One of this year’s favorite memes was the “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters, with many people replacing the “carry on” part with their own twists on the statement, such as “Keep Calm and Eat Bacon.” It appears 2013 was the year of relaxation, or at least a reminder to chill out.

Keeping calm, though, doesn’t always work. In fact, getting excited may be more beneficial if you’re suffering from performance anxiety, like public speaking or taking tests.

“Anxiety is incredibly pervasive. People have a very strong intuition that trying to calm down is the best way to cope with their anxiety, but that can be very difficult and ineffective,” said Alison Wood Brooks, Ph.D., of Harvard Business School. “When people feel anxious and try to calm down, they are thinking about all the things that could go badly. When they are excited, they are thinking about how things could go well.”

Brooks and colleagues led several experiments at Harvard University to learn more about performance and anxiety. In one experiment, participants who said “I am excited” gave longer speeches and were more persuasive, competent and relaxed than those who said “I am calm” before a speech.

“The way we talk about our feelings has a strong influence on how we actually feel,” Brooks said.

Anxiety and excitement are cut from the same sheet (high arousal), so it may be easier and more beneficial to go along with the feeling than fight it by trying to be calm.

“When you feel anxious, you’re ruminating too much and focusing on potential threats,” Brooks said. “In those circumstances, people should try to focus on the potential opportunities. It really does pay to be positive, and people should say they are excited. Even if they don’t believe it at first, saying ‘I’m excited’ out loud increases authentic feelings of excitement.”

(Image: Created on Keep Calm Studio)

I understand why the weather always comes up in small talk. It’s something we all experience, and it’s easy to agree or disagree with the current conditions. But man oh man, I can’t stand talking about the weather with strangers. I shut down whenever it’s brought up, grunting a quick yep or yeah.

Small talk doesn’t have to suffer from the weather, though. There are ways you can make it better. In the December issue of IU Health & Vitality, Bernardo J. Carducci, the director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast, offers some helpful advice on improving your small-talk skills.

“Small talk is really, really important,” Carducci said. “It helps us connect with people, and not just at holiday gatherings. If you make connections with people, it makes it much more difficult for you to treat them in an uncivil way. If you think about being kind to and connecting with people, people you engage in conversation, you’re going to open a door for them, you’ll let them step in front of you in line. You’ll engage in more acts of kindness and fewer acts of rudeness.

“Small talk is important, particularly now when we have people retreating into their own electronic bubbles, their own worlds, where they can get whatever they want on their own terms,” he continued. “The people who are happiest and most influential have the strongest social network, social capital.”

Carducci suggests the following small-talk tips:

Start small. Begin with a simple greeting or a compliment. Over time, as people see one another, those will turn into conversations.

Aim for nice, not brilliant. You don’t have to be funny, just willing to talk.

Have something to say. Learn about local and current events so you have something to talk about.

Rehearse your introduction. Be prepared to offer two pieces of information—your name and something about you that helps continue the conversation.

You’re late? Big mistake. Arrive early or on time to a networking event so you can greet people and pace the conversation.

Extend the conversation. Be in the moment and consider how you can build on the last thing said.

Now, stop talking. Take a break and let others contribute to the conversation.

Help yourself and others with “quick talk.” Make your conversations brief, showing you can talk with a variety of people.

As with any skill, practice makes perfect.

“It’s like exercise,” Carducci said. “If you can build it into your daily routine, you’re healthier. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.”

 (Image: Orange Photography)

There was a lot of industry news this past week you may have missed. Here are some headlines that caught our eyes.

Listen Up: NFL Logos Must Look More Like Soccer Crests
—Wired
“The coworkers at a local creative agency decided to create an experiment that explores what NFL logos would look like in the form of football crests from England, Spain, Italy and Germany. The resulting logos, called Football As Football, are like gaelic football—a perfect melding of American brashness and European restraint and tradition.”

With New Management in Place, AEG Seeks to Revitalize Convention Center
—Los Angeles Downtown News
“Anschutz Entertainment Group, which in October won a five-year contract from the city to manage the Convention Center, last week named Brad Gessner the senior vice president and general manager of the Downtown venue. Gessner served as the San Diego Convention Center’s general manager for six years before joining AEG’s facilities wing in 2012 as vice president of convention centers.”

How to Build Massive High-Tech Rock Star Concerts
—Bloomberg Businessweek
“The music industry is going through tremendous change, de-emphasizing the sale of recorded music and focusing on live performances. Artists are now turning to technology to boost live music revenue. It’s an arms race and the leading arms dealer is a privately held company called Tait Towers based in the heart of Amish country in rural Pennsylvania.”

After A Disaster, These Inflatable Shelters Can Fall From The Sky
—Fast Company
“In the aftermath of a natural disaster, aid isn’t always lacking. But where roads are destroyed and bad weather foils transportation, the ability to distribute resources diminishes. That’s why Turkish industrial designer Adem Önalan has created LifeBox, an ingenious, inflatable contraption that can hold food, be air-dropped onto land or sea, and transform into a durable raft or shelter.”

For CEOs, It’s Time to Study Up on Technology
—Associations Now
“If you’re the head of an organization, how much do you need to know about technology trends? Detailed specs on the leading hardware and software tools? Just enough to understand what your members do every day? Enough to bluff through the procurement process?”

(Image: Football As Football)

USA Today readers have spoken, naming Lambeau Field the best NFL stadium, where there is a 30-year waiting list to buy season tickets.

The other NFL stadiums on the “10Best Readers’ Choice” list:

Soldier Field (Chicago Bears)
M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore Ravens)
Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis Colts)
AT&T Stadium (Dallas Cowboys)
Heinz Field (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Sports Authority Field (Denver Broncos)
Raymond James Stadium (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
CenturyLink Field (Seattle Seahawks)
Arrowhead Stadium (Kansas City Chiefs)

I’d love to visit Lambeau Field one day, but as a die-hard Cowboys fan, I’m still smarting about that Ice Bowl loss in ’67.

(photo credit: elviskennedy via photopin cc)

I know a lot of our readers are interested in sports and music, so I wanted to point you to a great article on Sports on Earth. Written by Alan Siegel, it’s the story of how NFL Films got involved in the music business, first starting with Journey’s, rock documentary, Frontiers & Beyond.

“Written and directed by [Phil] Tuckett, Frontiers & Beyond has NFL Films’ fingerprints all over it,” Siegel wrote. “Facenda, in fine form, reminds the audience early in the film that it belongs not only to Journey, but also its crew. ‘This is their story, too,’ he says in his signature baritone. ‘Together they are 70 modern day troubadours and roustabouts, crisscrossing the country in seven tractor trailers and three buses, towing the portable pieces of state-of-the-art rock and roll theater.’ Fittingly, there’s also the use of slow motion, in this case not to showcase a balletic Lynn Swann catch, but to highlight lead singer Steve Perry’s facial expression during ‘Faithfully.'”

I didn’t even know there was a Journey documentary out there, much less produced in the same style as all those great pieces from NFL Films. You can watch the documentary above, but definitely read the article. It’s a great one.