Your audience will only remember a small percentage of what you say. Some studies suggest it will be less than 20%.
Fact.
Other studies suggest that the average adult attention span is now about 8 seconds.
Bummer.
So what do you do about it? Focus on all three aspects of the audience experience:
- Make sure you prepare your content so that the most important messages are clear. They won’t remember everything, so make sure you know what you want and need them to remember.
- Make sure your slides are simple, clear, consistent, and reinforce those same key messages.
- Make sure your delivery is easy to digest, and that you are using techniques that will help your audience focus on those same key messages.
If any aspect of the audience experience makes it hard to retain the key information, then retention will drop. Audience retention is hard to accomplish. To achieve it, you must identify what is most important and then make sure you are reinforcing those key messages in every possible way.
Sounds obvious, right? Now think about how often you listen to someone who has a crystal clear message, AND has simple and clear slides, AND has great delivery? Let me answer that for you… not too often at all.
It is harder than it sounds, and it takes some work.
But if you get it done, you will stand out amidst the crowd, your message will resonate and you will have competitive advantage.
Have a great day.
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Does your team:
– Overwhelm the audience with too much detail?
– Make things too complicated?
– Fail to ask for what they want or need?
Does your organization:
– Waste time because of poor internal communication?
– Take too long to make decisions?
– Struggle to clarify and frame discussions?
Do your leaders:
– Exhibit poor executive presence?
– Lean on incomplete communication skills?
– Fail to align the organization?
We transform teams and individuals with repeatable toolsets for persuasive communication. Explore training, coaching, and consulting services from The Latimer Group.
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