When you think about speaking in a group, do you find yourself more comfortable with the idea of facilitating instead of speaking? This is something I hear almost every week in my work with clients. For so many, the idea of speaking or presenting in front of a room is FAR more nerve-wracking than facilitating a conversation, workshop, or group activity of some sort. For folks who prefer facilitating, many value the back-and-forth nature of conversation and of being able to listen and learn from many different perspectives. AND many have shared with me that facilitation offers a wonderful opportunity to receive verbal and nonverbal feedback from audience members which can be an important confidence-booster.
This has led me to think a lot about the following question: If you are someone who leans more towards facilitating than speaking, how can you make your speaking feel a bit more like facilitating? Your own response to this question will be as unique as your own skills and interests, but I have some ideas to get your wheels turning!
Let’s say you’ve taken the first important step: You’ve named and claimed the fact that at this point, you enjoy facilitating more than speaking. Hooray!
Next, let’s see if we can take that skillset and put it to use in the times when you do have to give a presentation or speech. Of course, one way to do this would be to intentionally weave opportunities for participant conversation and “back and forth” as meaningfully as possible. For example, is this a scenario where you could ask a couple participants to introduce themselves at the beginning of the presentation and their questions coming into it? Or could you build in a few reflection questions into your presentation for participants to jot down their responses to or to share aloud? You could even simply build pauses into your speech where people take thirty seconds to think about their own experiences or reflections on what you are sharing.
That being said, I know there are many situations where the expectation will simply be more speaking and LESS facilitating. So in that case, let’s put your "facilitator" hat on for how to prepare. How would you approach this speech if you were facilitating it? What would you want to ask the audience, if you could? How would you ask them, if you could? Are there ways to ask questions and build in pauses to allow them to silently engage? Are there ways participants could use their bodies to engage instead of their mouths?
You may gradually discover that your speech or presentation doesn’t have to be ALL that different than if you were, in fact, facilitating! AND I have a hunch that your presentation is going to turn out so much more dynamic, interesting, and engaging than if you had thought of us as a purely one-way lecture anyway.
Being a facilitator is quite an important gift – and it’s one that you can build on to become a truly outstanding public speaker. I hope you have fun with this one and I can’t wait to hear your questions and your reflections. Facilitate away, everyone!
Spotlight on: Public Speaking for Chaplains: This June and July, I will be offering a series of workshops (co-hosted with the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab) specifically tailored for public speaking for chaplains across diverse settings and experience levels. We’ll cover many common scenarios where chaplains find themselves standing in front of a room, from Memorial Services to Blessings, to Staff Meetings. The series is open to the general public but is particularly well-suited for current chaplains, seminary students, clergy, and anyone who finds themselves in spiritual/religious leadership. You could sign up for the whole series or whichever workshops would be most meaningful for you. Read more here or feel free to email me at hello@julieavisrogers.com with any questions.
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