We have all been there. You have a 2 or 4 hour block at a conference or at in-service training to share your insights and information. The problem is that you have hundreds of hours worth of information you want to share. The challenge for many of us is we try to execute a brain dump and cram everything we know into that small window of opportunity. It is like we are afraid we will never get another opportunity to share this information. As a result we use the firehose approach on the audience and show up with 600 slides for a 2 hour presentation.
The key is not to teach them everything that you know. It is to pick out 2 or 3 key points that you want want to get across. These can be:
- Takeaways they could use when they walk out the door to make them better at what they do.
- Issues on which you challenge their way of thinking and encourage them to think and act differently.
- Questions you plant in their minds, which they continue to think about, discuss and debate after they leave the presentation.
- You may just need to take them back to their Why and remind them what they do is important, what they do makes a difference and inspire them to be willing to Dare to Be Great in spite of the challenges and obstacles they are currently facing.
So what about all the other information you have to share? Consider following up with quotes, links to websites, articles or other resources after the presention. You can follow up on a regular basis with new resources that build on your topic and would be of value to them and serve them. You could start a blog, a podcast or a series of YouTube videos to share what you know.
The key is not to try and teach them everything you know (at least right away) but, to teach them what they need to know right now. More importantly you need to teach them how to think critically, make decisions and find information on their own. Once you do that you can find opportunities to mentor those who would like more information (which is not everyone in your class).
As you coach and mentor people you can share with them what you have learned, inspire them to learn more and guide them to the self discovery of new information. Over time they will come back and mentor and teach you.
Take care.
Brian Willis
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