Lectures Don’t Have To Be Evil

I sometimes tend to be a little sarcastic when people refer to lectures (or speeches, or presentations, or breakouts) as learning. At one level, that comes from the fact that mostly all of the education literature shows that talking at people doesn’t result in learning.

(Did your mom tell you not to touch hot things? To always wear clean underwear? Wait to have sex until after you were married?)

Yes, you heard the lecture. No, you didn’t really change your behavior. Talking at people carries about a 10% guarantee of success, depending on how you measure results. I’m not sure if your airline announced they guaranteed a 10% chance of your arriving in Wichita that you’d get on board.

But there are ways of giving a lecture that have a better chance of getting your message into those little ape-brains in front of you, in a way that just might stick. Here are my favorites:

1. WIIFM? Before you write the first word (or, God forbid, the first PPT slide) write out a one-sentence benefit statement and nail it to the monitor. What’s In It For Your Audience? These people don’t care what your “message” is, they don’t care if you meet your sales goals, they don’t care if your widget has lots of blinky lights and semi-transparent windows. It doesn’t take salesmanship to sell water in the desert — people understand clearly that they want it.
2. Tell A Story The oldest form of communication started around the campfire, as we munched dead beast and told the others how we’d caught their dinner. What’s your story? There should be a hero, a quest, a challenge, and a resolution. (Google “Joseph Campbell” if you’d like more on this.)
3. Be Clear What’s Important Start your talk by listing three (no more) things you’re going to cover. Cover number one, then repeat the list. Cover number two, then complete the list. Cover number three, then repeat the list. Don’t make me think!
4. Engage With Your Audience At least 30% of the time, they should be talking while you listen — and then restate what you heard to ensure you got it. Questions like “did it work that way for you?” and “who’s had a problem with this?” and “how do you handle that in your shop?” are all great ways to bring out information from the crowd. You’ll be surprised that many of them know more than you do.
5. Provide A Takeaway In years past, we used to hand out copies of our PowerPoint slides. Ick. Build a simple web link site on your blog that has 5-10 of the main things you mentioned — including any tools, resources, people or other items that would be useful. And if you must, put your PPT deck up there, too.

You still won’t get the level of retention if they can touch, feel and manipulate the widget, but you’ll be a top presenter and loved by all. Not bad.