Today, I was introduced to the theories and practices of Dr. Nick Morgan. His website is called Public Words: Helping people tell their stories. Morgan is a leader and a teacher, and I’m quite surprised I hadn’t heard of him until this afternoon. Read more about him here. He is the author of two books and a number of e-books about presentation such as 2008′s Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma and 2005′s Give Your Speech, Change The World: How To Move Your Audience to Action. These are definitely on my must-read list, so I’ll write up my reviews soon.
Public Words is a tremendous website I’ll definitely be utilizing this month in my Professional Communication and Presentation class. Morgan has his website divided into categories including speech writing; nonverbal communication; visual aids; audience interaction; and types of speaking engagements such as interviews; radio/TV broadcasts; and interviews. I love the organization of Public Words; in fact, it might be the best website on presentation that I’ve ever seen.
One article called “10 Things To Do Instead of PowerPoint” was especially insightful. He’s hilarious, and absolutely right, when he says this about PowerPoint presentations: “The results are predictably boring – no, excruciating — for their hapless audiences. That’s human misery on a massive scale” (Source). Instead of using PowerPoint, he suggests that his audience try a variety of other techniques, all of which are important to keeping people listening, participating, and engaging.
I can’t wait to dive into Morgan’s work and read more of his articles and texts on the subject. What a great find!
Have you discovered any new presentation gurus lately? Please share them with me in the comments section.
Alex:
I’m a big fan of Nick Morgan. He recently did a series of podcasts about both his books. I blogged about them here:
http://joyfulpublicspeaking.blogspot.com/2011/07/great-brief-podcast-series-by-nick.html
and
http://joyfulpublicspeaking.blogspot.com/2011/08/ten-outstanding-podcasts-from-book.html
Download and read his ChangeThis manifesto:
http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/58.06.PublicWords
Also, be sure to look up and read his article in the November 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review article on “How to Become an Authentic Speaker.”
Richard
Hey Richard! Thanks so much for your comment. How have I gone this long without hearing about Nick Morgan?! Your links are incredibly helpful, and I plan on reading each of those three this afternoon. Thank you again! Alex
Hi, Alex –
Thanks so much for the kind comments and glad to connect with you. Let me know how we can help you in your mission to improve public speaking!
Nick
Hey Nick, Wow! It means so much to me that you took the time to comment on my blog post. Your website and your work is inspiring, and I’m learning so much from you. Hope you and your Public Words team have a great holiday weekend. Alex