This morning, I had the opportunity to speak to the Northern California Grantmakers' meeting, which was a fantastic chance for me to speak to a group of people who really help make society better.
Among the many warm, intelligent people I met this morning was Lucy Berhholz. She very kindly blogged a lot of my presentation, but also made me really happy by pointing out a horrible cultural assumption I made while talking:
on timeframes and multi-tasking. His example: being in a meeting getting interrupted by an email newsletter that breaks his train of thought about the email he was looking for. Most of the audience is of a generation that uses email to be less intrusive than the phone.
Lucy's post is great, it even includes audio of the presentation. I pride myself on trying to not talk about things that are too insular or too geeky for an audience, but here I revealed myself for the geek I am. These reminders are really helpful if you're trying to not simply talk to people who are just like yourself.
Appreciate your taking the 'assumption challenge' to heart. Do you know where I can get a "what should I do better' widget?