The Workshop Leader's Resource

Managers, trainers, and even ‘real people’ sometimes have to present in front of three to hundreds of people. Unfortunately, most presenters aren’t trained with the best presentation tools. Instead, they just copy each other. So, we in the audience are frequently bored silly. It doesn’t have to be that way. Take a look at the three speaker tips below to make your next time in front of a few –or many—enjoyable, memorable, and equally enjoyable for your audience.

Three Powerful Speaker’s Tips

1. Don’t lecture for more than 10 minutes. Adults just don’t have that long an attention span (too much on our minds!). Change it up. Use various “alternative delivery methods”–methods to teach other than lecture. In my Instructor Development course, I help students learn these teaching methods by modeling them so they can observe me teaching. Then, we de-brief on what we did. Finally, each student teaches a short module using creative methods, and the rest of the students provide feedback. (We really only learn when we do something). Doing greatly increases confidence–and competence.

2. When you want to change adults’ perceptions, beliefs, or knowledge, don’t just start talking to them. You may just cause them to shrink more into their beliefs, and to defend it (have you observed students who live to argue with the instructor?)

How to tackle the ‘old belief’ challenge:

Prepare students to learn something new. For example: Use a ‘true-false’ or ‘multiple choice’ to start the presentation, or to check learning. I do this in my IDW course in the middle, and ask students how they would have answered at the beginning of the course–and then contrast that with their new perceptions and learning. It creates lots of ‘ahas’ with them, and further cements their learning experience.

3. Don’t just read from the PowerPoint on the screen (and, just as onerous, provide the student with the PowerPoint as the “outline”.) If an instructor does that, I feel I want to just take that outline and leave. I can read, thank you! Too many presenters/trainers rely on PowerPoint to do the teaching.

Use that Right Brain of Yours

Effective teaching is much more than just talking. It should be creative. Use all the “attention strategies” at your disposal (that means to get them into your repertoire).

Suggestions:

Use props, stories, various audio-visual aids, handouts to control the audience “contour”. I learned this as a musician playing for dancing. You direct how you want the audience to dance, and you ‘contour’ the whole experience (slower to faster, then back to slow). As a great instructor/ facilitator, you can direct your audience in an awesome learning experience. It just depends on the skills you bring to the table.

It’s Worth the Effort

Most presenters/trainers aren’t in it for the big bucks (where are those big bucks, again?). They’re in it to assist others. Gaining and practicing presentation skills helps us give back better. The bonus: Deep appreciation from our audience. We’ve even been known to change lives for the better! No amount of money can provide that sense of accomplishment.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a National Realtor Educator of the Year, international speaker, and author of training and coaching programs for most of the international franchises. She was recognized as one of the 50 most influential women Realtors of 2008. She’s the author of the new comprehensive training resource, The Ultimate Real Estate Trainer’s Guide, and the new presentation resource, Knock Their Socks Off. See her coaching and training resources at www.carlacross.com.

Holding Space
When you run any event, your job is to create the environment for that event – from the physical space that you hold it in, to the experience that the attendees have of your event staff, to the interactions you create for them to the energetics of the room – the way it feels – it’s all your responsibility.

Creating the Energetics
Everything I’ve listed above gets done in advance in the layout of the space, the training of your staff and the design of your event.  But one thing is done on-site in-the-moment and that’s the creation of the energetics.*  All of the elements I’ve listed play into a person’s experience of the space and the event, but you are the final harbinger of that experience.  How you speak, the tonality you use, the cadence with which you deliver your words, the words you choose, all of these things, combined with the energy with this you deliver them creates an experience.  This is the space that you hold for the people attending your event.  Holding this space takes planning, good design and good facilitation.  It also takes a lot of energy.

The Flow of Energy
Have you noticed that there is a flow of energy that takes place in a room when you are training?  Some groups offer a lot of energy back to you, others suck you dry if you’re not careful.  It’s all about how engaged and how energized they are.  If they are excited and interested, then the room just flies – and you fly with it.  If they aren’t then it’s like dragging wild horses up a hill backwards, in the mud.  Ugh.  And the more people there are in the room, the more significant this effect is.  It’s easy to get worn out quickly if you don’t take action to change things.

Follow The Leader
You are the leader and therefore they will follow you.  If you show up without any energy then they will come down to meet you.   You have to be the one with the almost stupid-looking amount of energy to get things moving along.  You have to give them permission to be excited with you.

Getting People Involved
Once they have permission to be excited, then it’s time to get them involved.  Ask questions and show them that you expect them to participate.  I often even say to them “Oh, ho, you thought you were going to skate through this and make me do all the work?  I don’t think so!  Sit up and tune in guys, we’re going to be working hard together today.  I’ll make it fun if you’ll do the work – deal?”  This sets their expectations that I’m not just another talking head that’s going to lecture at them for the next few hours.

Designing Interaction
I don’t have time to go into all the elements of good workshop design in this post, but suffice it to say that you need to make sure that once you’ve told them that they have to do the work, that you then give them work to do.  Don’t talk for more than 10 minutes without asking some questions that they have to answer.  Give them exercises to do as a group.  Facilitate some brainstorming.  Have them put skills you’ve just taught them into action with role playing.  Get them involved.  People learn more when they do, but they won’t do it unless you make them.

Your Energy Levels
No matter how much you get the audience to interact with you, there’s a limit to what they can give you.  It will take some of your energy to move things along and keep you rolling.  You’ll have to really pay attention to your personal energy level because if you have to start pushing, they’re going to feel it.  If I’m teaching a small class for a couple of hours, I don’t have to worry about a thing – I’ve got plenty of energy to spare at the end of class.  But the larger the group or the longer the program, the more I have to manage my own energy.

Develop a Routine
Before I go into any program of size or length, I have a routine that I go through.  It involved calming myself and getting focused – visualizing a positive response at the end of the event and energetically connecting with the crowd before I even say hello.  All of this is important, but the single most important thing I do before I head out is that I open myself up to universal energy.  I tap into the energy field around me so that I am channeling that energy rather than using my own to create the space.  This way, I don’t find myself falling down from exhaustion at the end of the day.  In fact, I find myself often more energized than when I started.

Make a Plan – Work Your Plan
In short, it’s important to know what you are creating and then to make a plan to make sure you reach your destination.  Happy presenting!

*Energetics don’t have to be done on the spot, but most people don’t plan for them and thus it is how it happens.  For more information about consciously designing the energetic into the process, please see my article “How Do You Want It To Feel?”