A is for Audience

In my work, I often capitalize the A in Audience to make a point.

That’s my blog post. It speaks for itself.

Be Disruptive!

I think it's high time for speakers and presenters to be disruptive. And here are a few ways to begin ...

Do you really need to fill the time allotted to you?

Really? Or can you be brief? Why fill it just because you can? So what if you were told you have 45 minutes? Do you like to sit and listen to someone talk for 45 minutes straight?

Do you really need your laptop and your PowerPoint?

Really? Or can you do the prep work ahead of time that enables you to engage, connect, and make a point without employing a “deck”? So what if that’s how you and your colleagues have always done it? Do you like waiting for someone to power up and plod through a series of slides? You’re not that special, no one likes waiting for you either.

Do you really need text slides for visual reinforcement?

Really? Or can you use images that illustrate your points? Who’s the text for anyway? You or them? Do you like to read paragraphs on a screen while someone is talking? Are you impressed with presenters whose slides are dense with text? Do you remember what the slides said and what the speaker said? Doubtful.

Do you really need to open with niceties and housekeeping?

Really? Or can you open with your point, your desired outcome, your call to action, and save the display of manners and protocol for the end? Wouldn’t you rather capture and focus Audience attention right away? You know how your own attention drifts when other speakers start with the usual, expected, mundane stuff … And guess what? People drift when you speak too.

Do you really need to show how smart and experienced you are?

Really? Or do you need to show how smart you are about your Audience? Disruption rule #1: Get over yourself. Literally. Think about your Audience. Really, I mean it, think about them. Deliver something in length, style, and content that will connect with and be beneficial to your Audience!

Be disruptive. Question authority. Question norms. Make it about your Audience.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

The more things change, the more things stay the same. When it comes to how people communicate, this phenomenon confounds me.

Certainly, in the marketplace of the world, and even in the smaller marketplaces of our own cities or our own professions, there is so much going on that’s new and changing and ground-breaking. There’s so much innovation, so much progress, so much disruption – in technology for sure, but in medicine, design, fundraising, manufacturing, energy, and even in the basics like education and road construction. You name it, and there’s a new way to do things …

Why is it, then, that most speeches and presentations are, for the most part, still as predictably dull and ineffective as they were a decade ago? Why have we made the “things” in our lives faster, more streamlined and efficient, more user-friendly and accessible, but we’ve allowed our “selves” to lag behind? Most speeches and presentations are old school; they’re anything but streamlined or user-friendly. As much as we expect and embrace advancements in our everyday lives, we deliver and accept the same old same old in our everyday conference rooms.

What would it take to “disrupt” a typical speech or presentation, to deliver something new, better, faster, more accessible and memorable? Let’s explore that next time …

Eat, Sleep, Communicate

Life is busy, life is full. Who has time to think about communicating better?

Sounds reasonable enough. But wait, we send messages, make points, deliver speeches (okay, maybe not from a podium) every single day. We communicate as much as we eat or sleep, but we dedicate less time to thinking about how we do it and making it work better for us.

So what’s my point? Communicating is as central to your functioning as a human being as eating and sleeping are. Maybe more. Communicating is how we relate to others, get things done, solve problems, achieve success, and be in our lives as members of teams, organizations, and communities.

Communicating is the currency of relationships, working and personal, and so you want to think about it, work on it, and keep your currency value as high as possible!