What's Your Plan B?

Recently I had a timely reminder that good preparation for a meeting is such an important issue.

I was invited to give a presentation to a team of professionals and convince them about my seminar on team working.

I started my presentation with time-proven techniques.

Firstly, ask questions with the objective to involve the audiences.

Secondly, when asking questions formulate the question in a manner that those who disagree with you need to speak up. (Explanation – When you ask a group of people a question there are always a few who are absent-minded and didn’t listen and those who, in their mind, agree, but somehow don’t want to be the first to speak up. So, if you ask ‘Do you agree?’ for the reason mentioned above the agreement is somehow not forthcoming easily, even if the majority agrees. If you ask ‘Are there any objections?’ then only those who disagree need to speak up and the quieter people may look like they are on your side) This technique always worked for me and I can only remember two cases, including the one that I am describing here, where it didn’t.

So my ‘Plan A’ was to ask ‘Who believes that team-work is perfect in your company?’ I was not expecting a lot of objections and then planned to move on with my presentation on what I can offer to improve team-work. Well, to my surprise, there was one enthusiastic staff member who immediately raised both arms and shouted ‘Me, me, me’ Her enthusiasm was so contagious that other team members joined in and supported her.

Since the feedback surprised me completely, I had a hard time recovering and I think that I didn’t do a good job. I am not sure if I had a chance to convince this group, since I later learned that they were totally against a seminar but rather wanted to have a fun outing to improve team-work. But the fact remains, I was so surprised by their reaction that I didn’t do as good a presentation as I am capable of.

Takeaway – We may think that we have a sure-fire idea, but often others think differently. So, as part of your preparation, it is worthwhile thinking:

1.  If I ask this question, what will be the possible answers / reactions and how do I deal with them?

2. If people disagree with my idea, what would be their objections and how would I deal with those?