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CES Preshow: Enchantment

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December 29, 2010

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I’ll be speaking at the American Express booth at the Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. The exact dates and times of my presentations are:


  • Thursday, January 6th, 1:00 pm
  • Friday, January 7th, 11:00 am


My presentation is called “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions." I will explain ten key concepts:


1. How to achieve likability

Have you ever been enchanted by someone that you didn’t like? Probably not. Likability starts with a Duchenne smile, appropriate dress, and the right kind of handshake.


2. How to achieve trustworthiness

You can like someone but still not trust them enough to let him enchant you. The way to trustworthiness is to gain knowledge and competence, trust others, and default to a “yes” attitude.


3. How to prepare a product or service

As Apple has shown, great products go a long way towards enchanting people. Your product or service needs to be great, you need to describe it in a short, sweet, and swallowable manner, and you should conduct a “pre-mortem” to increase the probability of success.


4. How to launch.

Great entrepreneurs launch -- they don’t just talk about launching. A great launch involves telling a story, planting many seeds, and using salient points.



5. How to overcome resistance

I could make the case that the better your product or service, the more resistance it will encounter. To overcome resistance, you need to provide social proof, find a bright spot, and enchant all the influencers.


6. How to make your changes endure

Would you like your product or service to endure as long as the Grateful Dead? Then you shouldn’t use money as the primary motivation, but you should invoke reciprocation and build an ecosystem.


7. How to make presentations that change people

Great enchanters are great presenters. They customize their introductions, sell their dreams, and use 10 slides in 20 minutes with a 30 point font.


8. How to use technology to change people

We live in a great time because social media tools are magical wands. But you need to remove the speed bumps, provide real value, and engage fast, many, and often.


9. How to enchant your boss

Most of use work for someone, and it’s a good thing to enchant them. You do this by immediately doing what they ask, prototyping fast, and delivering bad news early.


10. How to enchant your employees

Your employees are the key to your success, so you need to enchant them too. You do this by providing them an opportunity to achieve mastery of skills in an autonomous way while striving for a high purpose, by empoweing their actions, and by sucking it up and doing a good job yourself.


If you’re at CES, I hope you’ll visit the American Express booth to hear me explain the tactics of achieving these ten key points and leave the show as a more enchanting business leader.

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