When Disaster Strikes: 3 Ways to Avoid a Crash While Talking
Welcome to the real world: things happen. Especially, things happen while you are giving a speech. Bad things, things that can really mess up your speech. Fire alarms go off, power fails, a projector bulb goes out, your laptop decides to eat itself, etc. What is a speaker to do?
you need to have a plan
If you want to have any chance of not self-destructing when something goes wrong while you’re giving a speech, then you’re going to have to have a plan. Oh, and it’s going to have to be a very good plan.
Can you say homework? To prepare for the things that will happen while you are giving a speech, you will need to spend some time BEFORE the speech going over all the things that could happen. Once you’ve identified these things, you’ll start to feel much more relaxed about your actual speech; You must be prepared for what happens.
Some time ago I took advantage of an opportunity that presented itself to me to become a Certified Professional in Business Continuity. This means that I am now considered an expert on how to plan for the worst.
The biggest thing I got out of all my training was actually the simplest: You need to identify everything that could happen to you, but then you only have to plan for the most likely items on that list. Possible fire drill: plan for it. Meteor hitting the earth during your speech: Put it on the list, but don’t worry about planning it (probability too low).
This is the escape hatch
Although you might want to have a hole that you can go and jump into if something happens that interrupts your presentation, you don’t really have that option. In show business they have a saying that “The show must go on” and the same can be said for your presentation. What you do need to have is an escape hatch leading from the presentation you were giving to the one you will give after the event occurs.
This means that before your speech, you should take the time and think about all the possible things that could go wrong. Just thinking about them is not enough, you also need to decide what you would do if they happened. I would take the time to write down both the possible event and the action I would take if it happened. Just the action of writing can help reaffirm things in your mind.
Case in point: If your projector bulb failed, how would you handle that? One possibility would be to distribute a brochure that you have created just for this situation. Another way to handle it would be to get out the flipchart and start drawing on it. No matter what you do, just have a plan in case something happens.
You’re the rock, act that way
Any speech is actually a performance. When something goes wrong, your performance doesn’t end. How you react to an unplanned event will go a long way in determining how your audience reacts to the event.
What all this means is simply that you shouldn’t react when something goes wrong. Don’t show surprise, face it and move on with your speech.
The hardest part of all of this is remembering that it’s not just the words you say that can reveal surprise, but your body language as well. Again, this is where having thought through all the possibilities will help you deal with them as expected events.
practice practice practice
To put all this planning into practice, you must have practiced what you would do if something happened. I’m not suggesting you pull a fire alarm or sabotage your projector, my suggestion is much simpler.
Once you are done with your planning, sit down and mentally picture yourself giving your speech. Now imagine something goes wrong. What do you do for a living? “See” yourself reacting calmly and very confidently to any event.
By mentally reviewing the event and your reaction to it, you will develop a “learned response.” This means that if such an event happens to you, you will instinctively know how to react. Both your words and your body language will tell your audience that you have the situation under control.
What all this means to you
Life sometimes gives us lemons. Unfortunately, sometimes these lemons arrive right in the middle of one of our presentations. The way we deal with life’s unplanned events can determine the success or failure of that discourse.
We should always plan ahead for events that are out of our control during a speech. This planning will help us have a backup plan and allow us to convey a sense of control to our audience.
Yes, this will require more work on your part to get ready to give a speech. However, taking the time to plan for the worst can help you deliver a successful speech under the worst of circumstances.
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