Painless Presentations
Our Take On Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
“Next up, we have *your name* to deliver his/her oral report/ show & tell/ book review presentation!”. The enthusiastic voice was accompanied by a gradual build-up of perfunctory applause from the class. Your classmates’ dreary expressions belied their radiant eagerness to imbibe what you are about to present. You stood up reluctantly and trudged your way to the front of the class. As you tried to connect your laptop with the projector in a ham-fisted way, a cacophony of whispers and murmurs inundated the room. “Can he/she pull it off…?”, “Is he/she going to put us through a painful experience again…?”. Out of the deluge of skepticism, one question struck you hard – “What is he/she going to talk about?”. Why? You were also wondering what to say…
Delivering an engaging, enthralling and effective presentation is always one of the greatest fears of people; it strikes fear in people from all walks of life…doesn’t matter if you’re a working professional, undergraduate or elementary/preschool student. From show & tell to corporate presentations, class participation to conference speeches, presenting/public speaking is widely dreaded yet it seeps into every stage of our lives.
The above scenario probably caused you to hark back to the time you had to pick a newspaper article, or write a research paper, or do a book review and subsequently present an oral report on it. Remember the jitters, the butterflies in your stomach, cold & sweaty palms, dry cavity and lips?
“If public speaking scares you, you’re in good company. (Fear of) Public speaking (a.k.a. glossophobia) is ranked ahead of (fear of) death in the list of people’s fears.” – (Arruda, 2019)
Citation:
Arruda, W. (2019, May). Eight Things That Will Take The Stress Out Of Public Speaking. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2019/05/19/eight-things-that-will-take-the-stress-out-of-public-speaking/#49e6171148ea
*Cue Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”*
– That probably works in small measure…
By and large, that trepidation and discomfiture stem from the perennial question in the minds of most presenters – “How do I know what to say?”. The pain of not knowing what to say in a presentation is frustrating.
In light of that, this article wishes to provide our readers with a structure in mind for them to craft an engaging, enthralling and effective presentation using the proverbial Monroe’s Motivated Sequence as a point of reference.
Attention –
The attention span of people nowadays has become more and more unforgiving; it worsens as the age gets younger. The amount of time your audience members are willing to spare you ranges from 15secs to 1.5minutes. Your hook during this window of opportunity has to be startling. Something that rapidly occupies the mindshare of your audience. Something that gets them thinking immediately. That is why a very good catchphrase to use in your opening line is – “Imagine this…” or “Picture this…”. What comes next can be either salutary or detrimental to one’s health/ career/ happiness/ freedom.
Click To Watch my YouTube video on “How To Start Your Next Speech With Killer Intros (Hook!)”
Needs –
We know that in this segment, the presenter is supposed to accentuate the underlying desires and needs of his/her audience. There’s no doubt about that. Your audience will be impressed by your ability to underscore their needs – a semi-retiree attending an investment/ estate conference has the need for security and leaving behind a well-planned legacy, a member of the general public attending a medical conference has the need for health-related preventions and insights, your boss listening to your presentation has the need for concise, coherent and constructive (i.e. insights over information) delivery. At this point, your audience might see you as being very perceptive and impressive. What will strengthen the impact would be the sharing of your vulnerabilities as well. Knowing their needs is good. Sharing the same needs is great. Saying things like “I share the same mindset/ philosophy…” breaks down trust barriers and elevates rapport with your audience.
Solution –
This is the main part of your speech/ presentation. However, this is also the part where most presenters fail to inspire as they fixate on expounding the facts, features, statistics and elaborations on and on and on – brevity and relatability, in this case, is key. Briefly share the features of your product/ service and spend more time on HOW that feature alleviates the problems of your audience and satisfies their needs. Inject testimonials from precedents, not to brag, but more importantly, evince the transformation that others have successfully replicated. It’s not the awesomeness of the features that your audience subscribe to. It’s the applicability to their lives that matters.
Visualization –
Visualizing the benefits that your suggestions, proposals, system or methodologies can certainly shore up your audience’s interest in your presentation and sustains the attention. Structure your presentation of benefits in the form of short and long-term benefits. For example, a class monitor calls for his/her class to visualize the benefits of accepting a classroom cleaning routine and rewards-system for duties well executed. Besides highlighting the instant gratification that his/her classmates can enjoy by performing their cleaning duties (e.g. sweets/ stickers etc.), appeal to the longer-term benefits of a hygienic and clean classroom such as the rewards that they stand to gain from winning “best-maintained classroom” award if they can adhere to the routine for the entire year and the avoidance from falling sick due to unhygienic learning environment.
Action –
the trick to the final call to action is giving your audience the time and space to have your ideas and solutions marinate in their heads for a while and a natural epiphany or voluntary subscription to your ideas/ suggestions trumps a “pushy” call to action. Allaying the fear of your audience can be useful to the effectiveness of your presentation – use buffers like “No obligations…” or “…feel free to take it back and discuss it over…and if you find it meaningful and beneficial, (action)…”.
Our take on Monroe’s Motivated Sequence will aid you in eliminating:
- Directionless & un-inspiring openings (hint: startling hook)
- Psychological barriers to build trust (hint: sharing vulnerabilities)
- Lack of concern for your audience (hint: sharing of the same needs humanizes the presenter; it has been said, “Nobody cares how much you know…until they know how much you care.”)
- Negative attitude (hint: not being “pushy” or “salesy”; it has been said, “Your attitude more than your aptitude determines for altitude.”)
In the spirit of “practise what you preach”, here’s my call to action – if you wish for yourself or your child/ children/ kids to acquire presentation skills in a guided and safe environment, so that you or he/she can speak eloquently, confidently and impactfully – we can help you with that!
For more about Public Speaking Courses for Kids:
https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/group-classes-students-age-9-18/
For more about Public Speaking Courses for Adults:
https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/courses-and-programs/group-classes-for-adults/