Excerpt from the Chapter “Prepare to be Flexible”

As we know from Chapter Two, Orderly Conversations succeed on two levels.

  • Reaching your objective. Does the audience do what you want them to do, or understand what you want them to understand?
  • Managing the process. Do you initiate and manage a satisfactory interaction with your audience?

Planning needs to focus on both, but in many ways, the second is more important. There are a couple reasons for this.

First, as you know, business rarely gets done in a linear fashion. It is often one step forward and two steps back or one step forward and then another to the side. Because of this, it’s not always possible to meet your objectives with every person in the audience every time you present. What you can work toward, though, is progress, a step in the right direction.

Second, keep in mind that business audiences are captive groups. While they cannot walk out on a bad presentation, they can disengage from it. They might feel a sudden need to text someone, check their email, or simply start thinking about something else. Most of the time, this reaction has little to do with the objective of the presentation and everything to do with whether the presenter is managing the conversation effectively. Achieving your goal requires keeping the audience with you.