Not because I got bored of presenting or because it was time-consuming.
Like every other public speaker, I love presentations. Pitching a new idea. New solution. Getting the “Aha!” moment from the audience. It makes me feel accomplished. The growing anticipation, the next visual on the screen. The first look, you know. All that.
I realized that the act of presenting boosts our ego makes us more attached to the work and renders ourselves opaque to feedback. Makes us deaf. Deaf to criticism. To improvement. To our customer.
And this is not only true for public presentations. Private presentations too.
When you pitch your idea to your boss or a colleague, it is also a presentation.
The idea of withholding a development for someone else to see/validate until it is fully developed is fun. But in long term, it has more downsides than upsides.
When you wait for the right day to reveal your idea, this happens:
– You fantasize about the other person’s/audience’s reaction.
– You miss out on spending enough time understanding the other party’s needs.
– You over-invest yourself.
– You get attached to the outcome.
Letting go of the tendency of a hyped-up presentation serves us two purposes:
– It teaches us to detach.
– It forces us to focus on what matters.
Sure, like a magician, it provides satisfaction reading the audience’s eyes full of surprise. It injects adrenaline in our blood. But, it is short-lived. Replacing the big reveal moments with conversation helps in forging relationships and understanding. Something that one-to-many communication fails to nurture.
So how can you figure out if someone is playing for their own satisfaction?
Before most meetings and presentations, I look for signs such as:
– Had I opted to be a part of the audience group?
– Have they shared a substantial pre-read or references?
– Are they trying to protect their big reveal moment?
If the answer to any of the questions is a resounding YES, it is likely that someone is going to lose sight of the mission for their self-interest.
If we are working 50% of our wakeful time, work is a spiritual quest that should help us obliterate our ego and find meaning in our actions.
We need more people who stress on the conversation to solve problems. Presentations and theatrics have their own time and space.
More on conversations later.