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Business Rule #37:
Involve Your Audience
November 4, 2005
(PAGE 2 of 3)
The Excel team opened with several speakers, laying out ways that one can stand out from the crowd. The presenters had high energy, but the audience seemed passive. When Randal then broke the class into groups to do a workshop exercise, the room came alive. The before-now passive audience became active participants. Everyone attending the course had the chance to put into practice some of the techniques they just learned.
Experts say we remember only 40% of what we hear, 80% of what we see, and 90% of what we do. Getting a class to participate not only helps them retain the information but makes attendees feel important and empowered by their new knowledge and skills.
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Capital Edge had a very racy subject, “Sex at Work.” Their presentation though took a comparatively staid approach: they lectured to the class the entire time and never gave the audience the chance to participate.
Markus Garrison was the one team member who didn’t get the chance to speak. Throughout the planning stages, his long-winded explanations seemed to be more about his need for attention than what he had to say. His inability to get to the point in team discussions apparently convinced Adam that he would be a horrible speaker. So Markus stood silently against the wall throughout the presentation, almost assuredly plotting his boardroom tactics.
One Capital Edge teammate probably wished afterwards that he had not gotten up to speak. Clay spoke openly about his homosexuality, including references to his attraction to men’s butts and his former boss who used to give him an attaboy “smack on the ass.” Several of the older people attending the class looked visibly upset. Clay would have been better off discussing his experience as a gay man in the workplace in a way that wasn’t so explicit. His choice of language was too much for this group.
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 Getting a class to participate not only helps them retain the information but makes attendees feel important and empowered by their new knowledge and skills. |
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