Dog and Pony Show, Wed 3/5/08

[sr71blackbird]

My company was bought out by this huge multinational over a year ago now, and we have been slowly brought into their way of doing things, and it is an ongoing process that may take years. The CEO of this company is making his first visit to our facility tomorrow for a "town hall" meeting and after that, he will make a walk though of our department.
Guess who my manager has arranged for him to sit with and show him a sample of what we do and are capable of doing?

You guessed it!

I am obviously a little nervous and hoping I do not freeze up or have a panic attack! This is big, and I have a feeling all eyes will be on me for a while and I am trying to get myself ready. I tend to magnify my fears until they loom larger than they are justified in being.

Has anyone else ever been the subject of a dog and pony show? Any tips or calming words for a bundle of nerves?

[LaBoob]

Absolutely. I also had to give a presentation in front of my company's CEO about a year back and thought I was going to crap myself. Hopefully you have SOME public speaking/presentation skills, but if you don't I think it'd be best to start here:

- Find your main focus... similar to narrowing your whole essay down to one single thesis statement. This gives you a place to start.
- Create an outline highlighting several points you want to focus on. Some people find it useful to make index cards...
- Practice (out loud!) so many times that you eventually make very few mistakes and don't really need your outline anymore.

Being extremely familiar with your talking points creates a confidence that will show during your presentation. It's really important that you relax and be conversational... rushing takes away precious time that can be spent thinking ahead to your next point.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[KnoxHarrington]

I've had some dealings with the CEO and other upper management of my company. I actually found them cool to work with and really eager to listen to you. They're really isolated from what goes on in the trenches of their companies, and I think they see it as a chance to get a sense of what's really going on without some ass-kissing middle manager bullshitting them.

[Crippler]

I had a similar situation, at least for my industry, about a year ago.

I work in the pharmaceutical field as a formulator. The year was ending & the Director of New Formulations (my boss) came to me & the other Formulator & asked us to make sure we purchased the new equipment we had originally put in the budget for the year, even though we didn't really need any of it quite yet. He wanted to make sure we used up the money allocated for the ending year, lest we lose it &/or have to jump through all the hoops again to get the o.k. to make the purchases in the next year.

The new year came & the equipment arrived, but still we weren't at a point in the project where we needed any of it yet. Apparently a VP was actually doing his job, unluckily for us, & noticed that four new pieces of equipment had all been purchased right at year's end. I'm not sure how much shit my boss was in (cause he's kind of a nervous guy to begin with & us lowly formulators never get the full scoop anyway), but suddenly he was spinning through the labs like the Tasmanian devil, looking for my coworker & I to whip up a "dog & pony show" for the VP who would be visiting the next week.

This was at the end of the day on a Tuesday & we had until the following Monday to create our presentation. So we had basically three working days to learn how to use four new pieces of equipment. Not a daunting task in general, but the problem lies in the fact that our formulation was not nearly at the stage where we would begin using these machines. The formulation we were working with (a dry powder blend that needed to flow through a tablet press) at the time would have been a mess if we put on the machines as it was currently constituted. And three days was not nearly enough time to fix all that was wrong with it, as it had taken three months of tweaking to get where we were.

Luckily my coworker has been working in this field for 30+ years (to my mere 5). He whipped up a placebo formulation so we could go through the motions. I added the cooking show angle of having the next step ready at each machine so we could show the bosses everything & still get them out of our hair in about 30 minutes instead of spending the day firmly planted in our asses as we waited for each step to fully run its' course.

The presentation went off without a hitch, the VPs were more thrilled with our new toys than even we were, & our Director lived to see another day.

Certainly it's different from field to field, but in this situation it was a case of our immediate bosses knowing their shit, but when you go any higher than that & you begin dealing with people who know what the numbers & the outcome are supposed to look like, but are dealing from a base of all theory & no hands-on experience. So as long as you remember that you know more about what you're doing than they do you can summons the confidence to hold court like it was grade school show-n-tell.

Anyway, I don't know if that'll help your situation much depending on what field you're in. Either way, just remember that you know your shit & let the confidence flow from that. Best of luck to you & let us know how it worked out.

[topless_mike]

probably too late by now, but confidence is key.
remember- he's just a normal guy as well, only more well-paid.

[jonyrotn]

My company was bought out by this huge multinational over a year ago now, and we have been slowly brought into their way of doing things, and it is an ongoing process that may take years. The CEO of this company is making his first visit to our facility tomorrow for a "town hall" meeting and after that, he will make a walk though of our department.
Guess who my manager has arranged for him to sit with and show him a sample of what we do and are capable of doing?

You guessed it!

I am obviously a little nervous and hoping I do not freeze up or have a panic attack! This is big, and I have a feeling all eyes will be on me for a while and I am trying to get myself ready. I tend to magnify my fears until they loom larger than they are justified in being.

Has anyone else ever been the subject of a dog and pony show? Any tips or calming words for a bundle of nerves?

Always look him in the eye.This will keep his attention.. Pretend he is the only person in the room, because in his mind he is.
Make him feel as though he is not sure wether you wanna rip his throat out:annoyed: or give him a big hug..:smile:.
Speak an octive or two lower then normal.This will earn you the much needed "MAN" respect..:drunk:And if he is gay he'll wanna drop to his knees right in your cubical..:wink:
Do not do stupid shit with your hands..:clap:Keep them below your shoulders at all times..
Know what the fuck you are talking about.:king: Nothing is more fatal then blubbering away like a retard.:tongue:

[sr71blackbird]

It went extremely well! In fact I was congratulated by all the upper management who were hanging around my cubicle. It was a great rush and confidence boost. In some way my company is a "casual" kind of place to work, where usually everyone wears jeans and sneakers, but I dressed up in black slacks and a royal blue dress shirt that I get compliments on, and no tie, and I wore Doc Martins oxfords. This guy came in a tailored suit and looked the part.
I think the reason they chose me to show this guy our stuff was because I know all our systems and can wow people with stuff I pull up on the maps. I think the vast majority of what I was able to impress him with was what I showed him on systems that we do not even have! They asked me to locate his house in Scottland and I used maps.live.com and I zoomed in and showed him his house and he was floored by the clarity of the images.

As soon as he left I felt a huge weight lift off me.

[Tall_James]

Good for you! Glad to hear that it went well.

[jonyrotn]

It went extremely well! In fact I was congratulated by all the upper management who were hanging around my cubicle. It was a great rush and confidence boost. In some way my company is a "casual" kind of place to work, where usually everyone wears jeans and sneakers, but I dressed up in black slacks and a royal blue dress shirt that I get compliments on, and no tie, and I wore Doc Martins oxfords. This guy came in a tailored suit and looked the part.
I think the reason they chose me to show this guy our stuff was because I know all our systems and can wow people with stuff I pull up on the maps. I think the vast majority of what I was able to impress him with was what I showed him on systems that we do not even have! They asked me to locate his house in Scottland and I used maps.live.com and I zoomed in and showed him his house and he was floored by the clarity of the images.

As soon as he left I felt a huge weight lift off me.
Glad it went well..I hope you get a raise...:thumbup:

[Crippler]

Good stuff, way to go budday!

[Justice4all]

Way to go sir!
You just showed your immediate boss's that you were able to handle yourself in a stressful situation. Don't be surprised if you get tapped for a promotion and they cite this intance as one of the reasons why.

You should be proud of yourself. You deserve it.

[Furtherman]

Well done, glad to hear of you congratulations.




The first time I heard the phrase "dog and pony show", at my first job out of college, I remember thinking "why are we going to a dog and pony show?" A literal dog and pony show.... as if there ever was once. I'm glad I kept my mouth shut and figured it out.

[frye hole]

Glad to hear it went well ... :thumbup:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a350/stankfoot/mould_dog_pony.jpg

[SouthSideJohnny]

You should have shown him ronfez.net. He would have impressed with all your posts during business hours. Who wouldn't be impressed with "I have a bad case of diarrhea. I prefer the light bung hole myself" above your avatar?

Seriously though, congratulations.