The Math of Public Speaking

 Is there any point in giving a presentation if your audience isn't listening or learning anything?

Introverts will whisper a firm no. Extroverts might say yes, but they'd rather have a captive audience. How do you KNOW if your audience is listening and learning anything? 

You have to ask them. 

And you need time for them to talk, process your slides, and engage. 

If you're the only one talking, then you're the only one absorbing the information. 

Knowing that, let's work the math of your presentation. 

Challenge: in every presentation you give, for the rest of your life, engage the audience half the time. 

Your talk time: 50%

Audience engagement: 30%

Q&A: 20%

BUT HOW WILL I COVER ALL MY INFORMATION?

Imagine your next presentation is three minutes. Design your presentation in three steps: 

1) Q&A: 20% or 40 seconds.

Plan to stop your presentation at the 2:20 mark, leaving 40 seconds for questions. 

Ask "What questions do you have?" The more content you wanted to cover, the more valuable this exercise is. 

• In the math of public speaking, hree minutes is a very short time. Imagine you have 10 bullet points you want to share with the team. You'll never cover 10 in that time -- and your audience may not need to know all 10. 

• Instead of racing through all 10 points faster than anyone can process them, share 3 and then ask for questions. 

• Of the remaining 7 points, let the audience ask the questions most relevant to them.

• What's the audience more likely to remember: information you told them, or answers to questions they asked? If you said answers, you're 100% right. The audience will remember the same data much more effectively and enthusiastically if it's phrased as an answer vs. a data dump. 
  

  2)  Audience Engagement: 30% or 1 minute.
  

• You planned to stop at 2:20, so go ahead and write 2 minutes and 20 seconds worth of talk track or bullet points. But don't stop there. Go back through that talk track and look for places to engage the audience for at least one minute. For example: 

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  • Start with a question. "Raise your hand if you've ever had this experience with a customer?" "True or False - we've launched more products this year than last?" "What's the longest supplier backlog we ever had: 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years?" Start with a question so your entire audience starts engaging right away. 

  • Look for places to change statements to questions. Instead of saying, "Obviously, if you look at this graph, Product X had more QA issues than Product Y," rephrase it as a question. "Matt, looking at this graph, which Product do you see having more QA issues?"

  • Tell a 5-sentence story. Your audience doesn't have to say anything, but the change in your vocal tone engages a different, more memory-focused, part of their brains. Take our Storytelling workshop to learn more about this. 

  • Use numbers. "Fifty. That's the number we need to hit by March 1st. Fifty represents..." By having large, simply, memorable numbers, you ensure that the audience will be able to repeat your information. 

  
  

  This presentation style will surprise people the first few times you do it. Asking questions takes courage! Remember, if you're the only person talking, then you're the only person learning and remembering your information. Use this math to make your presentations more memorable and effective. Practice your presentation skills with me by visiting I-cue.com.