Guess what your audience is most interested in? That’s right, their problems and how to fix them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is old news to anyone who has studied the arts of rhetoric, persuasion, and of course advertising.\u00a0 If you can define the problem faced by your audience<\/a>, you build your credibility and engender in them a need – an itch – to solve the problem.<\/p>\n

So how and when can a public speaker talk about the problems of the audience<\/a>?\u00a0 The answer is: right off the bat.<\/p>\n

A few years ago at Cisco, the sales organization got together for a major overhaul.\u00a0 Individual sales guys were hoarding client information, which benefited them but undermined the progress of the enterprise and the\u00a0quality of the\u00a0company’s service.<\/p>\n

Among the speakers was a young woman, blond and petite, introducing a new idea: the\u00a0data warehouse.\u00a0 She stood in front of the large auditorium filled 99% with men, and said simply, “Cisco, we have a problem.”<\/p>\n

You could have heard a silicon wafer drop.<\/p>\n

She went on to describe the problem, its causes and consequences, and only after she had finished her problem definition did she introduce the solution: the data warehouse.<\/p>\n

She was insightful, crisp, and dramatic.<\/p>\n

Now, when defining a problem from a stage in a large organization, it is wise to avoid judgment and condemnation. In her case, she didn’t want to burn bridges with the sales guys. But by outlining what incentivized them to behave as they had, they were off the hook, and while skeptical, were curious about this thing called the data warehouse.<\/p>\n

Some presentations can devote 30% of their time to problem definition. The Declaration of Independence lists 26 injuries the British monarchy inflicted on the American colonists. The injuries, listed together, read like a ticking bomb, and comprise nearly half the text. They create the rationale for change and the emotion needed to make that change.<\/p>\n

There is a point at which the presentation skill of problem definition becomes tedious.\u00a0 But it doesn’t come as soon as you think.\u00a0 If you truly understand the issue, and tell stories<\/a> that illustrate the problem, then you have got the audience hooked emotionally and intellectually: they are going to feel anxious listening to the problems, and think skeptically about your proposed solution.<\/p>\n

You may get pushback because every idea gets scrutinized by critics and skeptics, but that’s good – they are pressure-testing your reasoning.\u00a0 And it’s better to get them involved in a discussion than to have them ignore you.<\/p>\n

The presentation skill of problem definition helps your audience move forward in the right direction, creates dialogue, and gives birth to creativity and innovation.\u00a0 Plus it makes you look like one smart cookie.<\/p>\n

Good presenters are problem solvers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guess what your audience is most interested in? That’s right, their problems and how to fix them.\u00a0 This is old news to anyone who has studied the arts of rhetoric, persuasion, and of course advertising.\u00a0 If you can define the problem faced by your audience, you build your credibility and engender in them a need… Read More »Presentation skill: Problem definition<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[144,24],"tags":[603,18,620,906,622],"yoast_head":"\n