Three Steps for Building Participative Audiences Every
Time, Warning – Some Assembly
Required
If you are anything like me, the loathsome phase “some assembly required” on the box is
nothing but a taunting harbinger of impending frustration. Fully armed with this knowledge I recently
set about assembling an indoor basketball goal for my thirteen month-old (and
future WNBA star) daughter. The joy of
seeing her first slam-dunk would surely be worth the aggravation, right?
I am proud to say the hoop is now standing tall and montages
of my daughter’s dunks will soon be YouTube fodder, but it certainly wasn’t
without the occasional frustration. At
one particularly aggravating moment, usually calm Super-Dad took the tiny
orange basketball and slammed it down with an exasperated grunt.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, my innocent angel comes
toddling over, picks up the bright orange basketball, faces the hoop and…
slams the ball down on the ground with a perfectly-mimicked grunt of dear old
Daddy. My instructions were to shoot the ball into the hoop. However, my training had begun far
before then – she learned what to do by carefully watching Dad.
Now I am going to assume your audiences aren’t comprised of
13-moths olds, however many of us do the same thing with our classes every
presentation and scarcely realize it. I
can’t count how many times I have heard presenters bemoan a “rough crowd” or
“tough audience.” Nonsense! If you want a presentation that’s a
participative smash every time, you can’t just give instructions. Instead, we “train” our participants to be
just that; participants, with words and the subtlety of our
actions.
Here are three great steps to creating and “training” a more
participative audience every time:
1
- “No” means NO; as in ‘no more participation’
We all get an occasional crazy
response to a question. Be careful how
you respond! Saying “no” or “wrong” will
likely bring a screeching halt to any future participation from that person (and
even others in the audience who want to avoid a similar scolding). Instead,
when an answer is off base, try a gentler response like, “Ok, I see where you
are going. What about _____” and simply
redirect them in the path you need the discussion to go.
If you can do it with confidence
and a smile, your classes will flow nicely and you’ll never appear to be
“controlling” the discussion.
- Play the Maestro
It is possible to ask questions
without ever literally ASKING for an answer.
Get in the habit of encouraging participants to respond with the inflection
of your voice, a nod of the head and nice open palm gestures. By ending sentences with a question with an
upward inflection and a raise of the eyebrow, maybe even a flat, open palm
gesture in their general direction, my class knows it is THEIR TURN to
talk. More than half the room usually will. NOW we have good participation and never had
to ASK for it.
 |
| I'm Ron Burgundy?? |
(Warning - do NOT turn this into your Ron Burgendy impression - it's a subtle art...)
- Fun is contagious
Don’t take yourself too
ultra-seriously! It is a normal new
presenter phobia; “what if they don’t think I’m credible” or even “I need to
make sure everyone knows I’m the expert” so we take the stage just a little too
serious and over-directive and the result is we intimidate all but the rare
person who WANTS to challenge us, into silence.
Have some fun! Smile!
Don’t worry about answers being “right” or “wrong.” Instead foster a
culture that encourages the process of questioning
rather than the end result of answering. A good presenter orchestrates the day as
opposed to dominating it. The outcome is
usually a group that debates, discusses, and challenges themselves to better
learning.
Good luck with your next
presentation or class – and remember, some of the most influential training
doesn’t happen with our words. It is possible
to build a great audience in any circumstance, just remember some slight
assembly might be required.
****
See - totally worth it ;)
(Dunk Video Below! Nice work Kennie Mac!!)
