The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

‘Chinese Whisper’ Presenters …

 Empty Vessel

NP wrote something a while back about how people who have confidence in presentations, can often come across as boring or lacking passion.

Now while that’s quite a generalisation, I absolutely understand what he is saying because someone who is brimming with enthusiasm is far more interesting to watch than some uber-slick presenter who you feel has said the exact same thing about 100 times before.

However, as long as what Mr/Mrs Slick say is interesting and well thought out it can still be a really enjoyable experience … which is more than can be said for when I attend a presentation given by a Corporate Amoeba.

Corporate amoeba?

Yep, those individuals who have absolutely no formulated view of their own, just express what they have read/heard from other people.

 

Now I’m not talking about those folk who have ideas ‘inspired’ by others … no, I’m talking about those people who simply consume external information then repeat it verbatim, because they think it makes them look clever and relevant.

A friend of mine told me this story about a guy who made a big speech in the UK which he realised was almost a word-for-word take on what Australian Business magazine, The Bulletin, had written the month before.

Because my mate is a mischievous sod, he decided to ask a bunch of questions taking the absolute counter point of view – however because this guy only had a superficial understanding on this topic, he couldn’t counter the argument in any way so ended up looking nothing short of a fool.

Mike also told me about another guy he met who kept using really weird words in all of his presentations.

What grabbed his attention was that often, this bloke seemed to be using the words out of context.  All became clear when Mike visited a WORD OF THE DAY website and found all the words this guy had used, listed for previous days.

The reason so many of these people get away with it is because I think we’ve all become too polite.

There’s this sense asking a question shows disrespect or ignorance when I believe – if done the right way – it shows real interest and enthusiasm.

There’s a massive difference between duplication and inspiration … so next time you are in a presentation and feel something doesn’t quite make sense [or infact it DOES make sense and you want to know more] ask them a question because you’ll either learn something really good, or you’ll learn how many people in corporateland have no ability to think for themselves at all.

[Tips on how to ask questions without looking evil can be found here]

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