Public Speaking: Set Expectations

Video Transcript

"A very important aspect of interacting with the audience, is giving them the confidence, that the presentation is in good hands. That is, their time is going to be well spent, because the person who is giving the presentation, knows what they're doing. They've got it covered. One very important way of doing that, is by setting expectations and creating guidelines for the presentation, as well. What I mean by that, is by starting the presentation by saying what it is, and sometimes even saying what it isn't. For example, I used to do a lot of presentations on diversity. What I would do, was start by saying, this is a presentation on the diversity issues that may or may not exist, in your working environment. We're going to be talking about that, as a group, and I'm going to be creating lots of time for you to give your opinions. I'm also going to be creating a lot of guidelines, that will make it easy and safe to do that. This however, is not a free for all. This is not a situation, in which we can attack, we can blame. It's not a situation, in which it's ok to let out any rage, that you may have. This is a discussion we're in. We're looking for solutions to problems that you decide may exist, in your organization, so in doing that, I was saying what the presentation was. I was saying what the presentation wasn't, and I was setting guidelines. This is what people could expect of their time in there. I found that that very often made people who walked in scared, trepidacious about a diversity workshop, much more relaxed. I worked with an excellent consultant, who would often just step forward, and say, Ok, we're here to talk about diversity. How many of you would rather be having a root canal right now? In answering that question, people got a chance to say just how nervous they were, and that allowed her to set the guidelines, that would make it a safe environment. That kind of thing shows enormous confidence, and allows the audience to know, if they just go with the presentation, they're going to get something out of it. Nothing is going to fall apart. It's all going to be good."