The Idea Hunter's blog

Thoughts on better thinking and better presenting

Two little known but helpful powerpoint tips

1) If you ever want to be able to run other powerpoint decks from within an open powerpoint deck there is a way. Ideal for hosting numerous speakers' decks and with the added flexibility of being able to amend the running order if needed. You can amend the size of each first slide so that you can have multiple decks on one slide too. I may create a screencast of what to do but in the meantime it's all here.

2) Very excited by this. When presenting you can run a live, navigable web page from your slide. Download LiveWeb (free), follow these instructions and the option will appear within the "insert" tab. Joyous.

"Tudes" help you breathe more easily

Two key qualities need to be considered when looking for success and they apply to any field of endeavour. When assessing how far or how high you want to go bear this in mind: Attitude + Aptitude = Altitude

Attitude:

What kind of person are you? How do you approach challenges? How curious? How much do you like learning? Is it about you or the team? What is your work ethic? How do you relate to others? Are you a radiator or a drain?

Your attitude impacts on your motivation and this determines your behaviour in any situation. By the time we’re adults your attitude and approach to challenges is largely determined. When hiring this is a key thing to try to get a feel for as you will have to work with what you hire.

Aptitude:

What skills do you possess and to what degree? One key consideration is that skills can be learnt and developed with the correct instruction and training. It might seem the easy option to recruit for existing skills but as things change (and they will) do those skillsets become less important? The correct allocation of resources (people) is vital for an organisation’s ongoing success and you need people who can develop along with the organisation – people with the correct attitude.

Altitude:

The two combined together are the ideal. If they both exist then you/they/the organisation are in the best place possible and can reach ever higher.

10 yeses from me!

A great post from Paul Williams @ Think for a Change: The Top Ten List of Making Innovation Happen Every Day…

Innovation MUST be tied to the organizational strategy Innovation MUST be on the leadership agenda and discussed at every leadership meeting Innovation MUST be led by at least one C-Level or SVP-Level person Ideas (from ANY source) MUST have a path/process to follow Customers/Consumer MUST have a voice Resources (People, Money & Time) MUST be made available for innovation A culture of risk taking, fast failure, experimentation and imagination MUST exist and be supported/protected The organization MUST be made up of skilled and diverse individuals who are set "free" The organization MUST seek to be a leader of "next practices" not a follower of "best practices" The organization MUST have the courage to KILL projects, ideas, lines of business, etc. that don't work

Once you have these ten "MUST's" in place, I think you will find that your employees, front-line managers, middle managers and senior leaders will be innovating...everyday...all day...

Why are we the way we are?

This is a fascinating TED talk byDr. Brene Brown which had me gripped.  Hard to do it justice with a few words but it touches on the importance of being authentic, vulnerability, shame and connecting with people. I'm sure it will be insightful in many aspects of many people's lives. Sit back, enjoy and reflect.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0]

Also, she is a great presenter mainly because she is human and connects with her audience in an instant.

 

Atheist quote

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Stephen Roberts

Training or coaching?

In the last couple of weeks more than one client has sought clarification as to the exact nature of training and coaching. We probably all have a functioning interpretation but here follows The Idea Hunter's take on it.

Of course, in practise, it is easy and beneficial to incorporate a mix of both training and coaching wherever possible. I've thrown in the role of mentor as well - at no extra cost!

Cheer up

Today is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year! Blue Monday was devised/identified as part of a PR campaign for Sky Travel. However, let's not believe it. Here's a video that might help to cheer you up. This clip from Armstrong and Miller may only be suitable for the British sense of humour.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4QDz3c3Auw]

Doing your bit to reduce petrol consumption

Quick question for you:

Let's say your goal is to reduce petrol consumption.

And let's say there are only two kinds of cars in the world. Half of them are Suburbans that get 10 miles to the gallon and half are Priuses that get 50.

If we assume that all the cars drive the same number of miles, which would be a better investment:

  • Get new tires for all the Suburbans and increase their mileage a bit to 13 miles per gallon.
  • Replace all the Priuses and rewire them to get 100 miles per gallon (doubling their average!)

This is from a recent post by Seth Godin highlighting a counter-intuitive arithmetical question. On first inspection it seems that option 2 is the best but work through an example and prove to yourself that option 1 saves more than double the amount of petrol.