G’day mates!

I have given talks during which all of the following have happened:

A man answered a cell phone call during the speech – he left the room only after the rest of the audience glared at him hard enough that there was no way for him to stay…

Emails have been typed – both on cell phones and laptops..

A guy in the front row fell asleep. Not just nodded off for a few, I’m talking about a bloke needing to be prodded awake to stifle his snoring by the woman next to him.

For today’s purposes I’m only going to chat about the last two; I will not discuss the guy who took the phone call, he was just damned rude, and I’m still pretending he doesn’t exist…

The fact is, anyone that gets up in front of an audience to give a presentation, would like to think what they are delivering is worth their audiences time and attention. And in most cases, if you’ve done your homework on your audience, you’ll be right – they are interested and very guarded about wasting their own time and they intend to make the most of your information. But, occasionally, someone will be in the middle of the worst work day of their lives and not able to cease trying to sort things out just because of your talk.

In some cases this person will have been told they must attend this “presentation” because of the quality of the information going to be delivered, and the fact they don’t have time for it, is of no consequence to the manager.

There is also the point that everyone multitasks to different degrees. Some people can quiet comfortably handle listening to you, and getting some of their more mundane chores settled while they do. In fact some people listen better while doing busy work, doodling, or headstands at the back of the room.

One of the women I witnessed texting or emailing during my presentation approached me at the end to ask a couple of follow up questions. She also mentioned in passing that she had sent my information onto a professional contact of hers during the talk, because she like the session so much she was sure so would her acquaintance. I was quite surprised to be honest, because I hadn’t considered the possibility that some might be enjoying it so much she couldn’t wait to share with others.

I always thought a lack of perceived attention was a negative thing! It’s not.

Also, bear in mind that the younger the audience, the more likely it is for this scenario to occur. I organized a Community Team Building event in the form of a dancing Flash Mob a few months ago. During one of the rehearsals we broke off for a rest after running the routine through a half dozen times. Of the fifty or so students attending the rehearsal, forty of them went straight to their cell phones during the first five seconds of the break time.

To watch this happen was comical! Half them were holding conversations with the people next to them, while typing, and sending pictures of the “event” to other friends. A few years ago if I was having a conversation with someone and they suddenly broke off to start texting or emailing, I would have had a hard time not thumping them on the top of their ignorant head. One of the biggest generational differences lays in our children’s ability to instantly connect with each other.

In this case pictures were being taken, sent embedded within texts and then short blasts of highly abbreviated information was being relayed to FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace or a plethora of other social networks. I asked one student if she was emailing good or bad reports about the rehearsal. She laughed at me and replied,

“No one emails any more, it takes too long. And I was telling my closest ten friends how funny you are – so it’s good news.” HOLY CRAP! Emails take too long!!!!! I was caught somewhere between being happy I wasn’t just the old guy at the front making a fool of himself (not that I really care) and nearly shocked into sitting down that emails could be perceived as outdated and “old school”.

I remember a time when writing a letter to my wife meant licking a small square of nasty sticky paper and then having to find time to drive to a postbox, (mailbox) mail it, hope it didn’t get lost, wait a week to ten days, call and make sure it got there. And then wait another ten days for my reply….and that’s if everything went to plan!!

Here was a 16 year old telling me that email was an old school concept and took too long.

Which brings me to this final point on the topic, no matter who you are presenting to, if folks suddenly start texting (no emails now remember they are passe) during your speech it may well be that they were so inspired by your talk, they couldn’t wait to share with their friends. If you are dying a death out there, and they suddenly start texting, the whole world will know you sucked before you finish.

You might as well focus on the positive as there isn’t much you can do either way. LOL 

 Someone is always going to look bored out of their mind – no matter what you do.

This can affect your confidence during your speech and make you start to doubt what you are saying is of any interest to your audience at all. We tend to focus our attention on the members of the audience who seem to be most engaged; those that nod, smile back at us, or fix us with unwavering focus. Now, by all means enjoy these accolades, they will inspried you be the best presenter possible. But, do not ignore the importance of making eye contact with everyone in the room – including the grumpy old sod seemingly hell bent on making you feel like an idiot.

The gentleman I mentioned earlier that fell asleep during one of my talks and began snoring, nearly, nearly threw me for a loop. The rest of the audience seemingly was having a great time. As I had been hired to talk about survival, humor, optimism, attitude and the ability to see the bright side of everything, this could have been very unfortunate if I’d reacted negatively! Of course, neither could I just ignore it: so asked to borrow someones jacket and I covered this guys legs with it, while he slept. This tickled the rest of the group, and we let him sleep off the next twenty minutes without bothering him.

It turns out he had taken a red eye from the other side of the country to make the presentation and it wouldn’t have mattered if I was juggling balls of fire that day, he was jet-lagged, beat up from five days of travel and meetings and couldn’t keep his eyes open. After the speech concluded, he informed me that he had enjoyed what he’d been awake for enough that he was referring me to another company. I can live with that.

The grumpy guy, the guy barely awake, (or even snoring) are not doing it deliberately. Some people just look like they consistently get up on the wrong side of their bed. Do not ignore them because they make you feel uncomfortable. Handle them as if they are the difference between your presentations success or failure.

Often times, the grumpy looking bugger, also happens to be the decision maker for the company. He has a lot riding on his or her shoulders, and although they may not be giving you the instant afffirmation others in the crowd are doing, they will undoubtedly derive negative emotions from being ignored. 

That’s it for today mates, I’ll wrap up this section tomorrow, in the meantime have a top-notch day and we’ll chat again soon!

Cheers, Terry.

www.highintensityteambuilding.com