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5 Ways to Improve Your Teaching Skills

June 28, 2010 By 19 Comments

Have you ever been forced to listen to a monotone, boring, and oh so irritating instructor teach a class? I’m guessing most of you are nodding your head up and down.

Well I have and can tell you one thing… it hurts. A lot!

But it doesn’t have to be like this. Over the years I have learned some tricks and tips that have helped me immensely. And while I don’t claim to be the world’s best instructor… I can hold the attention of a room no matter the topic – even descriptive statistics!

1. Know Your Stuff

This one may sound obvious. But you’d be amazed how many times I have seen instructors attempt to “teach” a class by reading the slides back to me.

If you don’t have a deep understanding of the content you’re about to present I suggest you take the time to gain a deep understanding of the material.

In other words, you should have some real life, practical experiences to share with the students.

2. Work the Room

I am not 100% sure what the “presentation police” teach in presentation school… but standing in one spot doesn’t work for me.

I need to move about the room in a fluid manner. I especially like to “work the U” when the students are sitting in a U shaped manner. This allows me to connect with students and make the training more personal and less sterile.

3. Lighten Up

Life is too short to not laugh a bit… so be sure to have some fun.

I mean if I can find ways to make people laugh and smile while teaching them how to calculate sample standard deviation by hand anything is possible!

While not an exact science, I try to find a way to make people smile and preferably laugh every 12 minutes. Research shows that adults need some sort of stimulation every 10 to 15 minutes so do your best to keep them smiling.

4. Speak with Confidence and Passion

This tip is related to tip 1. You see if you really know the material you’re far more likely to speak with confidence and passion. If, however, you’re up there faking it there is little hope you can pull this off.

Speaking with confidence means you NEVER say things like “I believe the answer is…” or “I think you’re right…” or any other wishy washy phrase.

As soon as you use a wishy washy phrase you’ll lose half the room since they’ll believe you don’t know what you’re talking about… which won’t be true if you listen to step 1.

5. Memorize the First Sentence of Each Slide

When I was first learning to teach I would often write out what I wanted to say for each slide. Of course I rarely said these exact words… but the simple fact I at least had a plan gave me a lot of confidence.

So while I don’t propose you “memorize” every word you plan to say it can never hurt to have at least the first sentence or two for each slide on the tip of your tongue.

What do you think?

Do you agree with my list? If you’ve ever done any teaching what techniques have you found to be useful?

Filed Under: Off Topic

Your Homework This Week

June 14, 2010 By 1 Comment

I just read an excellent post by Jamie Flinchbaugh titled A Call to Action.  The basic premise of Jamie’s thoughts are to stop talking about things… instead take action.

So, your homework for this week is two-fold.

  1. Read Jamie’s post.  It will take less than 45 seconds as it’s a short one.
  2. Take action on a project or task you have been putting off this week.

That’s it.  Two things.  I know you can do it!

Filed Under: Leadership, Productivity

How to Radically Increase Personal Productivity

June 9, 2010 By 8 Comments

Think back to the last meeting you attended. How many people were there? How long was the meeting?

Let’s assume – for sake of example – that there were 8 people in your meeting. Let’s also assume the meeting lasted 1 hour. This means that your meeting lasted 8 hours.

Huh? Yep. This meeting lasted 8 hours. You see, you took 8 people away from their job for an hour… meaning 8 hours of potential personal productivity was lost during this 1 hour meeting.

Most people don’t think of it this way. They should.

You see, I’m convinced that organizations around the world could radically improve personal productivity by simply slashing down the number, and duration, of their meetings.

Think of it as applying the principles of Quick Changeover or SMED to the way meetings are run.

Can we be more prepared? Can we stand during the meeting instead of getting all comfy in those soft leather chairs? Can we completely eliminate non value added meetings called by the boss who justifies his or her existence by holding 4 hour staff meetings each week?

What’s radical productivity improvement you ask? I feel very comfortable saying a 25% improvement in personal productivity is possible right off the top. Maybe more.

Do you agree?

Filed Under: Productivity

Jim Joyce and Accountability

June 4, 2010 By 7 Comments

As those that follow Major League Baseball know, umpire Jim Joyce cost pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game earlier this week.

For those that don’t know the story, Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga needed one more out in order to cement a perfect game.

And on what looked to be a routine play… it seemed he had it as he stepped on first base ball in hand a full step before the runner did.

Unfortunately, umpire Jim Joyce didn’t see it the same way as he called the runner safe.

To be blunt, it may go down as the single most “blown” call of all time. After watching a replay Joyce commented, “Oh my God, it was out. Not even a close play.”

And while the baseball fanatics are screaming for more instant replay I, myself, have been overwhelmed with another aspect of the story.

You see, for me, the “story” is all about the way Jim Joyce handled his mistake.

He didn’t make excuses. He didn’t blame anyone else. No, he admitted his mistake with sincere contrition.

The image above is of him stepping onto the field the night after his mistake. He was crying and he hugged Galarraga and apologized.

It’s life lessons like these I want my children to learn. You see, everyone makes mistakes. Everyone.

But not everyone takes complete ownership for their mistake the way Jim Joyce did.

I do feel bad for Armando Galarraga. To be sure, he was robbed of a magical moment. A moment he may never get close to again.

But, perhaps the life lesson Jim Joyce taught millions of people around this country – and perhaps the world – will make more of an impact when it’s all said and done.

Well done, Jim Joyce. Well done.

Filed Under: Leadership

3 Practical Ways to Immediately Reduce Costs

June 1, 2010 By 8 Comments

No matter if business is good or bad one thing is for certain… you, and those you work with, should be laser focused on cost reduction.

Now be honest, when you read the words cost reduction was the first thing that popped into your mind reduction in force? You know, laying people off?

Sadly this seems to be the most popular way to reduce costs for a lot of companies. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

There are so many other ways to reduce operating costs. So many one could write a 6 book series on the topic!

But until then, I’d like to propose 3 practical ways you and your organization, no matter the size or number of employees, can reduce costs in the front office.

Let’s get started.

1. Change Default Printing to Black & White

It’s estimated that it costs .08 cents a page to print in color versus .007 cents a page to print in black and white.

So, if we assume a person prints 10 pages a day x 260 workdays… printing in color will cost $208 per year while printing in black and white will cost $18.20 per year for a difference of $189.80.

Take that across a company of 5,000 employees and we’re talking some serious costs savings folks ($949,000).

There are ways to change the “default” print color to black and white on your computer to make this change happen. Your IT department can likely do this remotely, across the board, without employees having to do anything.

2. Text Messaging Plans

Next, if your company pays for associate’s cell phone usage I’d encourage you to check out the text messaging plans.

Some people are text message crazy while others are not. For those who love the text message it makes sense to have them on a plan to accommodate their usage.

But for those who rarely text it may make sense to have them “pay as they go” which can save $10 to $20 per month.

Again, taken across a company of 5,000 employees we’re paying a person’s salary ($100,000).

3. Print on Both Side of Paper

I have worked with clients who “recycled” their paper by printing on both sides.

They had special bins that employees placed their one sided printed documents into. This, printed on one side, paper was then placed in a special printer that everyone was mapped to.

This was their so-called “junk” printer… meaning if you wanted to print out an email or some other document that didn’t warrant a completely clean piece of paper the junk printers were called upon.

Depending on where you buy your paper, 500 sheets can cost up to $10. So, to be sure, this adds up quickly.

What am I missing?

Obviously this is a very short list of 3 things any company can do to save money. There are more posts I have written below in the Related Posts section for some additional ideas.

But I’m curious, what things are you and your organization doing to save administrative money besides, gulp, the lay-off approach?

Filed Under: Lean, Manufacturing, Productivity