Most talks, trainings, and meetings get something fundamentally wrong: they design for consumption, not contribution. Here are 5 tiny edits that will flip your next session from a monologue into something people can’t forget.
1. Kickoff with an unofficial start
I learned this one from a brilliant facilitator named Mark Collard, founder of playmeo. We typically reward people for being late by waiting for everybody to arrive before we start.
What if you flipped that?
The first slide, the first thing you do when people walk in the room, is invite them to contribute. Ask a question. Have them write something on a sticky note. Have them type something into the chat.
By the time the “official” start rolls around, people are already participating.
2. Use a context hook instead of an official start
When you’re ready for an official start, don’t call an official start. Don’t say, “Hey everybody, welcome.”
Call it a context hook.
Imagine that everybody else is on some other planet, and you have to invite them to do something, or you have to say something that loops them into that context.
It’s a small shift that resets the energy in the room. For example, “Raise your hands if ______.”
3. Connection before content
“Without relatedness, no real work can occur.” – Peter Block
That’s why the next edit is connection before content. Invite people to actually connect with each other in the room. Not just with you. Not just with your presentation. Not just with your content.
A good conversation starter between two people in the first five minutes will do more for the rest of your session than the next 50 slides.
4. Design your content for contribution
Instead of putting up a slide and presenting and talking people through it, try this: put up the slide and tell people to read it and tell you the most interesting thing on the slide and the most boring thing.
You’ve designed that content for contribution.
The slide is no longer being delivered to them. It’s being explored with them.
Want to try this with your next group?
5. Don’t close with your words
People tend to remember what happens first and last. It’s the primacy-recency effect.
So when you close, my invitation is this: do not close with your words. Invite the audience to actually close with theirs.
Hand the last word to the room.
You will immediately flip a lecture into an experience that people can’t forget.
Want to see it all play out live? Register your interest for the Connectors Summit this December, a live virtual gathering where everything above is actually practiced!
