HL Arledge

Disruption

I haven't posted lately due to technically difficulties. I hope to get these worked out ASAP.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

Thanks,
HL

A poor man's (or woman's) antibiotic...

I’ve had several of my teammates leave sick already this week.

As the weather changes, the flu and cold season nears. With this in mind, I thought I would pass on this tip.

An old Louisiana country doctor once told me…

“If you’re too busy or too cheap to call me for antibiotics, take 3 vitamin C tablets and one B complex every four hours. This will help build up your immune system. If you do this early when you first think you’re getting sick, it may ward off the illness.”

Of course, that’s just food for thought.

I am not a practicing physician—nor do I play one on TV, so please don’t sue me if this doesn’t help you.

Meanwhile, in a country called Scrum...

In the country of Scrum, there is a backlog of bills to be addressed, and there is an impediment list of problems to be solved.

These lists are ordered by the Product Owner—and the Vice Product Owner if the Product Owner is assassinated.

The country of Scrum has two teams. Each team has a Scrum Master, who coordinates meetings to ensure that everyone does what is best for the team and the country.The Product Owner is available to answer any questions and provide any support the teams require.

The Product Owner(s) never interfere with the daily workings of the teams.

The goals of individual team members are rarely considered.

After both teams have delivered on their commitments, they come together, adapting and improving their processes, ultimately delivering a country that all stakeholders are proud of—and one that other country's envy.

I once lived in the country of Scrum, but during some quiet coo, I believe that my country was overthrown by the kingdom of Greed.

3 Big Questions from Patrick Lencioni

You may recall that Patrick Lencioni is one of my favorite authors.

He has a new book that everyone should read.

If you take time to read The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family, please let me know what you think.

21 tips for delivering killer presentations

As you know, I worked in radio for 15 years, and I've been speaking publicly since Jimmy Carter was president.

In fact, this month I will be speaking to developers at the Fresno County Office of Education on Scrum.

At the office this week, everyone's getting excited about our user conference, and most are beginning to prepare their training sessions. To assist, I've put together my top 21 tips for public presentations.

1. Know your 15-word summary. Can you summarize your presentation in fifteen words? If not, rewrite it and try again. Speaking is an inefficient medium for communicating information, so know what the important fifteen words are and repeat them often.
2. Develop rapport with the audience. Presentations should be entertaining and informative. The audience expects some appeal to their emotions. Reciting dry facts without passion or humor bores your audience, as does repetitious or unnecessary words. Keep the audience engaged. Interesting talks fly by. Boring ones last forever.
3. Tell stories. If your presentation is lengthy, explain your points using short stories or anecdotes. Great speakers know how to paint mental pictures for the audience, creating emotional connections between ideas.
4. Tell the truth. If someone asks you a question and you do not know the answer, tell them so, but offer to help them find the answers after the presentation, and when you are wrong, say you are wrong.
5. Hold questions until the end. To keep the presentation moving, ask the audience to hold questions until the end. If they have questions not specific to the presentation, ask them to meet with you after the session.
6. Repeat questions. When accepting questions, have the person asking state their name and where they are from. Repeat these details and the question for your audience.
7. Prepare and adapt. Speak to your audience, listen to questions, respond to reactions—adjust and adapt. In case your material is not getting across, be prepared to change strategy. Know what you can (and cannot) omit, and brace yourself for the unexpected.
8. Distribute handouts. Ensure that the audience focuses on your presentation, instead of taking notes. Distribute most prior to the arrival of the audience, and hold additional handouts for late arrivals.
9. Make eye contact with everyone in the room. Sincere eye contact makes everyone in your audience feel involved. Exchange eye contact with many people in the audience for 3 seconds each, and routinely glance at the crowd while speaking.
10. Remember the slide rules. Show no more than 10 slides per 20 minutes with each slide containing no font smaller than 30-point. Using any audio or visual aids, “going large” avoids interruption by making everything easily understandable from the back of the room. Highlight main points within the first few slides, and throughout the presentation, use more words than those on the slides. Also, remember to number your slides (or script pages) in case you lose your place.
11. Never read slides or notes verbatim. Use words as reminders, and spend most of your time making eye contact. Knowing your material makes you more competent and confident—and assures your audience that you are an expert on your subject.
12. Speak with conviction and enthusiasm. With a little practice, you can inject your passion for a subject into your presentations, and enthusiasm is contagious. Structure presentations using logical progressions from introduction (Thesis statement) to body (strong supporting arguments, accurate and up-to-date information) to conclusion (re-state thesis, summary, and logical conclusion).
13. Breathe. Feeling the urge to use presentation killers like ‘um,’ ‘ah,’ or ‘you know’? Replace those with a pause, taking a short breath—in—not out. Allow everyone time to reflect and think. Racing through will leave everyone out of breath.
14. Slow down. Nervous speakers tend to talk fast. Consciously slow your speech down and add pauses for emphasis. Use statements like, “that’s a good question,” or “I’m glad you asked me that,” to buy time and organize responses. Astute guests will know, but it still smoother than “ums” and “ahs”.
15. Never plan gestures. Any gestures you use should be an extension of your message and the real emotions that message conveys. Planned gestures always look phony, because they do not match other involuntary body cues.
16. Arrive early. Never fumble with software or equipment while people are waiting. Scope the room early, run through your slide show, and identify any potential problems. Verify early that all electrical outlets and devices are functioning properly.
17. Practice your speaking skills. Practice instills competence and confidence. If possible, practice with the microphone. Some require that you speak from one angle. Other microphones absorb sound from different directions, but are prone to feedback.
18. Project your voice. Do not yell. Stand up straight and let your voice resonate on the air from your lungs rather than your throat, and you will produce a louder and clearer sound. Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.
19. Know when to apologize. Apologize only when you have done something wrong. Never apologize for nervousness or a lack of preparation time. Most audiences will not detect your anxiety, unless you draw attention to it. Apologize when you are late or shown to be incorrect. Confidence will promote audience trust, but arrogance will erode it.
20. Be the Audience. When preparing your presentation, think from the audience’s perspective. What might they not understand? What might seem boring? As an audience member, “What’s in it for me?”
21. Know when to stop talking. Conclude your presentation by summarizing your main points. Follow with an interesting remark or an appropriate punch line. Leave your audience with a positive impression and a sense of completion. Do not belabor your closing remarks. If there is time remaining, take questions, thank your audience and sit down.

Let me know if you have any to add!

Having a pow-wow with the wife

For my first wedding anniversary, I went to an Indian Pow-wow.

By now, my female readers are throwing tomatoes at me, and the Native American activists of the world are preparing their picket signs.

Get over it!

It was my wife's idea to attend the pow-wow, after some Mono friends of ours invited us to the foothills for the weekend—and those same friends positively hate the term "Native American".

The name "America" came from the same folks that labeled the continent's indigenous peoples "Indians" in the first place.

It's true that these folks are not from India, and that Columbus thought they were, but why someone coined a particular term doesn't make the term any less valid.

If you truly want to be politically correct, call a Mono a Mono, an Apache an Apache, or—here's a novel idea—simply call them by their name.

My great grandmother—"Mamaw Teya"—was Cherokee.

Her family name was Gill—not Native or American or Indian.

And by the way, the expected first anniversary gift is "paper".

Our "Indian Fry Bread" was much tastier than paper...

...and besides, my wife did ask me to take her dancing for our anniversary.

Use the Cone of Silence: It's the Law

This morning, I was abiding by California Law, driving with my cell phone in "speaker" mode.

Not only is this experience like using Get Smart's Cone of Silence, but the whole thing is completely unfair.

It's unfair to me, and it's unfair to the underwater person I am attempting to have a conversation with.

This awkward situation has us screaming at each other. Not only is this unfair, but it is also very rude.

I stopped at one light to find a rather obese guy with two egg McBurritos in one hand and scalding hot coffee in the other—but no worries: he had both elbows on the steering wheel.

At the next light, I found myself beside an attractive blond—attractive, because she had her whole beauty shop in her car. She was applying so much makeup as the light turned that I could have sworn she had three arms.

Where's the law against applying mascara and stuffing your face while driving? Is there some survey that proves these folks cause less accidents than those with cell phones to their ears, or is that a law, only because some bored California lawmaker had nothing important to talk about?

Almost to the office, I hit one of those uncomfortable lights. The ones where you are forced to sit in front of a cop. You know you're not guilty of anything, but you're nervous anyway. You start thinking of "what-ifs".

What if I weaved, and he thinks I'm drinking? What if my break light went out overnight? What if that parking ticket in New Mexico last summer finally caught up with me?

What if the cop is bored and looking for something to do? What if he is having a bad day and is looking for someone to take it out on?

In the end, I was able to breath a sigh of relief.

The officer had no time for me.

He was busy with his cell phone in his ear!

Grizzlies lost last night, but our team won!

Last night, Decade Software teams from all departments gathered their families and made another trek to Chukchansi Park for an all-you-can-eat BBQ outing.

The Fresno Grizzlies lost to the Portland Beavers, 4-2, but the July temperatures were lower than expected, allowing a good time to be had by all.

I wanted to thank Kevin for funding the event and to thank all who attended for coming out and supporting the DSC team.

Thanks! It was a blast.

Public appearance this week, call the assassin

An invitation for you...

Central Valley Software Partnership

presents

A two-meeting showcase of innovation
in Fresno's software development industry

Participating companies include

July 10

• Argos Software
• Decade Software
• Decipher
• WatchDoit
• Yosemite Technologies

August 14

• Famous Software
• Galaxy IT
• SJV Technology Group
• Company TBD
• Company TBD

Who Can Attend:

Anyone with an interest in the growth and well being of Fresno, California's software development industry.

Fireside Chat provokes Spooky Actions

Yesterday, I received a nice note from Michael DeWitt...

"HL, I heard your Fireside Chat with Lisa Haneberg and was very impressed with what you had to say.  I decided to check out your blog, which is great.  I was particularly taken with your Agile / Scrum / HueyLong post.  It's probably in my top 10 all time in the blogosphere, because it was entertaining and right on the money!"

Michael also pointed me to a related article on his rather famous blog, Spooky Action. If you liked my Hipopalorum and Lopopahirum post, I recommend checking out Michael's take on the subject as well.