Polish-born French Physicist)

He who makes room in his heart for others, will himself find accommodation everywhere.
—Unknown

Heroes don’t ask us to believe in them, they teach us to believe in ourselves.
—Unknown

Pre-Wiring Presentations to Key Audience for Buy-In

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In “The McKinsey Way,” author Ethan M. Rasiel presents numerous insights to problem solving, analytical reasoning and effective communication practiced at McKinsey and Company, one of the world’s foremost management-consulting firms.

Pre-Wiring a Presentation

Pre-wiring a presentation involves discussing your findings and recommendations with key decision-makers independently ahead of a group presentation. By getting various participants’ buy-in to the contents of your presentation, you ensure their support to your conclusions and avoid surprise reactions and disagreements.

There should be no surprises on the day of the presentation. All the major players should be taken through the solution in private. This way, necessary negotiation, compromise, and new facts that are integral to the acceptance of the proposal will be integrated by the time of the presentation. Pre-wiring removes much of the good to what risk from the presentation and allows the team to shine.

Following the practice of pre-wiring at McKinsey, organizations such as Wipro Technologies have started promoting pre-wiring. See article from Fast Company magazine.

Possible Reactions to a Pre-wired Presentation

  • If your research is thorough and conclusions are logical, each decision-maker you meet ahead of a presentation may accept the contents of your presentation and agree to support your presentation.
  • During the course of your conversations, you may uncover new details that may compel you to adjust your conclusions. Quite possibly, you may have to negotiate and make compromises in your conclusions.
  • If a key decision-maker raises objections to your conclusions, you may rethink through your entire analysis and develop an alternate solution to the problem at hand.

Benefits of Pre-wiring a Presentation

  • Prevents Blindsiding: Clearly, the biggest advantage of discussing a presentation with key decision-makers ahead of a group presentation is that it keeps you “from getting blindsided by major objections to your solution.” By avoiding surprises, you ensure each participant’s backing to your conclusions.
  • Helps Get Buy-In: Presentations are usually time-constrained. There may not be sufficient time to describe finer aspects of your research, your deductions and recommended actions. Meeting with individual participants can help you supply all the relevant details to each participant, help him/her appreciate how your recommendations may affect him/her and get a buy-in.
  • Develops Perspective: Presenting your findings to individuals allows you to gather additional inputs that help you develop a broader perspective. You may uncover new details that may compel you to adjust your conclusions.
  • Helps prepare for the final presentation and tailor your message to suit the audience.

Concluding Thoughts

Pre-wiring a presentation improves the likelihood that your audience will identify with your approach and consent to your recommendations.

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  2. Why Amazon Banned PowerPoint
  3. How to … Streamline Your Speech
  4. Empower Your Problem-Solving with the Initial Hypothesis Method
  5. This Manager’s Change Initiatives Lacked Ethos, Pathos, Logos: Case Study on Aristotle’s Persuasion Framework

Inspirational Quotations #221

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Love all, trust a few, do wrong to no one.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

There is no blade that can cut as deep as the words from one’s mouth.
—Randy Gray

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
—William J. H. Boetcker (American Presbyterian Religious Leader)

Your work is to discover your work, and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.
—Buddhist Teaching

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!”
—William Hutchinson Murray

O hidden life, vibrant in every atom;|O hidden light, shining in every creature;|O hidden love, embracing all in Oneness;|May each, who feels himself as one with Thee,|Know he is also one with every other.
—Annie Besant (British-born Indian Theosophist)

If your life is free of failures, you’re not taking enough risks.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

Treat people as they are and they will remain as they are. Treat people as they could be and they will become as they could be.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

The Risks of Qualifying Your Apologies

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In our personal and professional lives, our reactions and follow-ups to errors and missteps reflect greatly on our character. Previous blog articles [1] and [2] have discussed the importance of recognizing our slip-ups, expressing regret and saying ‘Sorry.’

Quite often, when we apologize, we tend to add details to our apologies: we may provide an explanation, or try to account for the circumstances that led to our errors or missteps. In other words, we sometimes tend to qualify our apologies.

Trying to qualifying apologies can dilute the sincerity of our apologies.

Risk: Trying to offer excuses or justify behavior

Take the example of yelling at your spouse when she was late to pick you up at the airport. The next day, you like to apologize for yelling at her. All you need is a simple, “I am sorry I yelled at you yesterday. I shouldn’t have.”

You may attempt to qualify the apology by adding, “You know, I had been traveling for five hours. I was hungry and tired.” Though your reasons for being upset were probably justifiable, your spouse may sense excuses or justification for your yelling. Including reasons with the apology statement may make your spouse question the sincerity of your apology.

Risk: Trying to transfer blame

Suppose that you promised to watch a movie with your spouse on Valentine’s Day. However, your boss asked you to attend a late-evening teleconference with an important international client. You could not go home in good time for the movie. Your spouse is upset. All you need to say is, “I realize I am late for the movie. I regret I did not excuse myself from the meeting early. I am sorry. Shall we watch the movie on Friday evening?”

If you try to qualify the apology by stating, “It was my boss who asked me to attend the meeting. He is unreasonable. I wish he had asked me earlier. We could have planned accordingly.” Clearly, this is an attempt to blame the boss for not being able to say ‘no’ to the late-request from the boss. You spouse sees it as an attempt to draw attention to your helplessness at work and deflect the blame.

Concluding Thoughts

The secret to sincere apologies is to keep your apology-statements straightforward and short. Do not attempt to explain or rationalize your behavior–these just dilute the sincerity of your apology.

Related Articles

Overcome Procrastination: My “10-Minute Dash” Technique to Get a Task Going

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“He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.”
– Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)

Procrastination: “Why do now what I can do later“

Simply, procrastination is a choice to delay an action with the intent to act later.

Most of us are prone to procrastination on tasks big and small. Some of our postponement-problems are instigated by fears of incompletion and failure, or, from assuming that the tasks we face are tedious. Often, our procrastination is nothing more than resentment to working on tasks assigned by others.

The “10-Minute Dash” Technique

The next time you face a ‘job’ that appears overwhelming or unpleasant, beat the temptation to postpone action by committing to work on the job for just ten minutes. Follow these four simple steps.

  • Consider the ‘job‘ at hand and break it down. Pick two or three simple component-‘tasks‘. For instance, if you want to clean your study room, your component tasks could be to clean the bookshelf, organize the study-desk, etc.
  • Commit to focus on your chosen tasks for just ten minutes. Use a timer, if necessary. For ten minutes, do nothing but your chosen tasks.
  • Avoid distractions or interruptions. For instance, if you unearth Aunt Stella’s letter while cleaning a bookshelf, continue to clean–you can read her letter later.
  • Do not give up. Two minutes into the ten-minute dash, if you find your chosen task tedious, do not stop. After all, you have just eight more minutes to go.

Beginning a Task Builds Momentum

There are two distinct outcomes of doing a ten-minute dash.

  • Often, at the end of ten minutes of uninterrupted work, you feel good about working towards your goal. It is likely that beginning to work on the job built a momentum; you got absorbed in the tasks. In contrast to your presumption, the job may turn out to be rather easy and pleasant. Continue to work—schedule ten, twenty or thirty more minutes of work.
  • The less likely outcome is that the ten minutes of work reinforced some of your displeasures about the job. Still, your achievement was that, at the very least, you got ten minutes of work done. If you do not wish to continue working on the task, commit to resume your work later. Ask yourself, “When can I start again?”

Concluding Thoughts

One of the easiest techniques to overcoming procrastination is to begin. Quite often, seemingly difficult tasks get easier once you get working on them. In short time, you get into the ‘flow’ and work towards completion.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. How to Avoid the Sunday Night Blues
  2. How to (Finally!) Stop Procrastinating, Just Do It
  3. How to … Make Work Less Boring
  4. The Art of Taking Action: Use The Two Minute “Do-it-Now” Rule
  5. How to Turn Your Procrastination Time into Productive Time

Inspirational Quotations #220

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To me business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.
—Richard Branson (British Entrepreneur)

The secret of my vigor and activity is that I have managed to have a lot of fun.
—Lowell Thomas (American Writer)

Some pursue happiness – others create it.
—Anonymous

Don’t tell me I’m burning the candle at both ends, tell me where to get more wax.
—Unknown

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.
—Unknown

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.
—Unknown

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.
—Unknown

Who, being loved, is poor?
—Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet)

When you go forward, you will occasionally stumble. And when you choose to positively recover from those stumbles, you’ll move more quickly ahead.
—Ralph Marston

Life is about losing everything, gracefully.
—Mia Farrow

Love always creates, it never destroys. In this lie’s man’s only promise.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Inspirational Quotations #219

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Yes, Love indeed is light from heaven;|A spark of that immortal fire|With angels shared, by Allah given|To lift from earth our low desire.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (English Romantic Poet)

If you don’t have solid beliefs you cannot build a stable life. Beliefs are like the foundation of a building, and they are the foundation to build your life upon.
—Alfred A. Montapert

Anybody who can still do at 60 what he was doing at 20, wasn’t doing much at 20.
—Unknown

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)

Meditation is in truth higher than thought. The earth seems to rest in silent meditation; and the waters and the mountains and the sky and the heavens seem all to be in meditation. Whenever a man attains greatness on this earth, he has his reward according to his meditation.
—The Upanishads

Often what we choose for our lives is the choice for the next generation too.
—Unknown

The display of status symbols is usually a result of low self-esteem. The self-confident person can afford to project a modest image.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

What to Do When You Forget a Person’s Name

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Remembering names is an important social skill—mastering this skill can offer a distinct advantage in your professional and personal lives. Previous blog articles discussed a 5R (Resolve, Review, Relate, Repeat, Record) technique to help remember names and a technique to remember names around tables in meetings.

Apologize and Ask

Despite your best efforts, on occasion you may not be able recollect the name of another person, even if you were introduced minutes earlier. In such cases, simply ask, “I am sorry, I forgot your name.” Do not elaborate or try to qualify. Alternately, ask for the person’s business card if appropriate

Another familiar situation is when you run into someone you know–you can remember several details of the person and your prior interactions,–but cannot recall the person’s name. This person may assume that you know his/her name and hence may not self-introduce. You may go through an entire conversation trying to call to mind this person’s name. Simply say, “Forgive me. I remember we met at last year’s sales conference. I can remember everything about you, but, I can’t recall your name. Could you please repeat it for me?”

Introduce a Third Person

Yet another technique is to introduce a third person. Say, at an office holiday party, you fail to remember the name of a colleague. Turn to your colleague and say, “I don’t think you have met my husband, Frank.” Frank and your colleague exchange greetings: “Hi, I am Frank. Nice to meet you.” Your colleague reveals her name: “Hi, I am Isabella David.”

At any rate, avoid embarrassing yourself by using an assumed or a wrong name. Apologize and ask the person to state or confirm his/names.

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  2. Office Chitchat Isn’t Necessarily a Time Waster
  3. ‘I Told You So’
  4. What’s Wrong With Giving Advice
  5. Witty Comebacks and Smart Responses for Nosy People

Inspirational Quotations #218

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Our greatest happiness in life does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)

Marriage is an empty box. It remains empty unless you put in more than you take out.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

Laughter has no foreign accent.
—Paul B. Lowney

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader)

All of us have been rejected more than once. We’ve been turned down for jobs, had applications refused, and lost out in romance.
—James R. Sherman

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

I had ambition not only to go farther than any man had ever been before, but as far as it was possible for a man to go.
—James Cook (British Explorer)

We can choose what we do but we cannot choose the consequences of what we do.
—Richard G. Scott (American Mormon Religious Leader)

No one can go back and make a brand new start, my friend, but anyone can start from here and make a brand new end.
—Dan Zadra