Engaging your audience is not a matter of coincidence. It's a matter of survival.
A summary of the Meaning Makers Open Workshop in Warsaw
Hope. Happiness. Chance.
What do they have in common? All three are very poor strategies in building an effective message and communicating it to the recipient - client - listener.
(something else connects them, but more on the end of the article ...)
Hope, happiness and chance - poor communication strategies
For two days my delivery competed with this view. I think I’ve won!
And yet, Meaning Makers experience shows that a mix of these elements is the most common strategy for many companies when it comes to presentations, meetings or communication of important matters.
Last week we met in Warsaw, on the 33rd floor of the Warsaw Trade Tower, with a group of people who understand that there can be no place for relying on hope, counting on luck, or leaving something as important as their message - about them , about the company or about the product - to chance.
Today they must be able to create meaning with how they communicate by building engagement, creating interest and making sure their recipients - and to be specific - their brains - remember what they say. They need to create a message compatible with the challenges of our times. They need to be Meaning Makers.
On 7-8.02.2020 we organized the first, open edition of our flagship two-day workshop - Meaning Makers. As promised a month ago - we do not slow down.
Below are three opinions, three conclusions and three things that the participants considered the most important, and which can be useful to you and make you think about how you communicate yourself. But first - a quick explanation…
A Meaning Maker?
Because information alone is just not enough today. Today, to communicate effectively, you need to create meaning around your content. Make your audience care about what you say. Only who is your recipient?
The brain.
If you can't build and present a message that targets the brain - you fall out because you blend in with the noise - and the flood of information and competition for audiences’ attention. Your skills to build engagement, create interest and be memorable - this is your area to create a stunning advantage against the background noise and repetitiveness your customer, audiences and recipients receive on a daily basis.
Overcoming their own intuition to create meaning.
But there is a catch. These skills are extremely counter-intuitive. You also have a brain, right? And although you have good intentions, unfortunately... you have bad instincts.
Your intuition will not guide you well in how to build a meaningful message. Why? Simply put, your brain did not evolve to consciously create meaning - it evolved to survive. Meaning Makers see, understand and are able to use this counter-intuitive nature of effective communication in their favor.
You surely just realized how fascinating that is. Well, I happen to have here handy participants’ feedback of the first Meaning Makers Open training.
Here are the conclusions, and what you can learn from them. Get ready for some counter-intuitive ideas to chew on.
And the first one is a confession as well…
1. We fooled you - it was not a presentation skills training
Sorry. We lured our participants under the guise of presentation skills training. Well, we warned them and everyone else - a little bit - that this will be at least one level higher - about effective messaging. But that it will be about ... life and communication at every possible level? It was a surprise to many people last week, I’m sure.
Let’s create some meaning for our audiences!
“It can be applied everywhere - a speech, our marketing efforts, a landing page, a webinar, customer offer...”
What connects all these situations? A person on the other side of the equation. And more specifically - his brain. During Meaning Makers workshops, we place great emphasis on how to create a message compatible with the human brain. How to engage him, interest him and make him remember what is important to you. Presentation is just one of the channels for giving meaning to content.
Based on the evaluations and opinions after the workshop we breathed a sigh of relief - our participants did not feel cheated. Phew!
2. It's so simple and yet nobody does it
Where's the logic here? If we operate in the same reality then you know how “messages” look like in business today - presentations, speeches, team meetings, workshops. How is it possible that most of them are so weak, despite the fact that their authors, clearly, care about what they say and they care for how it will be received?
“It’s so simple and yet so difficult. After the workshop, this approach to the message seems obvious to me, and yet I never thought about these things.”
One word mentioned in the introduction to this article - counter-intuition. If a man (let's blame it on his brain again) was by nature able to instinctively create an effective communication, then you would not participate in so many painful slide marathons or went through torture of listening to experts who have something to say but clearly do not know how to say, wouldn’t you?
We give a clear signal during the workshop. As a Meaning Maker, you understand, see and can react appropriately (at the preparation stage and during actual communication) to your own choices. Where the crowd instinctively goes right and nobody listens to them - you go left and build a counter-intuitive, effective, attention-grabbing and memorable message about your company, product or yourself.
Sometimes against logic, but towards effects - because that’s what counts.
3. Involving others is not an accident, it’s a necessity
Hope, happiness, chance - these fatal strategies are most commonly seen in the first, fundamental area of creating an effective message - engaging your audience or customer base in your topic or idea.
Just because someone is sitting there throughout your presentation, on your team-meeting, on the other side of the webinar, or is reading what you have written - it does not mean ... that he cares.
Information is not inspiration. And information is not enough. In these sheer volume of noise and the constant struggle for their attention - your clients need this inspiration, supported by a message that disrupts their status quo, to follow your thinking. Otherwise? They filter you out, as they filter 98% of whatever goes through their head during the day.
Do you engage? Or do you hope that you will be lucky and engage them by chance?
“You had my attention for 2 days and I was completely involved in your message.”
There are quite a few cool theories in business that are pleasant to talk about, and pleasant to listen to, but it’s a bit more difficult to show that they actually work. With this in mind, I love Meaning Makers - because these ideas allow me to walk the talk, live, in the class room or in life.
I can get involved 1000% myself (as one participant noted). Why? It's easy. I know that what we do - works. And with every workshop more and more of you know that too.
Hope, happiness and chance?
Thank you for being with us in Warsaw. We are not slowing down and you will soon hear about the next plans and projects of Meaning Makers.
Let's go back to the beginning. What is the second meaning of these three words - hope, happiness, chance - in the context of your message? Positive. One that will work in your favor if you know how to use it.
Think about your recipient, client, listener. Probably...
This person hopes to eventually stumble upon a noteworthy message in this sea of noise that surrounds her. Turn this hope into reality - you will get her attention and gratitude for a very long time.
This person will consider herself lucky to find an expert, salesman, leader who made HER feel smarter and who did not waste her time reciting his CV and achievements, but instead provided value. Do it this way and standing out in your profession is virtually guaranteed.
This person will probably think that this is an anomaly - a chance. However, next time she hears you and realizes that she is again: engaged, interested, and that, next day, can remember what you said - then she will understand. She will understand that shes not dealing with someone who merely knows something. She is dealing with someone who can convey what he knows with meaning - and with great value for the recipient.
I wish these kind of hope, luck and chance to our new Meaning Makers.
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