Sparkie's Ten Commandments #4

Thou shalt honour the fact that all people are different & create variety at the heart of your talk.
People are magical. They are wonderfully diverse in what they like and how they prefer to learn. Some people sit in silence, absorbing the content, without ever needing to hear their own voice. Some people like to get engaged with a topic, and start trying things out from the getgo.

I know that until I learnt about the different styles, I tended to design workshops that appealed to me. Fine for those with similar styles, but with little to appeal to the rest of the people present. Appreciating the differences and how they want to learn was a huge eye-opener for me and improved my presentations and workshops beyond all recognition.

There are alot of different ways of characterising people, and today we are just going to discuss one - the preferences we have for how we communicate - our VAK or VARK style. Are you a visual person, an auditory person, a read-write person or a kinaesthetic person?

If you don't know, then follow this link to find out: http://tinyurl.com/yajq53 (on one of my personal favourite websites)

A visual person will benefit from slides, flipcharts, video and colourful handouts.
An auditory person will benefit from discussions, brainstorming and music.
A read-write person will benefit from quizzes and handouts.
A kinaesthetic person will benefit from touching things, movement and interactive elements.

We are a wonderfully diverse people and the more we appreciate our uniqueness, the better our presentations and workshops become. If you design in variety at the very heart of what you do, you increase your chances of inspiring and engaging everyone who is listening - in fact you can Light the Spark in everyone.