Last week, I presented 10 (count ‘em!) pecha kucha, every day at 1130 and 1330. Topics ranged from my (fairly uneducated) take on Microsoft Office/Oslo roadmap and shipping finance for beginners, to perspectives on the company and the CEO, and then more meta content about working out loud and the value and practice of pecha kucha itself.

At the end of the pecha kucha on pecha kucha, I suggested it as a good option for people to practice their presentation craft, and finished with a Challenge Accepted image.

Someone asked, does this mean you want us to ‘pecha kucha’? Well, no skin off my nose whether people do or don’t, but I suddenly got all deep and meaningful on them. [Not sure how that went down, but the energy became dense, for me at least.]

begin paraphrase

Sharing your knowledge is such a gift. The challenge is you do not know what people want from you until you offer it to them. [It reminded me of Rumsfeld’s ‘known unknowns, and unknown knowns’ et al.]

Asking how can I help? Is part of the equation. It gives optionality to your audience. But sometimes you have make suggestions too. You have to consider their curiosity and thirst for knowledge and make an (un)educated guess:

• What insider information do you have?
• Where are you, for sure, ahead of the team and willing to bring them along?
• When do you want to stir the pot a little to see how the recipe turns out?

Doing so, making that choice to speak up and act out, can be the difference between win and lose; it can drive the community to new heights; it can prove out to all that we knew we had it in us.

Take the chance to speak your truth, to stake a claim. See what happens, without judgment. I believe more often than not, the impact will be mighty.

end paraphrase

Pecha kucha pecha schmucka. The tool is just that, a mechanism to do that thing. Working out loud is my way, last week at least, to do that thing. Challenge accepted.

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