How to Communicate With a Large Team

Keep team members interested in your presentation for effective communication.

Knowing how to anticipate your audience's needs and reactions before attempting to communicate with them is an important aspect of effective communication. When you fail to hold the interest of a large group, your message becomes lost and your efforts to communicate fail. Instead of preparing a lengthy presentation without interactive, engaging material, prepare a speech or presentation that keeps your team members involved and allows them to voice their opinions.

Instructions

Communicating With a Large Team

1. Pose to your team the question, "Why is this important to us?" By allowing your team to understand why the issue is relevant to everyone involved, team members will remain interested and aware of what you're saying. If team members don't believe the issue impacts them, there will be less interest among everyone involved and your communication efforts will be less effective.

2. Contradict old belief systems with new information to create cognitive dissonance in team members. Give the team a challenging test, exercise or case study to solve before you begin your presentation. When team members realize they don't know how to solve the problem or that current belief systems don't aid in the solving process, they will understand they need your guidance and information.

3. Share stories with the team to keep everyone interested and involved. Capture their attention by telling stories that make your idea take on a life of its own. Using a memorable story will help team members involved and will make your message more memorable. Use stories from your life or the life of a colleague that teach relevant lessons and enhance your ideas.

4. Use analogies along with your stories to make difficult or abstract concepts more understandable. Analogies are an important way to solidify otherwise abstract ideas so that team members are able to take the information and process it on a deeper level.

5. Invite team members to participate in discussions about your message. Ask team members to share what they are thinking, allowing each member the opportunity to provide different opinions, solutions or ideas based on your presentation.

6. Clarify your reasoning and thought process to your group. If you make a decision that some team members disagree with, allow them the chance to understand your reasoning by outlining your thought process and telling them how you reached your conclusion.

7. Express to team members what you want or expect before ending your presentation. Clarify what you expect each person to do with the information once the meeting is over.

References

• Human Nature at Work: Becoming a People Whisperer