April 27, 2012

Ask nicely

Fellow speaker,

While it is tempting to simply tell your audience what you want them to do, this leads to your audience resisting you.  Instead, invite your audience and suggest your points.  To get the audience to come along with you, it's helpful to use the "you" and avoid the "we".  "We all.." statements lead to the audience thinking, "No, I don't!"  While a "you" statement can invite the audience in (e.g., "Have you ever experienced a challenge in your life?")  By the way, the phrase "have you ever..." is very useful in getting all or most of the audience to connect in with your point.

Nice-ing,

Tim