If you haven’t been professionally trained in giving great presentations, you can still give professional presentations. Like Russian nesting dolls, great presentations have parts that fit together...but only in the right order.

For your next presentation, remember these indispensable parts.

Editor’s Note: Chris Heinz, EnergyCAP’s Vice President for Human Resources, is this week’s blogger. He blogs regularly on topics like workplace purpose, engagement, strengths, and coaching at Munyay.com. If you don’t want to miss his blog posts, you can subscribe here.

Editor’s Note: Chris Heinz, EnergyCAP’s Vice President for Human Resources, is this week’s blogger. He blogs regularly on topics like workplace engagement, strengths, and coaching at MunyayBlog.com. If you don’t want to miss his blog posts, you can subscribe here.

[Editor’s Note: Chris Heinz, EnergyCAP’s Vice President for Human Resources, is this week’s blogger. He brings valuable insights into the black box of corporate hiring procedures, and suggests a current methodology for maximizing value in the hiring process. Please read and consider sharing internally in your organization!]

Webster’s dictionary defines stewardship as, “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.”

As an adoptive parent, I can understand stewardship. Bringing a child who once belonged to different parents into your home is an act of stewardship. In fact, before the adoption is finalized and before you become the legal parent of the child, you’re called the child’s “steward.” You’ve been entrusted to care for a person which is not yet your own.

We've all been in this situation before. Your supervisor asks you to step into her office, or your boss sets up an unexpected lunch meeting. All of the sudden, you're in an unwelcome feedback situation.

I used to keep my email inbox open all the time while working. One monitor displayed my active project—a spreadsheet, document or web browser—while the other monitor displayed my inbox. This way I could stay on top of everything at the same time. I was king of the world.

Unfortunately, sometimes just saving isn't enough. Good planning, like budgeting, is essential.

This little girl didn't budget correctly, and the result was, well, disappointing.

Watch what happens. 

Probably at some point, someone has asked if you've seen the latest TED talk on so-and-so. The first time that happened to me, I was like, "Ted said what?"

But since then, I've become a fan of the 18-minute talks that spread ideas on technology, entertainment, and design (that's where the name TED comes from).

So if you're looking to be educated, challenged, or even inspired in your work, here's a countdown of the ten most popular TED talks on energy.

We recently presented a webinar with Lucid Design Group on the relationship between real-time metering and utility bill data–and the savings opportunities they deliver. The webinar produced some good questions from the audience, and we're sharing the answers in today's blog.

Last week I attended a live presentation by bestselling author and TED talk speaker Dr. Brené Brown. Her 2010 Ted talk, “The power of vulnerability,” is one of the top five most viewed TED talks ever, with more than 21 million views. But last week she didn’t talk about vulnerability; instead she spoke about having emotional courage in the workplace.

Ever since we started helping organizations track their utility bills 35 years ago, we've noticed two paths that organizations frequently travel on the road to energy management success. We focused on one of those paths in an earlier blog (the path of utility bill processing maturity).

Today we’ll focus on the path of energy management maturity. Like any path, it has a starting point, and a destination, with landmarks along the way. We’ve captured that path in an infographic, and are sharing it in this blog.

The Kroger Company is the largest grocery retailer and the 23rd largest company in the United States. With $100 billion/year in revenue, Kroger has been serving shoppers for 131 years. But Kroger doesn't just serve up tomatoes and squash.

In our 35 years of helping organizations track their utility bills, we've seen all kinds of utility bill processes. Some have been complex, while some have been simple. Some have interfaced with external systems, while some have kept to themselves. Some have been free, while some have been paid.

Drawing on our experience, we created the Utility Bill Processing infographic. Where does your organization fit in?

Among our blog audience, there are readers who are absolutely head-over-heels-in love with managing energy. They think energy, they speak energy, and they have cute energy quotes in their email signatures. But not all of our blog readers are passionate about managing energy.

Can they still be successful in the energy management industry? Or is passion absolutely essential for energy managers?

Loudoun County Public Schools is one of the fastest growing school districts in the nation. Located near Washington, DC, they serve 70,000 students. But energy use and cost have not been keeping pace with enrollment.

As a result of their 20-year energy management program, energy managers at Loudoun County Public Schools have documented $58 million in avoided energy costs. How have they done this? Watch this short video from this year's Catalyst Training Conference and find out.

The most interesting castle in Ireland has something in common with our newest EnergyCAP clients. See if you can guess what it is.

If you visit the Castle Ward House in northern Ireland, you'll find an intriguing building.

Meter interval data can be useful for a variety of reasons. How many reasons can you think of? 

In this 5-minute video from the 2015 Catalyst Training Conference, Steve Heinz shares 12 value streams of obtaining meter interval data for effective energy management.

I was recently in the Philippines to speak at some conferences and set up student sponsorships. Although the purpose of my trip was not work-related, the subject of energy was on my mind. I suppose that’s not surprising when energy management software is the family business.

Here are three lessons about energy from my trip to the Philippines.