Effective Communication

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.” Reviewed here on The Practice of Leadership

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High Learn how to keep your cool and get the results you want when emotions flare. When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. Crucial Conversations gives you the tools you need to step up to life’s most difficult and important conversations, say what’s on your mind, and achieve the positive resolutions you want. You’ll learn how to:

  • Prepare for high-impact situations with a six-minute mastery technique
  • Make it safe to talk about almost anything
  • Be persuasive, not abrasive
  • Keep listening when others blow up or clam up
  • Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want

Whether they take place at work or at home, with your neighbors or your spouse, crucial conversations can have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future. With the skills you learn in this book, you’ll never have to worry about the outcome of a crucial conversation again.

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making “slide presentations” in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.

The Leader’s Voice: How Communication Can Inspire Action and Get Results! In this provocative and instructive book, The Leader’s Voice: How your communication can inspire action and get results!, business executives and others can acquire the much-needed skills effective leaders use to manage change in turbulent times.

“To say language is everything to a leader is no understatement. It’s a fact,” says Tom Peters, America’s Number One business guru. Clarke and Crossland, executives at tompeterscompany, show how others can use leadership principles to discover the power in their voice. The authors define the core principles of effective leadership communication. In a volatile business climate like today’s, the ability to communicate authentically and powerfully is the crucial leadership competence. Unfortunately, the complexity of the current workplace has muted the voices of many leaders.

Ever wonder how John F. Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher and Martin Luther King, Jr. commanded through communication? Read this book and apply the principles. You’ll discover the power in your voice!

The Leader’s Voice is backed up by twenty years of communication research. Reviewing over 1,100 examples of leadership communication, and studying the inferences of modern neurological science has led the authors to a simple, stimulating leadership communication model. Leaders, at their best, communicate simultaneously on three channels: Factual, Emotional and Symbolic (FES). Clarke and Crossland demonstrate how FES can be used in public presentations, one-on-one meetings and even via email to enhance a leader’s effectiveness and ability to move his or her constituency to greater conviction, consciousness and competence.

Reviewed here on The Practice of Leadership!

slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations No matter where you are on the organizational ladder, the odds are high that you’ve delivered a high-stakes presentation to your peers, your boss, your customers, or the general public. Presentation software is one of the few tools that requires professionals to think visually on an almost daily basis. But unlike verbal skills, effective visual expression is not easy, natural, or actively taught in schools or business training programs. slide:ology fills that void.
Written by Nancy Duarte, President and CEO of Duarte Design, the firm that created the presentation for Al Gore’s Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, this book is full of practical approaches to visual story development that can be applied by anyone. The book combines conceptual thinking and inspirational design, with insightful case studies from the world’s leading brands. With slide:ology you’ll learn to:

  • Connect with specific audiences
  • Turn ideas into informative graphics
  • Use sketching and diagramming techniques effectively
  • Create graphics that enable audiences to process information easily
  • Develop truly influential presentations
  • Utilize presentation technology to your advantage

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