There is currently a criminal court case going on in Germany. The case is about robbers, who barged into a poker tournament and robbed the price money. They were caught shortly afterwards.
During the court case they admitted that they have failed because of bad preparation. They said they didn’t take enough time to plan the robbery and didn’t discuss well enough who will play what role during the robbery. Of course, I don’t condone any criminal activity, but isn’t that plain stupid to go into an important activity without good preparation and practice. Surely that wouldn’t happen to us, or .. ?
Preparing and practicing is fundamentally important for our daily activities.
If you plan a little speech to convince your colleagues about an idea (or a big presentation) prepare and practice
- What is the challenge?
- What is your solution?
- Why does it work? Provide facts / calculations. And can you tell a little story where your solution did work?
- Make an effort to forecast; if somebody would disagree with your idea, what would they say? Typically you will find not more than 3 – 5 reasons. Then prepare how you would answer each one.
- Practice your speech on your own with a loud voice. After 3 times of practicing you will be much more fluent and will have corrected a few little things which didn’t sound convincing in the first place.
If you join a meeting
- Read the agenda
- For every point, what is you opinion? What will you comment?
- What is the rationale of you opinion?
- If somebody disagrees with your view, what would they say? What is your answer to that?
Professional sports people / musician spend 4-6 hours per day to hone their skills, i.e. prepare and practice. PREPARE AND PRACTICE. It just needs a bit of discipline and you will shine so much more.
And by the way, if you really, really don’t have time to prepare for a meeting, take a high-lighter and randomly mark on the agenda a few words / items. During the meeting put the agenda openly in front of you. At least, it looks like you are well prepared. Take this as an emergency measure only and don’t tell anybody that you read this on my blog.
During the court case they admitted that they have failed because of bad preparation. They said they didn’t take enough time to plan the robbery and didn’t discuss well enough who will play what role during the robbery. Of course, I don’t condone any criminal activity, but isn’t that plain stupid to go into an important activity without good preparation and practice. Surely that wouldn’t happen to us, or .. ?
Preparing and practicing is fundamentally important for our daily activities.
If you plan a little speech to convince your colleagues about an idea (or a big presentation) prepare and practice
- What is the challenge?
- What is your solution?
- Why does it work? Provide facts / calculations. And can you tell a little story where your solution did work?
- Make an effort to forecast; if somebody would disagree with your idea, what would they say? Typically you will find not more than 3 – 5 reasons. Then prepare how you would answer each one.
- Practice your speech on your own with a loud voice. After 3 times of practicing you will be much more fluent and will have corrected a few little things which didn’t sound convincing in the first place.
If you join a meeting
- Read the agenda
- For every point, what is you opinion? What will you comment?
- What is the rationale of you opinion?
- If somebody disagrees with your view, what would they say? What is your answer to that?
Professional sports people / musician spend 4-6 hours per day to hone their skills, i.e. prepare and practice. PREPARE AND PRACTICE. It just needs a bit of discipline and you will shine so much more.
And by the way, if you really, really don’t have time to prepare for a meeting, take a high-lighter and randomly mark on the agenda a few words / items. During the meeting put the agenda openly in front of you. At least, it looks like you are well prepared. Take this as an emergency measure only and don’t tell anybody that you read this on my blog.
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