GETTING PROVEN RETURN ON INVESTMENT.

MEASURING THE RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT

There's one thing people who book keynote speeches and communications master classes are really keen on these days. It's knowing they're getting an impressive return on their investment - both financially and on the time their people put into boosting their skills. I've been refining a method that demonstrates to participants that it's worth the time and money. It involves measuring the progress of participants during the session. The method requires participants - whether in a big conference audience or in smaller workshops - to write down "secret scores" for their colleagues' communication performances. This applies to whether we're working on boosting their presentation skills, their media interview performance, their elevator pitch or their ability to give brilliant answers to tough questions. Just as in some of those so-called "reality" TV shows, the scores are given from 0 to 10.   However unlike the numbers from these judges on Strictly Come Dancing, the raw scores in our sessions typically remain secret. What we do is determine two "secret scores" for each person - measuring their performance near the beginning of the session and again towards the end. However we only allow the judges to reveal the DIFFERENCE between the two scores - not the actual scores themselves. In this way no one has to openly declare whether they thought the participant was atrocious or brilliant on either occasion. We just want to measure how much the participants improved. I've run this with hundreds of participants now - and the typical improvement is about three points out of ten. This means that if their initial score was six and they move up to nine, then they've improved by fifty per cent in the session. But we have had some quite astronomic improvement results...with several participants scoring an eight point increase during the session. Admittedly, to improve as much as this, their opening performances have tended to be pretty awful. It's been chilling to see the mistakes which people routinely make - from defaming big personalities, to accidentally rubbishing their own products, to saying stupid things which they insist they haven't said until we play back the recording to show them. But the initial low-scorers are always delighted to get the winner's prize as the biggest improver. They feel so much more competent and confident when their ratings - as determined by their colleagues - demonstrate that they've lifted their game dramatically in a short space of time. The most memorable of these was a participant - let's call him "Cecil" - who initially started off his answer to a tough question quite well. But he didn't know when to stop. The more Cecil continued, the more he became entangled in irrelevant, diverting detail and diminished the force of his answer. When we showed him how to decide an end-point in advance - as you would with the punch line of a joke - he improved astronomically. Cecil's answers became focused, persuasive - and actually interesting. In master classes typically everyone involved comes away with their own personal improvement score. In interactive keynotes at conferences - where there's less time available - we typically have two or three people on stage to perform. We determine the audience's judgement of the improvement by a show of hands - getting someone who is good at numbers quickly calculating the average leap forward. The audience gets a snap shot of the kind of inspirational improvement that's possible in a short space of time. And unlike those reality TV shows, no one gets voted off the programme!

YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR IMPROVEMENT MEASURED If you haven't had your communications improvement level measured, then there's the opportunity to do so on Monday 30 July. This is when I'm running my once-a-year open session on "Presenting with Confidence, Impact and Pizzazz". The 9.30am to 5pm session runs in Central London at the Royal Institute of British Architects.   Details on the early bird offer are on the website at:http://www.michaeldoddmedia.com/presentation_training.php And yes, there's a prize for the participant with the biggest improvement score on the day! AND HERE'S THE WEATHER - LOTS OF IT After years of study, I can declare the key difference between Australia and Britain. In Australia typically a drought is declared after three years without rain. In Britain typically a drought is declared after three days without rain. So here in England we've had all sorts of dire predictions because the springtime weather has been all over the place. Earlier this year a drought was declared to be "gripping" most of England and resulting in water use restrictions affecting twenty-million people. March was declared the driest since 1953 and the third warmest since records began. Then we had April downpours, resulting in the wettest April in a century - which was also the coldest for 23 years with freak snowfalls in parts. Many of the water usage restrictions were lifted. And in May we've just had a series of superb "barbecue summer" days - the kind Shakespeare might have been envisioning when he wrote "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day..." So "topsy turvy" has been a much used word in the weather forecasts. Now it may be that global warming is at the root of what we've been experiencing - and I'm amongst those who can see that there's a growing body of evidence to support this theory and the human hand behind it. But some perspective might be in order. Springtime weather in Europe has long been notoriously changeable and unpredictable. While living in Germany I picked up an expression "In Avril das wetter macht was es will" - In April the weather does what it wants. I've been whizzing around the UK mainly by train in the last few weeks. And I can report that, despite the much-discussed meteorological "catastrophes", from Yorkshire to London and out to Bristol and over the border into southern Wales, there's a verdant landscape with flourishing wild flowers which appears to be in magnificent condition. Here's a typical English countryside scene.   In contrast, this is what a real drought-hit landscape looks like in Australia.   And here's a snatch of magnificent Yorkshire with a carpet of bluebells in the company of beacon head teacher and education guru Alan Yellup who invited me "oop north" to work with Wakefield's leading teachers.    So relatively speaking, much of the UK landscape appears to be in good shape at the end of spring - despite a strain of human thinking which will declare disaster at the earliest opportunity.  CHANGEABLE WEATHER - AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE  Australia's cultural tradition (yes, there is such a concept) has recognised this doom-laden tendency in verses by bush poet and Catholic priest, John O'Brien. It's called "Said Hanrahan" and it deserves a hearing in the northern hemisphere in these days of volatile weather changes and prophets of doom. Hanrahan - one of the many Australian immigrants from Irish stock - represents life's eternal pessimists. He's known for his catch phrase "we'll all be rooned" (that's "ruined", for those who don't speak the lingo of the Aussie outback) which he lets loose at every opportunity. As O'Brien passed away in 1952, I can safely reproduce his poem below without fear of copyright infringement. I hope you enjoy it - even if you're an optimist. Keep smiling, Michael SAID HANRAHAN "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,   In accents most forlorn, Outside the church, ere Mass began,   One frosty Sunday morn. The congregation stood about,   Coat-collars to the ears, And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,   As it had done for years. "It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;   "Bedad, it's cruke, me lad, For never since the banks went broke   Has seasons been so bad." "It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,   With which astute remark He squatted down upon his heel   And chewed a piece of bark. And so around the chorus ran   "It's keepin' dry, no doubt." "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,   "Before the year is out." "The crops are done; ye'll have your work   To save one bag of grain; From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke   They're singin' out for rain. "They're singin' out for rain," he said,   "And all the tanks are dry." The congregation scratched its head,   And gazed around the sky. "There won't be grass, in any case,   Enough to feed an ass; There's not a blade on Casey's place   As I came down to Mass." "If rain don't come this month," said Dan,   And cleared his throat to speak - "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,   "If rain don't come this week." A heavy silence seemed to steal   On all at this remark; And each man squatted on his heel,   And chewed a piece of bark. "We want an inch of rain, we do,"   O'Neil observed at last; But Croke "maintained" we wanted two   To put the danger past. "If we don't get three inches, man,   Or four to break this drought, We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,   "Before the year is out." In God's good time down came the rain;   And all the afternoon On iron roof and window-pane   It drummed a homely tune. And through the night it pattered still,   And lightsome, gladsome elves On dripping spout and window-sill   Kept talking to themselves. It pelted, pelted all day long,   A-singing at its work, Till every heart took up the song   Way out to Back-o'-Bourke. And every creek a banker ran,   And dams filled overtop; "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,   "If this rain doesn't stop." And stop it did, in God's good time;   And spring came in to fold A mantle o'er the hills sublime   Of green and pink and gold. And days went by on dancing feet,   With harvest-hopes immense, And laughing eyes beheld the wheat   Nid-nodding o'er the fence. And, oh, the smiles on every face,   As happy lad and lass Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place   Went riding down to Mass. While round the church in clothes genteel   Discoursed the men of mark, And each man squatted on his heel,   And chewed his piece of bark. "There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,   There will, without a doubt; We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,   "Before the year is out."