Professionally Speaking...

Presenting in a Crisis

When most of us think about making a presentation, we don't typically think of having to do that in the aftermath of a tragic event. Yet that is the situation faced this week by Washington, DC and NTSB (National Traffic Safety Board) officials following Monday's subway train disaster in which 9 people were killed and many others injured. Mesmerized by the television coverage of the shocking accident, I couldn't help but observe (and be proud of) how skillfully these officials communicated to the public in this difficult situation.

There was no PowerPoint. There was no time to rehearse. But there was an audience of reporters, commuters, family members desperate for information and assurances.

WHAT ARE THE PRESENTATION LESSONS?

Among the presentation lessons worth noting:

• At Monday night's press conference, all presenters started their remarks with condolences for the families of the victims, recognizing that no matter what details, facts or explanations they might be providing, at the core, this presentation needed to connect with the audience on a human level.

• Debbie Hersman, NTSB Lead Investigator and Dennis Rubin, DC Fire Chief, instilled confidence in the audience by assuring them that the accident scene was under control and that both entities had a clear idea of their objectives going forward. They looked directly into the cameras and spoke clearly, explaining what the next steps were, what they already knew and how their investigation would proceed. Transparency in providing details is a key strategy in crisis communications. As Dan Hicks describes here, in his blog, Communicating Through a Crisis, the court of public opinion is unforgiving when it appears that information is being withheld or officials are hiding behind corporate shields.

• One can only imagine how difficult it was for John Catoe, General Manager of WMATA (Washington MetropolitanArea Transit Authority) as he stood before the cameras, having lost one of his employees and ultimately holding responsibility for the accident. Visibly moved, he spoke with sincerity and simplicity. With no euphemisms or gobbledy-gook, he gave the details he had.

(this clip is not of the press conference I referred to, but it does give you a sense of the speakers' styles)

Here are some additional ideas about managing crisis communications.

Let us hope that none of us will ever have to make a presentation following a disaster. But the lessons learned from how communication was handled in the Metro accident will be valid for any of our presentations: concern for the audience, sincerity, transparency and quiet confidence.

The Don't Miss This List, Edition 4

I haven't published a "Don't Miss This" List for a while...can you tell I'm a little behind on reading my feeds? (maybe too much Twittering??) In catching up on some of my favorite blogs, I found several I wanted to share:

• A clever comparison from Janes-List shows us 5 ways public speaking is like dieting.

• Over at DeFinis Communications, Angela highlights eye contact as a key way to connect with your audience and gives us 5 great tips for talking with your eyes.

• Loraine Antrim at The CXO Mindset encourages us to recognize the strategic value of story telling in a presentation and outlines how to plan a presentation based on story.

• I passionately believe that practice is a key element in creating a great speaker. So I'm delighted to see The Eloquent Woman's 9 not-to-miss reasons for video practice.

• Sims Wyeth at High Stakes Presentations says "...there are all kinds of voices that work for the audience as long as they feel real and communicate enough emotional energy to engage the interest." Wyeth then examines a variety of vocal stumbling blocks that get in the way of that audience engagement.

PREVIOUS "DON'T MISS THIS" LISTS:

The Don't Miss This List, Edition 3

The Don't Miss This List, Edition 2

The Don't Miss This List, Edition 1

                                                                                                    

THOUGHTS ON A CONFERENCE

I spent most of last week at the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) International Conference and Expo (8000+ attendees) here in Washington, DC at the very impressive Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The days were chocked full of interesting sessions, interesting people and interesting observations. 

• The organizers did a great job. A month prior to the conference, they set up a LinkedIn group for conference speakers as a forum to ask questions and share ideas/best practices. I was asked to post a Presentation Tip of the Day 2-3 times a week. Having a specific place for speakers to congregate virtually generated good discussion (PowerPoint and how to be interactive with a large audience were hot topics) and also forged connections prior to being on-site.

• Once at the conference, the organizers provided a Speakers' Room, equipped with screens so presenters could rehearse presentations and even use other speakers as a mock audience. We all know how challenging it is to find the time to rehearse so facilitating that by having a dedicated space, populated by other folks with similar needs, is a grand idea.

• Twitter most definitely had a presence. There were hashtags set up for the conference (#astd09) and for the local chapter (#metrodcastd) and there was a steady stream of tweets sharing session information, impressions, questions and meet up details. What was lacking, however, was a public display of the Twitter stream where people could see it as they were moving about the Convention Center. This would have been a great way to share ideas and engage more people in the conversation going on in the back channel.

• An interesting experiment was conducted by one of the speakers, Doug Caldwell. He projected the live Twitter stream during his session. Doug set up a hashtag ahead of time and populated it with tweets encouraging people to attend. Yours truly was his assistant/scribe during the session. We used Tweetchat as the platform to gather and project the hashtag tweets. Since none of the attendees were tweeting, I ended up capturing key messages and participant comments for the Twitter stream. Couple of lessons: the scribe has to be familiar enough with the content to determine what the nuggets are; figure out how to toggle back and forth between the big screen and the laptop screen before the session; recognize that there is a several seconds delay between hitting enter on Tweetchat and having the tweet appear in the stream. Participants, although very engaged in their workshop activities, did notice when one of their comments hit the big screen. This is also a great way to archive the 'in the moment' participant comments for future sharing or dissemination. Kudos to Doug for experimenting. It was a cool experience and I'm anxious to use Twitter again in a presentation.

• Teleprompters were used for the general sessions, with video screens placed around the hall so everyone could see. It was clear that several of the presenters did not have much experience with the teleprompter. One of the main presenters was extremely good and the contrast was stark. Plea to speakers using teleprompter: please, please rehearse, with teleprompter, more than 10 minutes before your speech.

• In almost every session I attended, presenters ran out of time; they were either trying to cram too much into the allotted time or they had not accounted for questions and dialogue from the audience. When developing a speech or presentation, allocate time for audience questions and comments. The amount of time depends on your topic and the overall duration of your presentation; for example, in a 90 minute presentation, leave a good 15 minutes for questions.

• Session evauations are one of my hot buttons (more on that in a subsequent post). Feedback is the most valuable thing a speaker can get from the audience. So as a speaker, don't skew the audience's opinion (one way or the other) by stating that you're trying to maintain your perfect scores (or some other attempt to influence). By the same token, if you're in the audience, do the speaker the courtesy of providing honest, thoughtful feedback. Don't say the presentation was good if it wasn't; if you have thoughts for improvement, offer them.

Attending a conference is both an exhausting and exhilarating experience. And it is most definitely a juicy learning lab for a presentation trainer!