Presenting and the Venn Tart 2

I mentioned in my last article that I’d seen a lot of people ‘seduced’ into making presentations which concentrated on contented in the (b) zone. I used the word ‘seduced’ deliberately.

 

If you know about something and the audience wants/needs to know about it, it’s so, so tempting to start telling them about it. Especially if it’s easier to talk about that than it is to talk about the things you should be concentrating on.

Perhaps the stuff you’re supposed to cover is bad news. Perhaps it’s technically difficult or perhaps (heaven help you!) even boring!

Suppose you say something on the border of (e) and (b) and get a laugh….

Whatever the cause, the seduction of (b) is un-mistakable. And it’s not just in presentations that this happens, either – I remember when I was about to start my degree (and later my PhD) and I found that every other subject in the world was more interesting. I was about to start a degree course in Geography but found myself watching Open University broadcasts about the physics of the solar system – and I’d not even taken A-level physics.

I found myself fascinated by stories of ancient history – a subject I’d abjured since I was 16 – and actually getting up early to learn about the history of Fine Art. But geography itself was a closed book to me at the time.

Literally as well as figuratively.

So what is it that makes the irrelevant fascinating? I’m not sure, but there’s a wealth of research evidence now suggesting that concentrating too hard on something can actually limit your productivity – and that many of the best ways of problem-solving come from attacking the problem ‘sideways’, metaphorically, so that your sub-conscious can have a go at looking the problem over. Perhaps it’s something to do with that.

I’m not going to think about it too hard, for the obvious reasons!

I don’t know.

Maybe, as an alternative, the attraction of the irrelevant is to do more with the lack of pressure. When it’s our job the stakes are higher and the costs of failure are greater. On the other hand stuff that is on the fringes of what we’re supposed to know about doesn’t have the same fear of failure associated with it – and so we can take greater risks.

Certainly, as a rock climber, I know I can make moves close to the ground that never even enter my head to attempt when I’m a long way up – even though the safety rope will protect me just the same from up there as it would nearer the ground. My logical brain knows this, but it’s not my logical brain that dictates my approach.

The trick, of course, is to concentrate on the task in hand and not the consequences.

Play your serve in tennis, don’t think about the fact that if you win the point you’ll be Wimbledon Champion.

Or that if you blow it you’ll be out in the first round.

Don’t think about your audience – all 4000 of them – just thing about performing. Don’t think about the Gold Medal, just think about the high jump runway in front of you…

The same isn’t true, of course, when it comes to training for the Big Event, when the bigger picture is a critical part of your motivation, but when it comes down to ‘just doing something’, try to think about just doing it.

And perhaps when it comes down to solving a problem about something, don’t even think about doing it, just do something else!

Simon Raybould is one of the country's most widely read and regarded providers of voice and presentation skills training.