Strategies to enhance audience participation. Collaborative interaction
Engagement with your audience is a key requirement of any effective presentation. If the audience is engaged with you and your message, then it is very likely that the session's outcome will be successful.
A very effective way of getting audiences engaged with your message is to get them actively involved in the presentation.
So rather than stand and lecture to an audience why not have them working for you in identifying some of the key points you are wanting to get across. Nothing motivates people more than feeling like they own the solution or the process.
For example, a company is looking to improve productivity at the workplace. So rather than have a productivity expert come and ‘tell’ the staff where and how they could improve productivity, why not have the staff themselves not only identify wasteful practice but suggest ways to improve their productivity.
Engaging your audience in this way requires mastery of the skills of collaborative learning. That is, structuring your presentation environment to ensure effective collaboration among participants.
Set the audience participating and it is more likely that they will accept, engage with and ultimately emerge believing in your message.
Explore a range of strategies and techniques to get audience members interacting with each other in a natural collegial manner.
Imagine your sales team working together to develop an improved sales pitch or an audience of strangers working together for their mutual benefit. It can be done when you understand the principles of collaborative interaction.