Looking over the battlefield at Little Round Top

Get to the point, please! That’s what I was thinking as my family and I were listening to the long-winded audio tour of the famous Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg, PA. I bought the condensed version, but it was way too much information for our needs. We sat in the car for ten minutes at Stop #1, then Stop #2; by stop #8 we abandoned the man on the CD. It was getting dark, and we wanted to finish our tour – on to Devil’s Den, and the Peach Orchard, and the Eisnehour Farm. We were very disappointed in the audio tour. We really wanted to absorb the information, but it did not match our needs.

This often happens during presentations as well. The presenter is long-winded and does not budget the needs of the audience with the time allowed. Here’s my suggestion: take your shoes off. That’s right – actually take your shoes off and imagine that you are in the shoes of your audience. What are the “A” priorities that they would like to know? What are the “B” priorities? What are the “C” priorities. When time is crunched – hop right to the “A” priorities and stick with the time constraints.

I will return to Gettysburg, but I will not take the audio tour. I’ll spend more time out of the car walking on the ground where all those soldiers fought for so much. And I’ll also sign up for the Ghosts of Gettysburg tour at night. I hear the whole place is haunted!