By Barry Mohn Miles Davis’s album, Kind of Blue, is regarded as one of the most influential jazz albums of all time.   Its music offers lessons for musicians of all genres, and its techniques offer interesting parallels and lessons for presenters. Here are three jazz elements that apply to presentations: 1. Improvisation – Miles Davis called for almost no rehearsals before recording Kind of Blue.   He provided the other musicians [...]

By Barry Mohn Occum’s Razor, loosely interpreted, is a principle stating that the simplest method is often the best.  Philosopher William of Ockham surely would have approved of clustering then. Clustering, believed to have started in Roman times, is a technique that helps create a hierarchy of ideas around a central purpose or problem.  Circa 75 BC, Cicero etched clusters for his speeches on clay tablets.  Today, third graders mark [...]

Funny.  I came across a pamphlet the other day from a workshop that my grandfather attended in 1958 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  The title of the workshop was Making Meetings Effective.  I had to laugh because, 52 years later, I deliver a workshop on that very topic. Furthermore, after flipping through the 19-page pamphlet, I realized that the tips my grandfather learned so long ago are nearly identical [...]