When presenting, one has to be certain you are okay with receiving questions when you tell the audience you would like the presentation to be a two-way conversation. This was the case for me today. I was speaking to the Cape Town chapter of the SA Organisational Development Network, focussing on our approach to Narrative Change Management. What should have been a 60 minute talk turned out to be a 2.5 hour discussion.

A large focus of my presentation was a case study on the Change Story we developed for a certain organisation. We were working with a team of European consultants on the project who were highly skeptical about a story’s effectiveness. Today, after showing a video of one Change Story I passed a comment when discussing the effectiveness of a Change Story that I doubted whether it would have as large an impact in Europe as it does here in Africa.

A hand shot up.

A lady started talking … with a German accent.

She disagreed vehemently.

She reckoned that German’s would love it, and that they needed to develop their story sense and their natural ability to tell stories.

I stand corrected.

Again, be sure you are ready for critique when saying you would like a two way discussion.