Two
of my readers shared examples of what goes wrong when a speaker or
trainer doesn’t set the right expectations for their talk or program.
Example
1:
My daughter wants to do a study abroad
program, and she saw a meeting announcement at her college on study abroad
programs. The meeting announcement instructed people to review the website and
come with questions, so that’s what she did. However, at the meeting, all the
presenters did was to review what is on the website. My daughter was terribly bored and felt it
was a waste of time. She had come with specific questions, and she had to hold
them until the very end.
Example
2:
Last week I attended a corporate
training event. As pre-work, we were asked to prepare two slides with our goals
and objectives for the year. I spent at least
an hour preparing the slides and submitted them to the trainer. But the slides were never used during the
training. Instead, during the training,
he asked us to work in small groups to brainstorm goals and objectives on
sticky notes and then post them on the wall. So, the time I spent preparing the
slides was wasted and I felt very frustrated.
Don’t let this happen to you. Don’t frustrate and disappoint your audience
by having them prepare material or questions you have no intention of using.
The next time you have to give a talk, run a meeting or
lead a training program, be clear about your expectations – and then follow
through as promised. You will end up
with a happier audience.
Thanks to my readers for sharing these examples. What examples do you have of speakers or
trainers not following through on expectations?