Le Grand Tour D'Asia: Day 29 of 58

A Toast to the Halfway Point (Long Island Ice Tea at Clarke Quay)

February 05, 2010

Learning Moment: Singapore

Today, we reached the halfway point of our two-month journey through Asia. As great as the past four weeks have been (and they have been...), some of the best is yet to come.

• We'll be vacationing in Bali for the next seven days
• We'll get to see the first of on Hong Bao (the riverside Chinese New Year festival) in Singapore
• We'll eat a kaiseki dinner for Valentine's Day in Japan
• I'll hook up with Garr Reynolds for a presentation workshop in Yokohama - slide:ology + Presentation Zen
• And then, two weeks in Seoul, Korea

Today, I led another slide:ology session. There are two 'best known methods' that we've developed over the past 6 months of teaching slide:ology. They are not 'rules', but I practice them religiously. I'll share them with you, but - as always - your mileage may vary.

1. Never (ever) share slides with someone who isn't going to present them.
   If you're asked to share your slide deck, email it, or store it on a server - say no. What you should do is convert it to a pdf file and then send it.
   This method has three advantages. First, it shrinks the file size dramatically. Second, viewers cannot 'click' into your embedded files and read the data behind the data. Third, they cannot easily present your deck. Finally, they cannot cannibalize your slides to create a 'Frankendeck'.
2. Never (ever) use sub-bullets.
   A single layer of bullets is fine for creating a list. The next level of bullets, however, indicates one of two things. One - you're typing in words that you're going to say anyway. These can be pushed into notes view and you can just say them. Two - if you really have important text in the sub-bullets, I would argue that the bullet and sub-bullets have enough meaning for one new slide. The bullet becomes the title and the sub-bullets become the text (or are changed to an image).

The use of sub-bullets is mostly laziness. Since I imposed this rule on myself, I have not found a case where I needed to keep them. There is almost always a better way.

Give it a try!

Three Steps to Dealing with Layoff Survivors Guilt

I've been a manager for 13+ years.

Until today, I'd never had to reprimand, fire, or layoff an employee.

Much of that was luck. I've had good (in character and performance) employees.

Some of that was design. I've always carried lean teams and worked hard to make sure my management teams knew that.

But this economic situation was too big. So today, as part of a larger action, I had to lay off employees.

They handled it with grace and professionalism.

For those of us who remained, there was a dark cloud hanging over the day.

Empty cubicles, bare walls, farewell emails, and hushed hallways - the residue of something bigger than all of us.

The wisest comment I've heard over the past few days came from a security manager who said, "They were our friends and colleagues yesterday. Let's treat them in a way that honors that and allows them to be our friends and colleagues tomorrow, even though they won't work here."

Amen...

My three steps to dealing with the cloud?

1. Taking the top down on my car for the drive home. Wind and sun are my disinfectant.
2. Two Long Island Iced Teas with dinner. Yes, sometimes alcohol is the answer (or part of it).
3. Cary Brothers on the stereo at home. Like Snow Patrol, Cary Brothers excels in "uplifting sorrow". Listen to "Glass Parade" or "If You Were Here" and you'll see what I mean.