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ASK, NOT TELL

....and many other thoughts about facilitation, coaching ( teams & individuals) and learning

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David

‘It is just a general briefing!!’

Updated: Mar 5, 2022

I conducted 3 presentation classes last week in Shenzhen and Beijing. Like most other classes, some participants picked some general briefing as the practice topic in the class. Some examples are ‘An introduction to my department’, ‘A briefing about my job’.


I am often suspicious of such ‘general briefing’. With such a name, the speakers can have an excuse that the content is just about something ‘nice to know’, and thus not to think about how to communicate well in the event. And it did normally turn out that the audience can hardly retain what was said. Whilst sometimes the content may be really just ‘nice to know’,

  1. no one will have time which is ‘OK to waste’. Given the increasingly throat-cutting work pace, time has never been more scarce. I recently realise that I have not used the term ‘kill time’ myself for a long time. No time to kill anymore. There are so many things I want / need to do;

  2. and… you will want your name to be ‘sure to shine’. Every presentation is about presenting not only the content, but also yourself. You want to impress the others to be a good communicator.

More importantly, there are certainly easy ways to make such briefing better. For example, asking ‘answer-able’ questions, leaving those dry facts as pre or post-course reading, and of course spending a few thinking about WIIFM. And more can be done if you are willing to spend more time!!