Why Won’t My Audience Pay Attention?

Welcome back, people.

How you doin’? We’re aglow, as, since last time, we’ve led two powerful play funtimes with our many wonderful international friends.

There was the workshop with the superb Applied Improvisation Network (below left) for their 2024 virtual conference titled ‘Against All Odds’.

Character Building: Find Your Optimal Persona Via Improv was the name, S.W.a.L.K. was the game… more about that acronym further on. Was this session insanely early in the morning for us Brits? Yes. Were we wearing pyjamas on the call? No comment.

We were also proud, as ever, to co-lead an online playshop for the awesome Global Play Brigade (below right) at their Changemakers Playfest that we dubbed Yes, And! Powering Confident Conversations. It was co-devised and co-led with brilliant GPB Brigadier Pelemo Nyajo, based in Nigeria. The GPB are committed to bringing free play sessions to the world. To learn more, sign up for a playshop and to donate, please click here.

Moving on, this week we’re introducing a very powerful toolkit that we call S.W.a.L.K. We devised it with the aim of making everyone who uses it a more charismatic and compelling speaker, and it’s proven to change, forever, how you give presentations. It’ll even make audiences fall in love with you! (With consent, of course).

If this sounds intriguing, then click and sign up to The IMPROV Breakfast*. It’s a rip-roaring 25mins where we discuss the topic, run an activity and get plenty of opinions in the room. *Muffins are half-price next week: use code MUFFIN50.

Check out IMPROV Inc. on LinkedIn. Please do click on this link and give us a follow. Thanks!

?? Right! Pay ATTENTION! Oh, wait -

Why Won’t My Audience Pay Attention?

Ever found yourself delivering a presentation, only to notice your audience's attention drifting away, their eyes glazing over like doughnuts in a bakery display?

Don’t worry: it’s not just you. Holding a crowd’s attention in today's distraction-laden world is tougher than ever. It’s not called ‘the attention economy’ for nothing. But what if the secret to magnetic presentations was already wired into different aspects of your personality?

Watching a sea of suppressed yawns from the stage can be demoralising and difficult. It’s tricky to keep everyone engaged without resorting to tactics bordering on manipulation, bullying or butt-kissing.

Watch any great speech through the S.W.a.L.K. lens and you’ll notice the change in pace, energy and notes of personality. It’s a game-changer.

Here’s three steps to a better experience

Step 1

Stay relevant and riveting by checking your speech through the lens of the audience themselves. There’s a way to ‘sell’ every section of it. Imagine sitting in the front row and ask yourself where the delivery might lag or listeners might get lost. You can divide the final version into segments that might have differing energies or messages.

“don’t look at the floor: it doesn’t buy tickets”

Step 2

In these sections, what might the audience want to see? Useful knowledge and penny-drop moments, for sure. The sense of being a part of a bigger picture? Yes. A delivery that includes calls to action? Probably. What about being understood, as though the speaker knows what they’re going through. And to be entertained: definitely! With a heavy topic, especially: light relief is always welcome. Find those changes of pace and write them in.

Sign up for The IMPROV Breakfast here

Step 3

Enter our tried-and-trusted ‘SWaLK’ quadrant. Sage, Warrior, Lover, and Kidder are four presentation archetypes that allow you to take control, be charismatic and continually captivate your audience in a way that’s both effective and ethical.

Back in the day, writing S.W.a.L.K. - aka ‘Sealed With a Loving Kiss’ - on an envelope, would definitely get you noticed. So will this S.W.a.L.K. whenever you deploy it in a presentation.

To find out more and give it a shot yourself, come to The IMPROV Breakfast next Wednesday.

#AppliedImprovisation #YesAnd #BusinessSkills #ProfessionalMobility #HR #PresentationsSkills #SWaLK #LeadershipandDevelopment #LnD

Sign up for The IMPROV Breakfast here

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