Sometimes when we are so concerned about the message we want to communicate we express ourselves in a way that merely turns the audience off. It is very hard when you feel passionate about a subject not to become intense, or appear angry, and then use strong emotive language. It is also often a human reaction by the listener, or group of listeners, as part of the flight and fight mechanism to "shoot the messenger". So I have worked out five tips for myself:
1) Know where your audience are. Do your research and find out what they think and how receptive they are to what you are going to say;
2) Know where you want to take your audience. Can you only take the audience on part of the journey in the time you have? if so don't try and give the whole message in one go.
3) Be prepared and plan how you intend to facilitate their journey. What are you going to say, what props are you going to use, how are you going to use your time effectively?
4) Think about what questions you could be asked and plan the answers that you might give. Think of the most technical questions and make sure you can access the data either at the presentation or be able to respond quickly afterwards.
5) Don't take things personally, its the ideas that you are talking about that people may not like, not you.
I'll let you know if they work!
First posted in June 2007
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