Picture This Scenario in Your Workplace
You have some team members who have to do presentations to the rest of the department in order to try and influence change, but they are falling way short.
Essentially, you want to influence your team to get on board with the idea that they improve their presenting skills.
How could you introduce the layers of consequence in a way that has impact but does not insult the people in question?
“In the departmental presentations…
- I’ve noticed that some of the important departmental staff have a tendency to be distracted or switch off [Immediate issue]
- As a result we are not making the most of our opportunity which, as we know, affects all of us in various ways [Bigger consequence]
- In fact, there’s a lot of pressure on our presenters because their batting for us all, and after a couple of bad experiences I bet they’re losing sleep or feeling stressed before, during and afterwards. [Personal implication]
Therefore we should ask 'why this is happening?'
'What could we achieve if our presentations had more impact?'
'How good would we and our presenters feel if we nailed them every time?'
And from there, you set the scene for the people with the problem to be much more engaged in your discussion about a proposed solution.
Finally, here is a link to the ‘Quit Now’ advertisement copy we mentioned in the same recent webinar for ACHSM. This gives a succinct, creative example of how to influence your audience with few words, well placed images and a powerful scenario.
Phil Preston & Michael Neaylon
Founders, presentability
On behalf of the presentability team
