What You Need to Do to Keep People Engaged
To actively engage your audience, follow these three steps:
1. You have to STOP talking so that audience members have time to DO something: talk, read, write, draw, move.
2. You have to give your audience SPECIFIC instructions so they know EXACTLY what to do and how long they have to do it.
3. You have to CHOOSE activities that are both relevant and topic-related – no fun but irrelevant activities allowed!
How to Engage an Audience
Here are three quick ways to engage audiences in both theater-style and table-group seating:
LEARNING BUDDIES: Before beginning to speak about the topic, direct your audience to form a seated group (if in theater-style seating) with folks in front and behind them or seated near them. If they are already seated in table groups, skip this step. Then, instruct them to quickly introduce themselves to their “learning buddies” and to tell them one or two facts they already know about the topic. Give your audience two to three minutes to do this. Return to this activity by having the audience members chat with their “learning buddies” about what they’ve learned. Do this at least one or two more times during your presentation.
FOLLOW THE LEADER: After you’ve talked for about 20 minutes, stop the presentation and invite the audience to stand and do a quick stretch with you (you lead, they follow). Explain to them that this is an “oxygen break” – stretching gets more oxygen flowing to their brain. Then, direct them to form small standing groups of two to three people with the folks nearest them. If in theater-style seating, they can do this with people in front, behind, and to the side. Tell them to each take a turn leading a stretch while telling their standing group the most important thing they’ve learned so far. The others in their standing group are to “follow the leader” and mirror the stretch. When done, they thank their group and sit down.
WRITE IT DOWN: Before your presentation, hand out blank index cards. (Or small note-taking cards with fill-in-the-blanks that you created ahead of time.) When you’re talking about an important concept, say, “This is profound, so write it down.” Then, STOP talking and give your audience time to write down the major point you’ve just made. Or, give them the words they need to use to complete the fill-in-the-blanks card. On the back of the card, they can later write their “action plan” (how they plan to use what they’ve learned).
This article was reposted with permission from Training from the Back of the Room.
