Sep 19, 2024
10:00AM - 11:30AM MDT (Denver)
Ever wake up in the middle of the night, suddenly aware of what you “should have said” in a meeting the day before?
Ever freeze in the middle of a meeting when you’re asked a question that you know the answer to, but you just can’t find the words in the moment?
It seems like some people just have a gift. No matter what question someone asks in a meeting or workshop, they seem to have an articulate, useful answer.
Even when they don’t know exactly the answer, the way they say “I don’t know” seems to only enhance their credibility.
You’re in your role because you know a lot. You have experience. And that knowledge and experience can make a big difference for the people you work with.
But there are those moments when someone brings up an unexpected question or objection, and all that accumulated knowledge and experience suddenly disappears from your brain. Your heart rate picks up. Your start sweating. You’re at a loss for words.
Until the meeting ends. And then you remember—too late—what you could have said.
Not being able to articulately answer questions isn’t just awkward and embarrassing in the moment. It affects your reputation and career progression. It causes people to go to you for help less often. It ultimately reduces your impact.
I’ve been there. I’ve sat in meetings feeling stupid. Knowing I should have a helpful, useful answer, but for some reason, unable to find the words when I needed them.
Fortunately, being able to articulately answer questions in the moment mostly isn’t an innate gift you either have or don’t have.
It’s a skill. A learnable skill.
I’ve been working on developing that skill in myself for more than 25 years. I’ve tried lots of different things. Some worked. Some didn’t.
I finally have a clear model for why some people do this well and some don’t.
I want to save you from having to go through my quarter century of trial and error.
I want to give you the shortcuts to go from “I should have said…” to “I know just what to say.”
What You’ll Learn
- How to get in the right mental state to calmly process questions and bring the right knowledge to bear
- How to use mental models to quickly process what you’re hearing (and some of my favorite mental models for this)
- How to decide when to share content vs asking more questions
- When the question isn’t really the question and what to do about that
- How to prepare so you have words for what you know
- What makes for a good answer
- What to do when you don’t have an answer but still want to be helpful
Who Should Attend
This workshop is for coaches, trainers, leaders, people interviewing for jobs…anyone who needs to bring their knowledge to bear to answer unexpected questions on the spot in a helpful way.
Now, to be clear, we’re not talking about bluffing, faking that you know things you don’t, just trying to look good. I’m assuming you have hard-earned knowledge and experience that would be helpful to others. This is about putting what you know to work. Finding the right words in the moment to be a contribution.
If you don’t have the experience yet, if you want to look like you know more than you do, please focus on getting the experience. Then, focus on sharing it effectively.
But if you have something worth saying and just can’t seem to say the right thing in the moment, I hope you can join me for this workshop. The world needs what you know.
About the Workshop Facilitator
Richard Lawrence 
Richard Lawrence’s superpower is bringing together seemingly unrelated fields and ideas to create new possibilities. Drawing on a diverse background in software development, engineering, anthropology, design, and political science, Richard trains and coaches people to collaborate more effectively with other people to solve complex, meaningful problems.
Richard created the wildly-popular “How to Split a User Story” flowchart, which has been downloaded over 1 million times and translated into several languages.
Richard is a Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer, as well as a certified trainer of the accelerated learning method, Training from the Back of the Room. His book, Behavior-Driven Development with Cucumber, was published by Addison-Wesley in 2019 (for more information, visit bddwithcucumber.com).
When he’s not working with clients, you’ll often find Richard cooking, playing music, practicing Muay Thai, or flying down a mountain on his mountain bike.
Register For This Event
On the Spot: Strategies for Articulating Answers Under Pressure – Sep 2024 (virtual)
Sep 19, 2024
10:00AM - 11:30AM MDT (Denver)