If It Isn't ACTIONABLE, It Isn't USEFUL

Will you be hosting a summit, chairing a meeting, emceeing a convention, leading a panel, or giving a keynote in the next few weeks.?

How will you ensure people remember what they heard and act on it?

Because if people can't repeat anything they heard word-for-word, it means it's out-of-sight, out-of-mind, which means that communication or conference won't have enduring impact.

I'm about to share three specific ways to make interactions ACTIONABLE ... and first let me tell you about the experience that made me a woman on a mission about this topic.

Several years ago, the TED organization rented movie theaters across the country the same week as their main stage event, culled the most intriguing excerpts from the talks given at that year's program, and made them available for anyone to see for a $10 ticket.

This was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I invited 25 colleagues/clients to join me to watch the talks. Afterwards, we walked across the street to Maggiano's for a round-table discusion/debrief. (Well, for some pasta too.)

As you can imagine, hearing each other's obsevations made for a fascinating conversation. Yet two surprising insights stood out.

1. Even though many of the speakers were brilliant thought leaders who had distilled their life's work into 18 minutes - even though they had spent months preparing their presentations - we could not repeat anything we heard word-for-word. We could talk vaguely about their messages, but there had been so many in a short amount of time, they were already muddled in our mind. We couldn't re-iterate any of the main points, which meant they were already out-of-sight, out-of-mind.
2. Only TWO of the talks were ACTIONABLE. Yes, we appriecaited an overview from an expert on how AI is impacting the world. Yes, it was thrilling to hear the gee-whiz things Elon Musk and his companies are doing. And yes, we heard moving stories about worthy causes, impressive feats and triumphs over adversity. But there was nothing we could DO about any of it. Only two speakers suggested specific steps we could take to affect their issue. Only two made their story our story.

So, what can we learn from this?

If our communications and events aren't ACTIONABLE, they're not USEFUL.

If we want to effect change, we need to:

* outline crystal clear next steps and hold people accountable for taking action on what they've learned or created

* set up a shift that causes people to change an outdated belief or behavior

* motivate people to do something differently and track/share their real-world results

I better practice what I teach, right? Instead of just saying it's important to make our communications and events actionable, I'm going to show three specific ways to do this.

1.Don't be subtle and don't leave results to chance. Toward the end of your communication or event, plant action seeds with action prompts such as:

a. What's is one thing you'll do differently when you get back to the office as a result of what was said here?

b. When you get home tonight, what exactly will you say to a family member to let him/her know you appreciate them?

c. When is your next staff meeting? What are three lessons-learned you will report out from this conference so your co-workers can benefit from what you've learned here?

d. What is one specific action you will take to change a personal habit or disrupt a S.O.P (Standard Operating Procedure) that is no longer serving you or your organization?

2. Ask audience members to get out their digitial devices and online calendars. If people don't put a date on the calendar, their priority probably won't get done. Ask them to pick a time that week they'll ACT on their good intentions - whether that's to volunteer for a local non-profit or cause, register for a class, or go to the gym. You might want to ask people to take four minutes (two minutes each) to SHARE what they are going to do with a seat-mate. Suggest they swap contact info and a follow-up date when they'll re-connect with their accountability buddy to celebrate what they did instead of just keeping it to themselves.

3. Wrap up with a visual review of the best one-liners. Reinforce what was said from the different sessions by asking speakers in advance to prepare a SINGLE SLIDE of their most important point. Propose they distill it into a repeatable-retweetable meme (here's how to do that) to POP! it so it's pithy and profound. Encourage everyone to get out their phones and TAKE PHOTOS of these "best of" tips so they can share them via social media and with colleageus back at work. Not only can this take your event viral and help it reach even more people; showcasing the most powerful insights from your event keeps them in-sight, in-mind which keeps them top-of-mind which scales their enduring impact.

Think about it. Organizations spend billions of dollars every year to send employees to conventions. At the end of those events, people often go back to work all fired up, and then life intervenes and a few weeks later, everything is back to same-old, same-old.

Let's not let that happen.

Meg Wheatley says, "Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating unintended conseqences, and failing to achieve anything useful."

From now on, whether you are the speaker, panel organizer, event emcee or host, take responsibility for giving people opportunities to reflect, connect and project.

Ask people to reflect on what they just heard, and give them a chance to connect with other participants and project how they'll put their intnetions into action and to good use.

That's how communications and events become a bottom-line ROI for all involved.

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Want more ways to connect with people, add value and get results? Check out Sam Horn’s books POP! Tongue Fu!, Wash Post bestseller Got Your Attention? and her 3 TEDx talks.  Discover why her work has been featured on NPR, in NY Times, Forbes, Fast Company and presented to Intel, Cisco, NASA, Accenture, Capital One, YPO, EO.