presentation skills for lawyers: how to reach our audience
Speaking engagements have become a big part of my business doings. As I discussed here, I’ve spent a lot of time working and re-working my content, delivery style and deliverables to ensure that my programs channel what I call my personal presentation brand – the mode of presentation that reflects how I best convey my message and how my target audience best consumes it. In weighing the latter part of this branding equation – how to optimize audience, or consumer, experience – I’ve culled information on learning styles from various sources, like the ones I reference in this post and this one. I’ve also benefited from the guidance of Dr. Roger Greenaway. A proponent of experienced-based (or active) learning , Greenaway writes and speaks extensively about this education approach that melds the “worlds of talk and action.” You’ll find a comprehensive archive of his work here. As a big believer in the power of active learning, I was happy to come across this post from Bert Decker’s communications blog. In it, Decker points out that a lack of audience involvement can render any business presentation unmemorable. Citing a survey finding that 90% of people remember “what they see, are told, respond to and do [emphasis added],” Decker aptly concludes that the “secret to having your listeners learn and remember something is to take their involvement up the steps from Seeing to Responding, and Responding to Doing."
