Your Next Career

Are you so busy with your current career that you have neglected Your Next Career? This lecture will help you, through Jim Tosone's first-hand experiences, understand how to develop Your Next Career. And it will show you how laying the foundation for, and starting on, Your Next Career can help you in your current career and more importantly in your life.
 

Improv for Creativity, Communication & Collaboration in the Workplace

Improvisation (or Improv) is generally thought of as humorous entertainment. Yet the techniques of Improv have great applicability in the workplace. Improvisation can be used to enhance collaboration, creativity, communication, and conflict resolution. This workshop will bring to life the core principles and techniques of Improv in a fun, low-pressure session. Attendees will participate in a set of Improv games, such as: Dr. Know-It-All, Conducted Story, ABC, and Sentences. In a final wrap-up, we will review the principles of improvisation and how they can be incorporated into your work and personal lives. [Related workshops: Improv to Improve Your Public Speaking, Improv for Children] Click for Books, DVDs and CDs on Improv.

Humor: Your Secret Management Tool

Humor is an innate part of what makes us human, and successful leaders recognize and deal with the whole person. In business, unlike in comedy, humor is a means to an end—not an end unto itself. This lecture will get you to think consciously about humor as a technique to help you be more effective at work, while at the same time creating a more rewarding working environment. We’ll discuss using humor to Make a Point, Enhance Creativity, Ease Stress or Tension, Diffuse Embarrassing Situations, Foster Teamwork, Build Relationships, and Build Morale. We’ll discuss types of humor (anecdotes, analogy, one-liners) as well as learn the techniques used to create humor (e.g., exaggeration, contradiction, play on words). Finally, we’ll touch on the hazards/risks of humor in the workplace. [Related workshops: Creating Comedy, Creating Comedy for Public Speaking]

Keep Them On The Edge of Their Seats: Using Creative Non-Fiction Techniques to Make Compelling Presentations

Remember the last page-turning, couldn’t-put-it-down novel you read (Da Vinci Code, perhaps)? The dramatic scenes, life-like characters, realistic dialog and rich detail grabbed you from the first page and held you to the very end. Your speeches can have that kind of effect on an audience, if you use the techniques and literary devices of fiction. Many of today’s best non-fiction writers--Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese and John McPhee—use the tools of fiction to write what is commonly called “creative non-fiction.” For them, creative non-fiction is an engaging and entertaining way to convey not just information, but understanding. This lecture will explain and give examples of the techniques of creative non-fiction, which can be readily adapted to bring color, drama and life to your speeches.

Philosophy: A Guide to Action in Business

The issues we deal with at work and in our daily lives are not just matters of policy or morality—they are at their core matters of philosophy. Each of us, whether we know it or not, has a philosophy. For some, it’s a conscious, consistent system that guides our decisions and actions. For others, it’s a hodgepodge of beliefs drawn from our past. Having a philosophy is important in a way similar to having an architecture for your home. This lecture will 1) briefly introduce the basic branches of philosophy, 2) discuss how to create an integrated philosophical system, and 3) using practical examples show how to break down issues and questions into their philosophical components, so you can analyze them, decide what you believe about them, and integrate them into your personal philosophy.

Secrets of a Successful Book Proposal

Did you know that you are supposed to sell the book to a publisher before you actually write it? Or that targeting your book to a narrower audience can increase you chances of being published? These questions, and many others, are answered in this practical lecture. You will be taken through the key elements needed to create a proposal that agents will want to represent and publishers will want to acquire. The successful proposal for Tosone's book, “Classical Guitarists: Conversations” (published by McFarland & Co.) will be used as a model.

The Classical Guitar: Its Music and Performers

Combining lecture with brief recorded audio excerpts of classical guitar performances, Jim Tosone will discuss the history of the music and composers, the evolution of the instrument, and the most prominent performers--past and present.

For more information, contact Jim Tosone.