I am one of the client managers at Indigo and recently spent a couple of days at our recent Think on Your Feet® workshop in Barbican, London. I went through this training during my induction, so I was there to make sure everything ran smoothly and pop out to client meetings in the city whilst the delegates were in the training room.
During a morning break on day two of the workshop, delegates asked me about my experiences on all of Indigo’s workshops. I decided I should take up the challenge of presenting information about our full range of training products during their lunchtime break.
The idea of a member of the Indigo team (who is not a trainer) being put on the spot really appealed to them!! They were there to learn how to present their ideas clearly, with brevity and impact. The delegates wanted to challenge me to put together an ‘ad-hoc’ presentation.
I had some initial panic about the lack of time I had to prepare! But I decided to use some of skills I had learnt at Indigo’s workshops to get the job done. So what did I do?
Some quick Six Thinking Hats®:
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Took off my “Black Hat” (negatives)
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Spent some time thinking about the “Yellow Hat” (benefits) of doing the presentation
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Then employed “Green Hat” thinking to come up with some creative ways to make this happen.
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Surely, I just had to employ the Think on Your Feet® and Skilled Presenter™ techniques…
Using Think on Your Feet® and the Skilled Presenter™
- I designed a presentation around the three main areas we work within: Creativity, Communication and Project Management.
- I then supported this with more detail about the how we approach these organizational challenges using more of the Think on Your Feet® plans.
- So, phew… I had the content in 15 mins. Now what would my Skilled Presenter™ trainer say to me if he was here? “Practice, practice, practice James”. So I borrowed a spare room from our good friends at CCT Venues.
- I presented to the empty room and found some glaring, but simple to fix problems with my presentation. The great thing about Think on Your Feet® is that I did not have pages of notes, just icons with three clear points to read from. Easy to remember and easy to use.
So, how did the presentation go?
Well, the most important thing to me is whether the audience found it engaging and interesting. They would be the best people to ask. I will be posting some of there comments on here when the event feedback forms have been processed.
For me, it felt great. I had banished my fears, turned nervousness into energy and had a well structured presentation to build around. Thank you Think on Your Feet®. Thank you the Skilled Presenter™.
James
