Fast, Fun, Easy, and Effective Way to Engage Every Audience!

All I do is pass out 8×5 in. index cards (or have them already on the desks or chairs) and get everyone to answer a question or write down an opinion about a topic I announce. They don’t have to include their name or company on the card. Then, I collect the cards, and rather than begging for a question or comment, I use the cards.

That’s it–it works every time.

During “Spice It Up!” I’ll ask my audience to pretend I’m a leprechaun who can grant them one “safety meeting/presentation” wish. Then, I ask them to write down that wish on their index card. Not surprisingly, one of the most common wishes I get is “to learn how to get employees more involved in our safety meetings.” Right from the get-go, I start to grant that wish by demonstrating using index cards!

Here are a few tips:

1. Always read a card silently before doing so out loud. You never know what someone will write–especially if you don’t want any names on the cards. I’ve gotten some huge laughs over the years from witty attendees, but on occasion, what’s written may be hilarious, but it’s not appropriate for some audiences.
2. Don’t worry about the folks that don’t write anything. You’ll still get enough responses to make the exercise work.
3. When speaking to employees at a company, sometimes I’ll use the cards to get their opinion about something or to find out about their behavior at work and home. My favorite is to ask everyone to write down ways they “cheat” and take unnecessary risks. (One response: “I sometimes disagree with my wife!”)
4. If there are more than 50 people in your audience, this interaction technique gets tougher. You still can use it, but you’ll need to let everyone know that you won’t get to every response, which is okay because you’ll still get your audience to think about the meeting topic.

Why index cards and not a sheet of paper with a question printed on it? It seems more informal, and this, in my experience, has stimulated employees to open up more. Plus, they are easy to handle. (I dramatically shuffle the cards before reading them out loud—that’s fun.)

Give it a try, and let me know how it worked out.

‘till next time.

Funbird Hawk

www.makesafetyfun.com