View this in your browser.

I pay my respects and acknowledge all Traditional Custodians of Country and on whose land I live and work. I recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.
Always was, always will be.

Hi! I'm Michael.

Welcome to this week's useletter.

The newsletter that's useful. Focussed on your future not my past.

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a talk at the Practice Matters Symposium.

(I mentioned it in the previous useletter.)

It was carefully scripted and I'd planned to read it from my iPad,

and, as always, I had an IT back-up plan, BUT

My backup plan failed!

It wasn’t disastrous. More annoying and embarrassing. Leaving me feeling unprofessional and concerned my message might have been lost in my mis-step.

Yet, as we know, failure can often help us to learn some key lessons and gain insights into falsely held beliefs. Hence, I've been reflecting on my take-aways.

I learnt something about myself. More importantly I learnt what to do next time.

They might not be universal truths, but I trust there's lessons for more than me.

I got you.

PS: I edited the talk and posted it last week on my blog: The Most Dangerous Thing

Fark fark fark

Let's dive straight in.

What happened?: Half-way in to my talk, I jumped ahead a page and missed a part.

Outcome: There was an important bit I missed. At an appropriate point I went back to the page. There was also another bit I missed, I left out, it was superfluous.

Lesson: Focus on what’s important and keep that the focus of the talk. If something can be deleted without impacting the key points, delete it. Succinct is better.

Circumstance: The talk was obsessively scripted.

Two falsely held beliefs: 1: I considered it to be the only way I wouldn’t go over time.
2: Also thinking an exacting wording was the way to have the greatest impact.

Lesson: Most people won’t notice the detail, just the main points. You’ll come across better if you don’t obsess and don’t read! And you're fine talking off the cuff!

Event: It wasn’t immediately apparent when I skipped a page, continuing for a while before recognising something was wrong.

Falsely held belief: Paper is reliable. Plus, I didn’t need to test the back-up plan!

Lesson: When you calmly pause, acknowledge, assess, and improvise a way forward, most people will cheer you (metaphorically). People seldom want to hear someone fail.

Also: We’re all human. Yes, I might have felt unprofessional, but no-one is perfect and it’s OK to be human.

Also: Number your freakin’ pages! (And/or staple them.)

What I did: Improvising in order to piece the talk back together.

Outcome: A friend told me afterwards, the improvised riffs were more engaging.

Lesson: We all know more than we think we do. If our message and thinking is clear, it doesn’t need to be word perfect and there's space to riff. Indeed it'll likely come across more naturally and clearly than a rigid lecture.

Postscript: The bit I'd skipped and returned to, was the provocation that started the most conversations. To my surprise, that message wasn’t lost in the mess-up. Instead the content's impact was such that at least one person forgot I'd stumbled.

Things are seldom as bad in reality as they are in the mind.

You got this

The culture of practice workshops

Workshops ending with better practice

Master practice skills, leadership and elevate your team’s culture.
Build a more efficient and adaptable practice, with a plan for the future.
Level up team skills to amplify practice capabilities, wellbeing and passion.ion.

Free 45 minute Practice Clarity Consultation

Book a consultation