"The conductor doesn't make a sound!"

I watched another TED Talk that was linked up on the ol' Presentation Zen that I seem to talk so much about, and -- as usual -- it was awesome. It's the one sitting right above this paragraph if you didn't already notice. You can also watch it on the TED website here. But this one was a little different because the presenter, famed classical music conductor Benjamin Zander of the Boston Philharmonic, spoke all about classical music. And his love for it. And everyone else's love for it ("They just don't know it yet!"). There's a lot of great stuff to take away from the talk -- he hits on everything from Nelson Mandela to 7-year-olds struggling at piano -- but I wanted to highlight just one idea: "awakening possibilities."

Zander speaks in the latter portion of his talk about his realization that the conductor never makes a sound (all grunting and everything aside, I guess) during an actual performance. He relies on his players to realize his dream and vision. And the only way he says to do that is to "awaken possibilities" in them, to make them believe in themselves and to enable them along the way. It seems pretty basic, and it probably is, but it's a different way of looking at the idea of executing a strategy or vision, especially in the business world today. To make your followers' eyes shine.

For more on Zander from PZ, check Garr's book review here.
For more on the TED Talks from my boss EJ, click here.

(h/t as usual - Presentation Zen)

If this doesn't describe a lot of my feelings in Tanzania...

...then I have no idea what does. From one of my favorite bloggers, Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen fame:


"Note: The digital postcard was made in Keynote (three slides). The video was shot with a tiny Nikon Coolpix. Video is imported as a Quicktime movie. The images of masking tape are set to about 70% opacity in Photoshop (could have been done directly in Keynote as well) and sit atop the video. Recorded with "Record Slideshow" feature (File menu) and exported as a Quicktime movie. Simple. The final slide says "From Oregon with Love" (Oregon Kara Ai) which was the title of a famous TV show in Japan in the '80s."

(major h/t: Presentation Zen)

Some breakfast table wisdom and another day's wrap-up

But first, your daily slideshow. Near the end I went San Diego scenery crazy, so enjoy!

We had our sponsoring professor breakfast this morning, and there were a few nuggets of wisdom passed around our table that I wanted to share with everyone.














First of all here's my sponsoring professor; he was really busy and could only be here for two days. Such is life.

Our table consisted of myself, several other students, a guy named Rick who is currently in the industry and Dr. Charles Bennett from St. John's University's College of Risk Management (check out all his designations here). Here are the things we talked about.

• Lead with questions. A direct offshoot of From Good to Great that I keep mentioning. Rick said, "Don't be afraid to say you don't have all the answers. Just tell them you'll find out the answers or let them know how to find the answers for themselves."
• Differentiate yourself as a leader. The Chairman of insurance broker Willis, Joe Plumeri, differentiates himself by his wardbrobe and his personality. He rocks a short, pink tie like nobody's business, and he is one of the most boisterous, engaging, piercingly sharp people in any room. This picture doesn't have a pink tie, but believe me, he was working it last night. And his tie knot was HUGE. Ridiculous. But the takeaway here is that, to establish yourself as a leader, you have to find ways to differentiate yourself from the rest of your employees. Not in an arrogant way, but in an identifiable way that is at the same time endearing and empowering. Like wearing one of these to work like I plan on doing.

• Talk shop: Don't just focus on talking business all the time. Talk college alma mater football, talk golf, talk politics (with a splash of humor to keep from stirring the pot too much), talk current events, talk music, talk anything. Be personable and persistent. Not annoying.

And since I've delayed posting this, I'll recap the day so far also.

• The aforementioned sponsor breakfast.
• Morning session on speaking risk management. It was all about how to communicate the urgency, the effectiveness and the relevancy of risk management to your boss, to your colleagues, to your employees and to your friends. It's a dynamic profession, and it's exciting. Don't believe me? Just ask!
• THE MOST BORING KEYNOTE PRESENTATION EVER (!!!) for lunch. It started with a terrible spinach salad and ended with a dry, monotonous keynote presentation. Proof positive that, even if you have a Presentation Zen-style PowerPoint that is engaging, funny and informative, you are the one who makes or breaks the presentation. Ouch...nails on a chalkboard. I don't want to talk about it anymore.
• Had an "educational roundtable" discussion which basically involved a hypothetical ("based-in-fact") case study of a junk foods company. Successfully cemented the fact that I will never be an employee benefits office because I can't deal with workers comp cases. Booooring.
• Wine and cheese reception in the exhibit hall where we had our choice of chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon or (gasp!) merlot. I hadn't seen anything but the former two all trip, so it was a decent change. I also got a hole-in-one on the virtual Tiger Woods golf game, but the video was of me following that up with a splashdown right of the same hole. Oh well.
• Reception sponsored by the nation of Bermuda (yes, that's right) and their "capital of risk" financial campaign. Sushi, quesadillas, "Dark 'n' Stormy"s, prime beef cuts and all...great stuff.
• We're heading to the House of Blues to check out Aon's reception with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy as the headliners. I'll let y'all know!

For now, here's Garr Reynolds' take on a handy career advice book:

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My Blog Roll, Part 1

And so begins my gradual description of some of my favorite blogs, the ones that I have chosen to link on my sidebar over... <-- there. And instead of just saying, "Hey, check these out, they're cool," I'm gonna highlight a favorite post, give some more good suggestions and hopefully by then I'll have roped you into subscribing to another blog. These entries will be in no specific order because the links are organized alphabetically, and I wanted to start with one near the bottom: Presentation Zen.

The Skinny
This is a blog by a guy named Garr Reynolds -- check out his website for some more bio -- who is a world-renowned speaker/presenter. Yes, he teaches at a university, but for the most part he gives presentations...oftentimes about giving presentations. Below is what he would claim is "a 7.5 out of 10," but more than effective nonetheless.

The Highlight
This post is one of my all-time favorites. It's about Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Dr. Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" presentation. Basically, Pausch was diagnosed recently with pancreatic cancer, a fatal form of cancer that is currently incurable. Yet, as you can see from the picture to the left, he absolutely exudes joy, happiness and life. It's incredible. And instead of wallowing in self-pity, he says that he began "building safety nets" for his family. These safety nets would catch them when they fell in the coming days when he would not be there for them.

If we're Facebook friends, you might have already noticed that I have a quote by Randy on my profile: "Brick walls let us show our dedication." When life shoves an obstacle or "brick wall" between us and our goal(s), that brick wall is only a proving ground for us. We can either look at it and say, "Man, I can't get through that," or we can look up and say, "Maybe I can go over if I try hard enough." The key is that reframing of the problem into a puzzle and a goal in and of itself.

The Last Lecture revolves around the central concept of achieving your dreams, your childhood dreams, your wild out-of-this-world dreams. And also about helping others achieve theirs. When you watch the presentation -- it's very long, but every second is worth the time, believe me -- you can feel the love in the room flowing from all the students, coworkers, family and friends who have all achieved some semblance of their dreams directly or indirectly because of Randy. And his ever-present smile shows the inner peace and joy that he carries with him. Awe-inspiring to say the least. And I dare you not to get emotional when he brings out the surprise for his wife. I triple-dog dare you.



To Dig Deeper

• Brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's enrapturing narrative of her own stroke. Simply, wow.
• About Will.I.Am's musical rendering of Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech. Amen.
• Some presentation tips from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, a master presenter regardless of his off-stage presence.

So there you have it. A little piece of my psyche. More to come...

"But inspiration does not come from mere words, it comes from actions and behaviors. Words matter and words and speeches inspire and stories can change the world. However, it's not only the stories we tell, it's really about the stories we live." -- Garr Reynolds