Lesson 7 of Why Organizations Thrive is to become a very good public speaker.
Here’s one public speaking tip that I’ve found useful over the years: make the audience physically move.
Rather than being a distraction, this almost always will increase their mental and emotional connection to the speech.
When giving my annual presentations at the Oregon League of Conservation Voters Gala, more than once I determined that movement was going to be a powerful way of increasing the audience’s excitement about the dinner that was unfolding. I felt that the motion of their standing up en mass with others would help generate excitement and make them feel “part” of the speech and not just listeners.
So I asked a series of questions (another way to increase audience engagement) that I knew would over the course of 30 seconds get the entire audience standing up and feeling good about their collective power.
The two times I used this trick (several years apart), the sense of increased excitement in the room was palpable.
Of course, if you’re giving an annual presentation, you can’t use this “trick” every year or it will start to feel stale.
But in putting together your presentations, think about what you’re trying to accomplish and whether some movement can increase the audience’s engagement. In addition to standing up, movement could mean raising their hands, having them introduce themselves to the person next to them, having them stand up and turn once around and sit back down, etc.
If you’ve used this technique or seen it used with real success, let me know what worked as I’m always trying to add to my own toolbox.