Award Winning Speech

Award Winning Speech

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Explanation vs Appeal

After your presentation, do you want
1. Audience to ask questions or contribute their time to the action planned and enhance the presentation themselves ?
2. To pass on a message or raise the stakes for all involved ?
3. Get a buy-in or imbibe it as their own ?
4. To be invited to make the next presentation or distribute it to audience and rely on them to enhance the message as it passes along ?
5. The audience to look at the presentation/you at different times or find it seamless vision of 2 great players orchestrating on stage ?
6. The take-away to be remembered or the entire presentation experience with the key actions for each of the players?

Answers to above would determine the effectiveness of
  1. style,
  2. substance,
  3. story,
  4. sequence,
  5. screenplay
that you would prepare to put the ink on canvas.

The first part of sentence(in Red) would be the result when you explain a message/action/concept. Similar to what we read in schools/colleges. We ask questions in a quest to understand the subject.

The second part of sentence(in Blue) would be the result when your presentation is capable to make an impact by making an appeal. When we give away for charity, take time for fulfilling a social responsibility, when we help others altruistically, when we recommend without getting paid are times, when we have got impacted by some message, some prophecy, some out of world energy to make the effort. We respond to an appeal made in right way that had an lasting impact till we take the action.

Understand that appeal and impact is required for getting an initiative successful. Mere explanation, buy-in, word of mouth passage of meanings, saving a presentation for future use, adding the take-away as a to-do list result in poor results for a well intentioned initiative.

The time, the top management picks up a stake in the initiative, 50% success is guaranteed. The other 50% is in hands of users/customers. To do so, we need to appeal to everyone's good sense. We need them to complete our sentences. We need to make the impact lasting by assigning them an active position. This is personal experience.

Has your initiatives succeeded as a result of an appeal ? What impact did it create ?Please tell your story in the comments.

1 comment:

  1. "Audience to ask questions or contribute their time to the action planned..."

    I have had a lot of the former (audience to ask questions) happen to me in the last few months...however, if the presentation has not moved the audience to take action, then I think I have not conveyed the message right.

    I have just informed but not given them adequate and convincing reasons to take action...

    I am glad the post came at a time when I have to think through and make a case this coming week for the action steps that can hugely impact a project. This has been constantly on my mind...the post provides some direction to my thoughts and approach.

    I need to reshape the message such that it is not information any longer but a call to action, an appeal that will make people voluntarily take the next steps.

    I have to ask myself the 6 questions...and hope to arrive at an answer.

    ReplyDelete

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