Tom Peters, who I think is one of
the most interesting speakers alive whom I admire greatly,
says that the goal is not to give a great presentation.
The goal is to connect.
So what is connection?
What does he mean? And connection is feedback.
Connection is you pressing the button and
feeling those little springs that hold the button in place.
Connection is you pressing the button really
hard and feeling that this button can no longer be pressed.
It's switched in a new position.
This is what connection is.
And connection could be delayed,
like with delayed feedback,
like when this is transmitted,
and then there's a message,
and then receiver receives the message and sends the message back,
could be delayed, could be delayed for quite some time.
Maybe you've been in the shower once and was trying
to create the right temperature for yourself,
but since the feedback was delayed,
it never actually worked.
And as far as public speaking is concerned,
delayed feedback is applause at the end of your presentation,
which rarely indicates actually anything.
Delayed feedback are those feedback forms people fill up after your talk,
which also, as far as I'm concerned,
is a very poor source of feedback.
And, also, delayed feedback is comments people
leave on social networks and social media where they say,
"Wow, that was a great talk."
They rarely actually write anything bad about you
because the worst feedback you can get is no feedback at all.
And, also, feedback could be immediate,
like you say a phrase and the audience reacts in one way or another immediately.
And this is exactly what we're going to talk about today.
Why is connection important?
Well, if you lose contact with the audience,
if you stop observing the audience's feedback and react to it,
the audience is likely to become disengaged.
There's no guarantee for that of course.
There are plenty of very engaging videos.
But with videos, there's no expectation of interactivity.
And interactive video is not a video anymore.
It's a video game. I don't know.
And with live presentation,
there is this expectation.
So, at least you are violating that expectation of
the audience that you're going to interact with them.
So, I guess, interacting with them is a good idea.
And annoying PowerPoint problem number five,
failed to pay attention to audience feedback.
There's expectation that the speaker will be paying attention to our raised hands,
puzzled looks, fidgeting, and signs of boredom.
We've all been to this lecture.
Right?
How did that happen?
It's not like you come to the audience and they are all asleep.
I mean, sometimes that happens as well,
but it's your job to wake them up in that case.
But it mostly happens gradually.
One by one, people fall asleep.
How does that happen?
And the answer is simple.
The answer is that there was a speaker, a lecturer,
a professor who professed his wisdom without paying any attention to the audience,
looking there, somewhere, or in his notes,
when all their attention is paid to the material because material was key.
Right? It happens when the speaker does not look at the audience,
looks but does not understand anything about the audience,
maybe chooses not to interpret their reactions or maybe
understands perfectly but does not react in him or herself.
If you see that people are bored,
it's your job to do something about it,
and some people just ignore this.
So we're trying to move from monologue to semi-structured dialogue.
This is what they call engaging the audience.
It is our job as a speaker it to engage
people in a process of constructive dialogue, I guess.
And in order for that to happen,
we need to detect and interpret their feedback.
And there are at least four ways to stay in touch,
something that comes to my mind.
And the thing number one is,
of course, observing the audiences' non-verbals.
You talk verbally, they talk non-verbally,
all at the same time at you.
They communicate to you with their poses,
gestures, and, of course, facial expressions.
Thing number two, asking close questions,
by the show of hands, who thinks blah, blah, blah?
And then you get some feedback.
Thing number three, very difficult thing to do, asking open-ended questions,
questions that provoke discussions,
maybe discussions among members of the audience because you
see conflicting opinions being voiced out.
And thing number four, especially for larger audiences,
pulling them with hardware or software applications, asking them questions,
and then having them press some button on some remote and visualizing it on a screen,
which might as well work too.
So four ways to stay in touch this week.
Alexei KapterevLomonosov MSU BS
