The Truth About Confident Presenting

Chapter 13. Understand What Makes People Listen

If a presentation is a learning occasion for the audience, it’s also a listening occasion. It’s an opportunity for them to hear, tune into, and make sense of what’s being said. But listening is hard work. Listening involves intellectual and physical effort on the part of the listener and, unless properly motivated, is something most people would rather not do.

So, how do you get an audience to listen? As it happens, people listen to a presenter for three principal reasons: self-interest, who’s telling it, and how it’s told.

Many audience members arrive at a presentation with personal interests that serve as powerful motivators to listen. Some of those whom you’ll speak to, in fact, are actively seeking ...