3 ms·

It is remarkable that most organization try to "fix" this by teaching everyone to present (i.e. sell ideas) better, rather than teaching people how to better li

by romaniv 11y ago

It is remarkable that most organization try to "fix" this by teaching everyone to present (i.e. sell ideas) better, rather than teaching people how to better listen and evaluate new ideas.

infogulch 11y ago
The reason for this is quite simple. Presentation skills are taught to underlings, but evaluation skills have to be taught to decision makers. It so happens the decision makers also decide who has to put work into training.
- mfringel 11y ago
  I disagree. Everyone is someone else's underling, even at the top of the corporate hierarchy, where you have the executives reporting to the investors/shareholders. It then follows that everyone has to be taught presentation skills, just as they're taught evaluation skills.
groby_b 11y ago
As somebody teaching presentation skills when I'm not wearing my engineering hat: The reason I teach (and as far as I know, the reason my org wants me to teach) is not for people to be better able to "sell" ideas. It's because a lot of engineers are horrible communicators. Not a surprise, and not their fault - it's never been part of their training, how would they be good at it?. But it means that often, the way they present ideas is at best only understandable by fellow engineers with experience in the domain. And often not even by those. And that's what most corporate presentation training I've seen focuses on - how can you say what you want to say more clearly. (And, equally important, how can you deal with the stress of being on stage in front of a set of people). Presentation is rarely about "selling", but about communicating an overview concisely and cleanly. (It's also incredibly hard to teach salesmanship. It requires a lot of charisma and empathy, and that's not something you teach in an afternoon or two)

3 ms·

It is remarkable that most organization try to "fix" this by teaching everyone to present (i.e. sell ideas) better, rather than teaching people how to better li

by romaniv 11y ago

It is remarkable that most organization try to "fix" this by teaching everyone to present (i.e. sell ideas) better, rather than teaching people how to better listen and evaluate new ideas.

infogulch 11y ago
The reason for this is quite simple. Presentation skills are taught to underlings, but evaluation skills have to be taught to decision makers. It so happens the decision makers also decide who has to put work into training.
- mfringel 11y ago
  I disagree. Everyone is someone else's underling, even at the top of the corporate hierarchy, where you have the executives reporting to the investors/shareholders. It then follows that everyone has to be taught presentation skills, just as they're taught evaluation skills.
groby_b 11y ago
As somebody teaching presentation skills when I'm not wearing my engineering hat: The reason I teach (and as far as I know, the reason my org wants me to teach) is not for people to be better able to "sell" ideas. It's because a lot of engineers are horrible communicators. Not a surprise, and not their fault - it's never been part of their training, how would they be good at it?. But it means that often, the way they present ideas is at best only understandable by fellow engineers with experience in the domain. And often not even by those. And that's what most corporate presentation training I've seen focuses on - how can you say what you want to say more clearly. (And, equally important, how can you deal with the stress of being on stage in front of a set of people). Presentation is rarely about "selling", but about communicating an overview concisely and cleanly. (It's also incredibly hard to teach salesmanship. It requires a lot of charisma and empathy, and that's not something you teach in an afternoon or two)