Specific stories can be universal as long as they are fractal

"The magic of stories, though, is that the more specific you are, the more universal they seem to get." 

This idea by Frank Cottrell Boyce, who wrote the script of the film God on Trial, is an important one when we try to do a presentation or touch the hearts and minds of people during the facilitation process.

It is OK to build a framework and use theory to help the listeners make sense of what is being said but it is only when our ideas are imbued by the power of faces and names  that they become sharp enough to pierce the thick shield of reason and enter into the realm of action: the heart.

I once read that the Universe is contained in a grain of sand. This must be true also for ideas. If we manage the specifics well, we can increase our chances of engaging a wide range of listeners.

Managing the specifics well means using it to illustrate the universal and give life to the theory. If the Universe and the point are not linked coherently, the point really becomes just a grain of sand. The point has to be fractal for it to touch the heart.

PS: I recommend God on Trial ("during the Holocaust, a group of Auschwitz prisoners decided to put God in the dock"). 

How to measure change in a complex system? Keep an eye on diversity

"One of the most respected attempts to measure complexity was made ten years ago by John Tyler Bonner, a biologist at Princeton University in New Jersey. Count the number of different types of cell in the organism, he suggested. In principle, this gives a sense of the number of specialised functions an organism can perform, and that is a clue to complexity. Although it leaves out behaviour, the approach also has the virtue of considering the whole organism, not just one part." (Roger Lewin, New Scientist, 05 Feb 1994)

This idea makes me think that diversity could be used as a key indicator of structural change in a market system. How many different private and public actors are there in a market system at different points of our interventions? Moreover, diversity presents fractal properties: one could look at diversity within the system, the value chains within the system, the types of actors within the value chains, and variations within a given type of actor.

Should I use slides in my presentations? Almost never

Jerry Weissman, in HBR, says that "slides, as they are conventionally designed today, hinder rather than help presenters. The all-too-common complexity of the slides forces presenters either to skim over them or, in the worst case, read them verbatim. This unholy alliance also fragments the narrative because each slide is discussed individually with no relationship to the next.  When we exclude the slides in the practice, presenters focus on telling their story, connecting the dots and creating a clear progression."

I have found this to be true. Being free from slides gives us more flexibility to move around the room, flow with the story and make eye-contact. I actually think good presenters do "soul-contact"; not just a superficial and fleeting look. 

I also agree with him that it is not necessary to eliminate the slides completely (though I disagree with his explanation that this is due to the "deep entrenchment of PowerPoint in business today"). Instead, he continues saying, "use simply-designed slides that serve only to support your narrative and reinforce the primacy of the presenter."

PS: I also liked the summary of steps that HBR gives us to prepare a good presentation:

• Create a clear narrative. Don't start by creating slides. First get your story down, and design slides or collect data to illustrate that compelling narrative.
• Do a dry run. Read through the slides aloud. Do it seated in front of your computer screen so that you don't have to think about your body language.
• Rehearse without slides. Finally, do a run-through while standing in a vacant conference room without your slides. This will allow you to concentrate on the story, as well as your eye contact, gestures, posture, and voice.

Do information portals need to be sustainable?

There are NGOs and donors creating internet-based information portals and knowledge nodes in an attempt to help marginalised producers to have access to more information on agricultural techniques, prices and service providers, etc. This is, in principle, a valid effort and certainly any improvements in this front will benefit those who depend on such markets. However, things get a bit less clear when this effort is analysed using a sustainability lens.

For me, the question of how sustainable any of these spaces have to be within the context of a pro-poor market development project is resolved when I think about the definition of facilitation as the creation of conditions for public and private market actors to lead the market development processes on their own.

Take the example of interest forums (or multi-stakeholder platforms): we promote them with the objective of creating good conditions for market actors to:

• come together to gain a joint vision of the market
• identify blockages and opportunities
• undertake collective activities and strategies to tackle blockages and exploit opportunities

Whether the forum continues after the project ends will depend on the needs and interests of the actors who participate in it. Even if the forum dies, there are many things that remain and that are more important than the forum itself; for example: new connections, new contracts, more trust, more confidence, new business models, new ways of thinking, new organisations, new experiences with new technologies and techniques, knowledge on how to influence policy-makers, etc.

The same is true for knowledge portals. As long as market actors (both public and private) are collaborating to improve how knowledge is produced, circulated, accessed and used on a regular basis, it does not matter if the knowledge portal we created continues or disappears because new routines, platforms and spaces will emerge. However, form an investment perspective, we do need to make the case of how the portal will contribute to structural market change.

How to do a great presentation: take-aways from David Milne's course (level I)

• “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” (Coco Chanel). 
• If you present badly, the audience remember you and how bad you did it. If you present well, they remember the message.
• What people know influences what they remember from a presentation: during the course with David, all the people who listened to one of my presentations were asked what they remembered from it. They all remembered different things! This is not that strange. What really called my attention was how few things they actually remembered. And this was done some minutes after the presentation!  Imagine what people remember one week, one month or one year after the presentation!  
• This is why I now prefer to focus the whole presentation to conveying one single message that will stick for a longer period of time. It may even be simply: this idea is really good (I do not remember the details but I remember its name and and can look the details up on the web).
• Preparation is key. Rehearse as many times as necessary.  (this is not about memorising in your head. Stand up and present to your family, partner, trusted colleagues or friends!
• It is not about what you say; it is about what they (your audience) are thinking
• There are no rules. What is appropriate?
• Does a word have different meanings (e.g. "markets")? Watch out with the jargon: avoid it at all costs!
• Get their minds to join their bodies (the latter may be in the room but the former not)
• Catch their attention from the start
• Presentations are just a communication tool amongst many others such as videos and documents. Use them for the right purposes. Can the message be delivered more effectively with a piece of paper? If so, why are you spending time on a presentation?
• The competitive edge of presentations is the emotions the presenter can convey, the direct contact with the presenter and the interactions between audience and presenter.

• Killer thoughts your audience should not have:
• Get on with it!
• I've heard all of this before
• I bet you say that to everyone
• So what?

• About numbers:
• Certain numbers can be remembered; especially big ones
• Use numbers carefully
• Use only one or two numbers or figures in your presentation
• Numbers can be confused easily

• About attention and memory: 
• Even pictures can distract the audience
• Certain slides can help memory
• Concepts are easier to remember than specific details (use details to stick the concept in people's heads)
• Information sticks to people's interests and experiences
• People remember relevant stories
• People remember things you don't expect
• People remember logical sequences
• People will forget the vast majority of the details of a presentation
• People will notice the emotional state of the presenter
• If the audience have a concern, they will not listen to you. What is their concern? Knowing their concern requires educated guesswork and intelligence gathering.

Note: all of the above were insights I had or ideas provided by David Milne during his course "Winning Hearts and Minds" level I

Learning facilitation instead of knowledge management

I do not really like the term of “knowledge management” because it has an unpalatable mechanicistic, bureaucratic, top-down, linear, control-based, externally-driven flavour.   This is why I prefer the term "learning facilitation". For me it means a less predictable, less manageable, less controlable, more realistic process that is about creating good conditions for people and organisations to learn more effectively.

How to do a good presentation? Kill the slides

I took David Milne's course on presentation skills (levels I and II) between 2008 and 2009 and I have to say that it is extremely useful. Not only it works but it is a life-changing experience. My first presentation soon after the course was probably the best one I have ever done up to date. It was like scoring a goal in the Maracana or Wembley in the final of a World Cup.

However, subsequent presentations were not as good because I was not doing my part.  I did not prepare as much as I did for that glorious day when I felt the full power that my words and ideas could have in people's hearts and minds. I also failed to use key principles and techniques that David had taught me.

One year later I had to present in an important event for my organisation. But this time I had to do the same presentation twice in the same day.  In the first presentation, I depended too much on the slides. I was stuck to my computer and looked most of the time to the slides. I hardly moved and had very little eye contact with the audience. When it ended, a colleague of mine who took David's course with me asked me "What is wrong on with you? That is not the presenter I know!". In that moment I knew what I was doing wrong: I had become a slave of the slides. I had given them too much power. I was protecting myself with them. I was using them as a shield.... from what? I have no idea.

The second time I presented, I still used some slides (mainly pictures, maps and diagrams) but dropped almost all the ones with text (I should have dropped them all). The difference was incredible. I was free to move around the room and make eye contact. I could also move my hands more and my mind could flow better through the ideas I had in my head without being restricted to the script on the wall.  Sure, I forgot to say some things, but I felt that my story got through to the audience better.

Facts are important to support the story but it is not facts what people remember the most; it is the feelings; the emotions they go through during the presentation. Cold facts seldom lead to action. It is emotion with the background of some sort of "factual certainty" that gets people to act.

Of course, the experiment was not perfect because the audience was different each time, but it made me realise the importance of the lessons I learned from David. The two lessons in this blog are:

1. Only use a slide when there is not other way to convey the idea to the audience. In general, do not use slides.
2. Take your audience in an emotional journey:
• from apathy to enthusiasm
• from confusion to understanding
• from despair to hope, etc...

(Note: "factual certainty" can be created by facts that are wrong or impossible for the audience to verify. By saying this I am not condoning the use of false evidence or data. It is very important to get the facts right and cite the sources).