Most common communication mistake: offering too much information without giving your audience enough time to connect the dots. Lots of force feeding with little time for digestion.
Some type of emotional charge should be provided every 10mins – this generates engagement; emotional engagement. This is achieved by making the story relatable. If I can relate to the story, it will generate an emotion which generates an engagement (source: John Medina, Brain Rules; Attention).
It can be anecdotes, case studies, it can be fun, scary or even embarrassing as long as the story stimulates an emotion which connects the audience to the material being presented.
The 10 minutes rule is a proven scientific fact backed up by research. Put out a topic, break it down and finish with a hook or story at the end of each 10 minutes lapse time.
Always start with the big picture. You can also start with a compelling story before going into the presentation material.
- Present overarching theme of the presentation (context)
- Agenda or items/topics to be presented
- Start each topic with a one liner that tells the audience what to expect or what they going to hear
- Now go into the details of the topic
- Finish the topic with an anecdote that seals it for the audience and that connects the dots for them – it has to be compelling. It has to trigger some kind of emotion (even interest or curiosity) which is what will engage your audience before you move to your next topic.
- Make sure you have a flow so that each topic (segment) becomes a piece of the puzzle or picture you’re unveiling so that the audience can follow along and connect all the dots as you are presenting (a story line should be forming in their head and you’re just adding to the story as you introduce each new topic) It cannot be disjointed. There must be an order to what you are presenting.
- We know the brain learns through emotion which is what generates engagement because the emotion creates a bond with what is being said/presented – it suddenly makes sense to your audience and that’s because the brain loves to decipher patterns and connect the dots – it will be engaged if it can do that during the presentation. If the brain can link an emotion to the topic being presented, it will anchor it. (John Medina, Brain Rules; Attention)
- Finish the presentation with an overall recap of the key points presented.
