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Conclusions Should Not Summarize Arguments

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From a recent book by Harvard Business Press:

The conclusion [in a presentation] should not summarize your arguments; rather, it should appeal to the audience for its understanding, its action, and its approval — whatever it is you want the audience to do or think.

So don’t fall into the trap of telling your audience what you’ve already said. Summing it up is a surefire way to kill any enthusiasm your presentation may have generated. So forget about a summary; instead, tell your audience what it should think or do.

Data Supporting the Importance of Being Strength-Based

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From Strengths-Based Leadership, summarizing the findings of a Gallup study:

In the worklplace, when an organization’s leadership fails to focus on individuals’ strengths, the odds of an employee being engaged are a dismal 1 in 11 (9%). But when an organization’s leadership focuses on the strengths of its employees, the odds soar to almost 3 in 4 (73%).

So that means when leaders focus on and invest in their employees’ strengths, the odds of each person being engaged goes up eightfold.

…This increase in engagement translates into substantial gains for the organization’s bottom line and each employee’s well-being.

The Checklist Manifesto

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Tim Challies recently reviewed Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right over at 10 Million Words.

It’s interesting to note the subtitle: “how to get things right.” It’s important to be Getting Things Done, and it’s also important to be getting things done right.

Gawande’s book mostly looks at the field of medicine, but the point he makes shows the usefulness of checklists in all areas. Checklists do not necessarily stem from an attempt to get everything buttoned up for its own sake and don’t have to have the effect of stifling action. They can increase true effectiveness — and be pretty cool and interesting.

Here’s Challies’ first paragraph:

I’ve heard Atul Gawande referred to as “The Malcolm Gladwell of Doctors.” I suppose others have noticed what it took me all of two chapters to realize about this book–that there are clear similarities in writing style, in form, even in substance between Gawande and Gladwell. Gawande crafts his arguments much the way Gladwell does and uses references in much the same way. Overall it makes for enjoyable reading. Like Gladwell, he makes information interesting that, by rights, ought to be boring.

The review is relatively short, and it’s definitely worth reading the whole thing.

(Also, here’s a post I did on checklists and Gawande a few months ago.)

What Books May Become

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A good full color, multi-media, touch screen device for reading e-books — which the iPad now is — implies something about how electronic books should be conceived.

Electronic books should not simply be print books made accessible in electronic form. Rather, they should be conceived and created to take full advantage of what a device like the iPad makes possible, while remaining true to what a book is and what a book is for.

I have lots of thoughts on this I may post if I have the time. In the meantime, TechCrunch also has a post which begins to offer some thoughts on this.