Presentation Zen [54]
“Only when you play in a thing,” Ueland says, “do people listen and hear you and are moved.” Your music is believable and authentic because you are “lost in it,” not intellectualizing it or following a set of prescribed rules (notes, instructions). We are moved because the artist is clearly and authentically moved as well. Can this not hold true for presentations? Your presentation is believable because you are prepared and logical, but also because you too are moved by your topic. You have to believe in your message completely or no one else will. You must believe in your story fully and be “lost in the moment” of engaging your audience.
“The waters are in motion all the time, but the moon retains its serenity. The mind moves in response to ten thousand situations but remains ever the same.”
—Daisetz Suzuki
Learning from the Art of Judo
The best presentation advice can be found in unusual places. Consider the following five principles, for example. These precepts offer good advice for delivering effective presentations:
(1) Carefully observe oneself and one’s situation, carefully observe others, and carefully observe one’s environment.
(2) Seize the initiative in whatever you undertake.
(3) Consider fully, act decisively.
(4) Know when to stop.
(5) Keep to the middle.
These are wise words indeed, but these are not “effective presentation principles” at all, they are Jigoro Kano’s Five Principles of Judo as outlined by John Stevens in Budo Secrets (Shambhala; New Ed edition). Yet, it is easy to see how these principles can be applied in your efforts to design and deliver presentations. For example, you may have witnessed a presentation where the speaker could have done much better if he had only embraced the wisdom of principle number (4)—know when to stop. There are times when you may speak longer or shorter than planned, but it must be a conscious decision based on the context of the moment and made by following principle number (1)—observing oneself and the situation, observing others and the environment. This is just one small example illustrating the application of such principles.
Jigoro Kano founded judo in the late 1800s, and although judo is not based on the principles of Zen outright, judo is seen by many to be a great expression of Zen concepts. I have a mountain of respect for people who dedicate themselves to the art of judo. Judo is more than a sport or a mere physical activity born in Japan. To those who practice it, the lessons, wisdom, and experience gained serve to help them in profound ways in all aspects of life.
Commenting on the secrets of Judo, H. Seichiro Okazaki said: “Only by cultivating a receptive state of mind, without preconceived ideas or thoughts, can one master the secret art of reacting spontaneously and naturally without hesitation and without purposeless resistance.”
This idea need not be confined to the mat. Think about the last challenging presentation you had that just did not go as well as you had hoped. Perhaps there was more “pushback” than you expected. Could you have done better by engaging your audience and answering the difficult questions while “reacting spontaneously and naturally without hesitation and without purposeless resistance?” In my experience, when I have received challenging questions from a skeptical or even hostile or aggressive person, a natural, nonaggressive response from myself always proves more effective than showing any irritation or defensiveness. Butting heads is very easy to do, but usually leads to a sure defeat for the presenter.
Presenting Under Fire
At some point, you will encounter a hostile client or an audience member who may be more interested in making you look foolish or derailing you during your talk than getting at the truth. It happens. The key is to remember that they are never the enemy. If there is any enemy at all, it is within us. Even if an audience member does