Presentation Logic: Don't bring attention to your mistakes

Years ago, I took a public speaking class.  One of the best nuggets that I gleaned from it (beyond the extemporaneous speaking methodology) was the importance of not spotlighting your mistakes when making a presentation.

It is akin to self-sabotage, and readily avoidable by simply being aware and NOT acting on a knee-jerk impulse.

Let me frame the AHA moment for you.  A core part of the class was having weekly presentations in front of your peers.  These presentations were filmed for subsequent review by you, your classmates and the instructor outside the heat/angst of the moment.

During rehearsal for my second presentation, I felt reasonably crisp about what I wanted to say and in what order. 

Unfortunately, when I got up on stage, during one of the transition points I lost my place and stumbled. 

In what seemed like an eternity, there was deafening silence as my peers' eyes conveyed both pain at seeing my struggles and wonderment when I was going to get back on track.

As it was "obvious" that I was crashing and burning, I finally acknowledged to the audience that I had lost my place, and after a moment, did indeed get back on track.  But the damage was clearly done.

Or was it?  Upon review of the tape, another reality became clear.  While my perception of struggle and confusion was palpable, in watching the tape, the ONLY clear indicator that I had lost my place was the moment that I specifically called out that I had lost my place. 

Sure, things could have been a bit tighter, and I certainly could tell what was going on under the surface, but in absence of MY bringing attention to the miscue, had I simply breathed and momentarily paused until I got back on track, no one would have noticed that I had lost my place.

The moral of the story is that your audience rarely puts every nuance of your presentation under the microscope, and this allows you to back out of dead ends, correct mistakes and generally massage your presentation into shape -- in real time.

Human nature in these situations, however, is to put yourself under the microscope and call out mistakes as the occur.  You do yourself and your audience a disservice when you spotlight such mistakes, as my experience underscores.

One final comment on this topic.  It amazes me how many people walk into important meetings and presentations without formally documenting or practicing what they want to say and/or codifying what outcome they want out of the meeting. 

As someone once said, luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparedness.  Mixing metaphors a bit, if an once of prevention can be said to be worth a pound of cure, then an ounce of PREPARATION is worth at least a pound of good luck.  Food for thought.

Comments

[John "Z-Bo" Zabroski]

I agree completely. Act like you are in control, and people will follow your command.

In college, I would regularly disobey standard PowerPoint conventions when giving presentations in classes. I once had a PowerPoint presentation about how to run a personal website from home where my slides consisted of a picture of llamas in a pasture in Tasmania, gay and lesbian rights activists holding up the US flag, etc. It had absolutely nothing to do with my presentation, but I wanted people to be able to look at pictures while listening to me talk.

I'm very disciplined when speaking. I refuse to use the word "umm", even when I lost my place in my train of thought during the presentation. I just stand there for a few seconds, think about what I've just said, and then ask myself what the audience needs to here next. Then I tell them.

[Mark Sigal]

Good feedback, John. I like the concept of a picture that allows the audience to look at something completely different/off topic without getting them in reading mode.

Cheers,

Mark