Sanjoy Ray leads an IT Innovation team at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The team’s projects are ambitious, risky, and by definition, upsetting to the entire organization. It’s their job to rock the boat by introducing new technologies that change the way things are done.

The teams that form around each initiative are dynamic, with members enlisted from various parts of the organization. They are established, work hard toward their goals, and then are disbanded as innovations ultimately become a part of standard operations. Establishing and running these teams is a huge element to getting this work done. Doing it right is a critical success factor.

Sanjoy’s insight here is useful for all of us – pick teams based on enthusiasm for the task. When faced with a choice between bringing the most skilled and experienced person or the most enthusiastic person onto the team, go with enthusiasm. As Ray explains:

This approach has led to extraordinary performance and commitment, even under challenging conditions, solely because all involved have outperformed in ways which were driven largely by their sheer excitement about the experiment.

I couldn’t agree more. Enthusiasm can make all the difference in the world.

Photo credit: jankintza_ikastola

Discussions carry more information than words. Facial expressions, tone of voice, mannerisms and gestures are part of the conversation. All those things convey information and meaning. Stripping them away changes things.

That’s precisely the point of this great letter written by Mark Twain back in 1888, in which he disallows future pulitzer prize winning writer Edward Bok from publishing their interview.

“Spoken speech is one thing, written speech is quite another. Print is the proper vehicle for the latter, but it isn’t for the former. The moment ‘talk’ is put into print you recognize that it is not what it was when you heard it; you perceive that an immense something has disappeared from it. That is its soul.”

Twain goes on to explain, as only he can, the tremendous challenge of capturing spoken words accurately. It’s a great reminder that the medium matters. Translating the written word to a speech and the spoken word to text must be done with care and consideration. Communication is more than words.

Photo credit: Joel Washing

In Give Your Speech, Change The World: How to move your audience to action, Nick Morgan gives a comprehensive account of what it takes to master the art of public speaking. The point of any talk, he asserts, is to change the world – to move others to act in the way you’re trying to persuade them.

To do this, you must first be heard. And that means capturing and keeping an audience’s attention. That’s not an easy task. Morgan puts this into perspective with a brief history of the craft of public speaking. He points out the tried and true elements that have been effective since the ancient Greeks used them. The challenges in the modern world are different, of course, and Morgan explains how to adjust your technique.

A good portion of the book is spent on content, the essence of any talk. Structuring it properly is critical. Incorporating the power of story and engaging the audience are essential to what Morgan calls an audience-centered presentation.

A whole section of the book is dedicated to rehearsing, and another to delivery. Once you’ve got the content nailed down, you need to be able to present it well – and to interact with the audience strategically in order to get your message across most effectively.

Each chapter is well-written and carries the weight of an experienced presenter and coach. Written in a conversational style, certain points are emphasized within each topic. Conveniently, each chapter ends with a short bullet point list of its essential elements, making it easy to go back and use the book as a reference.

I’d recommend this book for anyone who speaks publicly, for any size audience. You’ll no doubt uncover tips you can use immediately.

A speech really can make a difference. And it can last beyond the place and time of delivery.

Most don’t. No matter the speaker, the occasion, or the audience.

But at certain crucial moments of history, many of our presidents have indeed risen to the occasion.

Take, for instance, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. While the context of the US Civil War certainly gave weight to whatever he might say, the address was unique – yet long-lasting – in several ways.

In just ten sentences Lincoln put the ceremony and the Civil War itself in context, tying the event to a rich history and an important future for the United States. He also tied the event that everyone had gathered for (the Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg) to its larger meaning in a larger context. Ironically, he states that “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,” yet it is one of the most well-known speeches in United States history.

An economy of words, a proper and profound context, a short and humble delivery. Lessons we should all embrace for our own speeches.

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Problems in technology can be difficult to resolve. Our systems today are incredibly complex and they exist in very dynamic environments. When things go wrong, it can be tricky to figure out how to fix them.

In fact, it’s hard to even figure out exactly where the problem is sometimes. And we can really paint ourselves in a corner when we dig into the nooks and crannies of these complex and dynamic systems. We look closely, examining the nuances of the system. We tweak esoteric details and look for weird anomalies in the weeds.

Often times, however, a better approach is to simplify the situation. To minimize the complexity. To break things down to their component parts and examine them from a simple and straight-forward perspective.

Sometimes the intimidatingly complex problem has a simple and obvious solution, if you look at it the right way.

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Personal branding is something to be attentive to in this day and age. An up to date LinkedIn profile is a minimum. Participating in more public forums like Twitter can help you connect to more people in your field. And blogging can help establish you as a thought leader.

If you start to establish a presence on a variety of platforms, about.me can help you to organize all your profiles in one place and display them elegantly. It’s a great first step.

For those looking to go further, there’s a new service re.vu. Check out the video clip below where CEO Steve Years reviews the service on this week’s issue of The Social Hour and see how you can quickly import your LinkedIn data and present it in a new and exciting way (think infographics).

If you can’t see the embedded video, click here.

Check out this latest design tip from John McWade of Before & After Magazine. Simple and powerful. Such a great example of a small adjustment that makes a big difference.

Can’t see the embedded video? Click here.

When you’ve promised to deliver something, you’re expected to come through. Your project is expected to be on-time, on-budget, and meet spec.

It’s expected to be what was discussed, including everything that was listed, negotiated, and agreed upon. Not only that, it’s expected that you’ll deliver all those things that were not discussed explicitly. All the things imagined in what was thought to be a complete meeting of the minds.

There’s always a grey area, and that can be the toughest part to deliver on. Which is why communication is such a crucial element in any initiative.

Things go wrong

And still, things go wrong. It’s almost inevitable. There is an unexpected challenge, a tricky problem, something that wasn’t discussed thoroughly enough, or some other snafu along the way.

The thing is, something goes wrong in almost any endeavor. As much as good intentions, clear communications, thorough checklists and best practices tries to avoid problems, they crop up. So, often, people aren’t expecting there to be an absence of problems. But when they arise, they do expect you to deal with them swiftly, adeptly, and completely.

The pivot

How you’re going to get to the goal just changed, but the goal hasn’t moved. In the parlance of startup companies, this is called the pivot. You remain focused on your mission, but evolve your strategy to find a new way to achieve it.

Chances are your setbacks won’t be that dramatic, but the lesson applies. And that’s really the thing people are watching.

What do you do in a difficult situation? Do you look for scapegoats and contract clauses and other ways to find excuses or share blame?

Or do you focus on charting a new path to success?

Do you rally others to the cause? Do you display creativity, resourcefulness, and competence? Are you honest and direct?

Those are the questions others are wondering about you when this happens, and they should serve as the guide to your response.

Photo credit: KJ Pane

Experts

Experts know everything. They’ve done it before. That knowledge and experience is what makes them expert at what they do. That’s worth a lot, in the right circumstances. When you need to embark on something new to you, something you’ve not done before but others have, something for which you can’t afford failure, you need an expert.

Craftsman

Craftsman are on a quest to know everything about something, but they know the goal itself is impossible to achieve. For them, the fun is not in knowing as much as it is in the pursuit of knowledge.

Craftsman continually hone their approach. Rather than rely on the same patterns and practices that have served them so well in the past, they build on them. They tweak them. They even abandon some and replace them with new and improved methods and ideas.

Craftsmanship is about learning. The pursuit of knowledge in a specific discipline, the quest to know, to discover, to experience.

When you’re looking to innovate, you need a craftsman.

Photo credit: Habeeb

With so many handy sites and utilities on the social web, it’s easier than ever to keep organized. But it’s also harder than ever because there is so much information and so many ways to organize it.

A little automation can go a long way. And that’s where ifttt.com comes in.

This handy site is very straight-forward and easy to use, yet extremely powerful. It’s can glue together many of the most popular utilties on the web to help you do all sorts of helpful things.

The basic construct, as the name implies, is to have the site process certain tasks based on certain triggers. Some examples might explain this better.

Examples

Here’s an example: If I favorite a tweet, email it to me. This helps when checking twitter on the run. Maybe I’m on the train or in line for a sandwich and see a tweet that links to an article I’d like to read. If I “favorite” that tweet, ifttt sees that and emails me a copy. I could also have it posted to delicious or diigo and tagged “read later” – there are many options.

Another example: I read a lot of stuff on Google Reader. It’s great for reading bunches of RSS feeds, and many times I’ll come across something that I want to share on Twitter. Unfortunately, that’s not easy to do from Google Reader. Enter ifttt. I setup a simple rule to tweet anything that I mark with a star in Google Reader. Problem solved.

The possibilities are endless

The possibilities are endless, it seems. There are dozens of services that ifttt integrates with and many tasks you can create. Also, the ifttt community shares many “recipes” that you can browse to get ideas. Recipes are tasks others have created for one purpose or another and shared with the community.

Check out ifttt.com and explore the possibilities. You’ll likely find some simple automation ideas and capabilities that can go a long way in helping you to automate tasks to save time and keep organized.