How do you make presentations interactive when you only have 20 minutes? In this video, Rebecca Courtney and I set a timer and play interactive presentation ping-pong. She shares an idea, I share an idea, back and forth, until the timer runs out. Every single one takes just a minute or two to run. Next to no prep. And bonus points, they’ll make you look good on stage.
Idea 1: Shake Out the Adrenaline Together
Rebecca went first. If you have a lot of adrenaline building up in your bones just before you walk on stage, here is something really cool to do that takes about one minute. The minute you get on stage, say hello before you introduce yourself, invite people to stand up out of their seats, and just say, “Look, I’m filled with adrenaline, and in order for me to do a really good job for you, I need to shake out my body, and I’d love you to join me.”
So you invite people to stand up, shake out their hands, shake out their legs, shake out their whole body. Within one minute, your nerves are shaken out, and the room is energized too.
Why does this work? Everybody in that room was in a different world before they walked in. Everything was different in their life except for the room you are in with them. When they all share that same experience, just for that moment, they are hooked into the context. People’s bodies might be in the room, but their brains are somewhere else. Doing something physical unites the two.
Idea 2: Walk On Stage and Ask a Question
I have started every keynote for the last 100,000 people I have talked to in person by walking on stage and asking a question, even in a group of 6,000 people in an arena. Especially if you have only got 20 minutes.
I walk out and ask something to the effect of, “When you meet someone for the first time, what questions do you typically ask?” And I use my hand gestures to signal, “I know you’re in an arena. You don’t think you talk back to me. This is the time where you talk back to me.” That breaks the fourth wall. People just popcorn out answers: “Where are you from?” “What do you do?” “Kids.”
Pick a question that relates to the topic you are about to talk about, one that can be answered in one word or phrase, get three to five responses, and take those as your transition into your whole purpose for being there.
Idea 3: Ask a Question That Connects People
Rebecca built on that one. If you are doing a talk on facilitation, innovation, creativity, whatever it is, ask a question that is related to the topic, but with the intention of actually connecting people. You are also letting them feel what it is like to be gently facilitated.
If the talk is on facilitation, you could ask, “What’s one of the worst meeting experiences you’ve ever been a part of?” Get them to think alone first for a minute. Set a timer. After the timer goes off, they turn to a neighbor or get into a group of three or four and share.
Within the first minute or two, you have them gently facilitated, and you can debrief what you just did. It demos the power of facilitation, and it connects them. It is a much better start than “Hi, I’m Rebecca and I’m a facilitator.” You are immediately putting the attention and focus on them.
This format gets close to One-Two-Four-All from Liberating Structures: alone first, then in a pair for two minutes, then a group of four for four minutes, then everybody popcorns out what struck them. That structure is not like any traditional meeting structure, but it allows everybody to actually speak.
Idea 4: Get Every Voice in the Room Early
This one borrows from Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering. If you invite people to actually use their larynx in the first 5% of a gathering, they are vastly more likely to use it later. If you want active engagement and participation, especially in a large group, especially in a short time frame, you want everyone to use their voice, not just the people who answered your semi-rhetorical question.
If I am not in a time crunch, I get people into small groups of three to connect with each other, because connection is the content. Peter Block would say it is the vehicle of delivery for any impact you want to create.
If I am in a time crunch, though, and we are virtual (I was just working with 400 executives who wanted to get right down to it), I say, “All right, we’re meeting virtually. I like to try to break Zoom before we begin. On the count of three, I want everybody to unmute and just say hello in whatever language you prefer.” Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet audio suppression is pretty good, so you can actually hear a bunch of distinct, unique voices talking.
That little micro-invitation shows everybody, “Even though I’m seemingly passively consuming this presentation, I have a voice, and when asked, I can use it.” Rebecca has people showing up with their body. This one has them showing up with their voice.
Want more conversation starter questions to open with? Download our free printable We! Connect Cards, book excerpts, and more here.
Idea 5: Close With a Snowball Fight
This one is for the closing. Rebecca did it recently at a talk with about 500 people, and it was incredible.
Ask everyone to get a piece of paper and a pen. Write down one of their biggest takeaways, insights, or ahas from your talk or the whole conference. Add a disclaimer: somebody will be reading this, so make it clear. They will not read their own out loud. They are sending it as a gift to a stranger.
Then everyone scrumples up their piece of paper. Count down from three, and everybody throws their snowballs in the air. Then people pick up a snowball that is not theirs, read the insight, and keep it as their keepsake.
Seeing 500 pieces of paper flying around a big conference room is one of those moments as a facilitator where you think, “Okay, I made it.”
Idea 6: Let People Read the Slide Themselves
And as promised, the second-to-best idea saved for last. If you are like a scientist and you just have a bunch of really dense presentation material to share, put up your slide, assume the group can read, and say, “You’ve got 30 seconds to read the slide and tell me at the end, or tell a partner, the most interesting thing and the most boring thing you learned from your read-through.” Ready, set, go.
All of the effort is taken off of you. People will learn far more and enjoy the experience more. And you will also work about 99% less if you share your content in a way that allows people to actually interact with it and contribute to it.
Everybody Contributes, Everybody Takes Away
One more thing worth sharing. Keith McCandless, the creator of Liberating Structures, is going to be kicking off the Connectors Summit this December. Rebecca is going to be leading a crowdsourced library of tools: something she wanted for herself forever as a facilitator. Several hundred super-smart practitioners will gather, share their favorite exercises for the beginning, middle, and end of a session, and co-author a beautiful library that gets gifted back to everybody.
Want to go deeper? Register your interest for the Connectors Summit this December, a live once-a-year only experience where facilitators, trainers, and leaders come together to sharpen their saw, fill their bucket, and leave with lasting connections to help fuel the next year.
I’m Chad Littlefield. Have an awesome day.
