Being One of Several Safety Speakers

As a professional, I often follow the remarks of other safety speakers before me. Either the plant manager or corporate executive may be making comments to open the meeting. You, also, may be speaking at a safety conference following another speaker. You can take advantage of either of these circumstances to enhance your presentation.
Whenever you are one of several presenters at an event it would serve you well to listen to those who precede you. Take notes, especially of concepts or ideas you agree with and would like to reinforce.

Build From Their Remarks

Ask yourself what parts of your presentation would be appropriate to refer back to in order to connect their point to yours. You can build from their point and add to the professionalism of your talk. I once had a CEO tell me it was as if I had a copy of their remarks ahead of time, which they knew wasn’t the case. Safety speakers who use this technique effectively can add their previous speakers credibility to theirs. Also, if they stay for your talk you will impress them. First, they will know you listened and second, you clearly understood their ideas.

Check For Credibility With Audience

As to the credibility, likeability, or reputation of the speaker before you, it is a good idea to check it out. I ask the person who hired me if the other safety speakers are respected and known for supporting safety. In my case, the answer is almost always yes or the leadership wouldn’t have allowed the safety team to bring in a speaker like me. If you know another speaker on the agenda isn’t respected you want to avoid linking your material to them.

What If You Disagree With Another Speaker?

What is the best approach if the speaker before you has said something with which you disagree? The good news is when you share your concepts they are more likely to be remembered because you spoke later. A big mistake some safety speakers make is to openly disagree with the previous speaker. This is ineffective because even if they are totally wrong in your opinion, there may be members of the audience who were influenced by them. If the audience has a neutral or positive impression of them or their points they will think less of you if you declare they are wrong.

One of my mentors taught me to say, “The previous speaker (you can use their name) had some interesting distinctions and I’d like to give you some further insights and perspectives to consider.” Notice I said, “further” as opposed to “different” or “opposing”. You can make it seem as if your concepts are the next natural level of thinking on the subject.

Solutions For Your Safety Challenges
When you need the best of the safety speakers available please give Diane Weiss a call at 209-745-9419 and bring John to your site to discover injury preventing solutions. You can email her at diane@drebinger.com
Until next week,
I’ll be, “Watching Out For Everyone’s Safety™”
John
© 2017 John Drebinger Presentations
Permission to use granted when credited and contact information included. www.drebinger.com +1 209.745.9419