3 Quick Tips to Be More Interactive and Facilitative as a Presenter
September 6, 2012 Leave a comment
Research by the National Speakers’ Association shows that becoming facilitative is one of the most important changes a speaker could make to be more effective. By that they meant the use of interaction, discussion, and method for engaging participants’ ideas. When you are a speaker, please consider the following suggestions, listed in the chronology you would expect during a normal presentation:
- Take extra time to precisely articulate your purpose, scope, and objectives.
- Do not rely on an overly broad and meaningless purpose statement such as to “educate” or “inform”. With instant, on-line access across the world, there are far more effective ways to learn most material than to attend a live presentation. Presentations are normally intended to shape and guide behavior. Which behaviors and what decisions that need to be made will your material impact?
- Stipulate the scope of your discussion to help manage time and keep your audience focused. What should be included and more importantly, NOT included in your session?
- Consider your statement of objectives as discrete items that you could package and hand off to somebody. If I was unable to attend your presentation but you could hand me the benefits, what are they?
- Consider three discrete audiences perspectives for all commercial, industrial, and government topics. Each perspective requires its own scorecard or method of analyzing and measuring input received during a presentation. Typically you will find a sponsor, a decision-maker, and an operator:
Organizational Decision-Making
- Executive sponsors. Individuals who authorize solutions. They really do not want to attend more presentation or view more data, they simply want results. For example, in a hospital setting, this might be the CIO (chief information officer).
- Agents responsible for the identification of solutions and getting the results sought by the executive sponsors. These people may decide alone or as a steering team. They frequently approve the broad solution, the investments required, and the commitment that will be provided. In a hospital setting this might be the directors of finance and radiology.
- Individuals who will operate the new solution (eg, a new bio-scanner) and may have a voice in the brand or model selection. In a hospital setting this might be a radiologist or technician, responsible for getting patients in and out as quickly as possible.
- During or after your presentation when questions are asked, be more facilitative by repeating the question or comment loud enough so that everyone can hear it.
As part of the FAST technique, we would also recommend using a content-management tool to build consensual understanding around your presentation, but that is a different blog at a different time.
Facilitation Skills
The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).
Related articles
- How to Manage Breakout Sessions (or, 3 Minute Sub Team Productivity WOW) (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- How to Facilitate Business Process Improvement: A Proven Approach Using Teams (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- Meeting Participation Tips (Part 3 of 3 – The Wrap) (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
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