How to communicate with the audience during a public speech and why you need it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Questions to the audience will liven up the presentation and help connect with the audience. However, they need to be set correctly.

For your public speaking - for example, at a conference or meeting - to be successful, you need to be able to connect with the audience. This is the subject of the chapter "Interactive Speeches" of the book by Alexei Kapterev "The Good, the Bad, the Selling. Presentation Mastery 2.0”, which was recently published by the publishing house“MIF”. Lifehacker publishes an excerpt of it.

If you are confident enough on stage in monologue mode, it's time to try dialogue. Dialogue is difficult, risky, but therefore interesting. There is a certain percentage of people who, having received the floor, will abuse it: they will start to read their own lecture, lead the discussion away from the stated topic, will pointlessly argue over insignificant trifles - you need to be able to work with all this.

However, most audiences love dialogue because it gives them little control over what is happening. It's good when, as a listener, I also have a little airtime, when I can ask my question, express my opinion. Before letting the audience ask questions, let's try asking them yourself. This is also interactive, only here it is easier for us. After all, the initiative is on our side.

Why ask questions to the audience?

1. This increases the engagement of the audience. Interactive speeches are listened to more attentively, people are more attentive, and this is understandable: a question may arrive at any moment.
2. This helps to defeat the so-called creeping determinism, a cognitive distortion in which listeners have the illusion that they already know all this material. If you report a fact like, "The Battle of Waterloo happened in 1815," people would shrug their shoulders and say, "Well, yes, of course." However, if you first ask them the question: "What year did the Battle of Waterloo take place?", It turns out that they have a very rough idea of the military history of the 19th century. This trick helps even better when you talk about experimental science: you tell the audience about the conditions of the experiment, and then ask them to predict the outcome. If you just tell people the result, the thought often arises: "Well, yes, it's so obvious, why did they even set up this experiment?" If you first put the question of the results to a vote, then instantly it turns out that the results are not so obvious and that there are many different opinions in the group.
3. You get a "broadcast license" from the group. If you are asking an important question and the group does not know the answer - you have the right to talk, you can give the answer and explain it. You need. Nobody complains about the "primitive level of lecture" if, in response to the question: "Raise your hand, who knows …", three people out of eighty raise their hand. This is not a primitive lecture, this is a group that has come together. You can also explain with the help of questions. In the process of explaining, it is often revealed what the audience already knows and what does not need to be explained. This saves a lot of time on explanations.
4. You improve the memorability of the material. In the second chapter, I already gave a link to research: preliminary questions help the audience to better remember the material, and not only the one about which the questions were asked. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it is easier for the audience to hold attention when they are waiting for questions or when they "invested" in thinking about answers.
5. Interaction makes the performance unique to each listener, something that cannot be watched on YouTube. Even if I just raise my hand in a crowd of several dozen (or even hundreds) people, I’m raising my hand. I will not raise my hand while watching YouTube, because nothing depends on it. Here I participate, this is my performance too.
6. Asking the audience's opinion is the best way to show that the audience is interesting and important to you. The audience loves it, you get a plus in karma.

When is dialogue not needed?

Perhaps, in large halls, at very solemn, official events, one can do without dialogue. If you have a sales presentation or decision-making information, dialogue is a must. However, the more formal lecture or stadium entertainment in the presentation, the less the need for dialogue. Solo performances most often do not provide for dialogue, like the Nobel lectures. Why not, though? I would try.

In any case, no one forbids asking questions to the audience - just do not wait for an answer. Such unanswered questions are called (I'm sure you knew) rhetorical. Simon Sinek's famous speech “Start with Why” - over 44 million views - begins with the questions: “Why are some people able to achieve results that defy all conceptions of the possible?” and "Why are Apple so innovative?" Of course, no one expects the audience to rush to answer these questions right now, this is just a technique to attract attention, interest, make you think.

Rhetorical questions have a bad reputation. We say "well, this is a rhetorical question" when we mean that this is some kind of boring, stupid, passing question. But in general, there is nothing wrong with rhetorical questions. The question of how the form gets more attention than the statement. Just not everyone. Alas, there must be some other content in the question.

What questions to ask?

And what questions do you have in general? Probably everyone knows the difference between open-ended and closed-ended questions, right? Oh, sorry, this is a book, you can't hear your answer here. Closed questions are questions to which the answers are in a closed list: "yes or no", "left or right". It can be a choice from more than two options. It could be something like a test. One way or another, in a group, an answer to a closed question can be given by voting. "Raise your hand, who is for the first option," etc.

Open-ended questions are questions that require a detailed answer. These are questions starting with the words "why", "why", "how", etc. In the answers to such questions there will be more subjectivity, but you can also ask about facts.

Examples of

Closed Fact Question: "Raise your hand, who agrees that the Battle of Waterloo took place in 1814?" (actually in 1815).

Closed question about opinions: "Raise your hands if you think that if it weren't for the Prussian army, the British would have lost at Waterloo."

Open question about facts: "What are the biggest European battles of the 19th century do you know?"

Opinion open question: Why did Napoleon lose at Waterloo?

What do you think is the best question to start a conversation with, open or closed? Which ones are easier to answer? On closed ones, of course. Raising your hand or just nodding is much easier than formulating some kind of long tirade. Start with closed-ended questions.

Open-ended questions provoke discussion, the discussion needs to be able to manage. Some people can take the floor and not let anyone speak for a long time. Others may argue with you, because once you have formulated a detailed opinion, you have a lot more desire to defend it. If you are still not very confident on stage, do not ask open questions to the audience.

In addition to the content questions, you can ask questions about the process. They can relate both to general comfort: "Are you cold?" And to the process of mastering the material: "Are you still holding on, need a break?" Both are good ideas because they show that you care about the audience.

When do you start asking questions?

Better - earlier. I would start asking questions in the first five minutes of my speech. In my experience, people pretty quickly identify the genre of a performance, is it passive watching or interactive? If you have already been speaking for ten minutes and suddenly ask something, the listeners have to completely revise their concept: "Oh, the talking head offers to choose an answer option, this is a surprise!" It may take them time for them to sway and start responding to you.

On the other hand, there is a way to go on stage and say, "Raise your hands, which one of you is watching Netflix." Wait, I don’t love you yet, I’m not ready to raise my hand for you yet. Give me something first. Ask me about something that is important to me and not to you. I would not start with questions and wait for answers.

You can start with rhetorical questions.

What questions don't you need to ask?

Don't ask questions if you don't need an answer. You should be interested in the answer, and if it is not, there is nothing to ask. You can agree with the answer or disagree - both are acceptable. You don't have to repeat every time: "Thank you, I wonder, any more opinions?" You can (even if for a change) say sometimes: “Thank you, I disagree, but let's say. More opinions? " However, the answers cannot be ignored. The answer must change something.

If the answer surprises you, you shouldn't hide your surprise. Do not act surprised, but calmly, without haste, just be in this state, then say "thank you" and move on. The question is a fork in the road. If you're offering people three options in a closed-ended question, it's best to think about what will happen if people say yes, no, or don't know. They may not answer the way you expect! Chances are, if you know how they'll answer, this question isn't worth asking at all. You already know the answer! This is a boring, passing, rhetorical question in the worst sense of the word. The only exception is if you announce in advance that the audience's response will not surprise you. Example:

Please do not ask questions where the audience should provide answers until they guess your opinion.

- What is the most common reason for ineffective meetings?

- No adjenda!

- So, more opinions?

- They invite the wrong people!

- Interesting, but no, yet?..

- People are not preparing!

- Yes, or rather?..

- People don't set goals!

- Correct answer!

In fact, there is no correct answer here, because the answer is the speaker's subjective opinion. Just tell us what you think! If you add, “According to Harvard Researchers,” the factual question immediately arises: there is the correct answer, I wonder what the Harvard folks figured out … But then you need to collect answers until the options are exhausted.

There is no need to ask questions for which you are not going to accept the answers. How many times have I seen this: the speech ends, the speaker asks the audience: "Do you have any questions?" The audience has questions. But the audience cannot decide how to ask these questions! Because the speaker asked and stared somewhere into emptiness. People cannot understand whose turn it is to speak. If you asked a question, then it makes sense to look into the hall. If the hall is large and the “rule of a raised hand” is in effect, then it is worth showing with your hand (palm up) at the one whose remark you are now ready to listen to. You can also make an inviting gesture with your fingers towards yourself. If you see one more or more raised hands at the same time, then it also makes sense to show them with your hand, only this time the palm will be facing down: "I saw you, please wait."

What if people don't respond?

It happens that a question has two answers, and there are fifty people sitting in the hall. You are asking those who agree to raise their hands. Three people raise their hands. You are asking those who disagree to raise their hands. Five people raise their hands. And the other forty-odd - what are they? Do they have no opinion?

You also need to prepare for this situation. Sometimes I force the dialogue a little by pointing my head: “Again, that means yes (nod my head), that means no (shake my head). Yes? No?" You can use humor: "Now raise your hands, those who have problems raising their hand" - at least they will smile. This is a difficult situation, and you have to either invent something on the go, or find out what is happening. Is the question unclear? The question is so uninteresting that even raising your hand is too lazy? If the first - you need to clarify the question. If the latter, I do not envy you, but perhaps it makes sense to talk to the audience about it.

It happens that people don't respond because there is simply no trust between you and the audience. At the beginning of my speech, I can ask: "What problems with presentations do you have, please share?" However, there are not many audiences who will immediately answer this question for me. In most situations, I will first have to tell something about myself, my expertise and motivation, make a joke, ask some easier questions before people trust me with the most intimate thing they have: their presentation problems. If you anticipate trust issues, start small: process questions, closed-ended questions. Gradually, you will create a dialogue, and people will begin to respond more extensively.

Alexey Kapterev is one of the leading experts in the field of presentations. He worked for six years in consulting companies, and since 2007 has devoted himself entirely to the skill of public speaking and now teaches a course at the Graduate School of Business of Moscow State University named after Lomonosov. "Good, bad selling …" develops the ideas of Alexey's first book "Presentation Mastery". The author talks about storytelling possibilities, presentation structure, slide construction and presentation presentation.