Ms the Word: A Mercedes in the snow

*What I learned about presenting (and strategy) by not being able to deliver my presentation* Winter has definitely come.

By Malcolm Allison on Jan 10, 2011

What I learned about presenting (and strategy) by not being able to deliver my presentation

Winter has definitely come.

I will avoid the temptation to say it was not expected, but that would be churlish.

It usually comes around just after autumn, and it is usually cold.

But it somehow seems to take some people by surprise.

So I was skittering along a back road on the edge of Dusseldorf in a Mercedes taxi, which is rear-wheel drive and about as much use in the snow as a chocolate fireguard.

The driver assures me that there are only about five days a year that this is a real problem.

So far, I have been in Dsseldorf on four of those days.

I was on my way back from a meeting.

I know it is not particularly green to fly across the country, and that video conferencing is the future, but I am old fashioned enough to believe in pressing the flesh and seeing the whites of their eyes when I interact with someone.

Unfortunately for me, the Mercedes was not the only thing that found it difficult to move in the snow.

The airport in Berlin was like an ice rink.

Thanks to some quick thinking by my secretary, I was rerouted in a couple of minutes, and within a couple of hours I was on my way to Basel.

But it meant that I had to participate in a telephone conference instead of being face to face.

And to make matters worse, my computer froze.

So I sat in splendid isolation, with a telephone to my ear, while someone else delivered my slides.

While I am not much good as a driver, or navigator, I can pull together a reasonable presentation.

So it was an out of world experience to hear someone else chew through my slides and deliver something that bore no resemblance to my message, which set me thinking about Chinese whispers.

A message is transmitted by word of mouth, through a chain of people, so that The enemy is advancing on the flank; send reinforcements' becomes The general is dancing on a plank; send three and four pence'.

When I write a presentation, I think about it carefully.

I build in the key points, usually in the title, so that even when the audience does not understand what I am saying, they can read the words if I leave the slide up on the screen long enough.

So this time, the words were definitely not the ones on the slide.

My helper was inventing something that met his needs rather than using the slides to communicate the message I wanted to get across.

It is my fault, really.

I should have put in place a back-up plan.

I should have made sure there was someone in the room who understood the strategy, who could step in and make sure the key points were well understood.

At the very least, I should have made sure that I had confirmed the key points of my message with the chairman of the meeting before I presented.

A meeting should be held to make a decision anyway.

The presentation should be a summary of points already made and not the first time people hear them.

Otherwise, watch your strategy skitter across the horizon like a Mercedes in the snow.