Experts, pseudo experts, amateurs, believers, sceptics, supporters, enemies make up that sea of faces in front of us when we get up to speak. We can get some basic data from the organisers about who is in the room. What industries, companies, gender, age configurations are arrayed in those venue seats. What we can’t tell are the information assimilation biases of our audience members. This means we have to plan for a spread of reactions to what we are going to say. By plan, factor that into the content and the delivery of our talk. How do we do that?
There will be four basic personality styles in that random selection of individuals gathered to hear our talk. Obviously we can’t easily satisfy four different demands at the same time. During the course of the presentation we have to input elements which will appeal to all four, at different times. Usually speakers don’t do this at all. They plan and deliver based on their own preferred styles and to hell with the rest of the room. Actually, it isn’t that nuanced. It is not a conscious decision and more of one by neglect.
Content needs to have evidence. The degree of granularity we can go into however will be linked to our knowledge base and also to the time available to cover the topic. If we just bludgeon our audience with numbers for forty minutes, the Analtyicals in the room will be euphoric and everyone else totally nonplussed. They love the detail, the proof, the evidence through numbers and 0.0001 is a fully acceptable number for them. They don’t care about us speaking in a monotone or being fully boring, as long as we keep coming with more valuable data. They will ask us incredibly detailed questions about what we presented and will be carefully checking to spot any contradictions or errors in the numbers or the assertions.
Amiables are very conservative and low key. They don’t like bombastic outbursts. Radical ranting and venting don’t go down very well with them. Calm delivery, in not too a loud a speaking voice is appreciated. They like plenty of reference to people. Who was involved, what did they do, how did they feel about it, are all curiosity factors for them. They generally won’t raise their hand to ask a question, because they prefer to keep a low profile. If we are low key throughout the talk, then the Analyticals and the Amiables will be fine with that, but not so other key types in the audience. We need to have periods of calm interaction with our audience, to keep these first two groups happy. Focusing on data and people tends to go down well.
Expressives are bored with all of that data and hate that low energy stuff speakers get up to. They want some action, flamboyance, excitement, passion, enthusiasm, pizzazz and entertainment. They don’t care too much for the nitty gritty detailed evidence. They want to see some powerful belief and emotional commitment to what we are saying. They like the towering rhetoric of the motivational speaker. If really moved, leaping out of their chairs and being supportive would be no problem for them. We need to provide some big picture speech elements for this group. At specific moments we can unleash our passion for our recommendations, get very powerful in that advocacy and really push out the volume and the energy.
Drivers are very outcome focused, so what value can you bring to me? What can I learn that will make me better so that I can use it to improve what I am doing now. The “five key things”, the “ten steps” are all super attractive frameworks. They want to know the why, the what and the how. They don’t need the cheerleader, because they want the takeaways. They are their own cheerleader, so they search for new knowledge they can apply. Your passion is appreciated but the viability of the information in concrete usage terms is more appealing. Having lots of energy is fine but having very little is not. Be powerful at times but come laden with gifts of guides to doing better.
In our talk we need to have phases that provide value to all four groups. We cannot favour our own style or one other style exclusively, because we have effectively excommunicated the rest of the group. This is a delicate act to pull off, which is why it needs careful thought and planning beforehand. You can't make this stuff up or get the balance right on the fly. We have to start with the premise that we have a range of people in the room. We need to give them all a taste of wonder, defined by how they see that playing out.