The meeting took place in a gleaming glass-lined conference room at our client’s brand-new corporate headquarters. A senior executive on the design team for one of our custom programmes spoke up and said something that really caught my attention – so much so that his comment has influenced numerous conversations since that day about preparing to communicate important information to tough audiences. His comment was, paraphrasing, “Help your audience be ready to listen.”
This was skillful rhetorical judo in response to the all-too-common complaint employees make that top executive audiences do not listen very well. That observation is more often true than not. Managers describe being constantly interrupted by their superiors, asked to skip around in their presentations, confronted with derailing and irrelevant questions, and so on.
This design team member was offering a very kind response, intended to help the learners embrace responsibility for what they could control in their situations – how they prepare, show up, and present information. In doing so he moved the learners past helplessness into agency. He reminded them that every presentation is a two-way conversation.
If we also buy into this idea that we are largely responsible for how well our audiences listen, what exactly can we do to help our hearers be better listeners? Here are five (5) top tips from our research and field experience at the University.
Top tip 1: Analyse your audience first
When I challenge learners in executive presentation skills workshops to create a presentation, most of the participants will jump right into creating PowerPoint slides. The new behaviour I teach them is to stop, conduct an audience analysis and create an outline before even thinking about PowerPoint. PowerPoint is nothing more than a tool that might or might not augment a talk.
A good audience analysis is a thorough and intentional process of discovering and documenting who will be in the room, their goals and concerns, and how they like to receive information. You will anticipate their main questions, and structure your talk to answer those questions with evidence. Ask yourself: “What do I want this audience to know, feel, and do as a result of this time with me?”; “What is my point of view, and why is this point of view well-supported and compelling?”; “What forms of information will connect with their different personalities?”; “What action do I want them to take at the conclusion of the meeting?”
Top tip 2: organise your ideas to make them easy to follow
Once you have completed the audience analysis phase, it is time to craft an outline. I recommend a classic three-point outline which is: opener/hook, point 1, point 2, point 3, and close/call to action. In the opener, you outline the story you will be telling – the journey on which you are inviting the hearers to join. You will also give the hearers a good reason to keep listening by being engaging and memorable. The three points support your thesis and provide good reasons for saying “yes” to your ask. The close recaps the evidence and clearly restates what you want them to do. It also provides the opportunity to think how you might tie the close to the opening.
Some students object right away. “This process takes a whole lot of time. What if I’ve been called into a meeting with no prep time, or am put on the spot in the meeting with zero preparation?” In that scenario, the outline is even more important and is truly your best friend. You will prepare, even in a few seconds, to “Open, make your point, close, and sit down.” In most careers, you will have more impromptu presentations then presentations with adequate lead time to prepare. Another tool I provide to help our executive learners remember this logical flow is the acronym “PREP” – Point, Reason, Evidence, and Point, and so on.
In the heat of a contentious meeting, when someone asks you a challenging question or invites you to present about something that’s not on the agenda, you can pick up your pen and scratch out some notes to yourself on whatever is in front of you (agenda, napkin, back of a business card.) You make three bullets – “Open, make your point, close.” In a few seconds you can write down a word or two that captures the gist of what you want to say. Then you state your opening in one sentence. Support your position with a point or two. summarise what happens next, and then sit down. By organising your answer this way, and being concise, you will come across as poised and professional.
Top tip 3: Make it a story
Data is necessary as evidence, but is all too-often boring. Rather than present spreadsheet after spreadsheet, or PowerPoint slides with bullets, weave what you want to accomplish into the context of a story. Yes, storytelling has become cliché in our era, and can be overused. However when applied sparingly, it works magic.
Stories are based on characters. Characters face challenges, interact with others to overcome those challenges, and emerge differently after the experience. Characters encounter conflicts and disagreements, and they experience raw emotions – just like your audience members.
To make the story even more impactful, use visual phraseology. If you share a data point, reference something visual that allows the audience to hear and understand the point. For example, let’s say you are sharing a data point about 240,000 miles of fleet operations. The visual phraseology might be –“That’s as long as travelling from the earth to the moon.” People connect with and remember stories and visuals long after the slides and spreadsheets are discarded.
In another example, you might be asking for capital to build a new production line. As you frame the discussion, you could talk about the people you know in the community who will benefit from the new jobs that will be created. You could talk about one specific person who was able to buy a house and send their kids to college because of the opportunities your company created in the past. Or relate this decision to situations the audience members can relate to, such as previous tough decisions they faced.
Top tip 4: Don’t memorise your talk, but do truly master your opening and closing remarks
My colleague Tim Koegel and other experts on presentation skills agree that you should not try to memorise your presentation. The exception, however, is that you should absolutely nail the first and last 30 seconds. If you practise your opener 7 times, or more, you will have it down to where you can say it fluidly without worrying about notes. How long does it take to memorise your opener 7 times? By my math that’s 3.5 minutes. Master your opening and closing.
Most speakers, however, under-prepare. They make excuses such as, “Well I heard you shouldn’t memorise your talk, and I don’t want to look stiff and over-scripted.” Want to look spontaneous and unscripted? Really prepare well. The speakers you admire for their relaxed spontaneity totally master their material so that they know it inside and out. They practice their talk 7 times. They use a script as a tool to prepare and practice, but then shift to an outline of key points, or no notes at all, when they present. If you are expressing ideas you really know, and telling a story that is your story, you will come across as “spontaneous.” By being well prepared, you can be fully present and pay attention to audience cues, rather than worrying about getting through the content.
Top tip 5: State your conclusion first and provide evidence and details later
One of my favourite thought-leaders on the topic of effective communication is Dianna Booher. She recommends that you reverse the typical flow for presenting ideas and use the “MADE” approach. MADE stands for Message, Action, Details, and Evidence. Rather than making the poor listener suffer through a lengthy preamble with all your details, start with the conclusion and then back it up crisply. Your first sentence or two explains the reason for the communication. And then ask for what you want from the receiver right away. Then back that request up with your evidence. When you present, use your 30-second opening to cleanly present the “M and A” of your talk.
And one final thought. Shift from “making a presentation” to “sparking a conversation”
There is an old quip about pitch presentations, authorship unknown, that says- “If they’re talking you’re winning. If you’re talking you’re losing.” In other words, if the hearers are sharing the airtime to express their questions and feedback and ideas, they tend to perceive the conversation as fruitful and productive. So show up ready to provoke audience engagement by preparing good questions for each part of your presentation.
For example, “How do these financials align with management committee goals for the coming 18 months?” or “Based on your experience, what issues or concerns have we not addressed, that would expand our view of this topic?” or “Kathy, we haven’t heard from you on the operational considerations. What are your thoughts?”
Got an important presentation coming up this week? Take charge of what you can do to help the audience hear you. Try these 5 top tips and watch your audience members magically become better listeners.