Your environment makes a difference

Just planning the workshop on Keeping Motivated that I am running next week.  One thing sprang to mind in relation to procrastination techniques that people use.  They tidy up their desk or office as a way of avoiding the work they don't want to do.  However this can also be for other reasons.  Your working environment can make a difference to how you perform.  Do you need to have space, order or calm to deliver your best work?  How important is the environment to you?

I know that the environment can play a major role in the success of a speaking event.  I have spoken at some venues that are just awful, where the event organiser has not considered factors like the shape of the room, possible external distractions, natural light etc. and then the event does not deliver the desired results.

Once I spoke at a corporate conference that had been arranged at a race track!  I only had 3.5 minutes or less, to say something inspiring before the next flurry of fast cars passed outside at high speed.  Very distracting.  So make sure you consider environment today if you want to achieve your best work.

Comments

[David Montgomery]

"environment can play a major role in the success of a speaking event."

Sue,
how true and yet how easily overlooked this is. I remember faciltating a two-day seminar using a room with a huge pillar running down the centre of it which obscured the view for many of the audience. And the hotel also overlooked to tell me that there was no place to put a screen since they thought we could project on the wall -- the wall had patterned wallpaper albeit not coloured. On the upside, members of the audience were spared some of the presentations which went on for well over an hour on highly technical, fact laden subjects!

Much amusement followed during question-and-answer sessions when the speakers could only hear but not see the people racing the questions. Always check and check again the facilities which are being provided.

Another similar horror story followed when I was running a train the trainer course in what appeared to be a very functional hotel in Germany. All of a sudden there seem to be an earthquake -- there was a mainline train which ran through the edge of grounds. Another example of learning by experience.

David