Excerpted from Zoller's The Choreography of Presenting.

1. Ways to Recover with Grace
...when you make errors while
presenting.

2. Based on Zoller’s The Choreography of
Presenting

3. Distance yourself from the error to create
amnesia (to help the participants
forget about the error). Move to a new location in
the room to anchor new memories. This reaction
will set the stage for any other actions you do in
relation to recovering.

4. What happens when you give a response and you can tell that your
participants don’t favor it?
First, Zoller suggests you break and
breathe. This means as you take a step to a new location (remember
location has memory!) you exhale, break eye contact with the
audience,
and drop your gesture. This allows some processing time for both you
and the audience. As you take up your new location, point to the
original location and say something like, “That response missed the
target. Here’s another perspective.”

5. What happens when the whole group reacts because an individual asks an
inappropriate question, or dominates the conversation, or even asks
questions that only pertain to him/herself? You can tell because it is
like the group freezes or even stops breathing! People usually react in
one of three ways:

6. They may act shocked. In this case, you can respond to the inappropriate
comment in a positive manner. You might paraphrase it in such a way as
to lead it back into the subject at hand. If in question form, answer it
briefly and succinctly, and move on.
Groups may also react in a confused manner. When this happens, you may see
members of your audience turn slightly to their neighbors and hold their
breath. To get them back to feeling emotionally safe, answer or respond
in earnest – much like with the shocked group.
Finally, groups may react in an annoyed manner. This group finally becomes vocal
(“tsk, tsk”) when a participant dominates the conversation, incessantly
makes comments, or even questions the credibility of the presenter. The
group wants the presenter (you!) to take control and shut down that
particular behavior. An effective way to do this is say something like,
“Hold that idea and we can talk during the break.”

7. When a group is no longer listening...
What do you do when a group is no
longer listening? How can we bring
them back into a state of receptivity,
you might ask yourself. Try
interrupting yourself at a point in your
delivery that is abnormal. This might
be in the middle of a word and pause
for just a second. Then step to the
side and restate your sentence more
slowly and in a quiet tone.

8. When you really “step in it”...
So far, we’ve explored what to do with relatively
minor presentation faux pas. But what about
when you really step in it? Consider using self-
deprecating humor. It might look and sound
something like this:
Stop, break and breathe before taking a step
away from your location.
Point to the old location and say something like,
“Ha!, I would never say that!” Then pointing to
where you are currently standing, say something
like, “What I would say is this…”

9. Other glitches...
What about when you lose your place? Instead of vocally stating
what you are thinking (“Oh goodness, the computer froze up
again….let me see how to get this thing working…”) consider having
your audience doing a little work themselves while you “recover.”
For example, you could say, “For the next minute and a half, please
turn to a partner and share the three key points you have taken
away from the last hour.”
OR “You have five minutes to discuss with your group any questions
you have about the last
topic. Please come to consensus on two questions you will share
out with the rest of the group.” You now have time to find your place,
fix the frozen computer, or figure out how to recover.