I was coaching a group on their presentation to their Senior Leadership Team. It was the end of months of research, weeks of discussion and development, days of practice. Our session began.
The first speaker stood up. She seemed relaxed, she smiled and then began to explain the assignment, telling in great detail what they had been asked to research. Then she spoke about how her team had researched for quite some time before they could even identify their topic. She continued by saying that once they had found their topic, they started looking for new sources for research.
This is all before she had reached slide 2 of her presentation. I was completely disengaged and struggling hard to pay attention at all.
I was exhausted and she hadn’t really started yet!
Stop, stop, please, stop.
Dispatches From The Front 