Lecturing To Adult Learners Is A Waste Of Time

"People won't remember you for what you say, but they will remember you for how you made them feel."

I don't know who said that, but those words go to the heart of what I do for a living. As part of my communications training, I help groups and individuals sharpen their presentation skills. The thinking behind that quote took me back a few weeks to when I was working out West with attendees at a workplace learning forum put on by a major federal agency.

In seminar after seminar, I hosted small groups of training professionals who had just come from a huge hotel ballroom where they'd been subjected to dense, I-lecture-and-you-listen PowerPoint presentations that opened the day. To be fair, the presenters, who rarely ventured beyond the security of the lectern while punching up one slide after the other, did ask for questions at the end. But by then they'd painted themselves into a numbers corner -- too many slides and not enough time for a lively Q&A.

So the attendees broke up and visited the smaller rooms, one of them mine, where I had asked the concierge to remove the PowerPoint machinery and roll up the enormous screen that overwhelmed the space. All I wanted was a flip chart and some markers. It was time for a conversation.

Before I go any further, I don't want to sound as if I've discovered a marvelous new way to give briefings or speeches. I'm no pioneer. What I am saying is that the reliable tradition of a healthy give-and-take is the best way to learn, whether a get-together over coffee or a presentation where you stand up in front of a group of your superiors or strangers and make the time they spend with you worthwhile.

The key, I've found, is that people learn best when they participate in their learning. Passive vessels waiting to be filled with information may have been the standard in days of old, but that has little place in the way adults absorb new ideas. Trainers who share my point of view say that the "sage on the stage" should give way to the "guide on the side."

Allow me to illustrate. The flip chart (or whiteboard) that I mentioned above should be more than a place where a trainer jots down ideas. That empty canvas should also invite contributions from the audience. (A good friend of mine argues that by leaving his table or lectern to make points on the flip chart, a physically active trainer draws his audience along with him. Contrast that with the stationary figure behind the podium who turns slightly at the waist to click for another PowerPoint slide.)

Here is how that attitude played out at the federal agency's forum: Several attendees at my seminars wanted help preparing presentations that they were due to give back at their home offices. So we talked about the nature of their intended audience, their bosses' rationale for the briefing and their own expectations about what they wanted their listeners to take away from the event.

As our discussion evolved, and I kept asking questions, they formed a clearer picture of how their own presentations would unfold. Looking around the room, I saw other people nodding, and several pitched in with ideas of their own. Here are examples of fresh approaches they said they would work on:

• Instead of just responding to your department head's blanket request for a year-end presentation on training activities, ask ahead of time for some specifics on what might interest her and any other attendees. Don't just assume that every element of your briefing has equal weight. That way, you can be prepared to flesh out topics of greater interest. In other words, know your audience.
• If you're afraid of boring your listeners at a briefing on emergency response procedures, open up by soliciting questions and comments. Should any crucial topic remain unaddressed, fill in with details at the end. Meanwhile, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much expertise on emergency responses there is to share in that room. What's more, you've shown respect for their knowledge and experience, and that makes for willing participants.
• Say that you need to explain the effect of recently rewritten (by Congressional mandate) regulations on your office. Start by asking what they know about the reasons for the updates. That way, you can correct misperceptions as they arise without lecturing, and highlight ideas from listeners who understand the changes. Now you've got a conversation percolating along, and everyone is invested in the process of learning.

Here's what those approaches have in common:

• You can cover the facts that your audience needs to know by promising them a handout at the end, a "takeaway," so that they don't feel compelled to scribble notes continually.
• You don't have to worry about leaving time for questions because that give-and-take is underway almost from the beginning.
• Watch the bonding that inevitably grows out of the conversational atmosphere. I've seen it lead to many a one-on-one conversation afterwards and an exchange of business cards.

One last thing: This sort of productive conversational style doesn't have to be limited to small groups. In front of a larger crowd, you can still walk around, hand out takeaways and spark an energetic Q&A.

An Authoritative Approach To Marketing Yourself

I recently ran into a fascinating and flamboyant consultant at a breakfast meeting in Maine who mentioned a term new to me: "authority marketing." His name is John Tantillo (Ph.D.) and he's president of the New York-based Marketing Department of America, an ambitious name if I've ever heard one. Authority marketing, he said, is all about differentiating yourself from your competitors. Establish that and you can lay claim to being the "go to" person for current and future clients as well as the media.

Makes sense, I figured, and in an era of copycat bizspeak, it's a novel approach (at least it's novel to my ears). So if anyone out there needs help setting yourself apart in the marketplace, let me know. I can help you write and place columns that lend you that air of authority.

It Took A While, But Now I "Get" Social Media

Despite what I've been saying all along, I am now a convert. I've signed up, so far, for Facebook and aim to make use of it. Casual reading I've done on the topic tells me that I should spend 80 percent of my social media time on business and 20 percent on personal stuff. We'll see.

I also have a blog. Please join me at http://www.businesscommunications.wordpress.com, and react by sounding off on anything touching on business communications, presentation skills and writing skills, and all their promise and pitfalls. I'll continue to share what I know about the news media and how you can gain from press encounters, as well as writing and public speaking for success.

Take care.
Dave