Yesterday, October 29, I joined a seminar by Senden Kaigi as a guest speaker.
It made me feel like I was on edge, unexpectedly.
Being a speaker or a trainer has been a big part of my job for years, so that I did not expect to feel that way. But it was very different that every listener/trainee is first-to-meet, everyone has different background, level of experience, and has a different kind of work.
Among others, what made it tough to me was difference between this group and group of people I had dealt with in my previous job. When I was working in the US invested company, key task of presenter was to control lots of questions and comments from audience, and to communicate what is supposed to be communicated within given hours. On the contrary, when you get your first meeting with all the Japanese people, challenge for presenter comes to deal with silence, though I anticipated it. You are very lucky if anyone ask any question. It is very hard to read their face to know their reaction. If you ask the audience “So, how do you understand?”, you see entire classroom looking down on their desk, hearing noise that suddenly people start writing something on paper in the complete silence.
I was, I have to say, quite nervous, standing in the silence.
I think I know this. It reminds me of a high school class…
Well, I should not say “Japanese are…” to blame on audience. Content and delivery of my presentation had something to be improved.
(Later, when I chatted with some of them over smoking outside, and read feedback sheet, I became a bit less tensed, “Phew, they in fact understood and enjoyed my presentation”, though.)
This one day seminar by Senden Kaigi was to discuss “Rules and tips for Ad/SP Agencies to get their proposals approved by clients”, targeting to mid-small sized Agencies (I mean, not big ones like D and HH), to reveal insights of how clients want Agencies to present their proposals.
Main trainer was Mr. Yasuhiro Yamamoto, CEO of Business Value Creations, who (flawlessly and professionally) provided comprehensive training to cover all the areas and elements from approaching to client, organizing presentations, and summarizing discussions. Then, I (in faltering and trembling manner) discussed only one tip to make any creative presentation clear and concise.
What is the tip?
Well, I cannot tell you here.
But it is all about “Hey, you think you are making clear sense to your clients, but they do not understand your presentations as well as you want them to. Try hard to make it much clearer.” and it seemed quite eye-opening to the audience.
Agency people talk to themselves, “How come clients do not understand what I am telling this hard?”
Whereas, client people sigh, “Why do they have to present it in hard to understand and vague way?”
There exist lots of this type of sad dis-communication, much more than you think.
(If you are facing the similar issue, please write to me!)
In any case, I learned that I have to re-polish my presentation skills.
It is an irony if I make bad presentation to make a point that “You should make your presentation clearer!”
The seminar made me think over my skills.
Dear attendees, thank you for staying with me to go through my presentation.
“O.”
