It was 5 minutes into our Hero’s Luncheon at the Gold Coast Casino and the speaker was honoring Tim Szymanski for his lifetime of work to keep Southern Nevada safe, when… the fire alarms went off… I was scheduled to give a 45-minute speech I had spent months working on – taking an 8-hour course down to a 45-minute review was tough enough, but when I arrived, I asked the program coordinators where the educational programs were to be held – her response was, what educational programs?
She finally let us have some of the tables that were set for the luncheon – the entire time the caterers were setting up the luncheon, talking and crashing dishes… Tim Moroz was giving a speech on Murphy’s Law in his Toastmasters club. On the way, he got in an accident… How many times has someone in our group prepared a PowerPoint, and that was the one week we didn’t have the big room. Toastmasters has strategies to use when Murphy’s Law takes over your speech: * Don’t blow your cool – you are in charge.
When things beyond your control go wrong, the only thing you can control is your reaction to them. Accept the problems and deal with them. Show your listeners you’re a leader. Prove to them that nothing can rattle you. If you do remain calm, they will pay attention to you and not to Murphy. * Maintain your dignity. Everything that happens up here is either fixable or ignorable.
If you can take care of it quickly without disturbing your speech, great. If not, ignore it. Don’t surrender to the situation. If something goes wrong, don’t let it get to you. * Do your best under any circumstances. If things go wrong, work that much harder to win over your audience. You have to be flexible. Work your way through minor disasters and often your performance will be better for it. * Don’t refer to the problem. Most disasters are quickly remedied – so then just dismiss it. Calling it up will only draw attention to it and make a distraction.
The Essay on One Jackson Don Minutes
"Uh oh, says Lance. "I can see the police. I better pick up some speed." I can still see the prison behind me after five long minutes of hard running through three-foot tall weeds. The searchlights from helicopters above provide adequate lighting for me. I take one step at a time trying not to make any unnecessary noise. As I strip down to my shorts and t-shirt I take notice to how cold it is ...
If you keep bringing it back up, it will look like you’re trying to gain sympathy, or reap revenge on whomever was to blame. Many times most people won’t even realize there was a problem, so never apologize. * Keep your sense of humor. Malfunctions create tension, and tension creates a perfect atmosphere for comedy. In awkward situations, almost everything you do will bring laughter. Take advantage of that. It will not only lighten the moment, but it will add respect from your audience.
