Ooops!
I’ve done it. You’ve done it. We’ve all seen it done. You’re giving a presentation and something goes wrong. The papers are out of order. The slide has the wrong font. The projector shuts off. You trip on an electrical chord. The list can go on and on. But the show must go on!
No matter how many times you may run into it, it is always a mortifying experience when something goes wrong in your presentation. You’ve worked hard on preparing and you want the presentation to be perfect. But when it comes to presentations, there is no such thing as perfection! If you are like me and you strive for the perfect presentation, release yourself from that burden right now. Something won’t go right. It’s the nature of the beast.
In theatre, actors spend weeks and countless hours to get a show production top notch. Then they preform the same show 8 times a week. Even with all of that meticulous effort, something always goes wrong. An actor misses his cue. The curtain closes too soon. There’s a wardrobe malfunction. No matter how big the mistake, actors know one thing: the show must go on. They refuse to break the illusion of the show. They pretend as if the mistake was supposed to happen or they ignore it completely and continue on. Actors know that if they draw attention to the mistake, then the audience won’t be able to focus on anything else but the mistake. The show must go on.
You need to use this same philosophy in your presentations. Perfection doesn’t exist, but don’t draw attention to the mistake! If the wrong slide pops up, don’t say, “Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry. I don’t know how that happened. Stupid PowerPoint. I don’t know how it skipped that slide.” Don’t draw attention! Instead, if the wrong slide appears, all you have to say is, “One moment please” and find the right slide. Or better yet, don’t say anything at all and just go find the right slide!
Just like actors in a show, you don’t want to break the illusion. You want to appear confident, credible, and in control. When you point out mistakes and dwell on them, the illusion is broken.
When I see a presenter continually getting flustered at a mistake, the rest of the presentation is like a “Where’s Waldo” game for the audience. When will the next mistake appear? Where will it be? Will I catch it before he does? Don’t let this happen to you. Your show must go on!
Now, if you are the type of person who can’t help themselves and must comment on a mistake, the best thing you can do is have a pre-planned one-liner. Some of the best speakers have one-line humorous responses for common presentation mistakes. In my next article, I will share such one-line responses. If already have one, leave a comment with your one-liner and I’ll put it in the article!
