clock-watching as the most important skill in any event

If you're invited to be a guest speaker at other people's events - this post might be a bit uncomfortable for you.

If you're someone who sits through 'expert presentations' at events - this post should offer you some solace and comfort.

Earlier this year I was in a group call with fellow facilitators to explore a subject that was highly anticipated (as evidenced by more people booking a place to be on screen than usual, in the organisers' ongoing series) - but this story isn't just about / for facilitators. 

As the session began, we were introduced to our speaker as being a global leader in their field, and who promised 3 linked strands/buckets of insights on the topic (which added to our interest and excitement...)

But then it all started to go wrong - in the time scheduled for the session, this 'global leader' only managed to cover 2 of the promised groups of insights. And worse, they had to be abruptly cut off mid flow by the host as they were still energetically speaking well after the advertised end time for the session: people were increasingly exiting the zoom screen because it had overrun by so much... This also meant that there was no ability get any closure or conclusion to what we'd started to reflect on and consider, leaving us further frustrated that we couldn't resolve or make best sense of the first 2 sets of insights without the third.

Sadly, my sense is that this scenario is one that most of us probably recognise as more commonplace than we might like (and is equally as likely at an in-person gathering, as well as an on-line one) - the speaker or session leader allows things to overrun, leaving us all less time for any wider discussion and reflection on content and ideas. Which in turn means that we leave feeling we've been talked at, rather than has the opportunity to learn. Also, that we've not been shown any respect from the timings not being kept to, and content not being covered, simply because the 'global expert' (or their equivalent) hasn't had the foresight to practice their timings.

I'm sharing this story here as part of 'drawing back the curtain' on one of my own professional practices - specifically, always prioritising trying to make sure I end any speaking or led sessions early, against the time advertised that they'd be running for. This isn't me trying to shortchange people, but makes it easier to flex content to be delivered if I suddenly have less available time from other speakers overrunning (my personal best on this was shortening what should have been a 20 minute keynote at a national conference to only 3 mins after all speakers before me heavily overran, and by time I was invited to take to the stage, the (hot) conference lunch had started to be served at the back of the hall we were in...). It also allows space for people to reflect together so they can start to initially consider how they'll best apply their new insights and knowledge with some of their peers (never a bad thing?).

So if you book me to run a session, and you're concerned that any draft notes etc I share with you in advance seem 'light' in the context of time allocated, please be assured that it's part of a plan to make sure I don't leave people without the final pieces they need to make sense of what I'm bringing; and they also have some opportunity to start to reflect on and apply their new knowledge I'll be sharing, so it can start to create change and impact for them. 

And if you book me for an in-person speaking gig, please know that a part of making sure I stick to this, I sometimes bring a water pistol and clock with me for the event host to use against me, in the event I get carried away and struggle to stick to my own rules...