Years ago in a corporate strategy retreat that was also a reason to have a nasty headache on Thursday morning, we had a session on responding publicly with little or no notice. The disciplines required to be able to speak publicly with clarity and authority, while delivering the necessary message without the benefit of any preparation time.
Big call for most of us.
In the session, the presenter gave us a number of techniques, all of which I remember and use today, but one in particular stuck.
“Do everything in groups of three” he told us.
Three has a rhythm that both enables us to assemble, remember and recite back complex thoughts, and it enables us to instantly respond to a question or proposition in a logical and clear manner.
The presenter had given us a pep talk on some of the techniques, with emphasis on the ‘Three’ method, and finished by offering to speak for 10 minutes on any topic we chose to nominate. From the following silence finally came the suggestion ‘Rocking horse shit’ from a jaded member of the sales team.
He proceeded to entertain us for 10 minutes on the differences that could be detected in rocking horse shit depending on the wood the rocking horse was made from, and two other variables. I still remember that Oregon originating RHS has a sweeter smell that that emanating from a horse made from a more exotic material like mahogany, but the best came from a horse made from the wood of the tropical and now rare Sandalwood tree.
All was arranged into logical groups of three.
This memory of this lesson was triggered by the wasted ½ hour I spent last week being tortured by a rambling, and monotonic delivery of what should have been interesting information.
There has been so much written about how to make presentations interesting, engaging and therefore useful, that it eludes me how supposedly intelligent people can still deliver this sort of crud, destroying any value the information may have, and their reputation at the same time.
Having the opportunity to make a presentation is a gift. Organisers are giving you the status of being an authority, having something worth saying, and the audience is giving you their most valuable resource: their time and attention. To waste either is an insult to both.
Photo credit: JohnBoy84 via Flikr
why oh why do so many people not consider the importance of structure like this, and give away both credibility and opportunity in the process
Colin, the answer to your question eludes me. The aversion to expressing ourselves publicly I think goes way back to the need to be a part of a group, to conform, to be absolutely predictable, as a means to best avoid the depredations of the sabre toothed tiger, no long extinct apart from its lingering presence in the ways of our automatic responses from deep in our limbic brain.