Welcoming Them In
5 Tips for Talks Audiences Will Love
If you've ever been to a conference, a company annual meeting, or heck - even gone to school at any time in your life, you've undoubtedly experienced a speaker with the dreaded "Ferris Bueller's Teacher Syndrome". (And if that pop culture reference made no sense, treat yourself to a bit of 80's fluff and go watch the movie).
In the movie, Ferris's teacher stands at the front of the room, and whether calling the roll (Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?) or teaching history, he drones on and on, covering fact after fact, seemingly oblivious to the zombifying effect he is having on his students. Heck - he doesn't seem interested himself anymore.
You don't ever, ever, want to be Ferris Bueller's teacher. Not when coaching your staff, presenting to your guests, or communicating with any audience anywhere, any time.
You want your audience interested, thinking about what you are saying, exploring in their minds how it relates to things in their own lives, and connecting on a level that leaves them wanting more. You want them to feel welcome in the conversation, welcome to ask questions, and a part of the subject they came to you to explore. And that means thinking about he language you use in your talks.
Here are 5 things you can do right now to improve your storytelling, commentary and presenting by making your listeners feel welcome and involved in your talk.
Delete your Jargon. Every subject, field or industry has it - specialized language that they use. It's often a shorthand used by people who discuss the ideas frequently and allows them to move quickly to the meat of a discussion. However, if your audience hasn't specialized and researched the way you have, that jargon isn't shorthand, it leaves them feeling left out or worse - like you think you are a superior smarty-pants. They don't get the frame of reference, not because they are dumb (although you may be making them feel that way) but because they are on the first step of a path you may have been on for a while. Delete all of your jargon and replace it with common, everyday language that a layperson can understand. Don't assume people know your terms, define them to make sure that everyone starts with the same foundation.
Identify your main point. What is the one, overarching idea you would love for people to walk away thinking about? Now - think about your talk and treat it like an elevator pitch. People learning new material whether they are in school, at work, or learning for fun at a park, museum or tour, can only absorb so much at once. Some research suggests that audiences only absorb 3-4 new ideas over the course of a one hour talk. Max. If you have 3-4 ideas, and you focus on one organizing sentence per idea, voila - you have an elevator-pitch sized version of your talk. Write one more sentence that pulls those sentences together and voila - you have your main point. Voila!
Edit. If you delete your jargon, you have to take a bit more time to make sure that people have the same starter set of understanding about your topic. This means that you will have less time to focus on the thing you probably want most to communicate. Remember that less is more and look back through your talk - what can you delete? If you were to focus like a laser on your topic, what are the most important things to say? If you identified your main point, anything that doesn't fit the main point should be kept out of your talk. No matter how great the factoid or mini-story, keep that extra info for Q&A and just think how prepared you will be for all of the questions your excited, engaged, tell-me-more audience will have for you.
Keep it clean. I don't mean washing the dirty words out, (although yes - do that too…)I mean stay on point. Don't let those facts that you just carefully edited out, begin to creep back in as you rehearse. I can hear some of you asking why hold back information for the Q&A and make the audience ask questions? Why not just fold it all in at once? See point number 2 - people can only take in so much at a time. If you pause and let them ask questions, you have given them the opportunity to organize the new information in their head. Imagine that they have built a mental cabinet for new information and now they are ready for additional information to put on those newly constructed mental shelves.
Let them lead you. If your audience were visiting you at your home - would you launch into a detailed description of everything in the room and about your recent life events and your ideas on the news of the day while they smile, nod, sip their tea and look for an avenue of escape? Or would you ask them how they are, letting the conversation unfold naturally as you each shared and enquired and responded? It's the same with presenting. If you really let them know that you welcome their questions, they will ask. When you let those questions lead the you through your talk, then you can be confident that at least some of the audience is always interested and engaged in your answer. And as your monologue turns into a dialogue, your audience helps you help them connect to your subject in the ways that are most meaningful for them.
If you have done the above, then like a good host, you have welcomed your audience into your talk. They will thank you for it with their interest and engagement.