|
Arriving at the Gig
Have A
Plan B for Everything
I don’t use PowerPoint very
often, but I will if it enhances the material I’m about
to deliver. I also prepare another version of the same
presentation, only this one doesn’t require the visuals.
I do this in case I arrive at a location to speak, and
the projector that was promised doesn’t show up, or it
doesn’t work for whatever reason, yet, I can still go on
with the presentation.
In early 2010, I was making my
first presentation to my Business Education and
Networking event called “Your Stage.” I was presenting
an education piece on why bullet points shouldn’t be
used in a presentation. I’d spent many hours creating an
animated slide deck that visually demonstrated how
information flows into the brain. My slides were well
designed, but complex in their animation, because the
complexity was required in order to demonstrate the
process properly.
As I began explaining the
process, my computer went black. For no obvious reason,
it just shut itself off. The timing couldn’t have been
more precise. It was as if Murphy himself was standing
by with a remote control, and timed the blackout with
expert precision.
I simply kept speaking, as if the
computer switched off at my command. Instead of using
the slides to provide a visual of the process I was
explaining, I described it using gestures. I’d already
practiced this in advance, just in case I needed to go
to a plan B, and it turned out that I did have to. I had
a plan B, and I always have a plan B, because things go
wrong fairly regularly.
Being prepared means more than
just knowing what you’re going to speak about, it means
that you’re prepared for every conceivable contingency.
Prepare for the best, plan for the worst, and deliver
what’s required.
So, what’s the lesson? Consider
everything that could go wrong, and have a plan B,
because you’ll need it at some point. It’s a near
certainty. |