In This Issue
- Questions & Answers: 5 Top Tips
- Speaker's Corner
- Quotation Marks
- Art of Presentation Gallery
- Training Calendar
With freedom protests again in the news - in Tibet this time - it's topical to hear these points about the role of consent in government.
The speaker was Emmeline Pankhurst, Women's Suffrage Campaigner, speaking in Hartford, Connecticut in 1913:
"They have said to us, government rests upon force, the women haven't force, so they must submit. Well, we are showing them that government does not rest upon force at all: it rests upon consent. As long as women consent to be unjustly governed, they can be, but directly women say: "We withhold our consent, we will not be governed any longer so long as that government is unjust." Not by the forces of civil war can you govern the very weakest woman. You can kill that woman, but she escapes you then; you cannot govern her. No power on earth can govern a human being, however feeble, who withholds his or her consent."
Inspiring then - and now.
"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973.
This month we look at a painting of Ramsay Macdonald by Sir John Lavery. The picture is housed in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and depicts Ramsay Macdonald at the dispatch box in the House of Commons in 1924.
Ramsay Macdonald became Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary of the first Labour Government in the UK in 1924. It was a short-lived Government that culminated in the General Strike of 1926. Macdonald's legacy of fine public speaking remained intact with all his efforts to avert industrial unrest.
We'd trust that your career would be less volatile than that of Ramsay Macdonald's after our public speaking training.
The schedule for PresentPerfect training courses in April is now available and includes a training day in Swindon - a new presentation skills venue.
Telling it Straight
Welcome to Telling it Straight - the newsletter dedicated to presentation skills. In this edition we look at effective question & answer techniques for presenters.
We also have our regular Speakers Corner, Quotation Marks and Art of Presentation Gallery sections.
Questions & Answers: 5 Top Tips
Managed well a question & answer session serves several purposes: it emphasizes our grasp of the subject; it boosts our standing with the audience; it enables audience participation and it builds to a grand finale.
And typically a good question and answer session is well managed and planned. To get the best results there are 5 main tips to note before the event:
1. Be prepared. Each and every point made in our presentation could invite a question from the audience. So we need to work through all of our material. We need to imagine and note down the questions that might crop up. These questions might require further explanation, clarification or opinion. And our opinion will be sought. Read more.
2. Consider the audience. No matter how much thought we put into predicting questions our audience will think of something else. But that's not a problem either. Our audience is likely to have a shared, or known, background.
They might be members of the same trade association, work in the same area, live in the same State or work for the same employer. Our knowledge of their shared interests will go a long way in anticipating their questions -- questions with a local angle, an industry viewpoint or a trade association perspective.
3. Note the news. In spite of all our preparation news events can still conspire against us. But it's still not a problem. The evening before the presentation simply pick up the newspaper in the hotel lobby. Scan the headlines for topical events and anything that might be relevant to the presentation. Read more.
4. Place a question. That awkward moment between the call for questions and the first question being asked might well define the success of our whole presentation. Anything other than some interest from the audience is tough to manage. But there's a method that we can use. Read more.
5. Be brief. Our answers must be brief, concise and to the point. This is not the time to discuss a mass of arcane detail. That can be kept for later. Our answers should be directed back to the questioner -- with plenty of eye contact. Read more.
A properly executed question and answer session can be a rewarding experience for both speaker and audience alike.