Talking at cross purposes with your audience

In early March, I attended Touchstone Theatre’s production of The Wrong Bashir at The Firehall Theatre. That show has ended its run. Next up for Touchstone is the very fun, Lawyer’s Show, where lawyers play all the roles. This year they are doing Mama Mia, with lots of great Abba songs.  

The Wrong Bashir was a very funny play about the wrong Bashir being put forward for a youth leadership position in the local Ismaili community. His parents are very surprised and his mother accepts on his behalf.  

The young man was a burgeoning nihilist trying to figure out what do with his life after his philosophy degree. He is currently working on his podcast about rejecting religion and moral principles. When the representatives from the religious council show up, chaos ensues as they think he is the other Bashir who is the very model of a young Ismaili man and is planning to study Islamic studies at Harvard. They were definitely talking at cross purposes, which led to a lot of the humour in the play.  In the picture, Bashir is wearing a toque and the other two men in the picture are representatives from the council 

Thinking about the talking at cross purposes in the play made me think about talking at cross purposes that can happen when technically-trained people give presentations to people who don’t have their level of technical training. I suspect I may have given presentations to the public when I was a lawyer at the BC Securities Commission talking about prospectuses, OMs, NINs, BORs and LPSs. If I did that, my audience wouldn’t have had a clue what I was talking about.

If you are a detail-oriented person taking to people without your level of expertise, you may well be speaking at cross-purposes without your audience understanding what you are saying.  

How to avoid overwhelming your audience with technical information

There are several things you can do to engage your audience and making sure they remember the important information you are there to share with them.

Audience focus – When thinking about an upcoming presentation, start first by thinking about your audience.  

a. Background What is the background of your audience members? Are they young or old? Immigrants or born here? Employees of an organization or entrepreneurs? CEOs or other senior executives or operational staff? There are no doubt other questions you could ask yourself about the audience you will be speaking to.

b. Knowledge – What does your audience know about the topic you’ll be speaking about. Are they very inexperienced in thinking about your topic or even brand new to it? Are they experts like you that just need a few of the most recent updated information? Are they somewhere in between?

c. Learning preferences – What learning preferences do your audience members have. Do the members of your audience prefer to learn visually? Perhaps they prefer just listening or reading and writing. Maybe they are people who need to be doing something in order to process information.  

Thinking about the issue of learning preferences in another way, perhaps they are particularly interested in one of series of questions. I learned this from my amazing business coach, @Georgee Low of Decide Your Life. Why would someone want to know this? What are the facts and concepts you are sharing? How can I implement or get results from this information? What If I did, or did not, use the information or implement what you are suggesting.

Unless you are sure you only have people with a particular learning preference in your audience, you should craft your presentation that will address the needs of all members of your audience, no matter what their preference may be. Just because you prefer to learn one way doesn’t mean that is the best way for your audience members

d. Communication preferences – How do your audience members prefer to receive communications? Do they prefer to get to the point right away and not waste time? Do they like to focus more on the interpersonal dynamics or more on the defined goals? Do they prefer to ponder things and consider all sides of a question before reaching a decision? Do they need all the details to make a decision or they just want the bare bones recommendation.

Again, unless you are sure you only have people with a particular communication preference in your audience, you should craft your presentation that will address the needs of all members of your audience, no matter what their preference may be.  

2. Purpose - Think carefully about the purpose of your presentation. There are two levels of purpose:

a. General – At a high level, what are you there to do? Perhaps it is to inform, or entertain, or inspire. Perhaps you are there to make them laugh.

b. Specific – At the end of your presentation, what do you want them to think, feel or do? This ties directly to your call to action at the end of your presentation. It is good to consider this question before you start drafting your presentation. Do you want them to use the information you’ve shared in their business or life? Do you want them to buy a product or service you are offering? Do you want them to share the information you shared with others? Do you want them to be curious about what you said and ask you questions? Your specific purpose may be different than all of these.

3. Three big buckets for content – Once you have thought carefully about your audience and your purpose, you then need to think about what information to share with them. You know a tremendous amount. If you share everything you know, your audience will almost certainly be overwhelmed and not remember anything.

People will remember more if you divide your content into three big buckets. Three gives a sense of wholeness or completeness. Four or more is just a list and most people don’t remember a list.

For a longer presentation you can divide your three big buckets into sub-buckets or sub-sub buckets, as needed.

Want to know how memorable your technical presentations are?

If you give technical presentations about law, accounting, engineering, tech, finance, etc. and don’t want to talk at cross purposes with your audience, join me at my online workshop on April 27 from 12 noon to 1:30pm (Pacific time). The online workshop is called “How to Give Technical Presentations Without Putting Your Audience to Sleep”. Until mid-April, the cost is just $50 (a $25 saving) and there is a special rate for groups of ten or more at just $45 per person. You can register at the link below: https://technical_presentations_without_audience_sleeping3-04-27.eventbrite.ca

If you happen to be a lawyer in BC, this Online Workshop counts for 1.5 hours of CPD Credit. Check it out here:  https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/lsbc/apps/members/cpd/detail_course.cfm?course_id=139230

If you give technical presentations, register at the link above. Even if you don’t, if you know anyone who gives technical presentations, please pass this information on to them.