Memorization is only the illusion of control.   It’s like driving a kid’s go-cart on a circumscribed track rather than hitting the open road in a Ferrari.   Don’t limit yourself to memorization.

As the moderator, your job is to create an engaging and educational experience for the audience.   This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to get distracted from this essential task. Here are a few things to keep in mind:   Send the questions you’ll be asking to the panelists ahead of time. If you’ll …

Last year I was directing a play with an actor I had never worked with before. Great guy, very talented, doing a terrific job in rehearsal.   Except for one thing. Every time he would “mess up,” he would apologize to his scene partner, to me, to the whole room.   There are a couple …

If someone just told you how excited they are about a particular something, say an upcoming trip to Bermuda, that’s not a great time to trot out your horror story of the time you went and there was a huge storm and you didn’t have power the whole time you were there.   As my …

“What’s next?” seems to be the engine of modern life. What’s next on the list? What do I do next? What if we ask, instead— What’s now?

What to do about the attention hog in the audience?   A few years ago I was moderating a session at a conference, and one of the attendees seemed to harbor a desire to be the main speaker. She piped up at every possible opportunity, giving her opinion at length every time. I could see …

What does the you of tomorrow, literally the day after this one, need to know?   Putting the lists and appointments aside, what’s important?   What do you need to remember about yourself tomorrow in order to show up powerfully, to be generous, to be kind?   What would you write down on a Post-It …

In order to be great at what we do, we need to know how we’re doing. What’s already working? How can we improve?   This simple idea, get a response to how things are going so I can make adjustments, has grown so complicated that it spurs dozens of articles and books every year.   …

Last weekend I roped my son into returning some purchases to the mall with me. It was an annoying errand but one I couldn’t avoid any longer, so we piled the stuff into the car and headed over.   To get to the store we needed, we had to circumnavigate the entrance to find the …

When does your presentation start?   As soon as anyone from the audience can see you.   If there are people in the room as you are setting up your PowerPoint, you’re on. If your class starts to assemble while you’re putting handouts on the table, you’re on. If you have to enter and cross …