Two hundred Spanish government officials populate Giancarlo’s slides during a session in London, England in 2018
Notice that students who spent less time learning re-
ceived higher PISA science scores. What this tells us is . . .
It’s not the quantity, it’s the quality of time spent that
matters.
Countries like Finland, Japan, Estonia, Switzerland, and
Canada have defined and applied a more efficient teaching/
learning strategy to their education system. What can we
learn from these highly efficient countries and the available
research?
It can be summarized in one simple concept: Actively
involve your audience (mentally, emotionally, physically) with
your content.
Let me make one thing super clear: Talking about some-
thing interesting with a thought-provoking picture in the
background may seem active to you, but it isn’t active enough
for your audience.
How can you increase audience involvement in your
presentation? Ask your audience to do one or more of the
following:
• Predict outcomes before you share them
• Discuss the answer to a question you’ve proposed
with the person next to them
• Reflect on an emotional moment in their lives
• Give anonymous, real-time input to generate “live”
slide content
The above activities draw your audience into your mes-
sage. Making it memorable and usable beyond your time is
key.
Another way to encourage audience engagement –
with your content and with each other – is by changing the
physical layout of the room. Below is a picture of an average
meeting room and how I changed it before the presentation
began. Notice how a simple change in seating shifted the focus
to the audience. When possible, get the audience out of their
seats to interact in different groups, as pictured in the third
image below.
“Presenting” to CTOs from across the United States. Florida, 2017.
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