My time wasn’t cut in half- 60 minutes turned into 40. What do you do?
Here’s what you don’t do
- Don’t keep everyone late simply because your content is sooooo fantastic they simply must hear it- that is a sure fire way to annoy folks and help them forget all of the positive thoughts they had about you and your content
- Don’t *itch, and grip and moan to the audience about how you have to rethink things- they don’t care, nor should they. In a perfect world they wouldn’t even know your time was cut short.
- Don’t talk really fast just so you can get through it all.
- Don’t cut a question(s) short during the Q&A simply because you want to hurry up and get to the fantastic close you’ve been working on for 2 weeks.
Your audience still needs to feel like the most important person in the world while you are speaking to them. (I said person on purpose- you are having a conversation with each individual audience member.)
This scenario is why it is so important to really know your content. The better you know it the easier it is to think on the fly- remove pieces that don’t impact the overall content while including the most impactful points.
Because you don’t want to overwhelm your audience you should remember to eliminate some points altogether. Instead of putting too much information in to 40 minutes, include fewer points with a clear explanation for each.
Approach each point like you only had 40 minutes to begin with- decide to keep it or jettison it. Maybe you only include 1 story or 1 example instead of the 3 you had planned.
Watch your audience, they will tell you if you are providing too much information too quickly. We have all seen that glazed look (of course, not during a speech WE gave!). Stop and breathe- maybe you didn’t realize how fast you were going.
The bottom line is even if there is no extension cord for the PowerPoint, the room is 20 degrees too hot and you only have 20 minutes instead of 60 you can still pull off a speech that is valuable to the audience. That really is the goal- providing value. Practice and preparation are the keys to pulling off that great speech in the worst of circumstances.
