Articles by Andrew Dlugan:

You may think that you are a sensible, rational thinker. You likely believe that you’re open-minded, objective, and someone who sees the world as it is.

Unfortunately, your brain is playing mind games with you.

In reality, while you are incredibly intelligent, you’re susceptible to a swarm of cognitive biases which constantly pull you toward irrational thoughts and judgments.

This article is the first of the Cognitive Bias series — a collection of articles which examine cognitive biases, describe how they impact you and your audience, and explore practical strategies you can use in response.

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On Fridays, we dip into the Six Minutes article archive in search of the most memorable articles. We’ll dust them off, shine a light on them, and consider them from a new perspective.

This week, we also spotlight recent book releases that may help you enrich your public speaking library.

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On Fridays, we dip into the Six Minutes article archive in search of one of the most memorable articles. We’ll dust it off, shine a light on it, and consider it from a new perspective.

Today’s Flashback Article

This week, we’re reaching back to August 2013 to learn strategies for using vocal volume to improve your speaking effectiveness.

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On Fridays, we dip into the Six Minutes article archive in search of one of the most memorable articles. We’ll dust it off, shine a light on it, and consider it from a new perspective.

Today’s Flashback Article

This week, we’re reaching back to December 2011 to learn tips for food and drink when you are speaking.

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Body movement is an aspect of public speaking that often gets ignored. Unfortunately, this leads to two extreme behaviors that are equally bad:

• A speaker who stands rigidly on a single spot for their entire presentation, or
• A speaker who moves constantly in dizzying motion

True effectiveness lies in between these two extremes, with purposeful body movement that complements the speaker’s message, and adds authenticity to the overall delivery.

In this article, we reveal 7 benefits of body movement for speakers, review a series of negative body movements, and share 18 practical tips for purposeful movement that enhances your overall presentation.

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On Fridays, we dip into the Six Minutes article archive in search of one of the most memorable articles. We’ll dust it off, shine a light on it, and consider it from a new perspective.

Today’s Flashback Article

This week, we’re reaching back to November 2012 to learn why you should be using assertions instead of topics for your slide titles.

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On Fridays, we dip into the Six Minutes article archive in search of one of the most memorable articles. We’ll dust it off, shine a light on it, and consider it from a new perspective.

Today’s Flashback Article

This week, we’re reaching back to November 2011 to learn six common communication barriers and how to avoid them.

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Well-designed charts in your slide deck can convey meaningful insights where words alone would struggle to do so.

Poorly-designed charts in your slide deck can smother your presentation with confusion and invite mocking from your audience.

Do you know the difference?

In this article, we introduce four core principles for designing charts for slides, and then derive twenty practical guidelines you can use. We also feature many examples to illustrate these guidelines.

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On Fridays, we dip into the Six Minutes article archive in search of one of the most memorable articles. We’ll dust it off, shine a light on it, and consider it from a new perspective.

This week, we also spotlight recent releases that may help you enrich your public speaking library.

Continue Reading »

On Fridays, we dip into the Six Minutes article archive in search of one of the most memorable articles. We’ll dust it off, shine a light on it, and consider it from a new perspective.

Today’s Flashback Article

This week, we’re reaching back to February 2008 to learn from the excellent TED talk by Majora Carter titled “Greening the Ghetto”.

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The success of your next presentation or training course might be thwarted before you begin speaking… wait… what? How?

If your audience seating arrangement and overall room setup isn’t aligned with the design of your session, you are starting from a position of weakness.

In this article, we describe the core principles that factor into your room setup choices. We then offer an in-depth view of several popular options, and point out the advantages and disadvantages of each. Finally, we end with tips you can use to optimize the room for your audience and set yourself up for success.

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