Attention to detail – what time was my presentation scheduled for?

A week ago Nick Skellon put on the Public Speaking group at LinkedIn a story titled The Unfortunate General Mack which he had told on his Whole-Brain Presenting web site along with a YouTube video. Nick said:

“This story could be used to open a presentation that has to do with attention to detail. Let's say you have a new product launch and your account managers are preparing their presentations before visitng (sic) their major customers to tell them about it. You want to make sure that all the bases are covered, that every t has been crossed and every i dotted, that no sill (sic) mistakes have been made ...”

His main point is Austrian and Russian armies had planned to meet on October 20, 1805 to outnumber and confront Napoleon’s French army. The Austrians used the newer Gregorian calendar, but the Russians still used the older Julian calendar, which lagged by 12 days. The Russians didn’t show up until November 1st! Instead of outnumbering Napoleon’s forces General Mack’s Austrians were outnumbered, and rather than glory he won historical infamy.  

On that video Nick took about eight minutes to tell the story. For me it was so ancient as to be completely irrelevant. His story failed the What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) test. It would be much better to talk about a contemporary problem we can have with different time zones. Neglecting them can lead a speaker to have a worst moment.

Suppose we were told we will be speaking in Ontario, Oregon at 2:00 PM. We might incorrectly assume that city is on Pacific Time since almost all of that state is. But Ontario is in the exceptional southeastern Malheur County which instead mostly is on Mountain Time. Economically it’s part of the Treasure Valley and goes along with nearby Boise, Idaho. When we show up at 2:00 PM Pacific Time it will really be 3:00 PM Mountain Time. As shown above, we came an hour late – which is completely unacceptable. Oops!

Another exception further south is the small city of West Wendover, Nevada. It was moved out of the Pacific Time zone because of strong economic ties between it and the neighboring state of Utah (on Mountain Time). West Wendover is best known for its casinos, and is the subject of a Lewis Black comedy routine containing very rude language.

As is shown above on a map, the majority of U.S. states (about thirty) are on a single time zone, but the others are split between two of them – typically divided east and west. But instead Idaho is split north-south. The north is on Pacific Time to match with adjacent eastern Washington, while the south is on Mountain Time to match our other neighbors Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. 

Another problem occurred when some areas like Indiana did not consistently observe Daylight Saving Time. (In Europe that shift is instead called Summer Time). Back when I worked in Columbus, Ohio (late 1980s to mid 1990s) I quickly learned to ask on the telephone before planning a meeting in Indiana, and make sure if their time matched ours or not.

Nick is in the United Kingdom, which instead all is on a single time zone. But as soon as you need to cross the channel to France you may have the same problem, as shown above in a map.

Yet another potential problem occurs when Daylight Savings Time starts in spring. Your smartphone or laptop computer will automatically move forward. But if you are staying in a hotel, the cheap ‘dumb’ clock in your room (or your wristwatch) won’t readjust itself.

Back on  March 16, 2015 I also had blogged about What time is it where you will be giving your speech?

Images of time zone maps for the U.S. and Europe came from Wikimedia Commons.