Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Turning thoughts into ideas through communication

Sometimes the person who gives the presentation learns as much as the audience. After all, we don't really know what we're talking about until we have to talk about it!

This has become clear to me in writing speeches, scripts and other presentations - especially if the client should respond to my first draft by saying, "You know, you gave us exactly what we were talking about and now that we hear it, it's not what we want." In other words, having heard what they had been thinking, they realized they had to think about it some more.

This never bothers me. I'm not a writer so much as a rewriter. In numerous reviews of the material I invariably make more of my own improvements than the client ever requests. Through collaboration we can turn a collection of thoughts into a presentation of ideas.

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Speaking of presenting one's ideas, we note the resignation today of Fidel Castro, whose presentations ran longer than his revolution!

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