- The power goes out in the venue and you cannot run your PowerPoint / Keynote.
- The bulb on the projector burns out right before you were about to start.
- There is a glitch in the sound system and you cannot play sound from any of the videos in your presentation.
- The speaker before at the conference goes long and cuts into your time.
- The organizer at the event asks you right before you go on to cut your presentation short because there is a storm moving in and they need to release people early.
- The organizer at the event asks you right before you go on to extend your presentation because the speakers after you did not show up.
- A speaker before you at a conference says something that contradicts what you will say in your presentation.
- You pose a question to the audience and there is absolute silence.
- You use you best strategies to engage the audience and they sit there stone faced all day.
- You run an exercise for the first time in a class and it falls flat.
- You realize halfway through your presentation that you have too much material for your time.
- You realize halfway through your presentation that you do not have enough material for your time.
- You tell a joke and it bombs.
- A participant in the class strongly and vocally disagrees with you in the class.
- A participant in the class challenges you on the legitimacy of the statistics you quotes or challenges your conclusions or opinions based on the research.
- You plan a workshop for 50 people only to find out the host has registered 150.
- You plan a workshop for 50 people and get 8 people show up.
The time to think about these possibilities and imagine how you will handle them is now. It is good to imagine everything going just the way you planned with no technical problems and the audience loving your content and your delivery, but that is not always reality.
It is important to also include in your imagery an anticipation of obstacles and problems that may arise and then imagine how you will overcome those obstacles and still deliver a great training experience. If everything goes smoothly, great. If problems arise then you are prepared and deal with them smoothly and easily.
Take care.
Brian Willis
Winning Mind Training – Dedicated to helping good trainers become great trainers and great trainers to deliver awesome training.
The Excellence in Training Academy – Where trainers come to grow. Committed to leaving the profession in a better place. Join the Community of trainers committed to the pursuit of excellence in and through training.
Interested in hosting an Excellence in Training Seminar? Contact to me at winningmind@mac.com and we can work together to determine what will best suit your needs.