I love so many things about my Compelling Communication Skills course.
The brilliant people from all around the globe I get to work with…
The sense of making some small contribution to their lives, their worlds, and their societies…
But perhaps, most of all:
The way the course always keeps me thinking and learning.
(Which is essential to remaining relatively youthful and useful in my older years!)
We’re coming to the end of a run of the course, as you can see above, which always means lots of questions from the learners.
And one has been such a cracker I thought I would share it.
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We offer two modules on public speaking:
The essentials, then the advanced tricks to turn you into an excellent presenter.
One of those is incorporating interactions into your talks.
In essence, monologues are monotonous, but dialogues delight.
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So when you’re public speaking, it’s highly recommended to turn it into a conversation.
Ask the audience questions.
Hold the occasional poll, and get them to raise their hands.
Even just pause, to give them time to think about the things you’ve said…
All can help to energise, engage and enthuse a crowd.
After all, who just wants to sit and be bombarded with information, when you can feel a part of the show?
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I’m pleased to say the learners on the course immediately understood the power of interactions.
And so came this excellent question:
- How often should you incorporate interactions for best effect?
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Like all the best questions, it took me some thinking and reflecting on what I‘ve done in my career.
In this case, the answer, perhaps surprisingly, came from screenwriting.
Although it’s not really my bag, I have dabbled, and I’m lucky to have a couple of friends in the trade.
Happily, they have fine wisdom to offer on the subject of interactions.
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Both have told me they try to ensure every scene they write for film or TV lasts no longer than around 90 seconds, or perhaps two minutes maximum.
As we all know, and all too well, modern attention spans are short.
So my screenwriting friends fear that if they breach the two minute barrier for a scene…
The audience will start to get bored and switch off.
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There are, of course, always exceptions.
Such as when great action, or intensity of emotion is involved.
But, by and large, for most scenes, 90 seconds to two minutes is a good maximum guideline.
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Which, elegantly, I think applies just as much to interactions in public speaking.
When I’m planning a talk, lecture, or workshop…
I make sure I’m never talking for more than a couple of minutes before I ask the group a question, or set an exercise, or give them a challenge.
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Anything, so long as it’s not me talking, talking, talking, and instead gets a dialogue going.
Happily, I’ve noticed that strategy tends to make sure the sessions go well.
Plenty of engagement, lots of energy, but oodles of education too.
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So, there you have it, the key messages from this blog:
- 1. Always include interactions in your public speaking and presentations.
- 2. Keep them coming every couple of minutes for maximum impact.
- 3. And, as Compelling Communication Skills continually and delightfully, reminds me…
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Never, ever stop thinking and learning.
It’s one of the great secrets of fulfilment, health and happiness.
