I help organise the Deliver Sessions meetup in Manchester, and I might get into a good habit of blogging a few notes about each one – I enjoyed looking back at the evening of lightning talks we had in November 2022. Our next session was at Digital Guru’s offices in February 2023, where we had a short talk from me and a longer talk plus group discussion from Robyn Slater.
Neil Vass: A lightning talk on lightning talks
I like encouraging people to try public speaking – and not just because I’m trying to get more speakers at this meetup. I think lots of people like the idea of public speaking, but talk themselves out of it – through nerves, thinking no-one would be interested, or not being sure how to start.
I started with some of the reasons I think giving a talk is a good thing to do. It gives people a chance to learn what we’re doing, what’s important to us and why; and invites feedback and ideas that can help us do things better in future. I’ve had so many good conversations following talks where people have suggested an angle to look into, or a person I should talk to, and it’s helped me learn more.
The act of just getting a talk together helps summarise and bring together exactly what you’re learned or would recommend about a topic. Years ago, I summed up all my best advice about stakeholder management in a “how to disappoint people” talk, and looking back at that still helps me remember lots of lessons that I learned years ago but had forgotten about. I’ve got similar reflections on how to use estimation, Objectives and Key Results, and other topics – even if I never gave these talks in front of anyone, the reflection and pattern-spotting from writing them was such a useful activity.
Lots of people hold themselves back because they feel they’re not expert enough, or that they don’t have anything that hasn’t already been said. That really shouldn’t be a concern. Sometimes, when I hear “world class experts” talk, I’m thinking “well, you’ve run 3 companies and published 4 books on this topic, of course you can do this stuff … but how could I start?”
There’s a real place (for example, Deliver Sessions meetup) for hearing from people who do a job similar to yours, in a situation you recognize, talking about how they’ve tried someting and what they found. It’s relatable and invites people to come and learn with the speaker.
Nina Zakharenko, an experienced public speaker, sums this fear up well in her blog series “the ultimate guide to memorable tech talks”:
“I have nothing new to say, it’s all been covered” is a myth that I hear beginners perpetuate as a way to talk themselves out of speaking.
– Nina Zakharenko
She gives lots more advice on why your unique perspective matters and will be interesting for people.
A lightning talk is a lovely, low-stress way to get started. With the talk being so short, there’s less you’ll have to remember – and less time to be nervously stood up if you’re still getting used to presenting to an audience. And, having just a few minutes puts you in a win-win situation. When I was looking for advice on wedding speeches, they recommend sticking to 5-7 minutes:
- If your topic’s interesting to them and grabbed their attention: you leave them wanting more
- If they don’t find it interesting: they’ll be greatful you didn’t take up much of their time.
At Deliver Sessions, we’re always looking for more speakers and love giving feedback and encouragement to people who are newer to this. The meetup page has contact links for the organisers – message any of us if you’d like to discuss your session idea.
Robyn Slater: Outcomes vs outputs
The main talk was from Robyn Slater, about ideas she’s used as a delivery manager at Co-op to help herself and her team. I loved this talk: full of practical advice on how framing your work differently helps with motivation, focus, and all sorts of other things.
The talk started with personal stories of how Robyn found she’d been thinking more about the logistics of getting work delivered than what it was all for. Looking for ways to connect work to a bigger picture helped her remember why it mattered (”meet these user needs as part of this direction we want our business to move in” is much more interesting than “get this button added”). It also:
- prompted her and the team to look for easier, more creative ways to meet those goals
- helped make better decisions about where to spend time and energy (rather than turn up to meetings on autopilot)
- made her put more attention on how they’ll check whether these outcomes actually get helped by the work they do.
It included lots of examples from books, videos and articles of different techniques to help with this and how they applied to Robyn’s team’s work. She shared a great list of links on Twitter.
Another message that really stuck with me: you don’t need to make everyone (team, stakeholders) stop what they’re doing and reframe everything about how they define work – you can encourage them step-by-step just by thinking about how you talk about things. Every question about how work is progressing is an opportunity to give a little nudge.
Rather than
- “We’re making good progress on output x and should be done next week”,
something like:
- “We’re working towards outcome a. We’re making good progress on output x and should be done next week. We’ll measure y to check progress against outcome a.”
This doesn’t take much longer to say, still answers the question you were asked – and even if it doesn’t change anyone else’s thinking, it has some good prompts for you personally. What is that outcome? And how will you know if this work helps meet it?
More sessions coming soon
If you’re interested in attending (or talking at) Deliver Sessions in Manchester, follow the meetup here: https://deliver-sessions.eventbrite.com
Comments
2 responses to “Deliver Sessions: Outcomes, outputs, other things”
Really motivating and encouraging article, Neil! I can very much relate to Nina Zakharenko’s “I have nothing new to say, it’s all been covered” and general fear of public speaking. It’s always a good reminder to hear that I’m not the only one, and agree that lightning talks can be a great way to start and gain the confidence one needs.
I’ve just blocked out a few hour son my calendar for next week, to (finally) start writing up some potential material that could become a lightning talk.
That’s fantastic to hear, thanks for letting me know this was helpful for you! Good luck with the talk, love to hear how it goes 😃