One Minute Pause no 21

About one out of every five people we train in presentation or sales skills is a detail junkie.

They are afflicted with detailitis: a common inflammation of the waffle gland.

This is the gland that gives them the urge to keep “waffling”, and carrying on in exorbitant detail.

If that’s you or someone you know who could use some help, there’s a three word solution you can try at the end of this week’s OMP.

But first, why do some people feel the need to go on, and on, and on?

Why do they find themselves mid-way through a conversation explaining something “quickly” for 20 minutes?

Why do they make a point, then repeat it, then rephrase it in a different way, then say it again?

Why do they get side-tracked, move down a different road and seem to forget entirely what they started saying?

(sorry, I’m waffling).

I used to work with a girl called Dianne about 5 years ago.

She was a classic waffler.

Another colleague Tony said of Dianne: “If you gave her the Olympic Torch, she’d run the whole circuit without passing it on”.

Dianne got so wrapped up and caught in detail that whoever was misfortunate enough to be listening lost focus and drifted off.

It seriously affected her work, as her clients and colleagues regularly found excuses not to meet with her.

So, why does Dianne, and about 20% of people out there, get lost in detail?

There’s a few reasons - pick your own for your favourite waffler:

1) Wafflers don’t feel they get enough airtime in other areas of life.

Therefore they store up all the conversation, and the moment they’re given the spotlight, they’re off.

2) Wafflers like the sound of their own voice.

(and think the world is a better place because of it).

They think that if they don’t share their stories, trivia and witticisms they are doing this planet a disservice.

3) Wafflers lose track of time.

Research has shown that around 50% of wafflers go into a time-warp when they speak.

They think 5 minutes is more like 30 seconds.

Seriously.

This phenomena is almost certainly linked to nerves and an advanced, adrenaline-filled state of being - akin to “blanking out” even while conscious during part of a skydive.

4) Wafflers are indecisive

Their waffle is just their mind’s voice developing thoughts.

There’s no right or wrong, or black and white, because they think of thirteen possible things to say all at once.

Kind of like doing a Control F in their head and finding every word or concept that closely resembled the one they had just heard.

They then launch into them all, seemingly at once.

5) Wafflers don’t check themselves.

They don’t pause, or reflect. They don’t have an internal editor - a little voice saying “get to the point!”

Out of all of the reasons above, I think the last one is the most common.

The great news is that it’s also the most treatable.

(They are all treatable to some degree - more on the others in later OMPs).

When people are making a spoken presentation, and they start to waffle and lose direction, I encourage them to switch on their “internal editor”.

They are asked to imagine that this internal editor is yelling out “get to the point.”

To help people to get to the point, they should try to say the following magical three words, out loud:

“The point is…”

It’s hard to say this and not get back on track.

Almost impossible.

So next time you find yourself waffling, try the three magic words.

Or if you spot someone else with detail-itis, suggest in a friendly manner that you’ve lost track and say “sorry, what was your point again”?

Maybe their waffle gland will get some welcome relief.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2005 at 8:43 am and is filed under One Minute Pause. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.