Learning Techniques Your Audience will CRAVE

“I wish I knew then what I know now.”

Partly because last weekend I spent a heart-aching evening watching my scout troop – 14-18 years old – as they struggled to cope with the dress and demeanour of their female counter-parts at a barn dance. But mostly because I have been recording the presentation for the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) for first year undergraduates to try and encourage active learning rather than passive participation.

Although it is a cliché, I do wish I had had this knowledge back when I was a student – life would have been so much easier had I really understood how to learn.

This is a reversal of another kind for me since I generally teach or sell ideas, rather than teach audiences how to learn. But my experience in making content engaging and memorable also applies to those trying to remember what they have been taught.
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Audience Attention and Recall

People speak at around 125 words a minute but think considerably faster. When listening to a presenter, hearing the words takes a relatively small toll of the mind of an audience member, leaving them plenty of cognitive capacity to think about other stuff. Depending on what they do or are thinking about will determine how much of the information they will recall later.

As a presenter, your job is to do everything possible to ensure that they don’t drift to grocery lists, carpool schedules and other work tasks – one of our greatest challenges. Continue reading →

Presentation Construction and All That Jazz

I was recently in New York City, and ended up watching a performance at the Jazz Standard.  Jazz audiences always seem eclectic to me. If you go to a Country and Western gig, the audience tend to be uniform, in fact they mostly wear a uniform – involving denim, boots and fantastic belt buckles. Last year at a Springsteen concert, the common passion was tailgating and BBQ in the parking lot, indicating that music is just one of the interests they all share. Point being that as a performer, you have the right to expect an audience that chooses to come because they fit a mold, they like jazz, blues or barbeque.

Do you recall the scene from the Blues Brothers movie where they inadvertently find themselves booked into a country western club? That’s what happens when the audience come expecting one thing and get another.. they throw bottles at you.
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Lies, Statistics and Audience Recall

A friend e-mailed me last week with this great article for adult learning professionals (instructional design). I encourage you to read it, but the gist is that the following data are lies:

People recall:

• 10% of that they hear
• 20% of what they read
• 30% of what they see

My friend was concerned that I refer to these stats in my book and corporate website. More specifically,  “On average, bullet-point slides yield a 15-20% recall of information after just five minutes.” 

While I am not about to make ANY academic claims,  I routinely do two tests with clients – one during the sales process and one during the training course. Continue reading →

Obama vs McCain

Presenters’ first rule: What’s the message?

I am a self-confessed Americanophile – I love the country, I have been to 34 states and spend probably 50% of my working life there. But for the fact that my wife cannot legally practice medicine there I would move. I’m not sure where to – but probably Denver or San Francisco (with ski resorts being the pull). So it is with utter fascination I have been watching the presidential race. It will affect us all. Continue reading →