How to Cover the Boring Stuff

The typical presentation in an internal meeting almost always includes some kind of report. Sometimes it’s nothing but a report. If you’re like me, your eyes glaze over as soon as a speaker starts talking about numbers that hardly seem to matter. So what do you do when you have the unfortunate task of “stating the bloody obvious” to an unengaged audience?

Don’t state the obvious – make them do it!

Reverse Q&A

Have the audience provide the facts that they (should) already know. Shake them out of their passive state and make them work. Call people out to answer questions that are especially relevant to them. You can ask people from each department questions that specifically concern them.

Interactions like this break that imaginary wall between speaker and audience, getting everyone focused and engaged as no one knows when they’ll be called upon. Once they’ve stated the obvious for you and you have their attention, you can get onto the interesting part – putting the facts in context and providing valuable insights for the whole audience.