A Tool You Can Use Today: Provocative Question Opening

As an audience member, have you ever heard the presenter use this opening: "How's everyone doing today?" After a predictably weak response by the audience, the speaker encourages the group and then repeats himself: "C'mon, you can do better than that. Let's try it again. How's everyone doing today?" After a predictably louder response, the speaker begins his remarks.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this opening, I wouldn't be writing this right now. I'd be enjoying a sunset in some exotic location on the other side of the world. Here's a suggested meeting or presentation opener that you may find refreshing – I guarantee your audience will.

Identify a provocative question that's relevant to your purpose and pose the question to the audience before your formal introduction to the meeting or presentation. First, let's define what I mean by provocative. The WorldNet dictionary defines provocative (adj.) as "serving or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate; stimulating discussion or exciting controversy."

That's exactly what you want to accomplish when presenting to an adult audience. How refreshing to receive, right from the get-go (literally, the music stops, conversations cease, all eyes turn to you in anticipation of your first words and then…BAM!), a relevant, provocative question that invites me, as a member of your audience, to get excited, to get stimulated, and to get involved!

Depending on your audience, the physical set-up, and your purpose, there might be just a brief set-up. One of my openings (for a mid-level management training class where the participants were seated at tables with access to pads of paper and pens) went like this: "Please jot down your responses to the following questions: From your perspective, what is the single greatest threat to the success of your business in the coming year? And secondly, from your perspective, what is the single greatest opportunity for your business to realize?"

Whether you choose to have these responses recorded or just considered by your audience, it's important that you link back to the questions at some point. I suppose you could address them right away in your introduction, but I've found it to be more effective to allow the responses and ideas to percolate during the presentation. Then, when appropriate, you can tie back to the responses as a way to involve the group and share ideas later in the body of your message. Another option is to wait until your conclusion and then link back to the responses in order for audience members to apply the information presented in a way that's meaningful to them.

Steve Curtin is a customer service, training, and public speaking enthusiast based in Denver, CO.

stevecurtin.com

I've found this opening to be unexpected and novel. You will find that, with the right question(s), audience members will enthusiastically jot down responses (make sure there are materials accessible for those who might need them). This opening has the added benefit of relaxing the pressure on the facilitator to nail a scripted opening that generally doesn't involve the audience in a meaningful way for the first 10-15 minutes.

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