Tag Archives: Michael Parker

Performing at the top of your game.

At my regular early Sunday morning session with tennis coach Preston I was, for some reason, on fire! On my toes, relatively speaking, and middling it. Well most of the time. Concentration was easy, my mind surprisingly alert and focused but relaxed at the same time. In short I performed at the top of my game.

This was not planned or deliberate. It was a happy accident. This is not the case for top professionals in sport.

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Usain Bolt’s posturing at the start is not a casual act. Long before the race he will have stopped worrying about technique or the conditions or his competitors. In warm up he will have gone through his own well considered preparation, enabling him to arrive at that moment of truth, the start, in the right frame of mind. Totally relaxed, totally alert and even able to ‘act’ to undermine his rivals without loss of focus.

Few business people, who are also of course professionals, seem to take the Usain approach into the pitch. Constant revisions to content, late arrival of props or the frantic last minute rehearsal all work against the right frame of mind for giving a best performance!

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Pitching from the pulpit was simpler.

It must have been much simpler for religious leaders to communicate their message in the ‘good old days’. The days much loved by BBC costume drama when seemingly there was little to do save embroidery if you were a woman. The highlight of the week, shared by men and women, was the visit to church.

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Here the preacher was in full command. A pulpit from which to dominate. Worshippers who had no competing messages from radio, television or internet. No points of comparison. For them any preacher, great orator or poor, was the unchallenged authority. If mistakes were made no one outside the congregation knew of them.

Twenty First century life is not so simple. The BBC will have more people covering the Pope’s four day visit than the World Cup, some 400. Their interpretation of every word, nuance and gesture will be seen by the world. No wonder his communication advisers have issued these helpful, if somewhat bizarre, terms.

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The appalling idiot Pastor from Gainesville, with a congregation of less than 50, did not need any helpful tips to pitch his hate message globally. Not so simple?

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CARNIVAL FEVER PITCH!!

The sun shone most of the time on the Notting Hill carnival today. Not that rain would have dampened the exuberance. Too many performers have anticipated the day, planning that started the day the last one ended, creating ever more exotic costumes, 100 strong steel band rehearsals,floats louder than ever, building to the fever pitch of carnival.

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It was an experience anticipated by half a million people. They were not let down. It was joyful, surprising, engaging, vibrant, creative and loud.

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Compare with the average business pitch. Formal, predictable, safe. And yet this audience too will have arrived with a sense of anticipation, hoping for a performance that if not loud is surprising, engaging, vibrant and creative.

Next time you pitch, add a touch of carnival!

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Are there any Churchills out there?

An article in the Daily Mail, marking the anniversary of Churchill’s “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few ” speech, posed the question: could any modern politician have made this speech? Or one like it.

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The answer is no. Not because there is not in Britain some smouldering orator waiting to ignite but because there is no situaton so desparate or despairing that calls for such a speech. Great orators greatest performances have been in response to a passionately held need to ‘bring a nation with them’, to change their views.

In the second half of the 20th century the few recognised orators include Martin Luther King- “I had a dream”, J.F.Kennedy- “think not what your country can do for you..” ( imitated by Cameron) and, less happily, Enoch Powell and his infamous “rivers of blood”. This century Obama- “Yes We Can” is the only English speaker seen as a true orator.

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The answer is also no because of the medium. Orators need platforms and audiences not the conversational approach of television. David Cameron’s celebrated ‘no notes’ platform speech at the Blackpool conference, whilst not great oratory, did win him the leadership. Churchill’s platform was, of course radio. Not as we know it today but radio as the nation’s lifeline with a captive and spellbound audience hanging on his every word.

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Rehearsal or run-through? What’s the difference.

My last post, Make Feedback your Friend, described how experimental opera performers subjected themselves to the potentially painful criticism of a live audience. An extreme form of rehearsal and rehearsal is something many pitch teams go out of their way to avoid. They settle instead for the run-through.

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Is this enough and what’s the difference?

The run-through is a necessary activity. It will involve talking through likely content, who says what and for how long, a discussion on visual aids, working out timings and hand-overs, who sits where or stands, how the room will be propped, where will the client sit, what are the likely questions and who fields them and so on.

Necessary but not a rehearsal. Pitching is performance and it is no good escaping the ‘pain’ of rehearsal with a run through. To improve performance you need an audience in front of you. Other members of your team are not good for this. They already know what you are going meant say and will be be more concerned with content than your style.

Any non-participant, given a simple briefing of the context, can raise the value of rehearsal. In any pitch you are putting on a show and in rehearsal you need someone to show off to.

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