Amy English
Instructional Design Specialist
Baker Communications, Inc.
A forgetful couple were discussing a trip to the store. The wife told her husband, “Please remember to get cheese, crackers, and apples. You’d probably better write that down.”
“Nonsense,” said her husband. “That’s only three things. I can remember those easily.”
He returned from the store with his shopping bag, and his wife looked in to see what he bought. “Bacon and eggs?” she cried. “Just bacon and eggs? Where in the world are the muffins I asked for?”
Making it Memorable
When asked what they want to accomplish, no presenter ever answered, “I want the audience to forget everything I say.” The whole point of presenting is to communicate something – something important enough that we’re willing to get up in front of a group and discuss it.
We want our message to “stick” in the audience’s memory. Many of us aren’t always sure we’ve accomplished that, though. How can we ensure that our audience actually understands, listens to, and remembers our primary message and most important points?
1. Clarify the Message
Most of us don’t speak in public unless we have something to say. Making a presentation for no reason would strike most people as distinctly odd. Still, some of us have experienced listening to someone talk, and leaving mystified about what their point might have been.
We know why we’re speaking, but is that clear to our audience? We usually have a pretty good idea of what we’re trying to do, whether that’s relay information, to teach the audience about something, or to persuade or convince them to adopt an opinion or take an action. The audience also needs to be clear on this point as early as possible – and certainly by the time we’re done.
2. Narrow the Focus
When we’re planning to make a presentation, we usually have more to say than we can actually include. Trying to cover too much ground will only result in a bored audience tuning out details they can’t retain. If we can focus our message on a few basic ideas that support our premise, our message will be clearer and also more memorable.
We start by defining exactly what we are trying to communicate, in the narrowest possible terms. Then we think about who we are speaking to and what we want them to do with the information. Then we can build our presentation around this single, strong focus point – it will be the central support that holds up the entire structure.
3. Tell a Story
A great method for making our presentation message “sticky” is to tell a story. Drawing from our own experiences or building around an issue that is important to your audience, we can find a way to wrap our facts and figures in a network of action and emotion. The core message or primary takeaway we are trying to get across can be driven home for the audience with creative storytelling.
Neuroscientists have discovered that good stories not only get people’s attention, they produce actual changes in both brain chemistry and behavior. Personal, compelling stories that generate empathy stimulate human brains to produce oxytocin. This chemical seems to be the catalyst that causes people to align and connect with a message. The more personal the story is, the better.
4. Give Them Feelings
Humans are not really the rational creatures we believe ourselves to be. Most of our “rational” decisions are actually based on emotion, gut feelings, and subconscious processes. That being the case, we are unlikely to convince many people of anything by reeling off facts and figures, unless we also appeal to the audience’s emotions. Numbers alone rarely change anyone’s mind – their best use is actually as supporting arguments for a message that has emotional appeal.
Enthusiasm is contagious; a speaker who is genuinely interested in and excited about the subject matter and material will engage their audience and incite a similar level of interest. If we are speaking to an audience, the subject must have some import to us – so what is the connection? What are the real implications of all our facts and figures? Why do we care – and why should they?
5. Call Them to Action
Our opening, and especially our conclusion, should include a “call to action” for the audience. If we don’t let the audience know what they are expected to do with the information we have communicated to them, they have far less reason to remember it. Are they supposed to think about the topic, make an immediate decision, place a vote, practice a skill, or buy something? What are we hoping to accomplish by giving this presentation to this group of people?
Bonus Tip: It makes things much simpler for any audience if we can create a “handle” by which they can grab onto our main points and carry them away. Memory aids, sometimes referred to as mnemonic devices, can be any learning technique that aids retention. Some of the simplest mnemonics are linguistic patterns. The presentation’s main ideas might be encapsulated in terms that all begin with the same letter, in phrases that rhyme, or words whose initial letters spell out a handy acronym. Using mnemonics in our presentation ensures that audience members hold on to the main points long after we leave the stage.
Tweet Amy @AmyMEnglish
Baker Communications offers leading edge Presentations Training solutions that will help we address the goals and achieve the solutions addressed in this article. For more information about how our organization can achieve immediate and lasting behavior change that leads to success during presentations in any setting, click here.
