Never Do For the Audience What They Can Do For Themselves

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Posted on 3rd June 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Closing Activities |Engaging Mindset |Facilitation |Group Interaction |Humor |Uncategorized

Bob Pike

Bob Pike, a renowned champion of participant-centered training is often quoted as saying, “Never do for the audience what they can do for themselves.”  As you review your presentation, ask yourself whether you are doing something that an audience member can do just as easily.

When you ask an audience member to do something for you, she feels special.  She morphs into a participant while sending a subliminal signal to the rest of the audience that you are reaching out for help, and they might be more willing to cooperate when you ask them to do something later.  It can be something as simple as asking for help in setting up the room, being a timekeeper or recorder, or a “runner.”

Those are the easy things you can do.  Demonstrations, skits, competitions, and role-plays are more complex interactions that take more thought and deliberate consideration but have HUGE payoff because they are HUGELY memorable.

One of my most impressive interactions is a team-based psychological experiment I first read about in Harvard Management Update.  I wanted to talk about it but thought it would be much more powerful as a demonstration.  So I obtained the original study and developed a scenario with four participants to show the effects of freeloading on a team.  I then practiced SEVERAL times with friends, family, and relative strangers off the street.  Wildly popular.  Wildly memorable.  I didn’t just dream it up during the middle of the presentation.  These things take a bit of forethought.  And patience.  And are well worth the investment of time.

Five Deadly Presentations Sins

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Posted on 27th February 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Closing Activities |Engaging Mindset |presentation skills |Set The Tone |Stories

While doing a radio interview with Paula Morand on VoiceAmerica about my new book, Boring to Bravo, Paula asked me about the Five Sins.  She was referring to the Five Sins of Teamwork, taken from my book, Team Basics!  It took me a moment to wrap my head around the idea that these same five sins apply just as well to presentations.  So here you go:

1.  Talking At, Rather than With Others.  Much like a parent talks at a child, some may present with an authoritative “I know this, and you don’t” tone.  People with perceived ower typically talk at others in a direct and condescending manner.  They tell them what they know, and they aren’t really looking at the audience reaction.

2.  Talking About Other People.  Much like when we were kids, when we don’t get our own way, we talk about other people behind their backs.  In the presentation world, you may be talking about people without their knowledge.   You are mentioning their name and saying something (good or bad) about them when they are not in the room.  If it is a personal story and you have a relationship (good or bad), you should check with them first.  See if it is okay to tell that story – especially if it might put them in a bad light.

3.  Talking Around Them.  In the era of email and voicemail, it is easy to flip indirect barbs about people – and we think they will never know.  But email and voicemail are about as private as a postcard.  Your presentation might be put on YouTube.com, blogged about, or tweeted, so if you aren’t willing to share the information with the bazillion people on the planet, don’t say it.

4.  Whining.  If you look hard enough, you can always find something to complain about.  Constant complainers whine about what happened, didn’t happy, what they did, what they didn’t do, who they did it with…and the list goes on.  Please don’t use the platform as your personal therapy.

5.  Avoidance.  Rather tha deal with the issue or problem we may choose to ignore it, hoping that it will go away.  For presenters, this is all about your call to action.  You have informed them, inspired them, and now they need to leave your presentation and go do something.  Be specific about what it is that you want them to do, think, or feel differently as a result of your time together.

Kristin’s Top 15 Tips

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Posted on 28th December 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Closing Activities |Engaging Mindset |Facilitation |Group Interaction |presentation skills |Uncategorized

www.boringtobravo.comSo here’s my request of you, dear readers.  When you prepare your presentation, keep in mind:

1.     Your presentation is about them, not about you.

2.     Engage early, even before your presentation begins.

3.     Be relevant and unique; more than what they can find on the Internet.

4.     Remove any physical barriers between you and the audience.

5.     Use PowerPoint to complement your presentation, not supplant it.

6.     Create a handout or takeaway with all the detail enquiring minds want to know, which is different from your slideshow.

7.     Know your speech, inside and out, so you can go with the conversational flow and deal with any obstacles.

8.     Have a mini-conversation with the audience using your eyes.

9.     Have a real conversation with the audience starting with engaging questions.

10. Tell a “Me Too” story.

11. Embrace the technology in the room but only if it enhances the participants’ experience.

12. Involve the audience by letting them do as much for themselves as they can.

13. When appropriate, facilitate the conversation.

14. Ask for the order with a compelling call to action.

15. Deliberately think through how you are going to engage, involve, and inspire your audience to action.

All this happens because you aren’t winging it.  When you prepare to be engaging and interactive, you are not boring at all.

Making Your Presentation Even Better

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Posted on 29th September 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Closing Activities |presentation skills

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As president of the National Speakers Association, I have the privilege of presenting at most of our forty chapters in the United States.  I have only gone to eight of the chapters so far, presenting Boring To Bravo at five of them (my other chapter program is on integrating facilitation into the service offerings).  Needless to say, I keep learning from each presentation, and I think they get better each time!

Of course, it is always helpful to audio or video record your presentation to critique yourself later, but sometimes you just don’t have time….So here’s a quick way to make your presentations even better:

On the drive home or later in the day, take a moment to reflect, “What went well?” as well as “What could I have done differently?”  Go ahead and list these items down on a new page in a small binder.  Mine is a 5″ x 9″ spiral bound notebook.  You may even want to talk to a few people you respect and ask them the same two questions.  Write these down as well.  Then draw a big, fat RED line close to the bottom.  Underneath the red line, write the ONE take-away.  For my last presentation, I think I really needed to mix up the medium.  I rely on facilitative questioning too much and need to throw in multiple techniques to continue to engage and stimulate the participates.

Then, when preparing for your next presentation, flip through the book and you’ll see some trends appear before your very eyes!   Pick one thing you want to improve, and in your preparation, determine what you are going to do to make your presentation even better!