It was something that I just felt, so I knew I would process it and later retrieve what my gut was trying to tell me. The speaker had presented a rather informative chart and graph presentation about his company. What they do, the value proposition, why it is relevant. There was something not quite whole about it. There seemed to be something that belonged there between the lines.
That nagging feeling spoke to my brain later. While the speaker explained the originality of the company, how the services can be customized, and how to use the company website, he overlooked the need to do something that every audience needs to feel. The missing element was: something in common with the audience. Life can be hard, and we often feel that we are rowing against the tide, looking for answers. Regardless the setting, when we listen to a speaker, we all want to hear from someone who in some innate and natural way relates to us, someone who will help us row. Professionally knowledgeable but personally aloof, the speaker seemed to be in a different boat.
Establishing rapport should be a priority. Simple feedback signals can tell the speaker whether they have achieved the level of positive personal listening. Comfort and connection are visible out there in the audience with relaxed arms crossed across the lap instead of the chest and in the very shape of smiles which reach all way to the outer points of the eyes. There are even chemical reasons for this because the body responds to various hormone releases inherent in mental reactions and attitudes – thus mental disposition drives the body language instantly visible to the speaker. Also group-think and feedback styles in the audience are contagious – audiences often row their collective boat together. When people find a point of commonality, those “for sale” ideas are not just more easily heard, but empathy and sympathy flow, and thus an audience can be mentally compelled to act.
In the book “Resonate”, author Nancy Duarte encourages speakers to “create common ground”. With a little bit of forethought and planning, relating to the audience is achievable. It may, at first, seem tricky to uncover something which will resonate with the crowd - but almost anything can work. Building rapport can be surprisingly basic and simple, for instance, just by recognizing that in a given company, the employees are probably dealing with some sort of corporate-driven change. Have you felt their type of pain? Where did you start, how far have you come? At a product expo, what makes your product turn heads, and did you personally go through that very epiphany? Did you use the product, change your mind about the issues, or arrive at a new attitude by experiencing what you are asking others to join into? What new gadget did your teenager ask for because the one she's using is 6 months old and obsolete, just like you? Backgrounds, life story, goals, humor, financial ups and downs, that frustrating traffic on the way to the event, can all equal opportunities for rapport.
Every presentation can be made a bit more relevant, a bit more engaging, and incalculably more effective when the audience feels that their values are shared. In this raging sea of messages, we are all hoping to hear from someone who is rowing in the same boat.
