Calm has some great sleep stories that I listen to send me to Sleep World.
It is safer than reading briefing papers late at night. You may break you glasses.
I find it more effective than Melatonin. And, I’ve moved away from more traditional sleep aids – booze.
But, you don’t want your meetings with officials/politicians to induce coma like depth of sleep in nano seconds. Here are some simple steps that work wonders:
- Send a pre-read a week in advance. Send the talk or memo a week in advance to the people you are meeting. It will help them understand what you want to talk about and get the answers to the questions you are raising.
- At the start of the meeting, ask if they received the pre-read. Bring a paper copy and hand it over.
- Ask if they have any questions. It is great if they do. It shows they have read what you sent. They may even be interested in what you are about to say. Ask if you should answer the points up front, or slide by side as the questions come up.
- You likely need to rehearse for the meeting. You’ll spot some weird points in the slides that only those who have spent 40 years of their professional life in the sector will understand. You need to get rid of those points. Write down the points you need to emphasize in the meeting.
- You need to adapt your language for the audience you are meeting. They likely don’t under the professional Sanskrit you use.
- Speak with energy and avoid sounding like a robot with no-intonation in your voice.
- Don’t speak like you have dropped 3 grams of amphetamine, so that you are speaking so fast, that your audience can’t keep up.
- Give your audience the chance to ask questions of clarification. The audience were expecting a conversation not 2 hour lecture without any time for questions.
- Add in points to confirm proof of life from the audience, like “do you agree with this point”, “does that make sense to you”, “does that mirror your view/guidelines/criteria”.
- Human beings have evolved not through the magical powers of PowerPoint or Excel data dumps, but through stories. Try and tell your audience a story that will interest them, rather than telling them a story that interests only you are your small group of fellow travelers on the dark web. It can’t be a work of fantasy.
- Record yourself with your iPhone delivering your points. You will hate it. Watch it three times. Listen to see if the words make sense to your audience or is this a message only fit for a post-doc panel with an audience of 5. Then watch it without sound. Do you come across as someone whose eyes prove you have taken 3 grams of amphetamine 15 minutes before you walked into the room, do massage your ear lobes with a weird intimacy? Both times, note down the parts to improve or remove. The record yourself again. I recommend, writing out your script. I don’t use it in the meeting. It is an aide-memoire.
- Note down any follow ups from the meeting and do them ASAP. Make a meeting note after the meeting. Your memory is not as good as you think it is.
If you apply 1-12, some remarkable things happen.
You won’t send your audience asleep when you speak with them. Your talks won’t hit the best seller list on Calm. And, you are more likely to get clarity – in terms of support or objection – quickly. Whilst learning people don’t agree with you is not what you want, knowing so early on and the reasons why, helps you adapt early on.