Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

A review of remedial communication: if you don’t have the explanation and data about something, don’t mention it.

I am embarrassed to write about this, but I feel compelled as I see mature people tripping over this often.

Way back in high school (it was the 1970s), us young, impressionable, and not-so-bright science students were making presentations in class. After we read our paper, we were to answer questions from the class. Several times, the presenter had no  answer for the question.

This brought the science teacher to teach us about presentations:

If you can’t answer a question about something, don’t have that something in your presentation.

One of the points is that people will ask you about (what you consider to be) the least important aspect of your presentation. You will be standing there mumbling and looking stupid and unprepared.

Fast forward to today. I have encountered several groups of smart, mature adults making presentations. I am in the room to advise them on their presentations. I ask questions like, “Can I see that data?” The presenters make excuses about the data behind their presentation. In other words, they don’t really know what they are presenting. It is a big phoney show and tell.

Gosh, how embarrassing. What’s more, the presenter loses all credibility with the audience. They had something important, but tripping over the least important thing ruined their chances at communicating the important items.

If you don’t have it, don’t mention it.