Prince Harry and the flyaway speech – what would Dave Brailsford say?

Poor Prince Harry. A gust of wind, a flimsy piece of paper and hey presto – egg on face. A good recovery, in fairness to HRH but for him, and us, a salutary lesson in how a small detail can derail a presentation. Cue Dave Brailsford and his aggregation of marginal gains. In layman’s terms this is about attention to detail and, in the context of presentation skills training, translates into meticulous preparation and anticipating problems. So, perhaps Harry should have had a spare script in his pocket; perhaps his notes should have been on smaller, heavier cards; perhaps the paper should have been attached to a clipboard. These are the sorts of marginal gains which have enabled Dave’s ‘disciples’ to progress from Olympic bronze to gold (eg cycling) and can enable us to advance from average to excellent presenters. After all, we might not have such nifty footwork as Harry!