Bert Decker, communications expert and author of several presentation-related books (including this updated version of You've Got to Be Believed to Be Heard), has published his annual Top Ten Best (and Worst) Communicators for the year 2008. This is a very interesting read. Bert's list focuses primarily on famous speakers or news makers in the US; I think you could add many to the list — famous and not so famous — from around the world as well. Feel free to share your favorite (or "best/worst") from other parts of the globe below.

More great communicators (off the top of my head)
I've highlighted some of my favorites over the years such as TED presenter Hans Rosling from Sweden, and fellow TED presenter Sir Ken Robinson from England. Canadian Mitch Joel is an awesome presenter too, as is Toastmasters veteran Bob Harvey from UK (author of Tork and Grunt's Guide to Great Presentations). My buddy and Keynote magician Les Posen in Australia is fantastic as well (see Les's seminars at Macworld this week). I think one of my favorite presenters who belongs in the "the new communicators" category is Marco Montemagno from Italy. I really like the way Marco uses his natural energy and connects with his audience while using slides and other multimedia to enhance his talks.I've talked about Marco before herewhere you'll find a clip with English subtitles. Here's a clip of Marco in October 08 in Milanodoing his "The Internet Show" presentation (in Italian). There are many more clips onMarco's blog.

I'm sure you have your favorite presentations/presenters (or "Best Communicators") from 2008. We'd love to hear your thoughts below.

Mildly-related link
• PZ makes"best business books of 2008" list(Miami Herald)

There is a line of thinking that says if I tell you the meaning of the word Zen, then it wouldn't really be Zen. The same could be said concerning the meaning of Jazz as well. "What is Jazz?" in a sense is like saying "What is Zen?" Of course, we can talk about them and label them, and with our verbalization we get close (and the discussion may be interesting, even helpful, inspiring, etc.). But we never experience the thing itself by talking about it. Zen is concerned with the thing itself. Zen is about the now — right here, right now. The essence of jazz expression is like this too. It's about this moment. No artificiality, no pretending to be anything you're not. No acting. No wishing at this moment to be anywhere or with anyone except where you are. There are many forms of jazz and jazz expression, but to my mind if you want to at least get close to the essence of jazz, then listen to this album: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (I talked about this album here a few months ago). This is one of my favorite albums of all time and is considered to be one of the best albums (if not the best album) ever recorded. Listen to this cut of "So What?" off the Kind of Blue album below on YouTube.

I always thought that there was a sort of aesthetic to the Kind of Blue album that expressed the tenets of restraint, simplicity, and naturalness. In the music you hear a kind of free yet structured spontaneity, an idea that seems oxymoronic until you study one of the Zen arts...or jazz. Then recently I read the liner notes again from the Kind of Blue album, notes that were written by the legendary pianist Bill Evans. In these notes (copies pictured in photo on the right and are included in the 50th Anniversary box set) I found that he actually makes a direct reference to a traditional Japanese art form (though I'm unsure if he's referring to shodo or sumi-e). As you read these notes below, think of how Miles Davis's approach to the Kind of Blue session can be applied to live presentation in all its myriad forms, and for that matter, to the art of life.

Bill Evans's liner notes from Kind of Blue

Recorded in 1959, its impact still grows
Recently, I purchased the 50th Anniversary of Kind of Blue from Amazon. It's a bit expensive, but certainly for an organization or a school I think it's a good purchase. You can see a clip from the documentary DVD included in the package below — this should give you a feel for the contribution this special album has made. The package also includes copies of Bill Evans's hand-written notes which later became the liner notes for the original album. The copies of his notes alone for me make the purchase worth while.

One my favorite reads of 2008 was Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life by Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey Ward. The lessons found in jazz — its meaning, its history and its relevance for life, business, and education — run deep and wide. It's really quite amazing. Every student should have a good exposure to jazz (and classical music for that matter) in their education — music education is not a nicety, it's a necessity. Organizations and schools are always talking about the need to foster creativity and innovation, the need to encourage dedication and self-discipline, and the importance of developing skills for collaboration. Yet the arts — especially jazz — teach all these things. In his book, Wynton illuminates the deep beauty that is found in jazz and why and how it's relevant for us all. Here's a line from Chapter seven:

Above: I found the book so relevant to my world that I could barely get through a page without underlining every other sentence. Good nuggets of wisdom in there. (Snapped in an Osaka Starbucks.)

Musicians at Google: Wynton Marsalis
I recommend the book, but first I suggest you set some time aside to watch this Musicians@Google interview with Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey Ward below held at Google a few months ago. I discuss a few of Wynton's thoughts from the interview below.

On technology
Wynton Marsalis reminds us that technology is great because it allows us to do some amazing things, including coming closer together. But technology is only a tool. Technology itself does not offer any panaceas. PowerPoint, for example, has gotten better over the years but presentations with the software have largely not improved (though things are getting better...slowly).

Marsalis: Jazz adds the sticky-sweet to the dry facts of history
Data itself is always dry without meaning. Yet, you can add the spirit of jazz to it in a presentation. By "spirit of jazz" I mean the complete opposite of how people usually use the term jazz as in "jazz it up" (that is, decorate it up). If the intent is pure and the message clear then that is all you can do. Jazz means removing the barriers and making it accessible, helping people to get your point (your message, your story). This does not necessarily mean you will always be direct (though this is often the clearest path). Hint and suggestion are powerful too. The difference is hint and suggestion with intent has a purpose and is done with the audience/user in mind. Hint and suggestion without intent or sincerity may merely result in simplistic, ineffective ramblings or even obsfucation.

If you approach the presentation of the data like a jazz musician approaches a piece of music then you will indeed be true to the message and the meaning of the data and you will make it "sticky and sweet" and not dry in the sense that you are understood. You will know you are understood when you see the heads nodding just like the musician sees the feet tapping. The audience may not agree with you — but they understand you. Understanding is the first step in persuasion. It's OK if people disagree with your results or interpretations — that's all part of the conversation, part of the process. What is not OK is for people to be confused by your words.

Presentation example
A good example is Hans Rosling (see his TED talk). It's not just the visualization of his data that are compelling. More importantly, he is compelling. He's "adding the sticky-sweet" to data by adding context and meaning and by emphasizing and pointing the way. Rosling also shows his passion and engages the audience with the data by the way he speaks: "Do you see that? Look here! This is amazing! What do you think happens next? Wasn't that surprising?" and so on. It usually is not enough just to show numbers. If you are in front of us, tell us what you think they mean and why, and compared to what? etc.

The power of naturalness
Jazz is smart and it's deep but also simple and accessible. Jazz makes the complex simple through profound expressions of clarity and sincerity. It has structure and rules but also great freedom. But above all, jazz is natural. It is not about putting on a façade of sophistication or seriousness, in fact humor and playfulness are also at the core of jazz. You may be a dedicated, serious jazz musician or you may be an appreciative fan, but either way you also understand that to be human is to laugh and to play — play is natural to us and natural to the creative process. It's only through our formal education that we begin to doubt the "seriousness" of play. When this happens we begin to lose a bit of ourselves, including our confidence and a bit of our humanity. I've found through my parallel studies of jazz and the Zen arts that both have structure and practice at their core, as well as a strong component of playfulness and laughter.

The importance of being a good listener
I wonder how many leaders could be better leaders if they listened more than they spoke. As Wynton points out, jazz is about listening. Much of the music is improvised so you always have to be listening to the logic of what the soloist, for example, is playing so you will know how to respond. You can not be a good jazz musician and be a bad listener. Can't you say the same thing for a leader or anyone giving a presentation?

As long as we're talking about design, let me suggest another book. One of the books for 2009 (yes, already) that I highly recommend is called The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation by designer and branding guru Marty Neumeier. Marty understands that we're all very busy, so he designs his books to make a big impact in less than 200 pages. His previous best-sellers — Brand Gap and Zag — are provocative, informative, and inspirational books that I use every semester in my Marketing classes, etc. Like his previous books, The Designful Company is a lesson in simple, clear, and beautiful presentation that complements the content. This is not a graphic design book, but rather a why and how design matters book for leaders and future leaders (including educators, managers, etc.).

Innovation and design are key in the transformation of any organization, of course, but everyone says "innovation" matters. The term has become a mere platitude, a sort of tag-line for many organizations. But in part three of the book Marty explains how to actually build a culture of change that embraces design by focusing on 16 key levers such as weaving a story, bringing design management inside the organization, introducing parallel thinking, recognizing talent and creativity, and many others. One of the levers of change that I found particularly interesting (obviously, given what I do for a living) was the lever #8: "Ban PowerPoint." That is, ban the awful, death-by-PowerPoint approach in favor of a presentation method which is more engaging and powerful. If you have an innovative company that truly understands design and creative collaboration, then you have to abandon the dull, lifeless, and typical PowerPoint experience for compelling stories and conversations that are visual, simple (without being overly simplistic), and memorable.

Marty Neumeier on presentations today

"PowerPoint has become a full-blown epidemic.
Tragically, the victims are company values such
as collaboration, innovation, passion, vision,
and clarity."

"If you want buy-in, give PowerPoint a rest.
Substitute more engaging techniques such as
stories, demonstrations, drawings, prototypes,
and brainstorming exercises."

"If a business is a decision factory, then the
presentations that inform those decisions
determine their quality: garbage in, garbage out."

Below: A couple of sample slides from The Designful Company that illustrate Marty's idea.

 

Three tips for better presentations from Marty Neumeier
Here are three design rules that Marty says they use at Neutron "to turn slide shows into beacons of clarity."

1. EDIT TO THE BONE. "Most slide presentations collapse under the weight of words." Use as few words as possible on a slide (and make them big), this insures that the ones you use will be read and understood says Marty.

2. USE PICTURES.Use visuals were words on a slide just can't cut it. "...whenever you feel the text in your presentation can’t fully support your key points, insert a picture."

3. KEEP IT MOVING. "It’s better to break slides into bite-sized ideas—usually one idea per slide — than to squeeze everything on one slide. Slides are free, so use them freely. It’s preferable to see a hundred slides that move at a fast clip than be forced to stare a single slide for more than a minute."

• Checkout Marty's firmNeutronlocated in San Francisco.

Note:The archive of theSafari webcast is now available(they ask for a name and email only to watch it). I put the slides up on Slideshare too.I mentioned Marty's book in the presentation but Webex had problems showing all the slides in sync (and some were skipped), but the archive will still be useful for some of you (I hope a download option will be coming from Safari too).

Note 2: Marty and I have the same publisher and I received the reviewers copy early on, but that's not why I recommend this book. I only recommend books I believe in, period (regardless of the publisher).

Note 3: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I'm getting on a plane in a few hours bound for San Francisco from Kansai, hoping to change at SFO and get to Portland by Tuesday night. Portland is in the middle of a long snow storm and freeze; hope I make it to Portland. I'll be staying downtown for a few days until it warms enough to make it to the coast it looks like. I think this is going to turn into my favorite Steve Martin Movie.Update:Made it to Portland. Made it to the beach.

Over the years I've read a lot of design books and I have recommended many of them here. But a lot of people have ask me if I would recommend just one book (proving again that the more choices you offer the harder it is to decide; the paradox of choice). It's difficult to recommend just one book for the non-designer interested in becoming more design mindful. But if you are looking to take a first step in learning about the fundamentals of graphic design with an eye toward becoming a better judge of what is effective visual communication and what is not, then I suggest The Non-Designer's Design Book, 3rd Edition (208 pages) by Robin Williams. This book has sold a ton over the years and is highly recommended by just about everyone. It's not an overly comprehensive book, but I like it because it's small and focused on a just a few fundamentals that, if understood well, can indeed make a difference.

If you don't mind a book twice as thick, then you could get The Non-Designer's Design and Type Books, Deluxe Edition (448 pages) by Robin Williams. This is a combination of the Non-Designers Design book plus the Non-Designer's Type book.

A bit more meaty
If you want something a little bit more challenging, but still very much accessible and engaging, I suggest The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type (160 pages) by Alexander white. I like this book too because it's relatively small and easy to take with you as you travel. This is one of my favorite graphic design books and is a good complement to Williams' books on the basics. White goes into a bit more depth on space, unity, type, etc. and features a discussion on "the seven design components (including Gestalt, etc.) which I summarize here on my website.

Your recommendations?
Right, so I said I would suggest just one book and then went and mentioned two (or three, depending on how you're counting). Another great book is Universal Principles of Design (216 pages) by William Lidwell et al. I love this book but it's a larger hardcover. At some point you will want to get this one for your bookshelf. So, do you have a design-related book that you can recommend? In other words, if you could suggest only one book on graphic design, what would it be? What one book has been the most useful for you?