Content Meets Delivery… The Art of
Capturing Attention
By Karel Murray, Our Branch, Inc.
Designing a new presentation always
begins with a blank page - that insidious gleaming sheet of purity
just waiting for those pearls of wisdom. Sometimes, if I stare hard
enough, I can almost feel the screen staring back as it fluctuates
in lighting intensity. Almost as if the computer is… impatient.
The burden of responsibility to write a
program which is interesting as well as informative can sometimes
seem too great to handle. You know your stuff. You can rattle it off
in your sleep and even enlighten your close friends with bits of
knowledge they would never had received unless you shared it with
them. All right, they probably are just listening to be polite…but
for some reason, you feel compelled to instruct.
That’s why you do what you do -
observing session participants gain and grasp new concepts and begin
the process of assimilating information. You know you hit the mark
when heads start nodding and pens are furiously flying across their
notes pages. Eager hands shoot skyward, enlivened discussion fills
the air and suddenly, the room is charged with an energy that
crackles for the remainder of the presentation.
It’s for these moments I carry Static
Guard!
But here I sit…looking at my empty,
expectant page still waiting to be filled. The challenge of coming
up with a new way to say “old” stuff is definitely the challenge. My
mother often told me there was nothing really new out in the world
today, just a different way of making connections and applications.
Her mantra - “Do better.”
Do better… That’s the rub. How do we
keep improving the process, delivery and content so that what we
have to offer remains something the attendees want to hear?
Recently, I watched a speaker present an hour session on a rather
dry continuing education topic. The threat of a test upon completion
of the lecture seemed to command audience attention.
Hummm.
Numbers, dates, and background
information flashed up on the overhead projector. The instructor
felt speed solved participant lack of interest… Obviously he felt if
he went fast enough that would keep everyone awake. There’s nothing
worse than an audience who stares back at you with passive, bored
eyes. You witness the tops of heads bobbing dangerously towards the
white tablecloth and the water glass only to be saved by a sudden
spasmodic jerk of the shoulders. The lurch to attention not only
startles the offender, but causes a heart attack in the person next
to them.
As I watched the presentation, an
exceptional amount of content poured forth into the classroom. But
the speaker continually missed opportunities for application by the
participants. The instructor, instead, resorted to another commonly
used technique to gain audience participation. It’s called, “Move
Around The Room”.
I felt like I was watching a ping pong ball.
Pacing from the projector to the white
board, to the side door, along the isle and down towards the back
row. Maybe it was his way of getting his exercise requirements into
his busy day. Within minutes, the figure eight pattern became
evident. Necks twisted awkwardly to follow the action. Finally,
giving in to the pain, the attendees simply looked forward at the
slide on the screen, settled back in their chairs and crossed their
arms. Who said “No pain…no gain.”
The participants didn’t attend this
lecture to try and keep track of their instructor… so they checked
out. Literally.
Something definitely had turned sour,
but the speaker failed to see the clues, absolutely absorbed in
delivering the session materials. There was no effort to invite
participation through active listening and verbal contributions. And
I wonder…must presenters be masters of entertainment as well as
content? Let’s explore that a moment…
Over the past year, I’ve noticed
attention spans are shortening. In formal presentations, it isn’t
unusual to see an audience member peruse a newspaper hidden
carelessly underneath their handout. How about the palm pilot
nestled in an attendee’s lap and the quiet clicking effectively
distracting their neighbor? Now that there is message text available
on cell phone phones, I envision whole conversations (much like note
passing in junior high school) to proliferate.
It’s not only in a class room, during a
keynote or part of a facilitated event… lack of attention is
pervading many aspects of our daily lives. Try sitting quietly in a
movie theatre. Observe the individual conversations conducted
throughout the movie, cell phones that ring, bright lights flaring
from phones as the message are read, and feel the general
restlessness filling the room. Notice how loud the movies need to be
projected in order to be heard over the human generated noise.
Chastising messages for “Quiet” at the beginning of a feature film
are casually ignored. Even a frustrated patron glaring at a noisy
attendee is not effective. The offender glares right back and
proceeds with their breakdown of the situation for the benefit of
their viewing partner.
As a result, Hollywood resorts to
special effects that are quick, visually exciting or gross, and
story lines move at a pace where the viewer feels somehow empty at
the end of the movie because the characters were never fully
developed. All for the sake of keeping attention for a short while.
Recognizing the “fast paced, keep
moving, multi-tasking” mentality of the world today, presenters must
rise to the challenge and bring their audience to a new level of
self imposed concentration. A state of mind much like the feeling we
had as children as we watched our favorite cartoon program - tunnel
vision. That “must not look away because we might miss something”
type of attitude.
A sense of wonder and involvement is
waiting for presenters to tap into it. Are you up to the challenge?
Written
by Karel Murray, DREI, CRB, CRS, GRI, ABR, Our Branch,
Inc. Dynamic national motivational humorist known for
her straight talk in keynotes, seminars, and sales
training. You can reach her at karel@karel.com. To
sign up for her on-line newsletter “Straight Talk”,
access her website at www.karel.com or phone her at
866-817-2986.
