Developing an Ethos of Continuous Improvement

Let's keep it simple

What does every company have?

It's strategy, it's product or services, it's people and it's processes.

How is the company performing?
You could answer here profits are up on last year, profits are down on last year, but either way is there always room for improvement?

Like any machine if any of the parts are not operating effectively, or if the parts added together are not aligned then the machine cannot operate at peak performance.


Continuous Improvement
If we have an ethos of continuous improvement company wide, and manage operational change across the whole machine we are more likely to keep the individual parts aligned and working effectively. 
At the core of operational effectiveness are your people and most of the golden nuggets of continuous improvement can be found within the knowledge of your people.

Developing the Ethos
Most companies need to get a return on any investment they make, and an investment in developing an ethos of continuous improvement does not have to be expensive.
You do not have to immediately train all of your staff on the methods or strategies for improvement such as Six Sigma, Lean, CMMI, TQM amongst some.

However you do need to have a simple improvement process defined that sits across the company and ensures that any series of actions taken keep the components of the machine aligned.

Your staff will drive the ethos of continuous improvement, if you encourage them - and you know what it makes their job better as well as the company better as well as the profits better which all leads to a great company to be part of.

Goal Setting and Time Management - Part 1

What is a goal? - Well my son said it's when the ball gets into the net past all the things blocking it.

So I ask how do you score a goal? You imagine it mum, and you try different ways to get past all the other players, some work some don't but you have to keep trying and then you eventually get a goal.  Unless you are the goalie he is not meant to score goals just stop them :-)

How do you imagine it?   I have pictures on my wall of people scoring goals and I see it in my head the team winning and me scoring a goal.

It's funny really because I over complicate my goal management sometimes instead of keeping it simply about vision and passion to reach my goals.

The most common terminology you hear about goal setting is making sure you set SMART goals, that you write them down and that you consistently visualise achieving these goals, but remember you must have a plan to back up how you are going to achieve the goals you set yourself.

• S = Specific
• M = Measurable
• A = Attainable
• R = Realistic
• T = Timely

Specific - Goals should be straightforward and emphasize what you want to happen, the what, why and how

• WHAT are you going to do? Use action words such as direct, organize, coordinate, lead, develop, plan, build etc.
• WHY is this important to do at this time? What do you want to ultimately accomplish?
• HOW are you going to do it? (By…)

Measurable - If you can't measure it you can't manage it. Establish real criteria for measuring progress towards reaching each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the excitement of achieving that spurs you on to reach your goals.

Attainable -Goals that are too far out of your reach you are less likely to commit to.  Although you will start out motivated towards a goal your subconscious will keep reminding you that it is not really attainable.  Your goal does need to stretch you and be important to you, you will then begin to figure out ways you can make them happen. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills to reach them.

Realistic - There is no point in setting yourself an unrealistic target, the goal needs to be realistic for you and within the things that you can influence the tings you can change.  Setting unrealistic goals only undermines your confidence to achieve.  But do not make them easy there is no sense of satisfaction in achieving easy goals make them somethings you can strive towards.

Timely - Put a time frame an end date on your goals, give yourself a clear target to work towards.  If you do not give yourself a time frame there is no urgency to start the work necessary to meet your goal. 

Write your goals down, visualise success and never give up it will happen!!!!

Essential Presentation Skills - Part 4

In the last blog - essential presentation skills part 3 - we covered steps four to six, how are you going to close, how are you going to open and what will be your memorable visuals, now lets move forward to steps 7 and 8 and then a short summary:

• What is your goal? 
• Who is your audience? 
• What is your content and why? 
• How are you going to close?
• How are you going to open?
• What will be your memorable visuals?
• How will you excite your audience? 
• What is your rehearsal plan? 

How will you excite your audience? 
Your voice will excite your audience, your passion for what you are talking about. But you need to remember do not run through your words in a single tone with no pauses between information it will just sound too boring even though you are passionate. The three important facts are speed, tone changes and pauses.

You need to know what your voice sounds like so record what you are saying and listen – get family members to listen and learn what you believe you need to change. Be critical of your own voice and listen for the tone changes when you would expect to hear them from others – just this practice can help your voice tone.

Your personal mood can have an affect on your vocal projection so you need to spend time working on focusing your attention, focus on the moment and filter out your negative mood factors. Visualize success, fun, enjoyment, passion and repeat to yourself something that make you feel good.

Present a warm and likeable front to your audience smile at them, the action of smiling actually changes the tone of your voice. Stand in a relaxed way but do stand tall do not hunch and look like the beechams powder character.

What is your rehearsal plan? 
Always remember - If you fail to prepare, you are prepared to fail – one of the most important things you can do is rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. You need to know: 

• Write yourself key cards to trigger your thoughts 
• Number your cards so you have a visual flow 
• How long will you presentation actually take 
• When are your visual aids required
• What movements are appropriate to your words 
• Will you meet your goal 
• Will your audience be expecting different 

Summary of Presentation Tips

1. Create memorable moments 
2. Your slide show is not your presentation you are your presentation 
3. Memorable grabs beginning, the middle and the end 
4. Stick to the rule of three 
5. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse 
6. Avoid FEAR – Fictitious Events Appearing Real 
7. Visualize – reflect on a positive performance 
8. Think Visually 
9. Sell your dreams – passion 
10. Repeat, repeat, repeat 
11. Give numbers a perspective and a visual 
12. Enjoy it

Essential Presentation Skills - Part 3

In the last blog - essential presentation skills part 2 - we covered the first three steps, what is your goal, who is your audience and what is your content and why, now lets move forward to steps 4,5 and 6:

• What is your goal? 
• Who is your audience? 
• What is your content and why? 
• How are you going to close? 
• How are you going to open? 
• What will be your memorable visuals? 
• How will you excite your audience? 
• What is your rehearsal plan? 

How are you going to close?
A good close is probably the most important part of your presentation it should set your audience buzzing. It must not introduce anything new, not try an repeat the whole presentation in a summary, but most important the audience must know it is the conclusion and what you expect them to do next.

If you are going to take questions, make sure you have rehearsed the types of questions you may be asked and your answers. Do not open the floor to questions if you are not rehearsed for this as you may leave a different closing memory.

How are you going to open?
The start of your presentation needs to wake them up, inspire them, get their attention, make them laugh, build a rapport There is no need to start a presentation like everyone else does and have a list of agendas or topics for today’s presentation – what they have seen before will not inspire or awaken.

Questions are great attention grabbers for an audience but make sure you ask something associated with your goals their problem that you are about to solve. After you have asked the question you need to pause – you will get their attention.

Do not rush in to get started – people get interested when there is nothing going on. You could take in the room in front of you smile around at people the silence will make people look, make people stop texting, make people focus on you.

A good visual of something that they were not expecting to see will grab the attention of the audience.

Stories or jokes are also a good way of grabbing the attention but make sure you are skilled at this the last thing you want is silence at the end of what was intended to be a joke.

What will be your visuals?
Your look and dress are the first visual and you need to pay attention to that detail as judgments’ can be made simply from your dress code.

Even though your insides are crumbling do not rush walk to the presentation area with confidence, slowly – no running back and forward to get everything you need or calling to others to help you organize.

Body Lanuguage there are some do and don’t with body language and a whole school of thought on the meaning of different movements but things to avoid are:

• Touching your face or covering your mouth 
• Crossing your hands in front or behind your body 
• Folding of the arms 
• Swaying or twisting with feet rigid 
• Click or flick a pen or whiteboard marker 

The right body language is a great visual, facial expressions, hand movement will really engage your audience some things to encourage are:

• Stand tall and head held high 
• When making an arm movement make it worthwhile rather than a fidget 
• When referring to slides point first and then tall 
• Move around the presentation area occasionally not constantly 
• Smile and project passion and control 

Visuals on any slides you use are a great way to put across facts never have text, text, text visuals and bullet points are a great attention grabber:

• You do not want the audience reading your slides rather than listening to you 
• Figures presented in a graphical way get a message across very quickly 
• Summarise your speech into bullet points your key messages 
• Don’t hand out any slides before your presentation the audience will spend their time reading what you have given them

Essential Presentation Skills - Part 2

We has said over the next few Blogs we are going to cover steps towards preparing for a presentation, so today we will cover the first 3:

1. What is your goal?
2. Who is your audience?
3. What is your content and why?
4. How are you going to close?
5. How are you going to open?
6. What will be your memorable visuals?
7. How will you excite your audience?
8. What is your rehearsal plan?

1. What is your Goal? 

When you are planning your presentation you need to think about what is your goal.

Telling is not selling – people are very bad at absorbing large amounts of information in a very short time, you often hear the statement too much information or information overload. So plan the key information you want to get across to your audience and make sure you are not too broad.

I once went into a presentation with my goal set as I want to tell the management team about my project. Way too broad they were confused, bored, frustrated as to the purpose and actually my manager was annoyed at the whole incident.
My goals needed to be more focused and I learnt very quickly to plan better on my next project report to the executives. 

2. Who is your Audience? 

You need to identify who your audience is going to be and what they are hoping to get out of the presentation. Put yourself in their shoes for example an executive board are interesting looking forward and managing the cash if I am going looking for more money on a project I need to address the questions they will be asking like what will it be spent on and what benefits will the organisation get from this additional spend.
There is no point in having your visual aids referring back to things from the 1970’s that you understand when your target audience is the youth of 2010 – ensure any visuals you use will make sense to your audience.

Think about what your audience: 

• Want to hear about – why are they there 
• Don’t want to hear about – what would send them thought wandering 
• Want to learn – what will help them make a decision 
• Would get irritated by – avoid getting up peoples heckles 
• Technology levels – don’t use terms that only make sense to you 

3. What is your content and why? 

Audiences don’t remember if there is too much information and there are terms they cannot associate with. The brain also remembers things that are repeated so if it is important to you that your company name is remembered then repeat, repeat, repeat but in a way that flows with the presentation. Find a phrase or a strap line or a motto that the audience can link with you and repeat, repeat, repeat - they will remember.

Brains remember stories and real life examples – if they can link what you are telling to a real event or a real purpose or a real problem they may be experiencing they are more likely to remember.

Link your content back to your goal and your audience and remember that the human brain loves the unexpected and tends to remember them. Placing something totally unexpected or unusual in the middle of your presentation will grab the attention of your audience again.

Essential Presentation Skills - Part 1

Effective communication is essential especially when building rapport with potential clients, the ability to deliver information that achieves maximum impact is a skill that is good to master.


I commonly find when people think presentations they think PowerPoint, however you will find that presenting is so much more than the tool that you decide to use.  

Some fantastic examples of presenters can be found on 

TED Ideas worth spreading

The next few blogs will focus on key points about effective presentations and give some hints & tips on preparing for presentations.


Did you know that of the persuasive power of a presentation:

• 55% is visual such as body language, display aids, memorable stories
• 38% is by the speakers’ tone of voice or character of engagement
• Only 7% by the content, the text on slides for example

Did you know that:

• 80% of audiences cannot remember 24 hours later what was presented 
• With strong visual presentations 50% of people can remember 3 days later

Did you know that the retention graph for brains shows:

• 80% of people remember a grab at the start
• 75% of people remember a grab at the end
• 10% of people remember things from the middle bit

Over the next few Blogs we are going to cover steps towards preparing for a presentation:

1. What is your goal?
2. Who is your audience?
3. What is your content and why?
4. How are you going to close?
5. How are you going to open?
6. What will be your memorable visuals?
7. How will you excite your audience?
8. What is your rehearsal plan?

Starting a New Business - Support for Writing your Business Plan

It can be a time consuming process to get all of your creative ideas, facts, market analysis information into a structured document - The Skills Academy can help here - we meet with you once each week to gather your business information and we structure draft by draft your business plan to reflect your data.  This process is quicker and our business mentor can also keep you focussed on the end result and on areas of your business plan which may be weak.  

Call us on 01 4939433 or 085 1676143 to discuss, or email theskillsacademy@eircom.net