There is a time and a place for everything. Well, for most everything. 

Scripts, be it for your customer experience team, your sales team, or your presentation to the board, have a time and a place. 

The beauty of a script is its uniformity and consistency. The ability to get the precise wording right and be impeccable with your language and tone those words are trying to convey. There’s no need to ad-lib, to riff, or to inject some of your own flair because the words are there and meant to be read. Maybe the stakes are real high, and you want nothing left to imagination or interpretation–by all means, write yourself a script. 

Scripts come in handy when the specificity of the message REALLY matters. Or when there’s little experience in the room, scripts are a straightforward recipe. 

Perhaps you can think of the last time you were on the other end of the script. 

You probably heard the words of that script, but did you FEEL them?

There is also a time when scripts should be shredded, deleted, discarded, and thrown out with the trash. This is when you’re trying to engage in conversations. Have a two-way dialogue. Facilitate a workshop. 

There needs to be a plan, an intention, and a desired outcome for the above. But scripts don’t work in the above examples because only one person in that party has the script. So, half of the conversation is…unscripted. Unplanned. Unknown. 

That’s where the beauty lies. 

Nerve-wracking beauty if you’re not present, in the moment, or unable to respond and react. 

It could get downright a little less pretty if you don’t know your stuff, think you have to have all the answers, or don’t believe the people in the room have anything to contribute. (They do. Chances are they’re just never asked.)

It gets downright ugly if you’re told to “follow the script” literally or metaphorically when you need bring people in and engage them in back-and-forth conversations.

There’s no flexibility. 

There’s no presence. 

There’s no connection. Because unless you’re a kid, you don’t like things to be read to you. 

Pretty sure no one likes to be spoken “at.” You might be getting the words “right” with a script, but you’re not getting engagement. 

There’s a time for a script. 

Trying to connect, engage, inspire or teach–not that time.