If there is one lesson I’ll be working to learn all of my life, it’s this: be on time. I have a life-long habit of running late. My kids even gave me a t-shirt one year for Mother’s Day that said, “sorry I’m late.” It’s not that I’m trying to be disrespectful or that I’m disorganized. In fact, the reason I usually run late is that I’m trying to do too much. I feel like if I have 5 minutes until I need to be leaving, I can accomplish 43 more tasks. Which I can’t.
But promptness is important. Especially for presenters. So we are going to look at why you need to be fully set up ahead of time and how your audience might perceive wait time given the context of their wait.
Meeting Start Time Shouldn’t Include Set Up
When you set a time for the presentation to start, you should be ready to deliver your opening sentence at that exact time. Meeting start time doesn’t mean that’s when you will start setting up or getting help with the technology. No, all of that should happen ahead of time. Think about how it could negatively affect your credibility for your audience to watch as you shuffle through screens, work with the technology, and get your notes ready. They should walk in to see a presenter who is already ready to go.
Our tip is to generally plan to have your presentation ready to go 15 minutes before your scheduled start time. That means arriving 30-60 minutes before a presentation so you can get set up. Keynote speaker and presentation coach Michael Hudson says, “It is the responsibility of the presenter to determine the setup of the room in which they will present.” That means allowing time for adjusting the seating layout, the temperature, the volume controls, and more.
You can assume that most of your audience members will arrive during that 15 minutes prior to the presentation. That means you’ll already be ready to go and you can relax and prepare yourself mentally. More importantly, you can use those minutes right before the presentation to engage with your audience members as they come in. If you can form personal connections with them prior to the start of your presentation, you are already building your credibility and likeability ahead of time. And that means they will be more open to your message once the time comes to begin.
We Perceive Wait Times Differently Depending on the Context
It is pretty universal that humans don’t like to be kept waiting. We view our time as valuable. And as speakers, we need to respect the time of our audience members. But not all waits are created equal.
David H. Maister published his research findings about how our perceptions of wait times perceptions differ in his article, “The Psychology of Waiting Lines.” His findings are fascinating and can shed light on how what our audience members might be thinking when they are waiting on the presentation to begin. Here are some of his findings about how people perceive wait times.
- Occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time.
- Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits.
- Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits.
- Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits.
- The more valuable the service, the longer the customer will wait.
- Solo waits feel longer than group waits.
We should aim to always start on time. However, if something comes up that delays the start of your presentation, use Maister’s research to help the wait feel shorter. For example, give your audience something to do or discuss. Have them work in groups. If you are able, tell them about how long the wait will be. All of those things might not help you get started any faster, but it will change the context and feeling of the wait for your audience.
Starting on time is an important practice to get into as presenter. It’s tied directly to both your audience’s perceptions of you the speaker and to their level of satisfaction or frustration.
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