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Most Question and
Answer sessions are thinly disguised presentations or, if not, are
reduced to one speaker (active) and a muted audience (passive).
This helps no-one. Both parties feel short-changed. Here’s an
alternative approach.
How Questions and Answer Sessions Can Increase
Productivity
Open the session
(you're the speaker) by telling the audience what you expect of them.
Not in an aggressive way but to introduce the idea that this will be a
little different. Then start.
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Plant seeds –
weave the key points into the presentation here and there. Plan seeds
and let the idea grow in the audience’s mind.
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Open the session
with a question. This generates interest.
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Tell a story. This get
folks more involved. Instead of thinking, they’re trying to feel what’s
coming.
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Use the stage –
move around and make eye contact with others. In a nice way.
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Smile – in a
natural way. Don’t force it but stay relaxed.
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Open the floor
– pick out someone and ask their opinion.
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PowerPoint Rules
– use PowerPoint to add a dash to humor, to take the pressure off you,
and show the key points you want to share.
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Take Notes –
ask someone to take notes during the session. Ask floor members for
their name so you can give them credit for their observations.
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Invite others
onstage – you can take more pressure off yourself, and get greater
involvement, if you bring a few audience members onstage. Choose
carefully and avoid ‘hyper’ types.
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Pace – moderate
the pace of the session. Up the tempo when you want to get them more
involved, then slow it down when you want them to consider what you’ve
said.
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Tone – when you
get tense, you speak a little high-pitched. So, grab a few breaths and
slow down. Lower the tone to make significant points. Then switch again.
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Wrap Up – don’t
close by saying we’ve run out of time. You haven’t. Close when you feel
your colleagues have absorbed as much as they can. Then let them head
off and digest your material.
Mistakes to avoid in
Questions and Answer Sessions
Don’t wait for quite
types to put up their hand.
They won’t. I don’t.
But if you ask me directly, I'll have something to say. I need a little
poking.
Don’t interrupt.
If can be tempting to interrupt folks who ramble a bit or can't get to
the point. Try not to cut across them or – big No No – finish their
sentence.
Increase Productivity
You can increase
productivity by helping your team understand the subject matter on a
deeper level. This means they need to understand it intellectually but
also emotionally… and maybe spiritually.
Your role is to direct them in the right direction.
And the best way to do this is to suggest a path, not tell them where to
go.
Show, don’t tell. |
