Mark Bayer

I also will say that even the structure and the sequence that you're taught to write, you lead with your methodology, how you got it done. When you're in a general environment, The board member, the executive, they don't really care so much about how you got something done. They just want you to answer a specific question. Should we license this technology from another company?

I also will say that even the structure and the sequence that you're taught to write, you lead with your methodology, how you got it done. When you're in a general environment, The board member, the executive, they don't really care so much about how you got something done. They just want you to answer a specific question. Should we license this technology from another company?

Had another student in class who was an organic chemist at a big company. And he was just going so deep into the science when he was in the boardroom. This was a story that he told me. And really that question, should we license this other chemical process? Until finally he realized that wasn't the way they wanted this question approached. And he gave a very crisp answer to that.

Had another student in class who was an organic chemist at a big company. And he was just going so deep into the science when he was in the boardroom. This was a story that he told me. And really that question, should we license this other chemical process? Until finally he realized that wasn't the way they wanted this question approached. And he gave a very crisp answer to that.

And ultimately he gave the answer that they wanted. But I think that when you're in a technical environment and you're asked a specific question, scientists often want to dump all that they know about the topic.

And ultimately he gave the answer that they wanted. But I think that when you're in a technical environment and you're asked a specific question, scientists often want to dump all that they know about the topic.

to answer the question but i sometimes say it's not what you know it's what they need to know you have to do that distillation and that filtering and then you have to focus on answering a specific question it's not just demonstrating all you know about a topic So that's a blind spot.

to answer the question but i sometimes say it's not what you know it's what they need to know you have to do that distillation and that filtering and then you have to focus on answering a specific question it's not just demonstrating all you know about a topic So that's a blind spot.

I think the sequencing when writing this tendency to want to lead with a lot of background, because that's what you did when you were writing for your academic audience. But you need to lead with the punchline. You really need to lead with the result or the real world relevance, the impact, the answer to the question first.

I think the sequencing when writing this tendency to want to lead with a lot of background, because that's what you did when you were writing for your academic audience. But you need to lead with the punchline. You really need to lead with the result or the real world relevance, the impact, the answer to the question first.

And it can seem backwards, but the challenge is your listener, your reader is not going to stick around for more than about 10 seconds. Then their attention is going to drift if you don't really address what they care about most.

And it can seem backwards, but the challenge is your listener, your reader is not going to stick around for more than about 10 seconds. Then their attention is going to drift if you don't really address what they care about most.

So another sort of blind spot is thinking about in the writing, in the presentation, really leading with what your audience, what your stakeholder, what your exec wants to know first. And then you can always backfill later if they have a couple of questions. How did you get that? Or what else did you look at?

So another sort of blind spot is thinking about in the writing, in the presentation, really leading with what your audience, what your stakeholder, what your exec wants to know first. And then you can always backfill later if they have a couple of questions. How did you get that? Or what else did you look at?

that's fine but if you lead with that it's not relevant and this window of attentional opportunity is going to slam shut and there's going to be a lot of frustration all around but you can learn that right and that's one of the things one of the things i teach often just one other thing on the speaking side i find scientists can be really excited about the work they do and the discoveries that they're going to that they're focused on making that can make such a huge difference

that's fine but if you lead with that it's not relevant and this window of attentional opportunity is going to slam shut and there's going to be a lot of frustration all around but you can learn that right and that's one of the things one of the things i teach often just one other thing on the speaking side i find scientists can be really excited about the work they do and the discoveries that they're going to that they're focused on making that can make such a huge difference

The challenge can become in the presentation part where that excitement just doesn't come through. They tend to just want to present in a very monotone, matter-of-fact way, not apply any real artistry, I would say, to their delivery. And you have to really give energy to get engagement. So that you're enthusiastic and you're upbeat, you're going to get your audience excited about it as well.

The challenge can become in the presentation part where that excitement just doesn't come through. They tend to just want to present in a very monotone, matter-of-fact way, not apply any real artistry, I would say, to their delivery. And you have to really give energy to get engagement. So that you're enthusiastic and you're upbeat, you're going to get your audience excited about it as well.

And so being emotionless, you know, is something that scientists often are taught in presenting their results, but that's not something that works when you're beyond academia.

And so being emotionless, you know, is something that scientists often are taught in presenting their results, but that's not something that works when you're beyond academia.