INCORPORATING IMPROVEMENTS

Not all of the comments I get in feedback about my presentations are useful. Sometimes they don’t make any sense at all. For example, someone may suggest that I go much more in depth on a topic that was too far flung. Or a person suggests video clips or music when that much audiovisual support would not have been feasible.

Even so, I try to go through any suggestions I receive with my mind as open as possible. This isn’t always easy. When you work really hard on a presentation, you have a depth of involvement that makes it hard not to be defensive. How can you allow your “child” to be subjected to such unfair criticism? I try to remind myself that a presentation is a product. I created it, sure, but it is not me. It is separate from me. And so when what I feel like are darts being thrown at that product, I can maintain a distance that allows me to better evaluate which darts should stick and which should be immediately removed and discarded.