DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
(U) Speak Easy : Take-Away Documentation
FROM:
Meadeators Club
Run Date: 08/09/2005
(U) Words of advice on public speaking. This article is best viewed
in Explorer or Netscape 7. (Entire text is unclassified.)
It is often helpful to give your customers information to take with
them, because they can't remember everything you tell and show
them.
Some briefers don't understand the "less is more" theory. If you
give people a stack of papers, what are the odds that they will read
them? I'll tell you: zero. People are busy, and when they return
from a briefing with two pounds of documentation, it will sit on
their desk or in their flipper cabinet for a few days or weeks before
getting thrown into a burn bag. Even in our computer-driven
environment, tons of paper and ink are still being wasted and
innocent trees are dying for no good reason.
So, if you must give people anything to take with them, try to list
all the information succinctly on one sheet of paper. I have never
in my 21 years at NSA been to a presentation whose salient points
could not be listed on a single page, and I'd be willing to bet that
your briefing will be no exception.
Here is a small example of poorly written, space-consuming notes
that typically get foisted on unsuspecting attendees:
The Transylvanian Crisis
Vampires in our
midst, blending in
with the population.
While we sleep, they
steal our lifeblood.
Symptoms of blood
loss:
listlessness
fatigue
SERIES:
(U) Speak Easy
1. Speak Easy :
Creating Notes
2. Speak Easy : Dress
Rehearsal
3. Speak Easy : TakeAway Documentation
4. Speak Easy : Game
Day
thirst
Has been going on
since the year 839.
Federal funding to
deal with this
problem has doubled
to $10 million
annually.
Fighting this
problem will require:
patience
diligence
wooden stakes
Need to ethnically
profile vampires.
Typically they have:
long teeth
strange clothing
light complexion
We must boycott
vampires' partners:
IRS
Michael Jackson
Together we can
win!
Point of contact:
First of all, the large font is unnecessary. We are not a bunch of
geriatric patients who need lettering the size of Madagascar.
Second, it is not necessary to reiterate the problem and its
symptoms, or give useless information such as when the problem
started or how much federal funding there is; these can be stored
on a Web page for anyone who cares enough. In fact, all
information should be available on NSANet, and the handout should
list those sites. Consider the following succinct version of the above
notes.
The Transylvanian Crisis
Problem defined at
http://transylvania/problem
Preventive measures:
Ethnic profiling
(http://transylvania/profiling)
Boycotting vampires' partners
(http://transylvania/partners)
Attacking with stakes
(http://transylvania/stakes)
POC:
,
(secure)
People who have a genuine interest in the subject will read the
sheet and visit the sites, whereas if you had listed everything on
several pages, they might have been discouraged by the sheer
volume. Anyone who throws away the single sheet wasn't
interested anyway since you made it so easy for them and they still
didn't use it.
Giving people Web sites facilitates collaboration. When they send
e-mail they don't need to type much information themselves -they can simply list a Web site's URL or copy and paste from it.
The bottom line is that the less you inundate people with, the more
likely you are to get your point across.
Next month: Game Day
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108