Monday 8 June 2009

Sparkie's Ten Commandments #9

Thou shalt do something more than just entertain thine audience when thou speakest - thine audience should learn.

Don't get me wrong - people relax and learn when they are enjoying themselves. But your speech or workshop should do more than just leave your audience with a warm fuzzy feeling.

If you're an "after dinner" speaker, then ramp up the jokes and anecdotes and feel free to aim for entertainment or inspiration, or whatever your audience has hired you for.

But in many other situations, people want and deserve more than just being entertained. They want some value, some purpose, some new information or skills.

If you have read commandment #6, you should be clear on what your audience really NEEDS TO KNOW. Structure your talk (off the computer if you can) around that information. Follow commandment #2 and avoid long dreary elements. Mix it up. Make it fun, make it enjoyable, and make sure they get it (follow commandment #4 and include plenty of variety in your session to ensure everyone gets a chance to learn at their best).

If your speech is there to challenge behaviours or entrenched attitudes, then having your audience feel uncomfortable for a while might be a much better solution to jolt them out of their status quo than warm fuzziness.

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