Amplify, Build, Challenge – the ABC of a more inclusive speaking experience

Over the course of the last few months through these posts, we’ve explored some of the ways in which our audience members’ needs and expectations can be different, based on their learning styles, their preferences, their biases, and the potential disabilities they may have.

Through these conversations, we’ve also been looking at how one-size-fits-all approaches to creating presentation materials can easily prove unfit for some people. We’ve contemplated the idea of designing for extreme use cases in our audience, as a way to be more mindful of different needs and expectations. We’ve even looked at basic principles in behavioural psychology and learning styles, to explore different ways in which people make sense of the information we share with them.

In short, we’ve explored how that audience of ours is never quite as homogeneous as we’d like to believe, and how inclusion techniques and principles can go a long way in ensuring that our message can truly connect with the heart and soul of as many people as possible in our audience. Getting insights into how diverse the audience is, and understanding the mechanics behind learning can contribute to making our job much easier, as we’re sharing our awesomeness from the stage.

For this week’s post, as a way to wrap up some of the insights that we shared through the last few weeks, I thought I’d share a few takeaways you can start applying to the way you create and deliver presentation materials, so you keep progressing down the path to becoming a more inclusive speaking professional.

AMPLIFY learning moments using various learning theories

Chances are, your teaching style will lean towards Pavlov, Skinner, or Bandura. Discovering which types appeals to you most is a great start. Going beyond what resonates with you and strategically designing experiences that draw from all three learning types and leveraging different styles of learning will allow you to do even better. Think about the last few talks you delivered, and identify how you got your ideas across to the audience. Are you more like Pavlov, leaning towards powerful associations of concepts, to convey your message to your audience? Do you like to immerse your audience in powerful first-hand experiences, to help them understand things, the way Skinner would? Or do you make use of cautionary tales to illustrate the points you’re trying to make, the way Bandura would? Pay attention to the types of strategies you use, and bring more variety if you have to. You will broaden your reach and diversify the way you share ideas and teach through your presentations.

BUILD for extreme use cases, not average ones

As speaking professionals, we are first and foremost designers. We design sets of ideas, stories, narratives, flows, experiences, and of course, even slide decks and handouts. When we design with the average audience member in mind, we make the same mistakes the US Air Force made in the 1920s when they first designed cockpits for their fighter planes. As speaking professionals who care about inclusion, we must remember to create experiences that will also appeal to those who don’t fit “the norm”. We need to be bold, and design for what other, less-aware speaking professionals might refer to as “edge cases” — those situations and people they choose to ignore. People who have different needs and expectations, and therefore, who typically don’t think like them, look like them, or experience things the same way they do. All these people can become edge cases when we fail to be truly inclusive. Account for differences by designing for extreme use cases and don’t leave anybody behind.

CHALLENGE your own beliefs about audience expectations

One of my core messages throughout these posts is that you should always remember that your audience is not an extension of yourself. Never assume that your own set of preferences and interests will systematically appeal to everyone in the room! Analyze the way in which you communicate information with your audience. Make sure to reach out to people whose preferences and interests are different from yours. Validate that your approach resonates with those people as well. Validate your assumptions by asking them if you’re not sure. There are so many ways in which you can do these days: polls, emails, surveys, interviews, etc. Find out about what’s not working as well as it should, and make as many adjustments as you need, so the perspectives you share are no longer only aligned to the way you see the world but are also aligned with other people’s views as well. It’s quite simple, really. By aligning your content and delivery to different perspectives, you will appeal to larger groups of individuals.

So along the same lines, I want to ask you. What if your biggest loss of potential revenue came, not from the audience members who don’t like you, but from the 40% of your audience with various disabilities, limitations, or circumstances you knew nothing about?

As internationally recognized, customer experience keynote speaker David Avrin says, “Your biggest source of lost revenue in your business is the customer, the client or the prospect that you never knew about. They drove by, and they didn’t stop. Or they came in, and they left without being engaged. They went to your website… but then clicked away. Or they called, and then hung up, before you even had a chance to talk to them. And the worst part about it is that you have no idea who those people were. Or how many of them there were.”

I don’t know about you, but that kind of perspective can totally keep me up at night.