The Best Laid Plans…

…of Mice and Men Often Go Awry. If you are to make a great impression and connection, it is vital to understand your audience and their expectations. You misjudge this at your peril and must be prepared to adjust at a moment’s notice.

Epic Mistakes

I remember, at a memory championship Tony Buzan was opening the event with an audience almost entirely consisting of competitors. They wanted to keep their mental focus and get started. They did not want a lecture or be asked to think. Needless to say, this was a very rare occasion when Tony went down like a lead balloon.

I had a slightly similar experience. I was sent to Monte Carlo to run some one-to-one coaching on speed reading and study skills for a teenage girl. It was in a beautiful house overlooking the marina. After going through security, I was escorted into the servants’ entrance before being allowed to enter the house. It turned out that the individual was not at all interested in study skills and expected a quick fix for Speed Reading. It was supposed to be two days but turned out to be just one. I learned the valuable lesson to seek information on clients’ expectations, tailor your offering to meet their needs and not just accept a gig on face value. On this occasion though, I had an enjoyable day sightseeing in Monaco. I always remember my time there if the Grand Prix is on TV. My hotel overlooked one of the main chicanes on the course.

Living Like a Rockstar

More often than not, Tony got the Rockstar welcome. This is especially true in China. I have experienced something similar at World Memory Championships. After spending three days on stage overseeing the competition, when it came to the awards ceremony, you would have hordes of young people asking for selfies with you or sometimes autographs. This is an odd phenomenon and does give you a taste of what ‘true’ celebrities feel like. Of course, it would be churlish to refuse despite feeling uncomfortably immodest.

Another, curious phenomena when teaching in China: I was welcomed to the conference room by the intro to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” banged on the desks each morning. If this happened in England you’d put it down to sarcasm but it was sincere and done out of respect.

Tipsy Teachers

On another occasion, a group of us were addressing a teachers’ conference. It was the last day of a longer event and the night before had been their closing celebrations. About two thirds of the audience were hungover and the remaining third were still drunk! Needless to say, we just abandoned most of what we’d planned and opted for some less demanding guided visualisation instead.

Resilience and adaptability are key and you learn a lot from the times when it wasn’t plain sailing. Have you had instances where a presentation was rescued from the brink? What valuable lessons did you learn?

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