Mix it up to Move up and Shake it up
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Monotone, flatline, dead – Master the Art of Audience Engagement in Presentations
How long can you stay enthusiastic when the speaker uses just one note, one strength of voice and one pace? Not long. Soon we are meandering off in the imagined land of sex and shopping, or wondering what is for supper, and counting the number of chairs in each row.
Changing up the sounds
Our minds are tuned in to change as this is often a sign of danger or opportunity. Bland makes us sleepy; mixture excites us, ready for the kill, or to run away from being eaten.
When we have mastered increasing the quality of our voice, we can work on altering the tone, pitch, resonance, register, accent or pace to bring our words to life, help the audience connect to our intended meaning and sent message, and generally enjoy the poetry of our delivery.
Metaphor
If your topic is coma inducing – with apologies (Gemma) to the complex work of actuaries. Their content is too nerdy to be exposed, in raw form, to the public. Here an approachable metaphor will ease the pain. Can we think up a couple for actuarial work? – E.g. 1. Weather forecasting for money – Here the insurance premium is an umbrella, because we know that somewhere it is raining.
E.g. 2. An orchestra conductor of uncertainty. Here the players are made up of mortality, accidents and interest rates. These have to be made sense of so that we do not just get a discordant mess.
We then stimulate the audience to work with us to complete the many bridges and connections between the original topic and the analogy.
Questions
How many times have you sat there in the audience and rapidly converted to become a radical critique/cynical observer? Shake up your crowd when presenting by asking questions to move them from passive to feeling included, independent to co-creating, and from uninvested to putting their identities and values on the line.
When you do this in the first 3 minutes of your talk, you will wake up the mob and have them pay attention. They are doing this to avoid getting caught out and then being laughed at.
Provoke
It was noted that this is what I was doing at a networking even earlier in the week. A new contact said she thought it might have been my assigned task to network throughout the room, giving out some spicey reflections to get the average heartrate up. It was not intentional but it did happen and it produced some cracking conversations.
Commonality
When we bond through a common experience, belief or knowledge, this gives birth to the promise of relevance. If you and I have something we share, you will be less resistant, more forgiving and are likely to pay closer attention to what I am saying.
Now -> Future structure
This wonderful delivery mechanism contrasts your description of reality and the scenario now, and then moves on to consider possible futures. This can be linked with the contrasting in the two changes: what if we do and what if we don’t?
This is stimulating and influencing at the same time. Your credibility will move some people to believe one of your versions and store what is the most likely outcome in their minds. (Ethics warning- Nothing I write is published to get you to negatively manipulate people. Don’t do that!)
Story with a twist
Like a joke, the set up has us all walking one way, and then the speaker yanks the rug and has us fall in another direction. We love a good yarn, and this is the most effective way to generate engagement, good will and have an audience trust you, relax and come along for the ride. The Variety comes in the structures, the type of twist and refreshing the story so as not to repeat yourself.
Other identity
I was sitting with a psychoanalyst the other day (don’t ask) and she talks fascinatingly about the self and the other. In her philosophy, we are not one unified, uniform and repeating person. We have a shifting self, and an other. And, these are sometimes in conflict. Making reference to that alternative person that may be sitting quietly inside each audience member can really get things going. Again, be mindful of the more fragile people sitting in front of you.
Scarcity
This is always a winner – “not much more left, we are running out of time, capacity, this offer is not for everybody, whilst stocks last.”
Risk reverser
If you intend to make a Call To Action CTA, it can be wise or prudent to reduce the audience’s perception of the downside risk before you ask for movement or a decision. Calming the nerves of the audience to reduce their caution, doubt or negative emotions is mostly a good idea.
Call To Action CTA
Doing this in a cool, easy and fresh way will get you results. Variety in the way we ask for commitment, money or a decision can boost your returns from the audience and significantly increase the chance of a decent % that convert.
Conclusion
We crave stimulation in the form of real time dopamine, we love to buy, consume and be taught or entertained. This we have covered. Give the audience what they want – by the way this is: safety, variety, meaning, belonging and inclusion, the potential to take action resulting in growth and the chance to make a contribution.
What will you mix up in your next talk?
About the Author
Matthew Hill is a presentation skills coach, sparing audiences from life-shortening talks. He believes that anyone who has read this far can be saved, improved and honed to become a way above average speaker.
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