Presentation

Could I give a presentation, please. On Change Management. To the global Salesforce. Just as we had turned the entire Sales organisation upside down.

“Yes of course!” was my reply. It sounded positive, but on the inside it felt like confessing to a gruesome crime. Because: Sales and Human Resources are often not singing from the same hymn sheet,

And now I was to be the face of the Sales transformation. A change process that was not entirely flawless. I now got to be in front of a room of 200 Sales hotshots and tell them how flawless everything was.

My mission: how to avoid getting lynched.

I used my two trumps. I snuck into the room early in the morning. Took the three steps up to the stage with a focused mind. Touched the lectern. Experimented with the remote. Looked at the screen behind me. And took in the view in front of me.

I added one slide to my Change presentation. A man in the stocks.

After I entered the stage, I used this slide to say exactly how I felt… The ice was broken. They saw I was human. My story was heard.

Good preparation is essential. Yet a healthy dose of self-deprecation does wonders sometimes.