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Don't let software overwhelm your presentations
I have recently been in the audience for a lot of PowerPoint presentations, and some of the uses have made me wonder if a recent news article asking "Is PowerPoint killing presentations?" are right on target. In the right hands, PowerPoint or any other presentation programs can literally and figuratively make a presentation sing. It can also drain out all the energy, interest and passion. There is no question in my mind based on my experience of the last 10 PowerPoint presentations I have sat through that the latter happens far more often than the former. The presenter often reads the slide text with little elaboration. The text font is often to small for audience members to read.
The presenter often distributes the same slides as a handout. Snore.
This approach no longer works for audiences whose attention span has been shortened by the Internet, TV, ad the fast forward button. That being said, it is not the PowerPoint tool, it is the person who is using the tool. Does it mean it's time to abandon PowerPoint for presentations? For some the answer might be yes.
I really don't want to see another presentation where the presenter starts complaining about slides someone else prepared, seems to be reading from them for the first time, and would clearly do a better job connecting with the audience without slides.
Are slides always needed?
You don't need slides for everything. Do the slides serve the presentation?
Do they enhance and illustrate, or do they obscure the points you want to make? What does you audience need and want? I know I want to hear what the presenter has to say; so why are they spending time just reading slides?
People respond to what people say, not to slides.
Don't make slides do double duty. Why are you using the same slides for the presentation and the handout? Emphasize story, structure and theme.
The best presentations do not have a lot of text.
There are many excellent presenters out there and storytellers. Keep that in mind the next time you use PowerPoint, and treat it as a tool to help you.
Just my $0.02 worth.
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Doing Too Much?
Brain structure explains why people have difficulty multitasking
When we do two things at the same time, our brain divides our work in half, literally; each hemisphere concentrates on one task, reports a study in the April issue of Science.
Researchers measured brain activity in volunteers performing letter-pairing tests. When subjects had to deal with two streams of letters, concurrently performing two pairing tasks, the activity in one half of the brain corresponded to one task, and the activity in the other half corresponded to the other task.
This study might explain why people are notoriously poor at doing three or more things simultaneously.
After two tasks, we run out of hemispheres!
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The Foundation's mission is to perpetuate Jason's spirit and love as exemplified by his work with youth with needs in the outdoor setting. The Foundation will support Outdoor Experiential Education programs in the form of scholarships for at-risk youth and grants to qualified outdoor instructor / leader training programs.
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Greetings!
Lots and lots of discussions about "Striving for Professional Excellence".
So glad this is a topic of interest. Quite a few people approached me at School Connections in San Francisco last month and encouraged me to keep exploring this topic and they gave me some great ideas. When you aspire to achieve excellence, start working on the person you want to be. You may adapt desirable behaviors you see in others, however do not limit yourself to being anyone's carbon copy. You approach your own excellence as if you were creating a superb mosaic. The first step is to draw an outline of your mosaic. The next step is to teach people not to be afraid or intimidated by quiet excellence.
And finally, we must insist that all mavericks, oddballs, and strange ducks be accepted for their excellence. Society has to stop beating up on the non-conforming. That is why our kids are in battle. You cannot force someone into submission and have good intentions at the same time.
In the mental-health field and in our industry as a whole, we simply will not be effective when over-managed by bureaucracy, be it massive or microscopic. There are many drummers out there so find the one who has the best beat that is pleasurable to you.
When a person of excellence is feeling strangled by the politics of working within an organization, they get out!
From Native American Indian lore -
"Stand alone. Eventually, the rest will fall".
It goes without saying, however, I will say it anyway, those people in our industry who are exemplary at what they do, have definite strengths.
They are literate; they listen attentively, ask good questions and speak well; are organized; capable of managing stress, anger and time; dress with care; project authority and confidence without ego; and are interested in solutions and wellness, rather than illness and problems.
Often, they have a unique trait. It might be quickly establishing rapport, and gaining trust, putting anxious kids and families at ease, giving depressed kids a reason to get up in the morning, having a droll and subtle sense of humor, or having seemingly boundless energy. It is an excellent person who can say, "I don't know, however I am going to find out!" and actually follow through.
As well, persons of merit have personal competencies. They possess the ability to refrain from gossip, maintain confidentiality, and a willingness to be generally (however not inflexibly) guided by a code of ethics.
Thus, true professionals accept that wisdom may be found in the words of different genders, ethnicity, occupations, races and levels of education.
True professionals do not coerce or punish, quash and reject those who disagree with them. They may, however, challenge others to substantiate their views.
Wishing you all the best on your adventure and journey as you strive for professional excellence. I believe there will be more on this topic next month, as people asked me to think about the excellent people I know.
I am going to do just that!
Dore E. Frances, Ph.D.
Founder
Horizon Family Solutions, LLC
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Mind of a Teenage Gangster
Lie Number Two
Part Four of Research Series on Treating Adolescent Gang Members in Private Clinical Treatment Settings
 | | Ana Cary Ayala Bustos, 16, in an Everett courtroom March 2010, was found guilty of second-degree murder. |
LIE: Membership will garner the respect of the community. She seemed an unlikely gang member. At 5 feet tall and 90 pounds, Ana Cary Ayala Bustos, 16, barely reached the shoulders of some of the sheriff's deputies who escorted her in and out of court during her four-day trial. "Yo. When we walk, people respect us. They get out of the way. Nobody gonna dis me' cause they would be a fool. You know, they know we don't play. I'd bust a cap on them." Respect.
Gang members eventually get tired of the constant thereat to their personal safety and attempt to gain some peace through their own idea of "respect" - something we all want from our peers. However, gang members do not know what respect means. Typically gang members mistake fear for respect. When you respect another person you are not likely to invade that person's space. You respect their privacy and give them room. Likewise, you are not interested in stealing from someone you respect. Certainly you wish them no harm. Fear is much like respect in many ways. We are not likely to want to get close to someone we fear.
We give them plenty of room and do not invade their personal space.
No doubt the person we fear can emotionally and physically harm us so we are not likely to draw their attention by taking anything that belongs to them. The difference between fear and respect is that fear repels and respect attracts. This difference is not understood by teenage gang members. They tend to overreact to perceived disrespect. Eventually a gang member will react violently to any perceived threat to their "respect." That is, when someone does not appear to fear them to a satisfactory degree, these teen gangsters feel they must do something to strike fear, or "respect" into the other person. The minimal violence is a physical assault. The maximum is murder. Police believe that most gang murders involving teens occur over conflicts of a drug deal going sour, money, or uncontrolled anger or passion. Things like "mad doggin," which is the practice of "looking mean" at someone, "flashing" or "throwing", a hand sign, and wearing the wrong colors are all good reasons for a gang member to combat and perhaps even kill another person in their world.
Many homicides of teen gang members are committed under the cover of darkness with few witnesses who can or will testify against the gang members who commit these crimes. The apparent randomness of gang-related violence makes it difficult for the police to tie the victim to the murderer. It also makes it difficult for the community to comprehend these types of crimes being committed by teenagers. Many times these situations are just senseless random acts of violence that have gone beyond any type of self-control. Why do teen gang members respond so violently and forcefully to a relatively minor provocation? "If" they do not respond they do believe that they will lose the "respect" of their "family".
Most teenage gang members say they too fear being violated, however, they do not want to appear to be weak, as weakness is an opportunity for others to commit violence against them. Even from within their own "family". The reality is that there is no respect possible for a gang member, except from a fellow gang member. And most gangs specifically require their members to show no respect to other gangs.
Violation of this membership requirement can result in a serious beating by one's own "family." These rigid rules of mistaken respect and these teen's misunderstandings of the reasons for joining the gang also mean that these kids often mistake courtesy, giving and kindness as the signs of a weak person. Understanding this is important when these kids are in clinical treatment. A strong, firm approach is preferred when dealing with these teens. Debate on how to address assisting a teenage gang member in treatment brings up a lot of very interesting ideas.
Coming in December - Lie Number Three
Dore Frances, Ph.D. travels throughout the country speaking to treatment center providers about families, teens and how to keep on top of what is needed today.
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Caring for Self while caring for others
Heed the signs of trauma exposure, and take steps to assume personal control
You can only go halfway into the darkest forest; then you are coming out the other side. ~Chinese proverb
The Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary defines stewardship as:
"the careful and responsible management of something entrusted in one's care."
Caring for others is hard work.
Being exposed to others' trauma opens us to our own pain. It is important for us in this industry to be good stewards of ourselves.
As consultants, counselors, doctors, family therapists, interns, lawyers, nurses, residential treatment staff, we are entrusted with people's stories and, at times, their lives. This is an incredible honor and a tremendous responsibility. We create space for and honor clients' hardship and pain.
To be a good steward of this privilege is to remember the sacredness of this relationship, to maintain the highest ethical practices, to be in our integrity, and to honor our responsibility. Stewardship of our relationship with clients (kids and their families) is not just a good idea you hear about at a conference. It is a daily practice, tending to others' and our pain, suffering and trauma experiences. It entails learning to stay present in our work, no matter how difficult the stories we hear might be.
It means slowing down what we hear from clients in order to be curious about what is happening within ourselves.
It is paying attention on purpose, in the present moment. The work we do with kids and families involves listening non-judgmentally, suspending our assumptions and biases, and simply being present to another. To be effective at what we do, we need to pay attention to our intention.
This does not mean putting on a happy face. Instead, we need to embrace the paradox that to be effective at what we do, we cannot afford to close ourselves off to the experience of pain. This topic will continue next month, as I explore with you the many barriers in our daily lives that get in the way of this attentiveness. Some barriers are personal, some societal, and others institutional.
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Books, Jewelry, T-Shirts, Unique Gifts
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 | | Dore E. Frances, Ph.D. |
HFS Consulting
1145 NW Knoxville Blvd.
Bend, Oregon 97701
(541) 312-4422
Children always look to their parents. Parents should be more calm. You can teach children that you face a lot of problems but you must react to those problems with a calm mind and reason. I have always had this view about the modern education system: we pay attention to brain development, but the development of warmheartedness we take for granted. ~ Dalai Lama
Horizon Family Solutions. LLC
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