By Erika Tanti, Ixaris Solutions @ericathedev

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A 1967 study set the prejudice that software engineers lack communication skills.

The new agile agenda has been prioritizing communication since early 2000:s (SCRUM etc identifies person-to-person contact as a key factor to success).

The speaker, him- or herself, often devalues their own impact. Often gives a significantly more professional and comfident air than oneself estimates.

Practise makes perfect!

Meetings

1:N communication is not a meeting, it is an announcement!

Active participation is key to success.

Confirmation bias – when a couple of people agrees, it gets instinctively more difficult to make objections.

Come prepared, read the agenda, think beforehand.

Networking

Take an advantage of random encounters!

Listen to their stories, learn, reciprocate.

YOLO! Just do it, try try try.

Erica has the gall to propose we put down our phones and make us available for a conversation :)

Presentations

Don’t just present facts, convey feelings as well.

Emotional impact lubricates the message, fascilitating success.

Slides are difficult to get right, and to manage.

Should convey images, rather than present a verbatim copy of your speech.

How to make that work in an enterprise environment (break the shackles of PowerPoint communication)?

Establish eye contact! You are the stage, not the presentation.

Feedback is the key to improvement!

Find your safe space

Toastmasters

JCI

London Jaca Community

Host internal tech talks

Books on public speaking

Quiet

Persuade on purpose

Resonate