Going Off Script: The Art and Craft of Startling Presentation-Performance – Part I

In a Plenary, the Stress Doc analyzes going from presentation to unanticipated improvisation with startling effect.  Grasp and wield “off script” concepts, tools, and techniques for more “surprising” and engaging communication and powerfully inspiring presentations – whether in a conference hall, boardroom, and classroom, as well as in a team meeting, on the work floor, or during a family meeting in the living room.

Going Off Script:  The Art and Craft of Startling Presentation-Performance by Analyzing an Improvised “Power Struggle” Exercise – Part I

Last week, reviewing a Power Point Slide with a group of Agency Executives, Community Advocates, Allied and Mental Health Professionals, Educators, etc., a voice from my subconscious cried, “Just do it!”  (And I’m more a New Balance, cross-trainer kind of guy.)  This subterranean echo occurred during my “Practice Safe Stress” Plenary Speaker presentation at the Virginia/Statewide Refugee Mental Health Summit.  At the time, I was highlighting key items from the “Heart of Letting Go,” such as “Necessary/Universal Life Stage Loss” (death, breakup, downsizing, illness, mind-body mobility, moving away, etc.) and “Existential Loss” (when your sense of identity and meaning in/of the world is disrupted or turned upside down; of course, there may be overlap among loss categories).  Waxing poetic with “Power Struggles” (issues of loss of control and/or pride, status/turf wars, anger, letting go, etc.), nonetheless, my ambient radar was operational.  Picking up on body language, eye focus, and quiet in the room, I sensed the audience was captivated by the “loss and power” subject.  And suddenly a Nike moment:  “I’m going off script.  Let’s try an exercise.”

The Power of Surprise

The atmosphere definitely shifts; there’s a restlessness, an uncertainty:  “Where is this guy taking us?”  I quickly have the group break into forty pairs:  “Find an eyeball partner.”  And for this mini role-play, the quintessential power struggle:  one person declares, “You can’t make me!”  The other counters with, “Oh yes I can!”  And both are thinking about someone “who is or has been a pain in your butt!”  (Hopefully, someone other than their exercise counterpart. ;-)  After a brief, back and forth verbal volley, each participant is instructed to “Say what you’d really like to say” to the antagonist inside your head.  I won’t go into all the details; suffice to say, the room exploded with a mix of genuine-playful aggression, focused interaction, exaggerated body language and gesturing, (I don’t recall if anyone, in this audience leapt from their chair), verbal buzzing, as well as an uproar of laughter.  The room was alive with engagement electricity!

And, apparently, this motivational juice had staying power.  As Dr. Eva Stitt, Summit Coordinator, noted in her post-conference testimonial:  Thank you so much for inspiring our participants with your wit and humor as well as helping set the tone for the rest of the day.

Drive Time Reflection and…Aha!

The drive home from Richmond, VA, enabled the reliving of the sudden shift from poignant presentation to playfully out-rage-ous group exercise/interpersonal confrontation.  While this “power struggle” exercise usually charges an audience, there was something about its surprise introduction and energy-focus transition that amplified “the sound and the fury”…and the FUN!  It was as if we were all on a vital edge.

And then, thirty-six hours later, the real epiphany hit…waking me in the middle of the night:  the “off script” maneuvering was not really unprecedented; for me, a strategy of surprise is hardly random.  While this time spontaneous, mentally scanning the years, Stress Doc ™ “mirth and madness” programs have always featured “surprising” if not purposefully jolting elements, invariably spicing “motivation and method.”

Six Stage-Three Variable Analysis of “Surprising” Dynamic

Let’s examine this surprise dynamic:  as a speaker or workshop leader there are numerous ways to be “surprisingly provocative” and “provocatively surprising,” that is, from the French, provocare, to awaken the mind and arouse curiosity.  Roget’s Thesaurus lists three main verb synonyms for “surprise”:  astonish, take by surprise, and attack, as in surprise attack.  Disrupting expectations and mindsets is a good base for productively shaking-up a learning setting and heightening audience attention.  Not surprisingly, defying expectations while dramatically intensifying (“on the edge of their seat”) anticipation impacts individual curiosity and concentration as well as group energy, engagement, and process.

To illustrate this “unpredictable” or “bolt from the blue” force-field, consider this breakdown of the ”Presentation to Improvisation Transition,” that is, from highlighting a PPt Slide to suddenly enacting the “You Can’t Make Me” Power Struggle Exercise.  More specifically, this analysis will examine “Six Presentation-Performance Transition Stages.”  These are:

1.  Speaker as Expert, Audience as Listeners

2.  Speaker as Observer, Audience as Learners

3.  Speaker as Disrupter, Audience as Uncertain Partners

4.  Speaker as Director, Audience as Actors

5.  Speaker as Facilitator/Debriefer, Audience as More Cohesive Collective

6.  Speaker as Role Model, Audience as Future Adaptors.

And each of the “Six Stages” will be illuminated by examining three variables:  “Atmosphere & Energy,” “Role/Status Positioning,” and “Get FIT – FUN-Interactive-Thought-provoking – Group Process.”

Transition Shift:  Going from Presentation to Improvisation

Highlighting key items from the “Heart of Letting Go” Power Point Slide, especially the power struggle item, I sensed the audience was captivated.  Trusting that inner voice and gut…I shook up the speaker-audience energy, roles and relationships, along with the group process.  Here is the Six Stage-Three Variable Analysis of the Evolving – “Before-During-After” – Presentation-Performance Dynamics:

1.  Speaker as Expert, Audience as Listeners

a.  Atmosphere & Energy:  quiet attentiveness; audience had been previously engaged in opening group exercise; we are presently

b.  Role/Status Positioning:  during this stage of the program, I am the Expert, the audience are Learners; may be perceived as a Leader-Follower or Superior-Subordinate relationship

c.  Get FIT – FUN-Interactive-Thought-provoking – Group Process:  I am the Initiator, projecting ideas and energy to the Audience, who (at least theoretically) are Receivers; while people seem engaged, this can be one-way, Active-Passive information exchange

2.  Speaker as Observer, Audience as Learners

a.  Atmosphere & Energy:  audience’s rapt silence begins to speak volumes; we are at a “turning point”; when people are on the edge of their seat, it’s easier to move them in a new direction.

b.  Role/Status Positioning:  scanning the room, aware of the undivided attention; I’m more keenly absorbing audience signs – alert body language, eye focus, and quiet in the room.

c.  Get FIT Group Process:  now an internal voice gives me a sign; I need to stop talking, to shift away from Lecture-Educator to the role of Interactive Facilitator; I quickly announce, “I’m going off script.”

3.  Speaker as Disrupter, Audience as Uncertain Partners

a.  Atmosphere & Energy:  catching folks off-guard, the announcement stirs up the room, breaking the one-way, Expert-Listener flow; amidst the group murmuring, the unspoken question:  “what’s happening now?” or “where is he taking us?”; I move to a more central place in the conference room, outside the conventional podium “lecture space”; the pending Passive/Receptive to Active/Interactive shift is already impacting the audience’s sense of anticipation and control.

b.  Role/Status Positioning:  unease is also generated because the audience is in limbo, not sure what roles and rules, instructions and expected behaviors will follow; some may feel disoriented.

c.  Get FIT Group Process:  during this undefined transition, it’s not just physical position that undergoes change, but speaker role as well, from Educator to Leader; in addition, suddenly stopping the lecture may not only be confusing, some will feel frustrated by the rupture or lack of closure; in the room, there’s often an increased sense of vulnerability that, paradoxically, heightens both unease as well as excitement; the question of group trust in the leader will be put to the test.

4.  Speaker as Director, Audience as Actors

a.  Atmosphere & Energy:  once announcing the looming power struggle exercise, the buzz gets even louder; and when I say, “find an eyeball partner,” and explain the intra- and interpersonal parameters (“thinking of someone who’s a pain in your butt,” and then instruct the pairs to aggressively or passive-aggressively declare (or whine/tease), “You can’t make me!” (Person A) or “Oh yes I can!” (Person B)...well, the room is getting ready to “act out”; now, decibel levels are skyrocketing with buzzing and laughter (nervous and otherwise), especially when after a brief standard volley, folks are encouraged to “say what you’d really like to say”; also, recalling that “pain in the butt” and the related painful or conflicted interaction just may ratchet up a role-player’s performance angst:  do I want to release all this pent up emotion?; how much of me should I reveal?; in this public setting, can I manage venting or will I lose control?

b.  Role/Status Positioning:  clearly there’s been a profound shift:  instead of all eyes on me, they are focused on their counterpart; each audience member has been turned into a symbolic adversary; and the individual’s mental space has been purposely segmented into past (pain) and present (role-play partner).

c.  Get FIT Group Process:  and once the starting gun sounds, very quickly “the room is alive with the sound of manic!”  However, there is no panic.  Structured surprise (as in an unexpected group exercise) increases uncertainty.  However, the same medium, through clear guidelines and rules, (e.g., “no getting out of your chair”) as well as brief, supervised timelines, also provides for improvisational relief and release.  Each player has the opportunity to step outside of conventional roles and relationships, take on a provocative personae, and express frustration and assert control in a purposefully-playfully absurd manner.  And within each role-play dyad, the risky yet safe interaction along with the informal, post-power struggle discussion, frequently leads to some intimate sharing and trust-building.

5.  Speaker as Facilitator/Debriefer, Audience as More Cohesive Collective

a.  Atmosphere & Energy:  now, through the exercise, all in the room have shared a common experience; the aftermath of playful-aggressive energy, venting and laughter is palpable; in fact, some don’t want the exercise to end, battling through the call for closure.

b.  Role/Status Positioning:  refocusing the group by acknowledging the heightened energy in the room, returning to Lecture as Debrief-mode, I now underscore key learning points:  1) a person can quickly get into a “power struggle” framework, yet not have an ego so wrapped up in winning, 2) though a game, the back and forth verbal volleying often feels somewhat real:  we don’t like people telling us what to do; in addition, many carry around past hurts or frustration with others, 3) it feels good to let out these feelings in a safe setting and in an aggressive yet playful and measured manner, 4) such an exchange can facilitate some post-power struggle “feedback” intimacy, and 5) finally, the response to the exercise was pretty universal despite our many shades of diversity.

c.  Get FIT Group Process:  after hitting the highlights, another decision must be made…and quickly:  the “You Can’t Make Me” exercise lends itself to the presentation of a number of conceptual and applied tools and techniques for disarming “power struggles.”  My favorite, for example, asking trust-building “good questions.”  But, alas, I inform the group that we’ll have to get together another time to explore further the communication-conflict skills arena.  However, this transition is a great segue into the next interactive experience, the “Heart of Letting Go” Exercise.  And this upcoming exercise is more poignant than playful, asking people to reflect upon and share how issues of loss, change, and letting go impact their work with refugee clients.  Clearly, we continue to climb an exercise ladder that progressively increases attendee vulnerability, risk of disclosure, as well as social-collegial intimacy.

6.  Speaker as Role Model, Audience as Future Adaptors

a.  Atmosphere & Energy:  if the power struggle exercise was surprising, my closing number can only be called shocking.  The whole program, I suspect, but especially my out-rage-ous close, performing a “Shrink Rap” ™ (more in Part II), motivated a young woman to approach during a break.  She shared her way of being outrageous and startling people:  normally serious and somewhat shy, she has taken up skydiving!  Friends and colleagues are amazed.

b.  Role/Status Positioning:  I believe numbers in the room viewed me as a role model, both for my style – insightful yet playful, outrageous, high energy orchestra leader, helping others bring out their best music – and substance – conceptual and interactive tools and techniques, especially on stress resilience, burnout, and loss/letting go.  Folks seemed to need and want an infusion of ideas and inspiration from a “Motivational Psychohumorist” ™, a leader also facilitating peer-to-peer sharing and energy transfusion.  Again, as Dr. Eva Stitt, Summit Coordinator, noted in her afore-referenced post-conference testimonial:  I believe you have felt their response – how much they enjoyed it, as well as how much they need it, so they can effectively carry out their job of helping others.  The strength of our initiative depends on these people who champion our cause for refugee mental health.

c.  Get FIT Group Process:  my goal is to educate and entertain, perhaps to inspire; to provide an experience that can excite and fortify program attendees and help them share our collective energy and enlightenment with others – from clients to colleagues.  Consider these two testimonials:  one from the Refugee Summit and the other from the 2015 University of Maryland's Diabetes/Endocrinology Center's Managing Diabetes Conference:

Jul 9, 2016

HI Mark,

It was a pleasure spending time with you and I really appreciated your presentation. I will discuss your presentation with our trainers.  I will keep in touch,

Deborah  C. Moore, RN, BSN, MPH
Nurse Manager II, Senior
deborah.moore@vdh.virginia.gov

Hampton-Peninsula Health Department
3130 Victoria  Blvd., Hampton, VA, 23661
Office (757)315-3779
416 J Clyde Morris Blvd., Newport News, VA 23601
Office (757)594-7903

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

University of Maryland's Diabetes/Endocrinology Center's Managing Diabetes Conference; 100 + Allied Health Professionals; 1.5 hrs

Practice Safe Stress:  Stress and Change Resilience through Humor

Mar 12, 2015

Hi Mark-

Great presentation. It really inspired me to improve my own presentation skills and brainstorm with my coworkers how to make our diabetes education classes more fun.

Best Regards,

Alison Massye

Alison Massey MS, RD, LDN, CDE
Director of Diabetes Education, Mercy Medical Center
250 N. Calvert Street Baltimore, MD 21202
amassey@mdmercy.com
P: (410) 659-2833

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Closing Concept:  From Aha to Haha!

Finally, there is a micro-surprising dynamic within the macro-surprising transition and process.  And that dynamic mix involves humor and wit.  As Mark Twain, acclaimed author and humorist, noted:  Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation.  And according to William Shakespeare, the master of verbal presentation and performance:  Brevity is the soul of wit.  One of the staples for evoking laughter is surprising an audience, quickly defying their expectations, tickling them in a slightly sensitive area, i.e., before they can block the punchline, having them acknowledge, while still saving face, their own flaws and foibles.  Or poking fun at myself by using self-effacing humor, e.g., the old saw, Vanity thy name is Gorkin!  Okay, as a “healing humorist” I also may generically poke surprising fun at unnamed others.  For example, one of my brain-body stress symptoms is the “jaw-dropping” TMJ:  Too Many Jerks!  Remember, people are less defensive and more open to a serious message gift-wrapped with humor.

On a personal note, one of the best compliments as a speaker was from a Training/OD colleague who stated:  Mark, I’ve never known anyone who can take an audience from the serious to the humorous and then quickly take them back again.  So learn to ebb and flow with that surprising comic-tragic connection.  All I can say is, Amen and Women, to that!

Closing Summary

Part I of “Going Off Script” employs a six stage-three variable analysis of the evolving – “before-during-after” – dynamics of a Plenary Speaking Program.  More specifically, an outline format highlights how the Doc transitions himself and an audience, shifting from straight forward presentation to unanticipated improvisation…with startling effect.  Through the three-pronged lens of “Atmosphere & Energy,” “Role/Status Positioning,” and “Get FIT Group Process,” the essay illustrates “off script” concepts, communication tools, and interactive techniques for more “surprising” – on the edge engaging and powerful – presentations.

While this essay examined one Interactive Exercise, Part II of “Going Off Script” will capture a number of Stress Doc exercises and other communicational tools and techniques for startling, awakening, and motivating an audience.  Encourage a large community or small group to interact with you and each other.  Playfully yet purposefully broaden a transformation-inspiration horizon by shaking up the presentation landscape and mindscape.

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a nationally acclaimed speaker, writer, and "Psychohumorist" ™, is a founding partner and Stress Resilience and Trauma Debriefing Consultant for the Nepali Diaspora Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative.  A former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, he has led numerous Pre-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for the US Army.  The Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress, The Four Faces of Anger, and Preserving Human Touch in a High Tech World.  Mark’s award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  For more info, email:  stressdoc@aol.com.

Less Is More and Play to Strengths: Inspiring Communication and Leadership Performance in a “TNT/3-D” Digital Age:

Reviewing my recent essay on “Compelling Communication and Leadership Performance,” I belatedly realized needing to better walk my talk and herd my words, especially in light of the essay’s theme.  So here’s a streamlined version that hopefully convinces that on many occasions “less is more.”

 

In this TNT – Time-Numbers-Technology – World and 3-D – Driven-Distracted-Disruptive – Digital Age – capturing people’s attention amidst all the competing sources of data and diatribe, entertainment and excess is no small feat.  And then holding that ephemeral and excitable attention span borders on the extra-ordinary:  consider this feedback from an hour-long, “Stress Resilience & Passion Power” keynote with a mix of Human Resource Managers and Professionals:  Mark’s presentation was both “insightful and engaging”…. “very exciting and informative”…“very interactive and useful.”   He has a way of captivating the audience and makes them want to hear more… Mark Gorkin is a must hear!

So what is the magic elixir when it comes to capturing people’s attention, by being captivating not just commanding?  And believe me; it’s not just in my DNA, though some hypomanic tendencies probably play a role.  Presentational understanding and skills have evolved in trial and error (if not occasional terror) fashion over decades.  Here are four applied concepts you might want to add to your mindset and skillset:

A.  Less Is More…More or Less; and Play to Strengths
B.  Try to Keep It Simple and Smart
C.  Stand Out…Don’t Just Be Outstanding; Be Out-Rage-ous Not Just “Out of the Box”
D.  Design an IC² Platform for Creative Play, Performance, and Partnering

A.  Less Is More…More or Less; and Play to Strengths

So let me walk the talk and provide brief aphorisms and bullet points as well as stories to highlight “Less Is More”:

1.  The Range, Reins, and Rewards of “Less Is More”

a.  Have an Initial Tight Program Outline and Be Ready to Let Go and Go with the Flow.

(1) You can’t do it all; choose the best, toss the rest; and often it’s a learning curve
(2) Streamline on the fly; improvise based on audience response and time constraints
(3) Recognize limits and imperfect resolution

b.  Make the Audience Part of the Show.  Learn to transition from a solo performer to a leader that transforms an audience into quartets and ultimately an orchestra.  Generate meaningful educational and entertaining structures and activities.  Your goal: to help individuals and teams bring out their best music while boosting mind and mood, motivation and morale.

c.  “Less Is More” Payoff.  Sometimes it pays to give folks just a brief taste of an intriguing leadership concept such as my “mind-mood” integrative creative communication model “Passion Power.”  After briefly outlining the model for Human Resource leaders, we then moved into a social risk-taking exercise.  We spent a considerable amount of time on the exercise, which was a big hit.  Yet, when the Program Chair invited me to return in two months to speak on at the chapter’s annual conference, her requested topic, naturally, was “Passion Power.”  Seems like providing less had them wanting more!

d.  Less Is More…More or Less.  Of course, when it comes to quantity and quality, sometimes less is less and more is more.  However, I recall reading of a succinct apology to a contemporary by one of those noted 18^th c. English scribes due to his verbiage in a correspondence:  I’m sorry; I didn’t have time to write a brief letter.

Remember, you can’t do it all, that is, another “more or less” slogan; and perfection is an ideal if not an illusion.  Establishing boundaries sets limits; it also provides borders, challenges, and demarcations to be purposefully surveyed, surmounted, or surpassed.  With prescience and pith, acclaimed translator, James Falen, captures the power of constraint:

There are magic links and chains
Forged to loose our rigid brains,
Structures, structures, though they bind,
Strangely liberate the mind.

2.  “Less Is More” Means Being Pithy and Provocative, Palatable and Powerful

After you’ve selected the key program topic areas, the next challenge is to deliver the content in a manner that promotes the aforementioned FIT-ness:  the experience is FUN-Interactive-Thought-provoking:

a. Introduce an Absorbing and Thought-Provoking Subject for Your Audience.  A catchy and pithy introductory title helps, for example, “The Four Stages of Burnout” or “Combat Strategies at the Burnout Battlefront.”  In a “TNT – Time-Numbers-Technology – world, a world that’s definitely “3-D” – Driven-Distracted-Disruptive – most people can personally relate!

b) Break It Down and Make It Digestible.  Break down your concept into key or critical, readily identifiable pieces or examples; deliver the data or ideas with a substance and style that’s easy to take in – clear and concise, motivating and memorable – bullet-like components; two or three “smoke signals” from the first stage should suffice.  For example:

(1) Mental, Physical, and Emotional Exhaustion – e.g., you may be holding it together at work, but as soon as you get home, do you head for the fridge, get out the Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s, turn on the tube, hit the sofa, and you’re comatose for the rest of the evening…or wish you could be?

c.. Present Info and Ideas in a “Scannable” Format.  When dealing with data overload, people want to take away important points without having to further strain their brain; make the message light and enlightening:  People are less defensive and more open to a serious message when gift-wrapped with humor!  Provide a supplemental handout for later in-depth exploration.

3. “Less Is More” Means Emphasizing “How To” Strengths for Participants and Presenter.  Consider these three realms for displaying action steps and strengths:

a. Accentuate Action Over Analysis.  Follow the old 80:20 axiom:  when dealing with a problem spend 20% of the time on problem description and diagnostics, 80% of time and energy in providing problem-solving tools and techniques.  I don’t need tech support to educate me in detail about my hardware glitch; just get me up and running!

b. Facilitate the Sharing of Strengths.  Once you establish your credibility as a concerned and knowledgeable leader, you really can loosen the reins and create forums/exercises that allow others to share and shine.  If you need help in generating real and relevant exercises, I provide skills and tools coaching in this arena.

c. Recognize the Value of Multiplicity and Variety.  Being a diversified presenter means playing such roles as an educator, an entertainer, as well as an emotional expression and empathy energizer.  Beware confining yourself to just one presentational slot, e.g., lecturer.  How about “Leading and Learning with “E”s:  Educate and Energize, Entertain and Evangelize…and, whenever possible, applying all concepts in group Exercise; actually, more on the value of acronyms and rhyme shortly.)  The challenge is not being one-dimensional.  Variety is the “spice” and “rule” of life, learning, and leading.  (I am not going to touch the fourth “l”…loving!)

d.  Mostly Play to Your Strength.  Still, when time is limited and the task is bounded, lead with your strengths.  If strongest as an “Educator,” let this be your trump suit or default position.  However, even if only for a short trial, inject one or two of the other “E”-roles in your presentation.  Be unpredictable; defy expectations.  Why?

(1) you capture people’s attention and generate on the edge anticipation,
(2) pleasurable surprise releases pain-reducing and joy-enhancing brain chemicals like endorphins and dopamine; and while there are differences in temperament, brains hunger for if not crave the new and optimal variety
(3) the continuous practice and expansion of range and repertoire builds your risk-taking and performance muscles; also, you achieve finer and finer definition especially as you evaluate and integrate audience feedback, that hard-earned source of adaptive wisdom, and finally,
(4) as a risk-taking and variety generating role model, you are also illuminating an evolutionary, multifaceted mind-mood-muscle skill path for your audience.  As Dr. Jonas Salk, the renowned founder of the polio vaccine, observed:  Evolution is about getting up one more time than you fall down; being courageous one more time than being fearful; trusting just one more time than being anxious!   Amen and women to that!

Closing

We have outlined three key components of “Less Is More…More or Less” and “Play to Strengths.  These performance- and leadership-enhancing dynamics include:

1.  The Range, Reins, and Rewards of “Less Is More”
2.  “Less Is More” Means Being Pithy and Provocative, Palatable and Powerful
3. “Less Is More” Means Emphasizing “How To” Strengths for Participants and Presenter

And there’s a sure way of knowing you are hitting that “sweet spot”:  When you give folks “less” they let you know that they want more!


Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is a national keynote and webinar speaker and "Motivational Humorist & Team Communication Catalyst" known for his interactive, inspiring and FUN programs for both government agencies and major corporations.  A training and Critical Incident/Grief Intervention Consultant for the National EAP/Wellness Company, Business Health Services in Baltimore, MD, the Doc also leads “Stress, Team Building and Humor” programs for various branches of the Armed Services.  Mark, a former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, is the author of Resiliency Rap, Practice Safe Stress, and of The Four Faces of Anger.  See his award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  For more info on the Doc's "Practice Safe Stress" programs or to receive his free e-newsletter, email stressdoc@aol.com or call 301-875-2567.

Creative Risk-Taking and Performing in a “TNT/3-D” World: Pathway and Process, Partnering, and Platform Building

This essay is for anyone communicating with small or large groups of people, especially a leader-educator-trainer-counselor trying to awaken, engage, and inspire minds of all shapes and sizes…to work and play smarter, both as individuals, as a team, and/or a community.

Creative Risk-Taking and Performing in a “TNT/3-D” World:  Pathway and Process, Partnering, and Platform Building

As the testimonials below illustrate, two recent “kickoff and keynote” programs powerfully and personally resonated with 100 + audiences.  While having previously received enthusiastic testimonials, I’ve had to make modifications in presentational style and substance to keep up with these “TNT/3-D” – Time-Numbers-Technology/Driven-Distracted-Disruptive – times:

a) people seem to have more data distracted minds or digitally induced shorter attention spans;

b) the balance between lecture (or even Q and A) and group exercises and role play-type encounters must be increasingly skewed to the active, participatory learning dynamic,

c) participants want relevant tools and techniques they can apply RIGHT NOW, and

d) ideally the learning process is one that helps folks become more FIT – by being Fun-Interactive-Thought-provoking!  (And I find all generations are receptive, not just Millennials and Gen Texters.)

The Insightful-Interactive Performance Foundation:  From Concept to Application

Let me start this reflection process from a foundational perspective.  For over thirty years I have led and facilitated highly interactive speaking and workshop programs.  Playing in this arena has fostered the conviction that people buy-in and learn more when they experience and engage with “concepts in action and interaction,” especially ones that have personal-professional relevance for:

1) Work-life-relationship wellbeing – enhancing personal wellness and vitality or mind-body integrity; strengthening work-skills ability and productivity and transitional stress resilience; and improving communicational and relational capacities,

2) “Helmet’s Off” atmosphere – establishing “helmet’s off” and “hand’s on” trust through listening, sharing, and suspending status barriers while setting and exploring healthy boundaries, that is,

3) Openness and collaboration – facilitating safe levels of emotional openness, along with collaborative problem solving,

4) Dialogue, diversity, and depth – understanding how both expressing one’s personal viewpoint and considering diverse even seemingly contradictory input often broadens and/or deepens perspective while stimulating individual and group creative output, and

5) Individual and community growth and goals – achieving individual and/or team goals while becoming more comfortable in one’s own skin and demonstrating commitment to a larger community.

Rapid, Real, and Relevant Small Group Interaction:  Engagement, Vulnerability, Risk-taking, and Intimacy Effects

Especially when time is limited, this process of exploration and reflection, discovery and application is often energized and expedited by engaging in small group exercises, whether there are twenty or two hundred in the program arena.  The exercises, even opening “ice breakers,” are always based on meaningful “real world” needs or desires, problems or conflicts.  The interpersonal interaction grabs people’s attention and heightens a sense of unpredictability.  It’s difficult to hide in a small group.  The setting alone stimulates some emotional risk, reactions, and responses:  there’s both encouragement and some pressure to tentatively, purposefully, or playfully share.  Of course, sharing can take the form of all manner of self-disclosure as well as questioning, supporting, playing with, and/or challenging a partner or team members.  The exercises gradually increase the level of personal and group sharing, along with a sense of common task involvement and an acceptable level of vulnerability.  As some degree of trust evolves, the result invariably is a more interactive and intimate team and community.  A presenter can help participants create this “safe” atmosphere by reminding the audience that these are not “true confession” exercises:  do not share at a level that basically feels uncomfortable; emotional sharing and risk-taking should be a stretch…not a strain.  The individual ultimately (hopefully) determines his or her own pace and level of participation.

Rethinking and Reworking the Performance Ground

As mentioned above, the technological and social media revolution has me rethinking that optimal formula for presentational and interactional content and design – substance and style, form and function – especially:

1) the percentage of time, emphasis, and energy allotted among lecture, including being serious and humorous, Q and A and group discussion, and generating interactive exercises and

2) the selective juggling of roles – including educator and entertainer, time conscious audience reader, questioner, and organizer; of course, emotional energizer and group motivator; also skills and tools supplier, group interaction – process, support, and problem solving – facilitator, as well as challenging and inspirational leader (e.g., being an open and authentic, vulnerable and risk-taking role model helping individuals and teams bring out their best music), and even a community builder.

A Personal Path of Creative Risk-Taking (CRT)

There is a fluid and oftentimes unpredictable interplay of structure and spontaneity in most Stress Doc programs.  A determination to engage the multiple roles effectively and efficiently insures that I will be engaging in “Creative Risk-Taking:  The Art of Designing Disorder.”  (Not surprisingly, this is the title of an article forged over thirty years ago upon breaking into Cable TV with no prior media experience.  Over the decades, a few variations have been penned.  For example, two subtitles: “Cox Cable Chaos” and “Confronting Your Intimate FOE:  Fear of Exposure.”

Here is an article synopsis followed by a link:  The Stress Doc, drawing on his experience as a public speaker, takes a conceptual look at why challenging our need for rigid perfection and control is vital for becoming more risk-taking and more creative. The practical and comical comes next.  http://www.stressdoc.com/creative_risk_taking2.htm .)

The basic “Four CRT Steps” (with slight recent upgrade) are:

1. Aware-ily Jump in Over Your Head
2. Strive to Survive the High Dive
3. Thrive on “Thrustration,” Take an “Incubation Vacation”
4. Design for Error and Opportunity, Exploration and Integration

From Individual Path to Interactive Platform:  Strengthening Performance and Partnership Methodology and Message

As mentioned, the foundational four steps are elaborated upon in the above linked article.  However, let’s transition to the next set of steps that build on this CRT base.  On one level the first four steps help an individual test out and begin to flex his or her resilient and creative risk-taking muscles.  Let’s call this the “path.”  The second set of four enables this individual (let’s say she’s a presenter) to strengthen her methodological efficiency (“do the right thing”) and effectiveness (“do the thing right”).  At the same time the second skillset sharpens message clarity and contrast.  This is the “process.”  And as I’m discovering, these seemingly small but highly meaningful steps or adaptations (“tweaks” sounds slightly de-meaning) have tangible consequences for energy and empathy, motivation and morale, engagement and connection, shared learning and partnering, as well as creative performance and output.

So what are the “second set” tools, techniques, and tactics?  For now, here are the four adaptive step labels:

A.  Less Is More…More or Less; and Play to Strengths
B.  Keep It Simple and Smart
C.  Stand Out…Don’t Just Be Outstanding; Be Out-Rage-ous Not Just “Out of the Box”
D.  Design an IC² Platform for Creative Play, Performance, and Partnering

You also might say the first four are akin to the “forest” and the following four comprise the “trees.”  The latter fill in and give nuance and shading to the big picture; these second set of micro-tools help you fulfill the vision-mission, e.g., as a presenter staging an experience that strengthens participant FIT-ness:  by generating a program that’s FUN-Interactive-Thought-provoking.  The opening set gets you quickly into a resilient and risk-taking, exploratory and skill-building (sometimes “hell-bent on survival”) pathway, both for presenter and the audience.  A “first set” image comes to mind:  a risk-taking presenter jumping off a diving board, holding the hand of the audience, and taking them along for the splashdown.  (Hopefully, this is not a Jim Jones/“drinking the Kool-Aid” moment.)  Actually, the second set of strategic communication tools and techniques not only protect against a crash landing, these method-message stratagems enhance a sense of competence and trust.  Skills and confidence levels enhanced through peer interaction motivate an audience to climb the board again, ready to venture into another group exercise.  Mindfully blending path and process yields a more purposeful plan and platform that facilitates practice, performance, and partnership!

Medium, Method, and Message:  The Chance to be “Four-‘C’-ing”

The second package definitely refines the path through process, streamlining and sharpening the message. e.g., how ideas get shared and transformed in a variety of interactive channels.  Such media channels include:

1. a leader engaging with, a) an individual, b) a small group and/or c) the audience as a whole; whether presenting data verbally and/or visually, role modeling communication or leadership concepts or techniques, or singing a “Shrink Rap” ™, a definite risk-taking moment.  (Leading mostly interactive programs, I will bypass analyzing the use of Power Point Slides, only lingering long enough to note that slides can strengthen or suffocate audience engagement and learning.  This dynamic often depends on the “high tech or human touch” nature of the program, audience expectation, and a presenter’s slide usage. For example, problems may arise when, so attached to a slide show regimen, the presenter loses touch with his audience.), and

2. small groups engaging with, a) their own members, individually, as a subgroup, or as a whole, b) other individuals, including the leader, or with other groups, and/or c) the audience as a whole; having a chance to practice group interaction, that is, gradual sharing and risk-taking over a number of exercises typically enhances am evolving team’s capacity for partnership and problem-solving.

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that a speaker or group facilitator who is conscious and competent regarding self and systems (including cultural) dynamics as well as confident and calculating as a risk-taker (might we say one who is “four –‘c’-ing”?) has an array of performance and partnership variables to purposefully play and experiment with.  And according to Adam Gopnik, author of Angels and Ages:  A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life, this dynamic just may have Darwinian survival value:  Repetition is the law of nature but variation is the rule of life!

The Stress Doc’s Four Step Fine-tuning of Strategic Presentational Methods and Messages Tools and Techniques – Variations on Performance and Partnership Themes

It’s time to conceptually flesh out the aforementioned “second set” process-adaptive techniques and steps:

A.  Less Is More…More or Less; and Play to Strengths
B.  Keep It Simple and Smart
C.  Stand Out…Don’t Just Be Outstanding, Be Out-Rage-ous Not Just “Out of the Box”
D.  Design an IC² Platform for Creative Play, Performance, and Partnering

A.  Less Is More…More or Less; and Play to Strengths

In this day and digital age, capturing people’s attention amidst all the competing sources of data and diatribe, entertainment and excess is no small feat.  And then holding that ephemeral attention span borders on the extra-ordinary:  consider this feedback from a mix of Human Resource Managers and Professionals after an hour-long keynote:  Mark’s presentation was both “insightful and engaging”…. “very exciting and informative”…“very interactive and useful.”   He has a way of captivating the audience and makes them want to hear more… Mark Gorkin is a must hear!

1.  The Range, Reins, and Rewards of “Less Is More”

a.  Have an Initial Tight Program Outline and Be Ready to Let Go and Go with the Flow.  Especially when time is limited, taking up the “Less Is More”…More or Less” challenge is critical.  Hopefully, based on some preliminary discussion and research with event liaisons, you can whittle down your offering to three or four key conceptual areas of audience interest and need.  And even with this streamlined menu (“less is more”), when interactivity and spontaneity predominate, the overriding goal is to “go with audience flow.”  You may not get to all of your pre-planned agenda (hence, “more or less.”  Of course, when it comes to quantity and quality, sometimes less is less and more is more.  However, I recall reading of a succinct apology to a contemporary by one of those noted 18^th c. English scribes due to his verbiage in a correspondence:  I’m sorry, I didn’t have time to write a brief letter.


Remember, you can’t do it all, that is, another “more or less” exemplar; and perfection is an ideal if not an illusion.  Establishing boundaries sets limits; it also provides borders, challenges, and demarcations to be purposefully surveyed, surmounted, or surpassed.  With prescience and pith, acclaimed translator, James Falen, captures the power of constraint:

 

There are magic links and chains

Forged to loose our rigid brains,

Structures, structures, though they bind,

Strangely liberate the mind.

 

Finally, be prepared to improvise based on audience feedback, program time frame, setting and seating structure, i.e., are people around tables, in an auditorium, etc.  My “Less Is More” Mantra:  Plan for More, Discover what’s Best, and Toss the Rest!

b.  Make the Audience Part of the Show.  Hopefully, folks are so engaged in the learning-sharing-purposefully playing moment that they are not perturbed that some material has not been covered.  Let me elaborate.  I briefly sketched my “Four ‘P’s of Passion Power” Model – being Purposeful-Provocative-Passionate-Playful – as a way of introducing a final exercise.  This exercise, in fact, created a small group platform, for encouraging folks in surprising, if not startling, fashion to expressively emote by sharing personal stories.  Using both verbal and visual channels (there was a lot of spontaneous storytelling body language) the room was increasingly filled with a high octane buzz and knowing-affirming laughter.  Having a group share brief yet poignant personal stories, especially stories that reveal our imperfect, all-too human natures, quickly breaks down status barriers while enhancing a common humanity and stirring group camaraderie. And some competitive spirit is obvious when one team member says to a colleague who's just shared a story:  That was good...let me tell you what happened to me!

People were definitely doing some risk-taking, bringing out their IPP (Inner Passion Power).  Having noticed that the Chapter President was captivating his small group, I volunteered him to share his animated story to the entire congregation.  And an exercise debrief captured why this exercise is especially primed to help today’s leader appear more accessible and be a risk-taking role model.

So by letting go and going with the audience flow, we did not get to my closing segment on Developing Natural SPEED – Sleep, Priorities, Passion, Empathy, Exercise, and Diet.  However, one and all discovered the power of addition by subtraction.

c.  “Less Is More” Payoff.  And the payoff was three-fold.  First, we captured my IC² formula for “winning teams.”  As opposed to the questionable if not tired slogan, “There’s no “I” in team,” we brought to life a new mantra:  “There may be no ‘I’ in team…but there are two “I’s in WINNING”…and these “I”s definitely can “C.”   Winning teams blend Individual Creativity and Interactive Community!

Second, as mentioned above, I received a great testimonial, including these kind words from the coordinator of the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) program:  We especially enjoyed his perspective on Passion and Power.

And last but not least, immediately after the program, this Program Chair invited me to return in two months to speak on Passion Power at the chapter’s annual conference.  Seems like providing less had them wanting more!

2.  “Less Is More” Means Being Pithy and Provocative, Palatable and Powerful

After you’ve selected the key program topic areas, the next challenge is to deliver the content in a manner that promotes the aforementioned FIT-ness:  the experience is FUN-Interactive-Thought-provoking:

a. Introduce an Absorbing and Thought-Provoking Subject for Your Audience.  A catchy and pithy introductory title helps, for example, “The Four Stages of Burnout” or “Combat Strategies at the Burnout Battlefront.”  In a “TNT/3-D” world, most people can personally relate!

b) Break It Down and Make It Digestible.  Break down your concept into key or critical, readily identifiable pieces or examples; deliver the data or ideas with a substance and style that’s easy to take in – clear and concise, motivating and memorable – bullet-like components; two or three “smoke signal” examples for each stage will suffice:

1) Mental, Physical, and Emotional Exhaustion – e.g., you may be holding it together at work, but as soon as you get home, do you head for the fridge, get out the Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s, turn on the tube, hit the sofa, and you’re comatose for the rest of the evening…or wish you could be?

2) Shame and Doubt – e.g., you sense you’re not your old self; you’re worried friends and colleagues are starting to notice; here’s a giveaway:  you’re considering joining the Stress Doc’s “Frequent Sighers Club”

3) Cynicism and Callousness – e.g., tired of feeling uncertain and vulnerable?  Have you put on your heavy attitude armor:  “No one’s getting to me,” “Look out for # 1,” “Why should I go out of my way?,”  “Are you talking to me!,” and “Who gives a d_ _ m!”; and in the short-run it works…you become abrasive enough, now people are avoiding you

4) Failure, Helplessness, and Crisis – e.g., you start thinking, “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t; damned if I stay, damned if I leave”; you feel like your coping structure’s coming unglued…next stop the Stress Doc’s couch!

c.. Present Info and Ideas in a “Scannable” Format.  When dealing with data overload, people want to take away important points without having to further strain their brain; make the message light and enlightening:  People are less defensive and more open to a serious message when gift-wrapped with humor!  Provide a supplemental handout for optional in-depth exploration at a later time.

4. “Less Is More” Means Emphasizing “How To” Strengths for Participants and Presenter.  Consider these three realms for displaying action steps and strengths:

a. Accentuate Action Over Analysis.  When time is of the essence and you must choose between delivering background information about a problem or issue (diagnostics) or “how to” ideas and action steps (therapeutics), streamline the former (as in the four burnout stages) and concentrate on problem–solving action and power.  As an example, I share the research-based “Four ‘C’s of Psychological Hardiness” (gleaned in the midst of the 1980s Ma Bell breakup).  During this turbulent transition, “hardiness” differentiated the more adaptive and healthy execs from their less functional counterparts.  The former demonstrated an understanding of positive Commitment, Control, Change, and Conditioning.  (Email for more info; perhaps confirming less just may have folks asking for more?  ;-)

b. Facilitate the Sharing of Strengths.  Here’s another tactic based on the unsurprising fact that most people in a workshop group find it easier to reveal strengths than vulnerabilities.  For example, I use a “Stress Building Beliefs” survey that asks about your aptitude in four belief areas:  “Control and Perfection, Competence and People Pleasing.”  Initially I had participants identify and share with team members one of the belief areas in which they felt the most vulnerable.  Too often members of a workgroup downplayed the extent that these were personal problem areas…for them (okay, especially those of the male variety).  I soon inverted the approach:  each team member selects one area in which they feel most proficient, e.g., “Perfection.”  The individual discloses how s/he evolved a degree of stress belief mastery, providing an example of resisting “perfection” along with a positive problem solving application.  The give and take energy, sharing and learning increased dramatically.  People will learn from one another’s strengths, especially when each person has a chance to be strong in their own way.

c. Recognize Generalist-Specialist Multiplicity and Mostly Play to Your Strength.  As your experience and skills evolve in leading and training, there will be a learning curve trial as you juggle various roles.  Being a diversified presenter means playing such roles as an educator, an entertainer, as well as an emotional expression and empathy energizer; for consistency, might we call this expressive-empathic energizer the “evangelist” role?  (Oh, oh…another acronym-sighting:  “Leading and Learning with “E”s:  Educate and Energize, Entertain and Evangelize…and, whenever possible, applying all concepts in group Exercise; actually, more on the value of acronyms and rhyme shortly.)  The challenge is not being one-dimensional: for while some consistency is useful, “rigid consistency,” according to the American Philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “is the hobgoblin of little minds.”  It seems that variety is the “spice” and “rule” of life, learning, and leading.

Still, when time is limited and the task is bounded, lead with your strengths.  If strongest as an “Educator,” let this be your trump suit or default position.  However, even if only for a short trial, inject one or two of the other “E”-roles in your presentation.  Be unpredictable; defy expectations.  Not only do you capture people’s attention and generate on the edge anticipation, pleasurable surprise releases pain-reducing and pleasure-enhancing brain chemicals like endorphins and dopamine.  And the continuous practice and expansion of range and repertoire builds one’s risk-taking and performance muscles.  Also, you achieve finer and finer definition especially as you evaluate and integrate audience feedback, that hard-earned source of adaptive wisdom.  Finally, as a risk-taking and variety generating role model, you are also illuminating an evolutionary, multifaceted mind-mood-muscle skill path for your audience.  As Dr. Jonas Salk, a founder of the polio vaccine, observed:  Evolution is about getting up one more time than you fall down; being courageous one more time than being fearful; trusting just one more time than being anxious!   Amen and women to that!

Part II will flesh out the remaining three Process Steps.
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Human Resources Palm Beach County, FL (HRPBC; SHRM affiliate); Developing Stress Resilience, Humor, and Passion Power:  The Gift of Interactive Engagement; Human Resources Chapter Kickoff Speaker; 100 attendees; 1.25 hrs

Feb 27, 2014


Hello Mark.

HR Palm Beach County had the wonderful pleasure of having Mark Gorkin “The Stress Doc” present at one of our monthly dinner meetings. Mark’s presentation was both insightful and engaging. He has a way of captivating the audience and makes them want to hear more. We enjoyed his insights on the factors that cause stress and how to overcome them. We hope to hear more from “The Stress Doc”. It was definitely time well spent. We especially enjoyed his perspective on Passion and Power. Mark Gorkin is a must hear!

Tanya Vaughn-Patterson
HRPBC Program Chair

Diversity & Inclusion Consultant
NEXTERA ENERGY
Ofc: 561-694-4199
tanya.vaughn-patterson@fpl.com
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Hi.  Your presentation was very exciting and informative.  Thank you.  Yes, you may include me on your newsletter. 

I look forward to seeing you in May. 

Joyce Fenhaus, PHR
Human Resources Business Partner
Holy Cross Hospital
1000 NE 56th Street
Ft. Lauderdale, FL  33334

Joyce.Fenhaus@holy-cross.com
(954) 267-6881
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Thanks for your inspiring talk!  I really enjoyed it. 

I will certainly keep you in mind if an opportunity arises where we could use your expertise.

Regards,

Sheri

Sheri Resnick, PHR
Human Resources Analyst
The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Florida
130 Scripps Way, 3B2
Jupiter, Florida 33458

sresnick@scripps.edu
Office:  (561) 228-2064
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Thiel College; "Building Winning Teams: Blending Individual Creativity and Interactive Community"; Semester Kickoff for 120 Faculty and Staff; 2 hrs

Feb 9, 2014

Dear Mark,

I just wanted to write a sincere note of thanks for your recent program at Thiel College, "Building Winning Teams: Blending Individual Creativity and Interactive Community."  The task force responsible for planning this event was delighted by the overwhelming amount of positive feedback we heard from our faculty and staff that participated.  The program was a lot of fun, and our employees benefited greatly from participating.  It was truly the perfect kick-off to a new semester, and we hope to bring you back in the near future.

Our participants especially appreciate how interactive the program was, and it was energizing to start the semester with so much laughter.  We could not have imagined the program going any better.

I highly recommend The Stress Doc to any organizations looking for an exceptional motivational speaker, especially if they are hoping for a strong dose of humor!

Best Regards,

Mike McKinney '02, Vice President of Student Life
THIEL COLLEGE I 75 College Avenue I Greenville, PA I 16125
724-589-2066 (o) I 724-456-4077 (m)
mmckinney@thiel.edu
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Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is a national keynote and webinar speaker and "Motivational Humorist & Team Communication Catalyst" known for his interactive, inspiring and FUN programs for both government agencies and major corporations.  A training and Critical Incident/Grief Intervention Consultant for the National EAP/Wellness Company, Business Health Services in Baltimore, MD, the Doc also leads “Stress, Team Building and Humor” programs for various branches of the Armed Services.  Mark, a former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, is the author of Resiliency Rap, Practice Safe Stress, and of The Four Faces of Anger.  See his award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  For more info on the Doc's "Practice Safe Stress" programs or to receive his free e-newsletter, email stressdoc@aol.com or call 301-875-2567.