We all know that I have a propensity to be somewhat straightforward. Blunt perhaps. Politically incorrect. Periodically rude (according to some). An unfair assessment I say but...
Oh well. I'll cope. Sometimes straightforward is exactly what's needed. Less fluff. Less talking in circles. Less vague... more specific. Less mystery. More honesty. There's a concept.
We can dance around it — or we can call it as it is.
"Err, yes Mrs Smith... well... the test results are back and surprisingly, your child is not big-boned — he actually comes under the clinical classification of... really fat! Huge, even."
"Mrs Smith... Mrs Smith... where are you going?"
"And by the way, no, it's not puppy fat; we checked. It's person fat."
"Mrs Smith, don't throw that table! You'll dislocate something..."
So last night I had to speak at a fundraising dinner. Hundreds of people, big auditorium, six speakers(!), me, the last on stage and a whole twelve minutes to speak. Can you imagine me speaking for twelve minutes? I've never done a twelve-minute presentation in my life. It takes me longer than that to order my lunch. Most of my presentations and workshops last for somewhere between one and eight hours.
As I was driving to the venue, I was wondering how the hell I could have any significant (lasting) impact on a group of people, talking for such a short period of time, and as I'm all about being a catalyst for change and making a difference, I thought I may have to skip a few of the normal, feel-good preliminaries. Okay, all of them. Might have to jump straight into the good stuff and see what happens. So I took to the stage for my twelve minutes of power.
It was the end of the night (a week night obviously), people were tired, it was late, they had already heard five other speakers and endured one of those fabulous charity auctions, and it's fair to say that they probably weren't on the edge of their seats with excitement as the ex-fat kid strode to the podium. I was the only speaker with no notes, no Powerpoint presentation, no impressive visual aids, no handouts — no anything.
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