The Seven Strategies of Master Presenters - Lifecycle Performance ...

228 / THE SEVEN STRATEGIES OF MASTER PRESENTERS
opens with Cole standing in the entryway of his house and Malcolm
sitting in the middle of the living room. Malcolm tries to get his young
patient to open up to him by wisely asking Cole if he would like to
play a game (games are the natural language of children). The essence
of the game is that Malcolm will try to guess what Cole is thinking. If
Malcolm guesses correctly, Cole will take a step closer, and if Malcolm
guesses incorrectly, Cole will take a step back. If Malcolm guesses
correctly enough, Cole will sit down and they will have a conversation,
if he does not guess correctly enough and Cole reaches the front
door of his home, both the game and the session are over.
One of the many things that is so intriguing about this scene is
that Malcolm has set it up so that he gets immediate feedback as to
the accuracy of his perceptions about Cole. Likewise, Master Presenters
are vigilant for opportunities and develop methods to maximize
the feedback that they receive. This ability is clearly demonstrated
in the following two examples.
For Master Presenters there are no obstacles or excuses that stand
between them and their goal of maximizing salient feedback. Brad
was presenting a keynote at the Year 2000 Millennium Conference in
Ottawa. He was the keynote speaker on the second day. Janet Lapp
was the keynote speaker on the first day. Brad had arrived a day ahead
of his presentation to get a good sense of the conference and to tie his
remarks into both the conference in general and to Janet Lapp’s comments
in particular.
Brad: I was waiting to talk to Janet at the end of her presentation.
There was a long line ahead of me, so I decided to listen to
the questions and Janet’s answers as I waited. Three things
particularly impressed me: 1) the number of people who
stood in line to speak to Janet; 2) the quality of her answers;
and 3) how aggressively she asked for salient feedback at
the end of the presentation. I used the word “aggressive”
here in a very positive sense. I also heard the quality of the
feedback that Janet received. Watching Janet reinforced my
dictum that we live in a feedback-rich world. Most of us do
not “harvest” the feedback that exists.