Appealing to different types of learners

Over the course of the last few weeks and months, we’ve explored how the audiences we speak to are not all homogeneous, but rather, how each audience member can, in fact, be very different from the next. How each one of them can, oftentimes, even be very different from us as speaking professionals.

To illustrate even further just how much one-size-fits-all approaches to creating and delivering presentation materials are unfit for some, we’ve approached this conversation from the angle of different learning types and styles. Through these posts, we’ve also looked at how important it is to acknowledge those differences, in order to broaden our reach as we’re engaging with said audience.

In our last two blog posts, we saw how the psychology of learning affects the way audience members engage with us and our brands, as we share our message. Hopefully, you are now starting to see the value of recognizing differences in learning styles, expectations, and needs.

Consequently, inclusive speakers don’t see their audience as homogeneous groups. They make it a goal to go beyond what they think will work best for “everyone”. They recognize that some people will have expectations and preferences that can be very different from their own. They question their own unconscious biases and open their hearts and minds to new ways of thinking.

Yes, they adopt communication strategies that appeal to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, but they go much further than that. All these considerations, and more, allow inclusive speakers to more efficiently touch and influence everyone in their audience.

That recognition of learning styles is the very first step in becoming a more inclusive speaking professional. A recognition that reveals the potential that can be achieved, not only through diversity, equity, and inclusion but also through the acknowledgment of disability.

Before audience members with disabilities are defined in part by what sets them apart, these individuals are people first and foremost. Mark my words. There can be no real gains in terms of diversity, in terms of equity, or in terms of inclusion, unless equivalent efforts are also invested in the realm of disability.

In this post, I’d like to share three takeaways based on strategies you can start applying today, to radically change the way you communicate with these different types of learners.

Provide a constant flow of visual stimulation to keep visual learners hooked

Keep in mind that 65% of our audience is likely to be part of the visual learners’ group. Speaking to these people for a very long time without any kind of visual stimulation is the equivalent of asking for trouble. These stimuli can come in different forms. Powerful imagery that strikes the imagination. Video content that touches their soul. Animations that support the message. Diagrams. Graphs. Props. Don’t expect this group to memorize what you’re saying; that’s not how their brains work. These people learn best by watching, seeing and observing. Make sure to give them plenty of materials to watch, see and observe.

Provide opportunities to discuss concepts to help auditory learners connect the dots

Roughly 30% of our audience is made of auditory learners. These people will learn best when instructions and information are delivered orally. Auditory learners will crave direct contact with information through conversations. They enjoy verbal instructions. They learn mostly through active listening. Auditory learners tend to be social or extroverted. They often turn out to be some of the most engaged and responsive members of our audience… as long as you let them! They’re the ones who will take you up on your offer to interrupt and ask questions as they come up during your presentation. Allowing them to do so will help them build their own understanding in real-time, as you go through your content.

Actively involve kinesthetic or tactile learners in the act of learning

The remaining 5% of our audience will often be composed of people who have a much harder time just sitting passively in the crowd. They’re the ones who are going to need to actively take part in what’s going on if they’re going to get any value from the experience with you. That’s how they can best understand and integrate the concepts shared. Refrain from serving them the answers on a golden platter. Have them work for those answers instead. Keep lecture periods short. Punctuate lectures with hands-on activities or practical games. That is a great way to keep them engaged. In other words, the more you can show them how to do something instead of telling them how to do it, the happier kinesthetic learners will be.

Take a sip… drink the Kool-Aid

Learning styles were a necessary place to begin to introduce concepts of inclusive communication, but it’s time we start moving beyond that.

Integrating different learning theories and planning for different learning styles is already a lot to create a more inclusive experience for everyone, but it still isn’t enough. What resonates with our audience when it comes to learning experiences and how they best learn is only the tip of the inclusion iceberg. Inclusion requires that we go beyond these basics.

We already established that people learn in different ways. Great. Now, how can we make sure that audience members get the most out of our content and presentations, every single time, regardless of the conditions they might be dealing with? After all, disabled and non-disabled people have particular needs and expectations when it comes to how they best learn. So how can we make sure that we deliver our message in such a way that we leave no one behind?

We could do like we’ve always done, and just hope for the best. After all, that’s what most of us have been doing for ages, and most of the time, it kind of works just fine. But I’m here to tell you that “most people, most of the time” just doesn’t cut it anymore.

To maximize our reach as speaking professionals, and be truly inclusive of everyone in our audience, including people who do have disabilities, we need to go beyond simple learning styles and craft a conscious plan to maximize inclusion. A plan that influences the way we create our content, that challenges old ways of doing, and influences the way we deliver that content to our audience.

Data shows that about 1 out of every 5 people in our audience is likely to experience some kind of disability. It may be that some of them are colourblind, or nearsighted. They may be hard of hearing, or sometimes even deaf. Some may have cognitive challenges, such as ADHD or dyslexia. Some may be dealing with bipolar disorders. Others, post-traumatic stress disorders. Some may be somewhere on the autism spectrum… Others could be totally blind! The list of potential barriers goes on and on. Every one of those situations creates a likelihood for exclusion.

From a human standpoint, that’s an alarmingly high percentage of people we could let down.

From a business standpoint, it’s a potential catastrophe, if you make a living off of the spoken word.

Over the next few weeks, we will start going down that particular rabbit hole. Stay tuned.