When I teach people to cater their communication to an audience’s needs (and adjust their delivery based on audience feedback), I offer them this fascinating story instead of boring bullet points:
Even Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. went off-script at the March on Washington in order to move listeners: His famous “I have a dream” line wasn’t even written into what he had meticulously planned to say. Instead, he was giving his planned speech that day, but it just wasn't resonating with the crowd in the way Dr. King was famously capable. Thus, a full eleven minutes into King’s planned speech, Mahalia Jackson shouted from the crowd, “Tell ’em about the dream, Martin!” King recognized his audience needed that valuable message, but as he scanned the audience he saw their nonverbal cues that they weren't as moved as he would have liked. So, following Ms. Jackson's advice, King spontaneously went off-script and launched into the “I have a dream” description, giving the millions watching exactly what they needed to hear, and offering what became the most remembered words from that speech (and arguably any other). No matter your audience, you need to adjust what you share and how you share it to match their specific needs and remain in tune with how your message is landing. Stay flexible, like Dr. King did, and (like him) your words might just change the world.

Stories of my ever-changing surroundings are intriguing, particularly when contrasted against one another. My first time teaching at the University of Cambridge, they put me up in Jesus College where I got to reside in the entire tower of what used to be a 12th century nunnery; I had a butler and they were excavating at the base of my stairs - it was sublime. Whereas when training teachers and delivering keynotes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (where 15 United Nations workers were massacred right after I left) there was a bit of a walk between my hotel and were I spoke; the local ladies wore very classy and beautiful dresses, yet I would from race from site to site in my pants and cross-trainer shoes to stay safe (albeit unfashionable). The 1st time I spoke on a panel of Mensan researchers and writers at International Comic-Con in San Diego, I asked ahead of time about what to wear and felt sheepish wearing jeans instead of a suit, until I found myself surrounded by folks in cosplay (such as a middle-aged man dressed as Harry Potter or a woman dressed as Thor) not just at the convention, but in the streets, on the trolley, and back at the hotel. Every new job seems to hold its own surprises, and I delight in discovering what they will be.