This week we’ve got presentation lessons from Skipper the penguin, in the film Madagascar. Reminding us – “Don’t worry about the small stuff!”
We tend to make minor errors in our presentations quite often.
I have done it countless times.
It will happen to all of us.
You forgot to mention a piece of detail.
You gave a slightly different example from the one you planned.
Your statistic was only to one decimal place when you intended two decimal places.
You only briefly covered one of the bullet points.
You missed a tiny part of the story.
Too many speakers allow a minor error to derail them.
But here’s the thing.
Most of the time it doesn’t matter too much at all.
The audience did not realise – and they will never realise.
Unless you tell them!
A typical example is where the speaker becomes hesitant because they missed something, they rewind to the error, they eat up valuable time correcting it and then their confidence dips slightly.
They used up valuable resource correcting something that did not require it.
If your error is significant or if the audience noticed the minor error, then make the effort to correct matters at the earliest opportunity.
However, if the error was minor and the audience will never know then follow the penguins of Madagascar.
Do not draw attention to it.
And move on.
As Skipper the Penguin would say:
“Smile and wave boys, smile and wave.”
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