Some Assembly Required

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?  

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.

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See - totally worth it ;)

(Dunk Video Below!  Nice work Kennie Mac!!)