Experientially Speaking--Risk Analysis

By Eddy Parham

I just finished facilitating a course for a government organization on required OSHA training.  Go figure, a private contractor teaching the government their own regulation--I'm sure there's a blog post in there somewhere but not for this month.  Risk management is the post for this month.

The reason this came to mind is that early on in the OSHA-required course, a participant had several objections to the way I was running the simulations.  He didn’t feel they were safe.  Now, the true cause of his discontent, as I suspected and several other participants pointed out, was the fact that he didn’t want to be in the course but because it was required training, he didn’t have any choice.  Nevertheless I began wondering how many other participants that have gone through this class had similar objections run through their mind but never said anything. 

Is the Workplace Just One Big Presentation?

Sometimes, for fun, I like to see what Web site brought you to Training Day. (Yes, this is my idea of fun. I also like diagramming sentences for fun as well—don't ask.) Anyway, it appears (if my metrics are right) that many of you find us through the Presentations page on ManageSmarter.com. ManageSmarter.com's most popular stories routinely are presentation-themed stories.

The idea of presenting as an industry is intriguing. I spent my entire pre-Training days not knowing there was an entire culture around giving better presentations. Do these stories really change how you deliver content? Or do they reassure you that everyone's just as scared to get up to that podium?

Communicate Your Brand

By Catherine Kaputa

“All the world’s a stage,” goes the Bard’s familiar refrain. And in the business world, meetings are the primary stage on which one “performs.” Smart executives all understand what it takes to be in control of an important meeting or talk. And you should work at your communication and meeting skills if you want to be more effective and successful, too.

What is the point of communicating if you don’t have an impact?  How often do you go into business meetings, make business calls and have business conversations without a persuasive message?  How often do you say your message without saying it in a way that’s indelibly your own? How good are you are presenting a recommendation to a group of senior executives?

Why Attractive People Get Paid More and What You Can Do About It

By Catherine Kaputa

It’s pretty disconcerting to find out that the workplace is a beauty contest—but that’s what a new study by a Harvard and Wesleyan economist proves. (Maybe a lot of us suspected it wasn’t just about hard work!)

The economists set up a mock labor market with employers and job seekers. Some employers only considered the resumes. Others saw a resume and photograph or a resume and a telephone interview. Others received resume, a telephone interview and a photograph. The last group had a resume, telephone interview and an in-person interview.