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One of my
favorite ways to increase participation and interest in my talks is
including worksheets. My worksheets are always basic and make the
audience feel super smart. You want to get your audience involved
during your talk for three reasons:
1. It keeps them engaged
2. It increases the chances
of them absorbing what you’re saying
3. It increases the chances
of them taking action when they leave because they’ve already built
their plan
Worksheets
that remind your audience of coloring books when they were a kid create
interest instead of dread. Why put them through something boring and
confusing when you can make it fun and easy? Here are a few tips for
creating useful worksheets that your audience actually wants to use.
1. Ask
thoughtful questions to get them thinking about their own life
Asking a
question like, “How is this true for you?” helps them put themselves
into your talk and creates a frame of reference for them. Share a few
examples of your own before you ask them to write. For example, if you
were talking about leadership strategies and you were specifically
focused on inclusion, you could tell a few stories about a time when
someone was excluded and a time someone was included. Then, you would
ask your audience to fill in the answer to question #1: “How is this
true for you?” This is a great way to start a conversation, because
you’ve given everyone a chance to think about it and formulate a
personal experience they can share. Everyone has it written in front of
them and will be much more likely to raise their hand after being given
a chance to reflect.
2. Use fun
shapes
Instead of
asking your audience to fill in their answers or ideas on a blank line,
instead, create a large shape they can fill in. For example, I do an
exercise called “Star Power” where I ask the audience to write down
what they excel at. Instead of writing it in list format, they fill in
a large blank star. It is more fun to look at and gives them freedom to
write big or small and in whatever way they’d like. You can also use
circles, triangles, outlines of cars, trees, cats, hamburgers,
anything! Make it visually interesting and easy to approach and your
audience will be much more excited to participate.
3. Do “fill
in the blank” exercises
Write
entire sentences on your worksheet, but leave the keyword out. This
means when you arrive at that part of the worksheet, you can prompt
your audience to pay attention to that line of text. When you say that
sentence, they have to listen (and write in) the keyword. This means
they will be on the edge of their seat waiting for the keywords. It’s a
fun way to get them to tune into your key takeaways and make them feel
like they are part of the presentation. You can also randomly pick
someone you see writing to recite the sentence back to the group. This
increases the likelihood of everyone hearing it and writing it down, if
they didn’t already.
4. Give
them a chance to practice
Once you
are done with your talk, create an opportunity for your audience to try
what they just learned. Create a short exercise they can fill in and
then have them work in partners or small groups to discuss what they
wrote. This is another amazing way to help them retain what they heard,
because they are experiencing your content right away. For example, if
you are teaching leadership principles, you can ask everyone to choose
their favorite one from your talk and create a plan to test it out.
Then have them talk to the person sitting next to them about their plan
and get feedback.
Worksheets
are amazing and so under-utilized compared to PowerPoints. Rather than
bore your audience with another long slideshow, consider ditching that
element of the presentation in favor of the interactive worksheet.
HIGHBROW
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