Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. – Murphy’s Law
You wake up to the sound of pouring rain, and check the clock with bleary eyes. It’s 7:36. You blink and yawn. Wait, what? It’s after 7:30? It’s Monday! Why didn’t your alarm go off? Throwing off the covers in a panic, you try to brush your teeth and get dressed at the same time. As a button pops off your shirt, you realize it’s just going to be one of those days. And as if that’s not bad enough… you have to make a presentation.
There are a lot of things that can go wrong when we deliver presentations. So many factors are involved – us, the audience, the clock, the room, the lighting, the equipment, even the weather – and every one of those factors brings along its own special set of potential difficulties and problems. The best advice we might be able to give about making a presentation may be “Always hope for the best, and be prepared for the worst.”
Public speaking is already an intimidating prospect for many of us. When things start going sideways, the stress level skyrockets. If we’re mentally prepared for setbacks, though, we can often work proactively to keep them from happening, or at least find a way to handle them with grace. Given that, let’s talk about some of the problems we may run into, how to (hopefully) prevent them – and how to recover effectively if Murphy’s Law kicks into effect.
Technical Issues
We tend to rely heavily on technology in many aspects of our lives, and presenting is far from being an exception. If the computer crashes in the middle of our presentation, the projector doesn’t work, or the clicker stops functioning, many of us might spend half our presentation time trying to fix the issue or scrambling to find a replacement.
There’s no better way to lose an audience than to force them to watch someone fiddling with their equipment. Luckily, there are a few things we can do to prepare for this eventuality.
One of the best ways to prevent technical delays from happening is to always check the equipment out and make sure things are fully operational before we take the stage. Not only does this allow us some lead time to fix any issues, but knowing that everything is running smoothly will decrease our anxiety and lead to a more confident performance.
In case of emergencies, it’s still advisable to have some sort of backup plan for the slideshow. If we are using the slides as cues or have our presentation notes built into the deck, we can print out a complete set and bring them along. With a hardcopy in hand, at least we’ll have our reference points and be able to deliver the talk.
If possible, have backup equipment available to swap out – and have someone else do the swapping or fiddling while we start talking on time. Another option is to send a copy of the file to another person who will be on the scene and can let us use their computer if necessary.
If we have visuals that are critical to the content, such as illustrative graphs or charts with relevant information we want the audience to view, we can print out handouts in advance. Not only does this give the audience material to review afterward, but if necessary we can go on without the slides and simply refer them to their handouts as needed.
Against the Clock
There are a million reasons we may end up short on time when presenting. Our first line of defense is to take every precaution to ensure that we reach the presentation venue ahead of time. Even assuming we manage that, though, the speaker before us or the person introducing us may run over into our time, or we may end up starting late for some other reason. If there is a hard stop time, this limits our breathing room.
Rather than trying to rush through our presentation at breakneck speed to get in under the wire, we should be prepared to deliver a shorter version of it if necessary. Time the presentation when practicing, and work up a few options in case it needs to be cut short. If we realize we are running out of time, we will want to make sure we still cover our main points, and still deliver a good conclusion. Don’t ever drop the closing! Cutting off the end of the talk means losing our best opportunity to leave the audience with a memorable message and a call to action.
This is one reason to avoid memorizing or scripting the presentation – that leaves little flexibility when it comes to timing. Instead, we should know and internalize the material so that we have many options for how to express the concepts. If we internalize our main points, we can deliver a talk over the same information in five minutes, or over the course of an hour, simply by varying the depth and level of detail we use when covering those points. If it’s helpful, practice longer and shorter versions of the talk to fit into different time slots.
Another approach, for those of us who function better with more structure, is to build the presentation in modules that can be inserted, omitted, or rearranged as necessary to accommodate time constraints. If we already know which five-minute segment we can afford to drop from the talk, we won’t panic when we’re in a time crunch.
Brain Blank
It happens to the best and most seasoned presenters: sometimes we just draw a blank. It helps to practice and ensure our familiarity with the material, of course, but even good preparation can’t fully inoculate us against brain freeze.
If this happens, the first key is not to panic. The audience may not even notice anything has happened if we stay in control. Taking a sip of water, calmly pausing to gather our thoughts, or starting our last sentence over can get us back on track and help to disguise our “senior moment.”
If the glitch is quite obvious – say, if we’re listing three points and forget the third one – we can simply say we’ll come back to that point later; hopefully that third bullet will reoccur to us as we continue with the presentation. We may even be able to give the impression that we’re keeping the audience in suspense on purpose.
Depending on our comfort level with the audience, it may also be acceptable to say, “Where was I?” and let the audience provide a prompt, or even poke a little fun at ourselves: “My train of thought just left the station without me!” Acknowledging that we’re fallible can actually make us more relatable to the audience and defuse tension.
Audience Issues
The audience is one of the most unpredictable factors in the presentation equation. Individual audience members have their own issues, lives, feelings, and goals that may or may not align with ours.
One of the most difficult audience challenges are disruptive individuals or hecklers. These people often have their own agenda – and whether they disagree with our message, are trying to impress others, are intoxicated, having a bad day, or just want attention, they can throw a real wrench into our carefully planned presentation.
The critical thing is to stay in control: this is our presentation. Keep in mind that the audience is generally just as frustrated by disruptive elements as the presenter; all they want us to do is keep things moving. Acknowledge the heckler, but don’t rise to the bait; if their comment or question is irrelevant or off topic, point that out. Ask the audience to hold their questions until the Q&A if there will be one, or offer to meet with audience members afterward to address their comments or concerns.
If a disruptive audience member or heckler continues to interrupt or argue, we should avoid engaging at their level. Maintaining control and dignity can be difficult when someone is trying to disrupt our talk, but we can’t lose our temper – we want to ensure the audience stays on our side. As a last resort, we can ask them to leave.
If audience members are sleeping, distracted, or need to leave during the presentation, avoid calling attention to it and don’t take it personally. They may have been up all night with a sick child, forgotten to take their medication, need to take an important call, or be in the midst of a work crisis. As long as they aren’t being disruptive, audience members should be allowed to continue with their lives.
On the other hand, if audience members are talking or disrupting the presentation, politely request that they stop out of consideration for others, or that they take their conversation outside. Ask the audience to turn off or mute cell phones and email alerts to avoid unnecessary noise. If an audience member is injured or falls ill, make sure they get any assistance they need before continuing with the talk.
If turnout is unexpectedly low or if a substantial portion of the audience leaves at some point, encourage those attending to fill in the space closer to you. Don’t insist upon it, but note that it will make delivery easier and enhance the experience for everyone.
Unplanned Interruptions
We always hope it won’t happen to us, but if our presentation is interrupted by a fire drill or an emergency, we should be prepared to make adjustments. Don’t continue speaking or attempt to keep people in the room if a fire alarm goes off! Make a mental note of the point at which the interruption occurred, and prepare to briefly recap the preceding content when the audience reconvenes.
If a group of audience members are called away in the middle of the talk – perhaps for an emergency meeting – provide contact information so they can get a summary later. If they can leave with a handout and an email address, they will at least have our main points and a way to ask questions.
When continuing after any interruption, keep in mind that the abridged version of the presentation may be needed to stay within time constraints. Above all, stay calm and retain a sense of humor. There’s no telling when a storm might cause a blackout or a bird might fly through the window, but if we can roll with the punches and keep our heads, we should still be able to recover. Remember, anything can go wrong – but if something does go wrong during a presentation, at least it will make a great story we can use in our next one!
Baker Communications offers leading-edge Presentations Training solutions that will help we address the goals and achieve the solutions addressed in this article. For more information about how our organization can achieve immediate and lasting behavior change that leads to success during presentations in any setting, click here.
