May
9
DECIDING WHAT TO DELEGATE: Once the benefits of delegation are established and obstacles removed, the next step in the delegation process is to decide what work can and should be delegated. In general, work to be delegated should adhere to the following guidelines: It can be handled adequately down the line. All necessary information for decision making is also available down the line. The work involves operational detail rather than planning or organization. The task does not require skills unique to the manager or position. An individual other than the manager has, or can have, direct control over the task.
WHAT NOT TO DELEGATE: There are, of course, tasks that should never be delegated: work that involves confidential information; “crash programs” that usually demand the experience and expertise of management; and tasks involving supervisor-subordinate relations such as employee evaluations, development, training, compensation, counseling, discipline, and morale-building.
CHOOSING WHAT TO DELEGATE: Managers should divide all of their current tasks into three categories: (1) work that only the manager can perform; (2) work that can be delegated immediately; and (3) work that can be delegated as soon as an employee can be trained to handle it.
BE PREPARED: Responsibility for carrying out a delegated assignment to its endincluding making decisions, exercising ingenuity and resourcefulness, and doing his or her own worryingis a necessary part of any successful delegation. A manager who delegates a task must be willing to step back and keep suggestions, questions, and interruptions to a minimum.
Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium
CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.
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May
8
To fully understand the rules that govern just how much information you can include in your presentation slides, you need to appreciate a fundamental of human nature - namely, that we have an innate desire to be The First to Know.
Unfortunately, most of the presentation visuals that we see are designed with the mistaken belief that audiences will actually wait for the presenter to walk them through them. Wrong.
When the technology of communications was slower, we took a more historical approach to news - news was about what happened. We were accustomed to waiting for the news, and news had a time: Did you see the morning paper? Did you hear the evening news?
But with electronic advancements, we came to think of news more in terms of what is happening at the moment. Film brought us motion, but video feeds brought us there. Screens eclipsed paper as the preferred venue for getting the latest. Newspapers folded, first afternoon editions and then even icons of Americana - think Herald Tribune. Instead of being the first source of news in the world, to survive newspapers became more feature oriented - providing value only for less perishable and less immediate content.
Cable News Network took a huge gamble that people all over the world would watch news twenty-four hours a day - news on the people’s timetable, not the providers. News on demand. Fulfillment for those with the desire to be “the first to know.”
What does all this have to do with presentation design? You don’t need to be a news junkie to share a basic trait of humans and other intelligent animals - curiosity. Curiosity is basic to survival, and we have evolved as creatures who need to learn what we can quickly. So this same desire that humans have to be the first to know translates to every event that involves new information uptake. During a presentation, audience members want the same control, and are basically unwilling to wait for you, the presenter, to help them be the first to know.
Once the curiosity about a slide has been satisfied, audience members usually will give the presenter their attention.
But when a new slide first appears on the screen, all eyes, like moths to the flame, tune to the new image, and immediately begin the race to be the first to know what the slide is all about. It’s not their fault! They’re human!
Only when every member of the audience is thoroughly convinced that they know exactly what the slide means will they lend their attention back to what you are saying.
And until this point you realistically might as well not be there. Oh, sure, you can act as most do and begin to describe the elements in the slide, but for all intents and purposes, it matters little what you do. You could drop your pants. You could leave the room. You could tell off-color jokes. But until the audience has determined for themselves exactly what all the data and word tracks on the screen mean to them, you have approximately 0% of their attention.
With most of the slides we see in business presentations today, this is where the disaster begins. You see, the typical slide contains so much information that a typical audience member would need more than 30 seconds just to read the material, much less absorb it. The reading process is delayed, though, because first the viewer tries to decide for herself where to begin, and which piece of information is most important. Clues to the relative value of the information are often erroneous, however, as audiences base them on such things as the size of the type or placement on the screen.
For this reason, you must ask yourself how long it will take the average person to discover for themselves all the information you have in your slide. The more time it takes the average person to absorb and assimilate the information they see, the greater the chance you have to lose your audience.
So what does this tell us? Of course, there is only one truly viable solution, and that is to limit, by all means possible, the amount of information that is released with each click of your mouse.
The less time it takes the audience to discern the new information, the sooner they’ll get back to you and start to listen to what you really mean to “say” on the slide.
J. Douglas Jefferys brings twenty-five years of corporate training experience to his role as a principal of PublicSpeakingSkills.com [http://www.publicspeakingskills.com]. His firm changes presenters lives forever with their unique apporach to training presentation design and delivery skills. Discover how to design and deliver presentations that audiences actually listen to by visiting their website now.
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May
7
How many of you are always looking for new ways to use your embroidery designs - always, or never? If never, you are overlooking wonderful opportunities! Do you optimize the use of every design? Do you routinely review your library of designs to see if you can combine motifs from one set with another? Have you noticed how embroidery design styles have changed over the past few years? Give those old motifs a new look by using the designs that you got way back when, again! Add new motifs under, or around, them to create a whole new look! My last big project, a wind jacket back, is a good example of what anyone can do with a little time and imagination!
With fall already upon us, I wanted something tropical in my
wardrobe as it’s still every where in ready-to-wear & home dec. The colors are just as exciting as leaves turning colors. With the tropical look continuing into fall, I remembered a wind jacket, with a hole that needed covering, in my closet. The fabric is an aqua, “falling leaf” jacquard that would be perfect in both style & color!
I began with the 168-169 Tropical scene components but wanted
to add other motifs to cover the entire jacket back. Next I added a colorful bird from set 166 Flights of Fancy.
Although larger, these birds were simply wonderful as forefront
motifs with the smaller tropical plants as background! When I
went back through my sets, up to 2 years old, I found 117 Japanese Botanicals with several motifs that worked into what I had already stitched to make a spectacular finished look. The scene had motifs from 4 entirely different themes that I had never thought about putting together before.
When planning a large area you want to give the effect of being
almost covered, yet leave an open effect. You want most motifs to appear as just an illusion, with only a few focus pieces to be in full fill. Often this can achieve this by using muted colors that almost blend into the fabric color & brighter colors for the key pieces which you want to draw the real attention.
TIP: A great way to visualize how the whole “picture” will look, print out 1:1 size templates of the motifs, cut them out & move like puzzle pieces until it’s pleasing to you.
The main things to watch when creating a large area or scene are:
1. Don’t overdo it! Don’t try to fill every single inch of the large area making the scene too busy.
2. Don’t worry about exact placement - a random look is much more attractive, especially on all 4 sides. Place motifs in an uneven fashion.
3. Don’t limit yourself to motifs from one set - you might wind up with something less than spectacular!
4. Think outside the box! You may be surprised at the sets you pull motifs from to create a whole new theme! Example: try roosters with florals or veggies or create a theme of fruit & flowers.
5. Don’t let the design colors keep you from considering them for the project. Very often a few color changes will give a whole new look to a motif making it work with something else you would never have considered before.
If you don’t “think outside the box”, you are missing out on
the real enjoyment & ability to expand your creativity to optimize the use of your designs! To see what I mean, take a look at the photo of my finished wind jacket that is post on our web site!
Thread Artist has the superior designs & supplies you need to make all your creations as spectacular as you imagine them. You’ve invested a lot in your equipment; don’t compromise the projects you create with your equipment by using less than the very best supplies & embroidery designs available anywhere!
Sandy Carter is the author of embroidery articles at embroidery
designs by Thread Artist. She has an article about embroidery software for digitizing and lettering fonts at
embroidery software. There is free embroidery digitizing Tutorial at
this web address - embroidery by Thread Artists.
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