I was presenting at an event this week and facilitating a workshop. There were no whiteboards, but we could use a flipchart. I created a framework diagram on the flipchart before the session on my subject and then used this as a basis to draw out issues from the session, writing up comments and ideas from the group as we went along.
 
I found this gave me both a focus to open the discussion and then something to fill in and complete with the group as we built up our ideas. It also meant I could control the session to keep on topic and to draw out the issues. I have seen Harvard Business School professors do this to great effect using chalk and a blackboard to write up ideas gleaned from interrogating their audience on business case studies. This “power of the pen” is not only a great way to manage and capture content in a meeting, it also gives you a measure of control and a “presence” at the session.  
 
Making your presence felt in a meeting whether it is a negotiation, team briefing, or presentation is a critical skill and one that can be quite challenging to master especially with senior stakeholders or your manager - or just difficult or challenging individuals - present. There are lots of articles with advice on how to achieve this – see for example this Stanford article Improve Your Executive Presence or this Harvard Business Review Developing Executive Presence. 
 
However, the simple action of standing up with a pen or piece of chalk and writing your ideas or those of the group on a whiteboard, blackboard or flipchart provides a way of leading and contributing in a very natural way which gives natural command of the room. It also brings your audience with you as they feel they are contributing and can see their and ideas written up in real time – as the old African proverb says If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.
 
Here is an interesting blog on How to Use Flip Charts Effectively which suggests in the context of presentations that Writing or drawing on a flip chart is an active process, and energizes the speaker. This other blog Paper Presentations - Advantages Of Using Flip Charts comments While everyone seems to be interested in creating high-tech computer generated presentations, the flip chart still continues to be the most effective paper presentation media of all and is one that should not be overlooked. Too often the false assumption is made that investing a lot of money in high tech visual aids and equipment will "make" the presentation. The best paper presentation visuals have been and still are the simplest.
 
Steve Jobs once said “People who know what they are talking about don’t need PowerPoint”. I agree and I suggest they can however use the power of the pen interactively to great effect to create presence and take your audience with you. 

​I have just spent two weeks as the skipper on a 45-foot sailing yacht cruising around the Croatian Adriatic Sea visiting a number of ports. Arriving and departing is a complex manoeuvre in 11 tons of boat. It means backing into the allocated berth collecting a fixed line from the stern, taking it quickly to the bow (the front end of the boat) and securing it whilst tying two lines from the back. All this as the wind tries to move the boat sideways. Departure means letting go the correct lines at the right time and avoiding boats moored on either side as you leave slowly.
 
Whilst this can be complex especially if a strong wind is blowing it is actually relatively easy if, but only if you have prepared carefully and thoroughly and having given detailed instructions to your crew as to what they have to do and when to pick up or let go a mooring line. Otherwise chaos can ensue and the boat crashes into other moored boats or the concrete quayside. Sometimes this is just embarrassing but it can end up with the boat or other boats being damaged or people injured as they try to fend off.
 
It makes me think that the same is true for a commercial transaction or other professional process. First you have to know where you are going and what to expect when you arrive. Then you need a team or crew on board who are able and capable of taking on the tasks allocated to them. Just as on the yacht we needed somebody strong and agile to take a line to the front and then pull in a heavy mooring line and know how to make it fast. So, in a negotiation about a technical IT issue such as system development someone with knowledge of those issues should be present. They also need some overall knowledge of the negotiations and to be a part of the team and its preparation work, so they don’t concede some critical commercial issue unintentionally.
 
Here is an article from the Executive Secretary Magazine (one of the most pressurised professional jobs) The Importance of Preparation which suggests that adequate preparation can prove to be one of the most valuable skills that you can master in avoiding the build-up of stress and anxiety as deadline dates approach.
 
I also like this Harvard Law School article which has a useful negotiation preparation list running to 32 points to prepare for.
 
Here are some good quotes I found on the benefits of preparation. 
 
“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” - Bobby Unser the American car racer.
 
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my axe” - Abraham Lincoln.
 
“He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
 
Before anything else, preparation is the key to success – Alexander Graham Bell.
 
I’d certainly recommend adequate preparation time at work or at play.

​I am sitting on a sailing yacht in a marina in Croatia (which does give a certain perspective on office work) on a warm and calm afternoon watching other boats arrive and moor. Yet a couple of days ago I was up on the foredeck in a force 5 wind with the yacht bouncing up and down in a heavy sea trying to unjam the roller reefing gear on the genoa (a large sail at the front of the boat) in order that we could reduce sail. A southerly storm had arrived without warning half way to our destination – a consequence of global warning according to the port authorities at the next harbour we eventually reached, who had also been taken by surprise by the strong winds.
 
It makes me think about the way things change for better or worse over the course of your working life, driven by changed circumstances, businesses, colleagues and clients. Sometimes it really seems like you are in a storm at sea with events unfolding around you that cannot be controlled. At times like these all you can do is rely on your knowledge and experience to fix things, and recognise that events will eventually turn around more in your direction.
 
The island we eventually arrived at was Vis was colonised by the Greeks in 397 BC. The Greek philosopher Epictetus (about 55 to 135 AD) said The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
 
The art I suspect is to develop whatever skills you have as best you can and then and then to have faith in yourself and your ability to ride out adverse circumstances and indeed to learn from them. Here is an article Ten Ways Successful People Push through Adversity which suggests that successful people have found a way to jump hurdles and navigate around roadblocks that would stop others completely.
 
Here is a Harvard Business Review Article How to Bounce Back from Adversity which advises Whatever your initial reaction, however, the challenge is to turn a negative experience into a productive one—that is, to counter adversity with resilience.I also like this Forbes article Master the Ability to Thrive on Adversity which cites Tiger Woods success in winning a 5th Masters title after being out of the game for a number of years  with a debilitating back injury. It also says My official definition for mental toughness is the mind's ability to focus on solutions, especially in the face of adversity. You know you are mentally tough when you can thrive on adversity.
 
As the arch advocate of dealing with extreme adversity Winston Churchill said A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
 
To stay with the historical theme common to many of the Croatian islands we are exploring by boat as the Roman poet Horace (65 BC - 8 BC) wrote Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
 
Coming back up to date Michelle Obama also sagely commented You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it's important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.
 
I am still pleased to see the weather forecast for the rest of our sailing looks good!

One of the least appreciated or discussed assets which is a factor in professional working life is the use of humour. Making people laugh or at least be amused is a very useful skill. I actually did see an article discussing this element of our make up this week which sees humour as one key element to improving the workplace. It cites the American writer and poet Maya Angelou as saying I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.  
 
I recall a negotiation with a very aggressive procurement officer who arrived at a meeting late to find the rest of us laughing at some comment. With a serious and absolutely deadpan expression she informed us that she had a sense of humour too. No wonder she was so difficult to negotiate with. As Henry Ward Beecher the 19th Century American Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer said A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.
 
By contrast I find some joke or light hearted comment can break the ice at the start of discussions or can help take unnecessary heat out of an awkward moment. I used a Winnie the Pooh cartoon drawing in one customer presentation just to lighten up a crucial and serious subject and it helped get our point across. 
 
As well as assisting in establishing a position the ability to laugh together generally improves relationships around the table. It can even foster creativity by getting participants to move away from some issue they are stuck on enabling them to look at solutions rather than problems. 
 
Here is a short article Negotiation Is No Laughing Matter -- Or Is It? on the benefits of humour in negotiations. And here is another Humor as a Negotiation Tool – or How Humor Saved the World which cites the example of negotiations over the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when as American and Soviet delegates came together to negotiate, tensions were high, and they soon became deadlocked. And then…a Russian delegate told a joke: “What is the difference between Capitalism and Communism? In Capitalism, man exploits man. In Communism, it is the other way around.” Everybody laughed - and that may have literally helped save the world as we know it. 
 
Henry Kissinger also famously deployed his keen sense of humor to powerful effect at the negotiating table – see this LinkedIn blog Using Humor in Negotiations. 
 
This Forbes article advises Telling a good joke can have a discernable impact on the dynamic of the negotiation. It allows you to take center stage and establishes you as a dominant force in the room. It will actually energize you. These effects can carry over quite favorably into the substantive negotiations that follow.
 
As the Danish comedian Victor Borge said "There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth."
 
In the language of the millennials LOL!