The 2 questions on the lips of every audience
by D. Howrie
“You can’t command the attention of anyone they give it to you of their own free will and choice”
Commander Daniel Reilly R.A.N.
People experience something similar as they wait for the presenter to present the present. If you were to name your state and what is on your mind as you consider waiting for someone to start presenting what would it be?
Possible states individual participants might be in:
| Skepticism |
Curiosity |
Certainty |
Nervousness |
Excitement |
|
| Indifference |
Openness |
Eagerness |
Uncertainty |
Anger |
|
| Frustration |
Interest |
Playfulness |
Acceptance |
Happiness |
|
| Defensiveness |
Anticipation |
Appreciation |
Apprehension |
Boldness |
|
With each participant operating out of different states and filtering through different frames, we want to be flexible enough to pace and engage our audience no matter where their thinking is at when they enter the room or while they sit and wait.
As we understand all the possibilities people may be experiencing, we can better work with the different states of mind that are in the room, pace them and lead them to where we want to go.
· What is deleted from a person as they wait to see you present?
· What hallucinations might they be experiencing about you as a trainer?
· If the two most important states we could elicit are authority and likeability what does that say about their waiting state?
1. People need you to answer the first and foremost portion of information deleted from their experience (before they let you inside completely) ‘who the hell are you?’ Who are we strikes so pertinently at the heart of their parched experience that without answering this practical need of the audience we could miss many and reduce our effectiveness. Things to include here are:
a. Where have we come from
b. What did we do before?
c. What is our background?
d. What brings us here today?
e. What authorizes us to be here?
f. What experience have we got to support the ears of this audience?
2. Secondly people need this simple question answered….'why should I listen' to this public speaker? This question is more effectively raised as ‘what is in it for me’ for you to train /present to me?’ When people are aware of your agenda and motives you slightly demystify yourself in the right way and set yourself as someone with perhaps enough ‘value/credability’ to be learned from/listened to.
Other ideas: Bear in mind that your participants; within the first hour of a training keep holding onto a question in their mind. And seeking to have it answered very early on. Some of these questions consciously or unconsciously could be:
- Am I going to get anything useful out of this?
- How can I get out of here?
- How is being here going to benefit me?
- Do I really want to be here?
- Will I be put on the spot?
- Will I be comfortable or uncomfortable in this environment?
- Am I going to be asked to do something I don’t want to do?
- What has the trainer done that qualifies them to teach me?
- I wonder if this is just stuff I already know?
- Who can I network with here?
- What am I going to learn today?
- How can I get the most enjoyment out of this?
- How can I really squeeze the juice out of this and maximize my learning?
Simple language markers: to answer ‘What’s in it for me?’ trainers/presenters language markers might appear in presentations like in:
a. The reason I am here today is because…
b. The effect of what I am about to share with you, has had on my life….
c. Why I want to you learn this, is because…..
d. My life changed because of what will fall out of my mouth…moments from now…
Tactics:
Additional that we can utilize for taking care of the WIFM when opening a training:
· Verbally pacing and acknowledging the thoughts of our participants – includes frames of mind, states, meta-programs
· Displacing resistance through the use of command negation, spatial anchoring, and verbalizing possible un-resourceful states of participants, dealing upfront with any ‘elephants in the room’.
· Reveal personal information to build trust and openness.
· Use Opening agreement frames to begin to build agreement and co-operation
· Use of humor for likeability
· Dialogue with the audience member, individual rapport (being isomorphic for the group)
There are numerous other options we can use to surprise and interrupt states, elicit more intrigue and curiosity and build the foundation for an excellent learning environment.
Summary:
Unless extraneous circumstances exist, an audience waiting to hear a new person speak may experience any number of states, yet audience-mind can easily organize around our answer or lack thereof in answering the 2 questions as to 'who' and 'why'. Language markers that declare answers to the ‘who’ and ‘why’ questions are timed best during the early stages of a training or presentation. These language markers offset in a small way the individually mental mapped ‘who are you?’ and ‘why should I continue from this moment on?’ questions.
Reference: NLP Trainers Training - 10 Secrets the Magical Public Speaking. Howrie