My five-year-old sat down to eat her hotdog (eh hem, and broccoli, thank you) for lunch. When she unloaded half the bottle of ketchup on her plate, I realized this was a “teaching moment.”
“Georgia, you can always add more ketchup, but you can’t put it back in the bottle.”
We can apply this life lesson to our business presentations and meetings. While being “in the weeds” was an occupational hazard I had experienced waiting tables throughout college (as well as a reoccurring nightmare that plagued me for a decade); many SMEs share this same sentiment with me in coaching. Whether it’s feedback they have received from their managers, peers or colleagues, “getting in the weeds” is a common pitfall we have experienced when communicating.
Why does this happen to us? Pick your poison:
We feel compelled to prove all we know on our subject.
Don’t oversell people. You wouldn’t be where you’re at if you didn’t know the whole enchilada.
You cannot contain your passion and excitement.
You can express your passion and expertise while maintaining an audience centric-approach to sharing your content; a paradigm shift from having a speaker-centric mindset. Possible side effect: you may feel less anxious when you put the audience first.
We think others will find our subject matter as fascinating as we do.
Analyze your audience; are these other SMEs or technical peers? If so, they may expect and appreciate the granularity of beach sand. The rest of the group will likely find more value if you set context and provide the high-level overview. If you plan to deep dive, set our expectations and let us know when you’ll go there so we can decide whether it’s a good time to respond to an email or use the loo.
Lack of strategic planning.
For most of us, it is easier to be verbose than it is to be concise. The solution? In your preparation, prioritize what the audience needs to have vs what is nice to have. Strategic planning requires focus and energy. While you might think winging it works fine, chances are, your audience disagrees, and your credibility may suffer.
The next time you are planning a meeting or presentation, take a critical look at how you’ve structured your content for the time you have with people. Prepare less content. No one has ever told me they were disappointed that a meeting ended a little early if the goal and the objectives were met. Especially now, living on Zoom. Give people the content they need up front so they can make a decision and take action. If your time gets cut, and your audience got what they came for, then the appropriate hotdog to ketchup ratio was worth the prep.
