( ESNUG 533 Item 1 ) -------------------------------------------- [10/15/13]
Subject: 53 readers respond to Aart's/Wally's/Dean's/Joe's speaking advice
> 2. In general the goal of a presentation is to get people to see
> something new or to see things differently. People come into
> your presentation with an existing world view. You need to find
> ways to literally jolt them into a new way of seeing the world.
>
> It can sometimes be compelling facts or information, but the best
> way that I have found is to tell a story because it helps the
> audience get out of their own mental loops. They can be drawn in.
> Humor is also helpful because it is often the easiest way to get
> people to see the logical inconsistencies in the world that they
> accept.
>
> - Joe Costello, VP at Qualcomm, former CEO of Cadence
> http://www.deepchip.com/items/0531-03.html
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Good insight. Humor is based on logical inconsistencies.
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Joe could sell ice to Eskimos. His talks from the 90's were the
most fun and most entertaining.
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I always loved how Joe pitched anything. You knew he was half lying,
but nobody cared because he was such fun to listen to.
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You can't teach engineers to be outgoing. You just can't.
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I think this advice, especially from Joe Costello, is misleading.
Most of the Chinese engineers around me speak English as a second
language. Their Confucian culture requires them to be extremely
shy and to rely on others to recognize their achievements.
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Is Joe coming back to EDA?
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Costello is at Qualcomm?
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> 1. Speak from the heart.
>
> 2. Be genuine and truthful.
>
> 3. Add to the topic: share a fresh insight, or have an opinion!
>
> - Aart de Geus, Co-CEO of Synopsys
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Wasn't there a Dilbert cartoon years ago about the dangers of letting
your engineers talk directly to your customers for fear that they'll
tell them the truth?
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Just once, I'd love to have a special card where I could force our R&D
to lie for the benefit of the company when they speak to customers.
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The only reason why I listen to anyone is for their insights. Any idiot
can quote facts. It's the insights that count.
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Yea, sure, if I was the CEO of my own billion dollar company, I, too
could afford to tell the truth.
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Honesty is the best policy.
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Speaking your opinion is great, as long as it's approved by Corporate.
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This is good advice for people who've been with one company for most of
their careers. Iffy advice if you have to go from job to job.
There are too many times where I've had to publically lie for my work.
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I like that about Aart. He doesn't believe in lying.
Now if only he could get his sales and marketing people to believe that.
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Turkish Proverb: "If you speak the truth, have one foot in the stirrup."
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WTF??? Each one of my engineers thinks he has the monopoly on truth.
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What do you do when you have X engineers who spout X+5 opinions on what
we should do?
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Maybe these titans like Aart and Wally can give specific pointers on a
work issue I struggle with: What to do about jerks who just disagree
with you and don't cooperate with you *no matter what*?
I've worked at company after company. There is always some a**hole who
is an automatic naysayer and usually management does nothing about it.
Finally because of these people's stubborness, things go badly (project
is late, poor quality, customer is mad, etc.), but I'm the one blamed!
How to solve this? I'm assuming these CEOs didn't have smooth sailing
on their way to the top, so specific help is appreciated.
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> 1. Identify your audience and talk only about things that matter to
> them. Focus on what's important to them, not to you. As you are
> creating the material, keep putting yourself in the audience's
> shoes. It takes discipline but keep stepping back and looking at
> it from their perspective. If you have a point that the audience
> is not going to care about -- skip it.
>
> Then pay attention to the audience in real time. If you feel you
> are not connecting well, establish some direct interaction to
> change that. See what is resonating, and spend more time on topics
> that are peaking their interest, rather being tied to your original
> planned presentation.
>
> - Dean Drako, CEO of IC Manage, former CEO of Barracuda
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It takes brass balls to change horses mid-stream. Not easy to do in
front of 100's of people watching.
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Rajeev Madhavan used to change his talks mid-way through, regularly.
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One of the best senior managers I ever had would frequently drop his
prepared slides the moment he sensed he was losing his audience.
The guy was brilliant. He moved up fast.
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My worse conference experiences I've had were when the speaker drones
on and on reading his own slides.
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> Dean Drako is one of those rare engineers who started technical business
> ventures back in high school. (And this was in the 80's -- before the
> days when every kid had a computer in his home.) In 1982 at age 16, Dean
> started his first company, "ZYX", that sold T-Net, a pre-internet bulletin
> board software package he wrote -- which paid for his college education.
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Oh, wow. 16. This guy out-nerded even me!
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But did Dean have a date to bring to the prom? Did he? Did he?
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Who the heck had a home computer in 1982?
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BB SW! I forgot those days. Thanks for reminding me.
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> 2. Collect and analyze data
>
> a. I find that, frequently, themes that I thought would make a
> good speech turn out to be incorrect when I collect more data;
> but the additional data collection usually leads to a more
> interesting topic than the one I started pursuing.
>
> b. Engineering audiences need data; they are not as influenced by
> emotion and they want to see an analytical approach to your
> theme and conclusions (with well documented sources that they
> can check and research further.)
>
> - Wally Rhines, CEO of Mentor Graphics
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Hands down, Wally is the best speaker. He's Mr. Data.
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"Let The Data Speak". THAT is what engineers want.
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I like Wally's talks exactly because of this formula he uses.
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Wally speaks data, the only way engineers believe. All else is crap.
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The neat thing about Wally's keynotes is I know they'll be thoroughly
researched. Like me, he has a low tolerance for BS.
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Wally's the best.
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Let The Data Speak. YES!
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Out of these four, Wally's advice is the best for engineers.
Well researched data is the only sure-fire thing that'll influence a
group of engineers or their bosses.
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I would like to ask Wally what he does in those circumstances where
there is no hard data to give direction?
Steve Jobs ran off of visions and insight. There was no data he could
reference when he created the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad...
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Wally actually does ask people about his speeches a month later. He
asked me. I was embarassed to tell him I missed some of key points.
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> Steve Jobs got the credit at Apple because he was the guy who had
> the vision for each product -- plus Jobs was the guy who could persuade
> large groups of engineers to make his visions real.
>
> - from http://www.deepchip.com/items/0531-03.html
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That's B.S.
It's real easy to persuade any group of engineers if you sign their
paychecks.
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Steve Jobs wasn't an engineer.
He was a Marketing person pretending to be an engineer.
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Woz was the real engineer, not Jobs.
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Painters, sculptors, and composers create their compositions single-
handedly, but in electrical engineering there are no "lone wolves".
Ours has always been a team endeavor. Edison ran a lab full of smart
engineers.
Like Steve Jobs, Edison was a successful CEO, CTO, and self-promoter.
Self-promotion is helpful for career success. Public speaking is
helpful for self-promotion.
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> What was unexpected in this survey is how 49 percent cited persuasive
> skills as "equally important" to their career progression -- something
> that most engineers haven't spent time studying.
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The skills you need depend on what phase of your career you're in.
A fresh new-hire out of college has to prove his technical chops.
Senior management has to have a sharp political sense and strong
persuasive skills.
A middle manager is 70 percent of each.
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I am on a chip design team which appears to have over 200 people.
It's Moore's Third Law: The number of people on a chip design
team doubles every 5 years. Crowd influencing skills required.
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My biggest fear is speaking to an audience.
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This is very true. I know brilliant engineers I've worked with
whose careers have stalled because they lacked social skills.
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Yup, talkers get the credit and the promotions. We doers don't.
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> "Have you ever been in a meeting where you made a point, then
> 10 minutes later, someone else in your meeting made your very
> same point -- and everyone loved *their* idea?"
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Welcome to my world.
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> An easy way to improve your persuasive speaking skills is join your local
> chapter of Toastmasters International -- an all volunteer organization
> which teaches public speaking at 14,350 clubs in 122 countries. A typical
> Toastmaster's meeting is held during lunch in a company cafeteria or at
> night in a local library. There is no instructor. Instead, members take
> turns giving presentations and evaluating each other's presentations.
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Synopsys has Toastmaster Clubs in Hyderabad and Sunnyvale! Join us!
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Through six months of Toastmasters, I lost my fear and came to enjoy
public speaking. I recommend it.
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My friends in Toastmasters helped me become a good public speaker and
a better personal English speaker. I thank them greatly!
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Very good!!
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I wish I could give speeches. I feel my career is limited by this.
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Good article. Good advice.
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This was really good.
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