We’re all under time pressures, so we look for short-cuts. During covid, we learned that we can do business using Zoom or Teams; As a result, when time is short we often trade off personal attendance at a meeting in person or virtually by accepting a video presentation we can watch in our down-time, assuming there is no difference. But is that equally effective?
A member of the Presentation Excellence community contacted me to get my input on a challenge. He regularly attends quarterly presentations by public companies, so he will be “in-the-know” when it comes to making investments in the companies. His challenge is what to do when the company is located in a completely time zone, where the caller makes the call during the local afternoon, but in the U.S. that’s middle of the night!
He planned to catch the recorded video, since he’ll hear everything that way and can then act on it when the stock market opens. He’s learned that getting solid sleep (e.g., about 8 hours) allows him to make better decisions during the day; breaking up the night means risking not making sharp decisions.
What would you do?
As we’ve been teaching for decades, ADAP is the Presentation excellence formula for successful presentations: Audience-Driven, Authentic Presentations. When the speaker is presenting to give the audience information on which timely decisions can be made, then the message in the media (PowerPoint, report, etc.) is only part of the presentation; the other part is how the information is being processed by the audience. This is clearly the case with Investor quarterly reports, because the CEO or CFO presenter knows that how the audience interprets the facts is the real goal; so time is made for detailed Q&A. By being present in the live-audience, the analyst or investor in the audience can not only ask questions but also follow up with additional questions to get clarity on nuances. That’s why the event is actually taking place!
Listening to the video presents the facts of the presentation and the thinking of the people who were live. But if you have a different way of analyzing a situation, then not being present means your mindset is to be a sponge, not to be analytical so you can ask deeper questions! By listening to the video, your mind is NOT challenging what you’re hearing – which is what triggers asking the questions!
If the information you would have asked would have led to making better decisions, skipping the live meeting and just watching others in a recorded video means you will not make as sharp a decision. And if the quality of your decision is reason for seeing the presentation, you lose out.
In sum, ask what you expect to do as a result of the presentation or meeting, before you decide to trade off live-participation vs. simply watching a video of what others say and think.
Keep the questions coming!