One of my favorite cartoons from the New Yorker shows a speaker at a podium with the caption, “I will now fend off questions from the audience.” Why does that make me chuckle? Because most of us, when making a presentation, regard the Q&A portion as a war zone. We want to make our presentation (and I realize that “want” may be an overstatement for some) and get the heck out of there without pesky inquiries that threaten to show the holes in our logic, the gaps in our preparation, or the spaces between our areas of expertise.
One of my favorite cartoons from the New Yorker shows a speaker at a podium with the caption, “I will now fend off questions from the audience.” Why does that make me chuckle? Because most of us, when making a presentation, regard the Q&A portion as a war zone. We want to make our presentation (and I realize that “want” may be an overstatement for some) and get the heck out of there without pesky inquiries that threaten to show the holes in our logic, the gaps in our preparation, or the spaces between our areas of expertise.
One of my favorite cartoons from the New Yorker shows a speaker at a podium with the caption, “I will now fend off questions from the audience.” Why does that make me chuckle? Because most of us, when making a presentation, regard the Q&A portion as a war zone. We want to make our presentation (and I realize that “want” may be an overstatement for some) and get the heck out of there without pesky inquiries that threaten to show the holes in our logic, the gaps in our preparation, or the spaces between our areas of expertise.
Read the rest of the article