Tea Drinking

If you’ve ever been called to jury service, you’ll . . . → Read More: Putting a Man on the Moon]]>  I am writing this while sitting in the Jurors Waiting Room of Birmingham Crown Court, where I have been called for 2 weeks’ jury service. As you know, there are strict laws curtailing what I can say about events in the courtroom, but nothing prevents me sharing some thoughts about the experience itself.

Tea Drinking

If you’ve ever been called to jury service, you’ll know that there can be a great deal of sitting around and tea drinking. Some of it is while you are in the “holding pen” waiting to be called to serve on a trial. A deal of it is during actual trials – every time there is a legal point to be discussed, the jury are ushered out of the courtroom and have to wait while the wrangling takes place. Sometimes for hours.

Man on the Moon

It would be very easy to see the whole thing as a colossal nuisance, a huge timewasting inconvenience, a great intrusion into my life. All of which it is. But, take a step back, look at the bigger picture, and it quickly takes on a very different aspect. Like the legendary story of the NASA janitor who was famously not just mopping the floor, but “putting a man on the moon”, I realise that I’m not just lounging in a waiting room reading my Kindle – I’m actively participating in a system that ensures each of us, if accused, has the chance to be tried not by a judge with an political agenda, not by secret police in secret courts, but in public by twelve ordinary people just like me. That huge privilege is well worth 2 weeks of my life to preserve, by any account, and I’m proud to play my part.

Important and Fun

Which leads to a related line of questioning, m’lud (sorry, habit now!). What are the other things we have to do, in work and in life, that we resent doing, that feel like a drain on our time, that seem only to have been sent to keep us from the important and fun stuff?   I’m sure you could list yours – I know I can mine. But then take that same mental step back, and look again. It doesn’t take long to find a new perspective showing that many of these are the very things that enable the “important and fun stuff” to actually happen. 

Secret Pleasures

Those boring chores, whatever form they take for you, are inevitably a crucial part of putting your particular man on his unique moon. Undertake them with pride and mindfulness, they might almost become a secret pleasure.

This week a group of GPs-in-training fromt the West Midlands Deanery were the latest to go through the experience.

Now remember, these are people who work in an environment where even a tiny error . . . → Read More: The Doctors Will See You Now….]]> Last September, I launched The Improv Evangelist initiative, offering free Applied Improv workshops to organisations anywhere in the UK, just because I believe in the incredible transformative power of Improv.

This week a group of GPs-in-training fromt the West Midlands Deanery were the latest to go through the experience.

Now remember, these are people who work in an environment where even a tiny error can have monumental consequences, and it becomes second nature to them to be careful, thoughtful, and risk-averse.  So I really wasn’t sure how they would respond to me spending a whole afteroon encouraging them to stop thinking, go with the flow, accept random choices, and make mistakes with joy and abandon.

The results were nothing short of delightful.  This room of serious, studious doctors played with glee and delight, and created some fabulous and inventive moments.  But more importantly, they absolutely got the connection between the games we played, and the skills of listening, attending, accepting, responding with awareness, and sensitive teamwork that would be so useful to them in clinical practice.

Two best quotes from the day – “As GPs we need to spend time listening more to patients, and responding and acting on their words, as opposed to using our own words” and “Lot’s of fun – did not stop smiling all afternoon.  Thank you!”

(p.s. There is still time to go to www.improv-evangelist.co.uk, and book a free workshop for your organisation. The offer stays open until March 1st.   Feel free to pass this information on to anyone who you think might benefit. )

One friend was a little wary of the morning session.  . . . → Read More: No, not the fence!]]> A group of us had gone for a fun day out at the Milton Keynes Xscape. The plan was to spend the morning ski-ing on real snow in the Snowdome, the afternoon flying in the skydiving windtunnel, and then rounding off the evening with a curry and a couple of beers.  Perfect easy-access adrenaline!

One friend was a little wary of the morning session.  She hadn’t been on skis since having a couple of lessons about 15 years earlier, but reassured us, and herself, that it would all come back like riding a bike.  Alas, this turned out to be a case of optimism far exceeding ability.  She cheerfully rode the button-lift to the top, pointed her skis down the hill, and promptly lost all semblance of control.  As she rapidly picked up speed and flailed her way downwards, she noticed the orange fence to her left marking the edge of the slope.  Her eyes were drawn hypnotically to it, and as if of their own volition her skis started to turn irresistibly towards it.  With a cry of “No, not the fence!” she gave herself up to gravity and the inevitable, and crashed spectacularly into the nylon mesh.  Fortunately, it performed as designed, and she was unhurt, save for severely bruised pride as the staff untangled her and escorted her firmly off the piste.

Unwittingly, she had offered us a perfect demonstration of the phenomenon of Target Fixation.  This is something that, amongst others, pilots and motorcyclists are taught about.  I had learned of it during my parachute training.  If we allow ourselves to become fixated on obstacles we wish to avoid, we send unconscious signals to our body, and end up flying, driving, or in her case ski-ing, into the very object we are trying to miss.  To counter this, we are taught the mantra “look away, steer away” – your body will follow your eyes and mind, so you must look where you want to go, rather than where you want not to go.

I think there is a lesson here that goes well beyond skis, motorbikes, planes and parachutes.  In our working life, we very commonly map out our plans in terms of what we want to avoid – “I don’t want to upset my customers”, “I don’t want to expose us to too much financial risk”, “I don’t want to over-extend our resources”, “I don’t want to raise too many expectations”.  This is just another form of target fixation, and as we get hypnotised by the potential hazard that looms in our consciousness, we are drawn into over-caution, paralysis, and a seemingly paradoxical slide into the very thing we were trying so hard to avoid.

As with riding a motorcycle, the trick is looking where you want to go, not at what you wish to avoid.  Set positive goals – “I want to delight our customers”, “I want to manage our budgets”, “I want to invest our resources wisely”, “I want to make sure we can deliver what we promise” – and you will find it much easier to focus your efforts on achieving them.

I have launched a new website at www.improv-evangelist.co.uk.

To show my profound belief in the power of Applied Improv to transform the way individuals, groups and organisations operate and co-operate, I am offering, from now until March 2013, at my own expense and absolutely . . . → Read More: The Improv Evangelist]]> This is a big week for me.  I have finally come out publicly and unashamedly – as an Improv Evangelist.

I have launched a new website at www.improv-evangelist.co.uk.

To show my profound belief in the power of Applied Improv to transform the way individuals, groups and organisations operate and co-operate, I am offering, from now until March 2013, at my own expense and absolutely free of charge, to run a workshop session for organisations anywhere within the UK.

It sounds almost too good to be true, even to me, and I’m the one doing it!  But it’s a genuine and serious offer, because I truly believe the time is ripe to spread the word.

Please go and have a look at the site, book yourself a free workshop, and pass the information on to anyone who you think might benefit.

Updates soon!

A couple of weeks ago I was leading an exercise during a rehearsal with my Improv group.  In this exercise, people are placed in a diamond formation, like this, all facing in the same direction.

They then have to move around the room as a group, with the person at the front leading. So when they are all facing towards . . . → Read More: Lead Boldy, Follow Ardently]]>

The Diamond Dance

A couple of weeks ago I was leading an exercise during a rehearsal with my Improv group.  In this exercise, people are placed in a diamond formation, like this, all facing in the same direction.

They then have to move around the room as a group, with the person at the front leading. So when they are all facing towards the blue person, blue is leading, and everyone behind moves with them, in step and keeping pace. If blue swivels 90° towards red, everyone else swivels too, red is now at the front, and red leads. And so on, so that as the group move apparently as one, the leadership passes seamlessly and wordlessly between the people at the corners. It’s a simple, fun, experiential way to practice good team work, good leadership, good followership, sensitivity and flexibility. When people get really good at it, the fun next step is to put some music on, and turn it into The Diamond Dance – the person at the front leads the moves, and everyone else stays in sync. When done well it looks so good you could almost believe it’s choreographed.

Anyway, on this occasion, the group was struggling a bit. Those leading were tending to either stride off at an odd angle without warning, leaving everyone else behind, or to move too tentatively while trying to look round anxiously and see what everyone was doing, and in the process giving unclear and unsure signals making it paradoxically harder to follow. To compound the problem, the followers themselves had a tendency to hesitate as they waited to see what was coming next. This caused them to drift from their position, disturbing the way the group was set out, and leading to much confusion, and especially muddled handovers during the transitions. In an attempt to overcome this, and to help them co-ordinate better, I heard myself call out “Lead Boldly, Follow Ardently!” And I immediately knew I had hit upon something.

 “Lead Boldy, Follow Ardently.” We were only playing a simple, silly game, yet surely, this is a phrase that can improve any team situation. The leader (note, small “l” – you don’t have to be a Leader to be in the lead) of any team effort needs to move boldly forward, giving clear and confident direction without ambiguity, hesitance or confusion. The followers (small “f” for same reason) can help enormously by showing complete and instant and support, responding flexibly to changes, and providing constant feedback. And if everyone is in the right place at the right time, the lead can be passed seamlessly from one to another as needed. When done well, it looks so good you could almost believe it’s choreographed!

The workshops proved . . . → Read More: Furnishished with Expectations]]> I was thrilled and delighted earlier this year to be invited to run two Applied Improv workshops at UNESCO in Paris, as part of a series of development events for staff from the Culture Sector.  It’s great to know that more and more organisations are beginning to understand and appreciate the skills and learning that Improv can bring to the workplace.

The workshops proved popular, people signed up, the day was set.  I carefully planned out a series of fun but structured games and exercises, to illuminate the valuable training platform Improv offers in this kind of corporate setting.  What could possibly go wrong?

Then, on the day, I was taken into the room that had been booked…

I gulped. “Ok”, I said, “No problem, can we just push the desks to the side?”  Absolutely no chance!  Apart from the permissions in septuplicate that would be needed, these beautiful, heavy, bespoke, each-one-a-work-of-art desks from the 50’s were actually fixed to the floor, unmovable because of all the microphones and headphone wires and simultaneous-translation paraphernalia bolted on to every one.

I threw away my carefully structured workshop plan – time to improvise indeed!  I ended up doing quite a lot of circle-based exercises around the podium in the middle, small group work in the corners of the room, and a couple of sitting-down games with people actually perched on the desks (don’t tell the Conservators!).  I am pleased and relieved to report that the sessions were a success, and the participants reported finding them both fun and enlightening.  But it was a close call!

Make sure you are fully prepared as the party season gets underway – this latest drafting of European/Laplandish legislation could have a profound implications for your organisation. This festive training day will cover such crucial . . . → Read More: The Santa Clause!]]> Last year we brought you vital Elf and Safety Training. This Christmas Let’s Talk offers you guidance on the hot legal issue of the moment – The Santa Clause!

Make sure you are fully prepared as the party season gets underway – this latest drafting of European/Laplandish legislation could have a profound implications for your organisation. This festive training day will cover such crucial questions of Christmas legality as:-

• Secret Santa – contravening Data Protection?
• Crackers – are they within the scope of the Terrorism Act?
• Mistletoe – endangered species, or catalyst for workplace harassment?
• Mulled wine – statutory requirements for introducing licensed intoxicants in the workplace
• Carol Singing – contractual obligation or attracting overtime?
• Goodwill to all Men – are women workers covered?
• The Stationery Cupboard – what are the rules of confidentiality?

The course will be delivered by our long-time associate, jovial bearded Mr Kringle. Places are free, but will be restricted to those who have workplace competency-based evidence proving that they have been Good Boys or Girls.

Meanwhile, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

p.s. more monthly webinars arriving in 2012….

I first met . . . → Read More: Why Values are Priceless]]> As I wrote in my previous blog entry I have unexpectedly been involved in directing a second piece of theatre recently. Last week saw the sell-out performance of a great one-woman show written and performed by the very talented Tonya Joy Bolton of ICU Transformational Arts , and directed by yours truly.  And what an interesting and stimulating journey it has been.

I first met Tonya about two-and-a-half years ago, when she was still writing the script, and followed her progress with interest, offering her an occasional sympathetic listening ear, and advice and guidance when she asked for it. I was impressed right from the start with her energy and focus, and her determination to make her long-held and then seemingly impossible dream of producing and performing this 90-minute show come true.  So much so, she eventually coaxed me out of my 11 year “retirement” from directing, and convinced me to play a part in helping her achieve that goal.

Two less likely co-collaborators would be hard to imagine. Tonya is Black, strong in her Christian beliefs, and had written a play examining women’s experience within the Church. I am male, White, and a card-carrying atheist (in fact I am a Humanist Funeral Celebrant). Yet despite our very different perspectives on the world it has been an extremely happy and fruitful collaboration. I believe that this is because, despite our very different belief systems, we do share many similar values, and so had no problem working together on a piece that represented and explored those values. Of course, we would disagree and debate about detail, and argue over aspect of structure and staging as we searched for the best way of expressing the story, but always secure in the knowledge that we were both striving to achieve and express the same thing.

This very enjoyable creative process has been a fantastic reminder to me that in any field of endeavour, whether alone or as part of a team, if we want to achieve our best it’s vital that we believe in and support the values embedded in it. I am always aware that if I don’t feel I can commit time and energy to a work project with genuine integrity, it’s a strong sign that perhaps I should be doing something else.

In this case, it’s been enormous and challenging fun, and I look forward to further collaboration with Tonya next year, when we take the show on tour!

I had advertised it as a “Presenting for the Terrified” course.  I am approached countless times by people who want to tell me how much they dread having to speak in public, how they wake up sweating at the thought, and of their experiences of shaking, mumbling, blanking, and . . . → Read More: Nothing to fear but fear itself….]]> Last week saw the first ever “Fear of Flying” course, and what an inspiration it was!

I had advertised it as a “Presenting for the Terrified” course.  I am approached countless times by people who want to tell me how much they dread having to speak in public, how they wake up sweating at the thought, and of their experiences of shaking, mumbling, blanking, and feeling as if they are going to faint.  But the vast majority of these people, when I offer them a place on a course, rapidly find a plethora of excuses not to attend “right now”.

But here were a group of people, willing not only to acknowledge that presenting was a huge issue for them, but actually prepared to take the next step and face their demons – not to mention risking the trip into central Birmingham in the aftermath of a night of riots! I was not particularly surprised that all of them were women. In my experience women are much more willing than men to admit to fears, which of course is the first step to overcoming them.

If you have read the Presenting With Passion section of my website, you will know that I truly believe that we are all excellent communicators, but that this natural ability is blocked and hindered by anxiety and performance-fear when we stand up to speak in public.  This was the first opportunity I had had to dedicate a whole day in the training room specifically to examine that fear in great detail, and experimenting with ways to reduce it.

Together we tried many of the tools I have gathered over the years, not least those I acquired ten years ago as (probably) the most petrified skydiving student in the world!  We practiced various breathing exercises, meditation and visualisation techniques, and also some NLP based reframing and anchoring systems.  We also turned the spotlight on fear itself and dared it to do its worst!

By the end of the day, every participant had surprised and amazed themselves by standing up and speaking boldly, passionately, and more importantly convincingly to the assembled room with few visible signs of nerves.  Of course, you don’t overcome all fear in a day, and you don’t become a world-class orator overnight, but each person in that room had taken a huge and admirable step towards becoming a brilliant Presenter with Passion.

Ladies – and you know who you are – I salute you!

Topics covered will include:-

Research, not to mention all my personal experience, re-affirms that the best learning takes place when students are in an open, curious and lively state, more concerned with . . . → Read More: Dude, where’s my delegates…..?]]> The undisputed highlight of a training course this week was the moment when half the delegates disappeared!  Far from worrying that something had gone wrong, I knew in that instant that everything was fabulously on track.

Research, not to mention all my personal experience, re-affirms that the best learning takes place when students are in an open, curious and lively state, more concerned with discovery than with “getting it right”.   It is not only children who learn through play – adults will always learn better in a spirit of adventure and play than from any amount of rote learning, flipcharts, and slow death by PowerPoint.  So I always work very hard on using games and experiential exercises to create a fun but safe training-room environment, in which learners feel they can try things out, challenge themselves and me, and generally adopt a playful but focussed attitude on the material at hand and their fellow-learners.

The disappearance happened on the second day of a 3-day course I have been running for Heart of Birmingham PCT.  As part of setting up an exercise, I asked half the class of 32 participants to briefly leave the room, while I gave instructions to the other half.  “Don’t go far,” I said, “It’ll only take a minute or two.  And no listening!” I added, with a smile.  So 16 people got up and stepped out of the training room into the corridor, and I spent a minute or so briefing the remaining half. “OK, come on back!” I yelled. Silence. No response.  I walked over to the door, opened it, and looked out.  The corridor was empty. They’d snuck off!  “Oh dear,” I said loudly in my best Pantomime voice “They’ve all gone.  I think they’ve run away. Whatever shall I do now?”.  I could hear muffled giggles coming from an alcove just up the corridor.  “I can heeeeaaar you!  Come out, come out wherever you are” I chanted like a 10-year old.  And in a wave of laughter they all came tumbling out of their hiding place, delighted with their own prank.  They filed gleefully back into the training room, the whole class laughed some more, and then we carried on with the exercise.

For me, that fact that 16 people who had only met the day before now felt comfortable enough as a group to play a harmless practical joke on their instructor, and hide themselves like delighted children, meant that we had definitely achieved the right level of shared playful openness.  Now the real learning could begin.

The hotel venue for this . . . → Read More: Getting the geography right]]> I am currently delivering some training for Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust, as part of an excellent project to improve public health.  The idea is to recruit people who are active in the community – youth workers, religious leaders, voluntary group co-ordinators, ESOL teachers and the like – and get them to help promote particular important health campaigns locally.

The hotel venue for this week’s training couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly – but as the day wore on, I realised there was a real problem with the geography of the room.  Attendees were sitting round the back half of large cabaret-style tables, all facing forward to see the screen where the various speakers were projecting presentations on their health topics.  The projector was positioned on a huge table some distance from the screen, that effectively cut the room in half.  This was fine as long as everyone was simply looking at presentations.  But as we all know, you can only do that for so long before your brain goes as numb as your bum.

As soon as the floor was opened up for conversation, the problems surfaced.  People at the back couldn’t hear questions asked by those on the front tables, and frequently couldn’t hear the answers either as presenters forget to direct their responses to the whole room.  Inevitably people instead starting chatting in small groups at their own tables, increasing the noise level in the room and making the whole problem worse.  Even though they were actually discussing the topics in hand, the energy, focus and cohesion in the room became fractured and dissipated.  Trying to initiate any kind of group activity was even worse, and required lots of moving of chairs and large heavy tables to enable people to see each other, and then moving everything back for the next speaker.

I have learned (or more accurately, re-learned) my lesson, and before the next session the geography of the room will be radically altered.  The round tables will be gone, replaced by oblong tables pushed back against the wall, where they can be used for group writing work when needed.  The huge projector table will be replaced with a much smaller trolley on wheels that can be rolled out of the way when not in use.  Everyone will simply be on chairs, that can be quickly and easily stacked away, or rearranged into any configuration, including the all-important discussion circle.  In order to make this happen, everyone will need to be given a folder or clipboard so that they can take notes on their lap, but this is a very small outlay to ensure that the room geography fits the needs of the training, and not the other way round.

Now, if you’ve read my page on Applied Improvisation, you will understand that training in theatre Improv promotes and nurtures a number . . . → Read More: Fun but far from Frivolous]]> I’ve just got back from a 3-day conference in Amsterdam of the Applied Improvisation Network.  A gathering of about 200 people from all over the world, who use Improv not just for entertainment, but to bring about social, personal, political or organisational change.

Now, if you’ve read my page on Applied Improvisation, you will understand that training in theatre Improv promotes and nurtures a number of very pleasing characteristics in people, including openness to others’ ideas, a willingness to try anything, a sense of adventure with little concern for failure, and above all a truly playful outlook and a huge capacity for fun.  And now I’ve discovered what that means when you multiply it by 200!

This was my first AIN conference, and I wasn’t too sure what to expect.  So imagine my delight to arrive at the opening plenary session at 10.00am on day one, straight from my overnight ferry and train, to be greeted by a keyboard player entertaining the delegates with popular Dutch tunes.  The locals were singing along gleefully and unselfconsciously in their native tongue, and all the non-Dutch-speakers were just as lustily singing along too, in whatever language or gibberish they could muster!

This sense of play and fun pervaded the entire conference.  Between each speaker that first morning, the same musician improvised ditties of praise and thanks for their contributions.  We played bingo between presentations, and prizes were duly distributed.  A little later on we were asked to clear our chairs to the side of the hall, and the pianist decided to play a little polka to help us along – within a few bars a 10-minute impromptu barn-dance was under way.  For the next three days I laughed, danced, sang, told and heard stories, and played along with all the other Improv-trained delegates.  This was the most fun I have ever had at a conference in my entire life, bar none. 

But be clear – this was no frivolous or silly waste of time.  We had all spent good money to get there, some travelling in from the other side of the world.  There were attendees there who work at high-to-stratospheric levels in Business, in Government, in Education, in Health and in Social Welfare.  The topics under discussion were serious and far-ranging, and included social exclusion and cohesion, business productivity and leadership, economic growth and sustainability, workplace assertiveness and bullying, organisational and social change, neuroscience, and much more beside.   

It is vital we don’t confuse fun with frivolity – in many ways the opposite is true.   By definition, active members of the Applied Improvisation Network understand at a profound level that learning is at its best when people are having fun.  That collaborative ideas are more likely to emerge when people are being playful.  That a roomful of supportive, playful people will learn quicker, retain more, solve problems faster, teamwork better and network more productively.  And now I have seen it with my own eyes, and experienced it viscerally.

That is why I am redoubling my commitment to ensure that every one of my training and facilitation interventions will be fun, lively and permeated with the joyous spirit of Applied Improvisation.

The first person I spoke to, a sole-trader freelancer, wouldn’t even quote an hourly, daily . . . → Read More: DIY or (Wo)Man who can?]]> Updating this website has been an ongoing back-burner project for most of this year, but finally was moved to the front ring of the cooker this month.  I had a fairly clear idea about what I wanted, but none on how to achieve it.  So I started looking around.

The first person I spoke to, a sole-trader freelancer, wouldn’t even quote an hourly, daily or fixed cost rate, muttering darkly that no-one was ever willing to pay him to do the job properly.  I moved on.  The second people I spoke to were a local web-design company, with a funky website of their own that caught my eye.  At the meeting, they first flattered me by telling me how special my business was, and how they were willing to do a really good deal in order to have me on their portfolio – and then tried to sell me their standard five-page package at their standard price.  I moved on. I then emailed a selection of locally-based firms whose own websites didn’t seem too deathly dull.  I was quoted everything from £500 to £10,000.  None of them filled me with reassurance that they would give me what I needed.

I was facing the dilemma that every small- or one-man business faces.  Do it yourself, or pay a “(wo)man who can”?  I’m willing to tackle pretty much everything involved in running Let’s Talk – accounts, marketing, tax, budgeting, purchasing, in fact just about anything but Graphic Design – but it’s always a balance between speed, quality, cost and best use of time.   

Finally I bit the bullet, and decided to build this site myself.  It’s been a lot of work and a sharp learning curve, but I’m loving the control it is giving me.   I opted for WordPress as my platform,  for its ease of use, it’s infinite customisability, and its popularity.  Popularity is particularly important, because it means every time I hit a problem, Google could find countless others who had run into the same problem and found a solution.  

What I am really enjoying is the total control, and the flexibility.  It’s taken a fair old chunk of time, and some wee-hour-candle-burning, but I hope you are enjoying the browsing as much I enjoyed the building.   Feedback always welcome by comments below.

This was a first – I was asked to work with Elected Members of the council. I have often worked with employees and officers of Local Authorities, but Coventry have had the great idea of offering personal development courses to it’s elected Councillors.

This was a cross-party group of attendees, and I’m pleased to . . . → Read More: Yah Boo Politics]]> Presenting with Passion – Elected Members, Coventry City Council

This was a first – I was asked to work with Elected Members of the council. I have often worked with employees and officers of Local Authorities, but Coventry have had the great idea of offering personal development courses to it’s elected Councillors.

This was a cross-party group of attendees, and I’m pleased to report that politics never once reared it’s head, everyone worked well together, and it was impossible to tell who was from which side of the benches.

However, what for me was the most interesting moment came right at the end, during feedback. One Councillor said that what he had learnt that day would be most useful outside of the council chamber, addressing community groups, public forums and the like. Inside the chamber, he said, it doesn’t matter how clear, passionate or engaging you are – you will still be shouted down by the opposition. “It’s just yah-boo” he insisted, and his colleagues all agreed. How sad. Yet I hold out for the hope that passionate and well delivered speeches might just break through the barriers of doctrine and engage with the hearts and minds even of our political opponents.

I was invited run a taster session by the Organisational Development department of a university, for a group of participants who were by and large postgraduate members of the lecturing staff.  Early in the session it became clear to me that I was facing a . . . → Read More: What Exactly Do You Mean When You Ask Me To ‘Just Be Myself’?]]>  A recent event has reminded me of the importance of clearly setting up the framework within which I operate.

I was invited run a taster session by the Organisational Development department of a university, for a group of participants who were by and large postgraduate members of the lecturing staff.  Early in the session it became clear to me that I was facing a large amount of resistance, something that has never before happened to me on a Presenting with Passion workshop.  I stopped what we were doing, and invited discussion to discover what the problem was.

It turns out that this particular group had very specific expectations of what they would be getting.  They felt that they are placed in a unique situation with very particular problems – that of a lecturer faced with a large student body – and that they have special issues entirely related to their material and their audience.

“We sometimes have to lecture to up to 300 students. They walk in and out, they don’t listen, they play with their mobile phones.” 

They were disappointed that I was not going to hand them a written checklist of dos and don’ts specifically to guide them in how to manage this problem of a large disinterested student audience and technical content.

Given this background of expectation, I am not surprised that they were dissatisfied with what I offered. My entire focus is on the inner state of the presenter, the quality of the relationship between presenter, material and audience, and the emotional journey that ensues.  Experience has taught me that this is the vital area – once this is understood and improved, everything else falls into place, irrespective of the material and the audience makeup. 

This group of academics understandably had a very different perspective. They could not perceive how my approach could address their particular problems as they saw them, and unsurprisingly they were much more comfortable theorising and analysing possible techniques than getting up and trying them (“what exactly do you mean when you ask me to ‘just be myself’?”).

Since that day, I work hard at the beginning of each session to understand the expectations of the group, and then to state absolutely clearly the assumptions that underlie my presentation skills training:-

• that we are all naturally good communicators
• that we all already know how to package and present information
• that in non-stress situations with friends and family we are more than capable of engaging listeners and holding their attention but that these well-developed skills are distorted and suppressed by the stress of standing in front of a group for a formal presentation
• that this stress and anxiety is a state that is generated internally, by our reaction to the perceived “threat” of an audience. It causes us to lose our natural presence and self
• that this response is in fact independent of the audience and the material we have to deliver. However, it is very much influenced by our perception and our framing of the audience and the material we have to deliver
• that the best way to improve performance in presentation is to discover how those stresses manifest to block our natural style, and to find ways for releasing ourselves from those blocks
• that it is entirely possible to transform the energy of anxiety into a more productive energy that feeds into engagement with the audience
• that if a presenter focuses all their energy into engaging with their audience, and taking them on an emotional journey, all other aspects of the presentation (voice, eyes, posture, projection, etc.) take perfect care of themselves.

What I have discovered is that there is a major advantage of being very clear about my assumptions and my area of work. Not only does it pre-empt confusion about, and consequential resistance to, my style of intervention, but it also means that participants have now made a powerful and positive choice to work on their own fears and blocks.