Episode #80: Mr. Nakatani And The Gold Plated Room

The snow was heavy as the bus pulled out of the Yamashiro Hot Spring Hotel. Twenty minutes later we were deposited in front of a large store, designed to entice tourists to spend up big. Our tour group obediently trotted in toward an area at the back, appointed with fold away chairs arranged schoolroom style. We were all facing an incredible reproduction of warrior leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s famous gold tea ceremony room. Every single square millimeter of this room was covered in gold sheeting, including the fire alarm!

Mr. Nakatani, a young man in his thirties opened up the presentation. About five minutes into the detail about how they make the gold sheets, how they apply them to make a whole wall, the time involved to complete one section, I started to notice something unusual about Mr. Nakatani. He was speaking in Japanese, but he was doing something remarkable.

He sometimes spoke with passion, energy, enthusiasm and then he would switch and speak in more dulcet tones. He would speak at normal to fast speed and then he would really sloooow down some words for effect. I noted he was combining his hand movements, his gestures, with the content of what he was saying, to draw out his point more powerfully.

These were not the dodgy, manufactured gestures I saw being used by the Japanese athletes in Brazil, when they spoke in support of Japan’s bid for the Olympics in 2020. No, these gestures were congruent, natural and credible.

I observed he was watching his audience like a hawk, carefully noting their reactions to his presentation. He was also a deft hand at introducing some humour into his talk. He was using his eyes to connect with us as he told us a story about the artisans who made the tiny gold sheets and the skill needed to painstakingly layer them together one by one, to make one very large solid sheet.

This was fascinating for me. We teach a course called High Impact Presentations and I was wondering if he was one of our graduates? Sometimes when we are teaching this course with Japanese in the class, at the start they worry and say things like: “well this professional presentation stuff doesn’t fit with Japanese culture, we are too shy. Eye contact has to be with the Adam’s Apple or the chin or the forehead, not with the counterpart’s eyes. The Japanese language is monotone, so we can’t access the vocal variety of other Western languages like English. We don’t really understand what to do with our hands, so that is why we hide them behind our backs”.

Yet here in front of me was a local lad, in the middle of nowhere in snow country in Ishikawa Prefecture, knocking this presentation out of the park. I couldn’t restrain my curiosity. Once the tour herd had moved on to explore the rest of the establishment, eager to be separated from their money, as they bought up all the various porcelain pieces, knickknacks and gold plated delights on offer, I made my way to the front and accosted Mr. Nakatani.

Where had he studied his presentation skills, was he our graduate, why was he so good? I told him how impressed I was and that I was trainer of such skills up in the big smoke. He answered that he had never been taught formally, but as a result of giving lots of tour groups this presentation, he had picked it all up naturally. Wow!

So, all those self-justifying excuses about Japanese being culturally unable to present were just that, excuses. In our classes, we explain the difference between chatting with your mates socially and giving a presentation. Look at your friend’s Adam’s Apple as much as you like, when conversing over cappuccinos, but when you are on show you have a different role now.

Your job is to be persuasive, to engage with your audience, to use every tool available to grab and hold our attention. Mr. Nakatani used his voice modulation, gestures, story telling, humour and eye contact to great effect. He also got regular practice to improve his craft. There is a big hint. In order to grow as a professional, never shy away from opportunities to speak in public, instead grab them with resolve. We see big differences in our graduates after receiving training – all that “we Japanese” excuse stuff is now out the window and they get it.

If someone out in the snow burdened boonies can work it out for themselves, then big city types should no longer cover their naked inabilities, with their wilting fig leaves of presentation skills denial.

As leaders, let’s hold ourselves and our teams, accountable to be persuasive as communicators. Mr. Nakatani has set the gold standard for us.