When Audience Members Distract the Speaker

Recently I presented to 130 people at an event at the beautiful Algonquin Resort in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. I followed my usual preparation routine of arriving at the venue very early, checking out the sound system and talking with the sound guys, walking the room and walking the stage, in this case during their coffee break, and chatting with some of the attendees. I was prepared, comfortable, acclimatized and ready.

I started my presentation by acknowledging those in the audience with French as their first language using my limited French language skills, and then proceeded with my 45-minute presentation. 

The room was arranged in a series of round tables, and I was presenting from a raised stage. I wore a clip-on lavaliere microphone.  The presentation was rolling along well, however, after about 15-minutes I noticed a gentleman at the table directly in front of me chatting with a table mate and making a blah-blah gesture with his right hand. 

I was slightly taken aback. This was new ground for me.  Was the gesture about me? I couldn’t be sure, but in order to finish my work for the day, I quickly decided the gesture had nothing to do with me. He was likely involved in a side conversation about something else. I controlled my reaction, and the remainder of the presentation went very well. 

Managing Your Reactions

In this situation, I was presenting to a room of 130 people. One of the attendees, only one, made a gesture that may have been a negative reaction to how I was presenting. I needed to control my reaction. Speakers need to control their reactions and deliver for the larger audience. 

Tips Regarding Distracting Audience Members

1. Audience Member Distracting the Speaker

A speaker’s obligation is to the larger group.  If an audience member is distracting the speaker *only*, the speaker needs to work to manage his or her reaction. In my recent example, the audience member may have been physically making a derogatory comment about me to his seat mate. I will never know, and it doesn’t matter now. 

What is important in such a situation is to control your reaction as a speaker. In a similar situation in the future, I will again choose to quickly decide that such a gesture is absolutely not about me, and to continue on unfazed. That might be a trick I play on my emotions, but it worked once, and should work again.

2. Audience Member Distracting Other Audience Members

I’ve encountered this a few times. Usually, it’s because a couple of audience members are having a side conversation, and the volume or the activity is distracting to others.  Sometimes it’s distracting because of the cross talk, sometimes others are simply annoyed by the rude behavior. 

I have a couple of approaches for this;

a) Prolonged Silence and Eye Contact 

To use this approach simply stop talking, look in a friendly manner to the parties engaged in the side conversation, and enjoy the uncomfortable silence.  I’ll usually let the silence linger for what feels like too long, then act like I need to check some notes before I proceed. This is a little aggressive, but it works.

If the distracting behavior continues, you may have to use this approach again, and then acknowledge their conversation indicating that it is distracting for those around them.  Invite them to complete their conversation outside the room and once they’re complete to please return to the room. 

b) Physical Presence  

This approach is still aggressive, but less so and only works is a smallish room.  This would have worked in my room of 130 people. 

In this approach, I would continue speaking but walk to the table or area where the side conversation was taking place, and simply assert a physical presence. In the past, I have gently touched the table, made eye contact, and continued speaking my material.  This is a little uncomfortable, but has helped me manage side conversations, for the benefit of the larger audience. 

Conclusion 

If you’re presenting, your obligation is to your entire audience. In such a leadership position, you need to manage the room professionally so the audience can enjoy and absorb your material. 

In other situations, you may need to take a brief pause to allow wait staff to clear the room, as this can be noisy and distracting. You may have to take a moment with those managing a sound system to ensure that they’re making available an acceptable audio environment.  You may need to professionally manage some audience members that are distracting other audience members. 

Finally, you always need to manage your reactions. In the example I provided, I remain curious why my one audience member was making a blah-blah gesture with his hand. Ultimately, it didn’t and doesn’t matter. I had to deliver my presentation for the entire audience and manage my reaction, and curiosity, so that I could deliver on my commitment to the larger group. 

The Wolf of Wall Street & Audience Analysis

Selecting the right message for a given audience can save much discomfort for a speaker.  There is a scene in The Wolf of Wall Street that illustrates this well.

The Book and Movie

A few months ago, I was walking through my library and saw a display of books. Prominently displayed was The Wolf of Wall Street, which is a memoir from Jordan Belfort, a former stockbroker, a convicted financial criminal, and now speaker and author. I checked the book out from the library, read it, and later watched the movie.

Both the book and movie are too long in my opinion, and there are some significant differences between the movie and book. Both are entertaining, but at times credibility is stretched significantly. To test if my skepticism was reasonable, I searched other reviews and opinions and many support my disbelief of some details.  

For example, in the book, there is a scene where Belfort’s rented yacht is sinking in Italy, and as he, his wife and others are about to be rescued by helicopter, he and his wife lightheartedly joke about needing to shop for clothes later. It’s hard to imagine that dialogue, and any levity, taking place in such a moment. There are many more examples of exaggeration and embellishment.  

Further Details

Belfort’s story is amazing for many reasons. More detail is available here if you have more interest.

https://www.looper.com/866224/everything-the-wolf-of-wall-street-doesnt-tell-you-about-the-true-story/

 

Public Speaking Examples

I was entertained and very interested in the public speaking scenes. Belfort was, and I’m sure remains, a very persuasive speaker. His style isn’t my style, but his approach is undoubtedly effective with his audiences.

In one scene entrepreneur Steve Madden addresses Belfort’s brokers, Belfort’s sales staff, and the scene is fascinating in its illustration of audience analysis and engagement. It’s a great example of poor audience analysis and lack of readiness.

In the scene, Belfort’s firm is about to take Madden’s self-named shoe company public, in an IPO offering, selling Madden shares to their clients. Belfort brings Madden to the office to pump up the sales team and get them ready to promote and sell the shares that are about to be released to the public. Big money is at stake.

Madden begins meekly with a self-introduction, but the audience already knew his name and that he was the founder of the company. Somebody in the impatient audience shouts “we already know your name!” Not a strong start.

Madden then delves into trivialities of shoe design and manufacture. The audience starts throwing wads of paper at him.  Belfort steps forward, gracefully moves Madden aside, acknowledges his comments and his work, and then takes over the presentation building the sales team into a greed-inspired frenzy. He understands his audience and speaks about how much money the members of the sales team are about to earn.

We might not agree on the motivations, but this remains a great example of understanding an audience, meeting their energy level, and delivering an appropriate message.

 

Three Questions For Audience Analysis  

Here are some questions for any speaker to consider before any engagement;

1.   Why am I invited to address this group?

2.   What is my sponsor’s desired outcome with this specific audience?

3.   How do I assess the audience energy level and meet them where they’re at? Immediately before speaking, assess the energy level of the audience and work to be compatible. You can then take the energy level elsewhere, but try to avoid a mismatch of energy.

 

More On Audience Analysis

I wrote previously about audience analysis here https://gycz.blogspot.com/2023/11/short-cut-to-audience-analysis.html

 

Conclusion

Choosing the appropriate message for a specific audience will save a speaker from an uncomfortable interaction.  This requires some time before finalizing any remarks, but is well worth this effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Short Cut To Audience Analysis

Recently I was working with a speaker who was scheduled to deliver a keynote-style speech at a regional event. To practice for the big event, she planned a trial run of her content with a smaller audience.

When she and I talked, I asked her to clarify the relevance of her speech for the smaller audience.  She said that she simply had a prepared text she needed to deliver to the larger audience, so this was a chance to practice the material before this smaller audience. I encouraged her to spend some time considering the attendees at the smaller audience, and then plan some small adjustments to shape her content for that audience. 

She later told me her trial run went exceptionally well, as did her presentation to the regional group.

To improve the relevance of your topic with an audience, some audience analysis can be very useful.

Enable The Audience To See Relevance of Your Topic

Any speech delivered to any audience must have meaning for the attendees. Why would anybody speak about a topic that has no meaning for the members of the audience?

A speaker and/or introducer should make the relevance of the topic very clear as the presentation begins. This enables the audience to organize and process the speech content. Please invest some time to empower your audience to process your message.

You can invest a great deal of time on audience analysis considering age, demographics, psychographics, and many other factors. Or you can take this short cut with the event organizer or person who invited you to speak.

Audience Analysis Short-Cut

To better understand your expected audience, simply have a conversation with the person responsible for the quality of the event.  For example, I’m often asked to speak on topics of leadership and public speaking. A common discussion I have with event organizers sounds similar to this;

“So, you’ve asked me to speak about leadership. Are there any particular areas you’d like to see covered?”

“Just basic leadership.”

“Ok, do the attendees lead people now?”

“Some do, but most are high potential employees developing into possible leadership positions.”

“OK, so what sort of jobs do your attendees perform in your company?”

“It’s a mix, but there is a large contingent from IT and accounting.”

“I see. What sorts of attributes or behavior shows that one of your developing employees shows potential?”

“That’s mostly based on feedback from other leaders. As well, we invest a lot in community development, and often employees who take part in planning and running these events show potential.”

“Interesting.  Do these events have significant budgets?”

“Not usually, but sometimes.”

“Should I touch on financial management?”

“Maybe a little.”

“OK based on this is there anything you’d like me to emphasize about leadership?”

“I suppose I’d like to see more people get involved in the early planning of these events. That shares the workload, and provides an opportunity to showcase their talents.”

“Perfect. Thanks. Anything else?”

Conversation Analysis

A brief conversation such as this helps the organizer focus on her objectives, enables me to better understand those objectives, and enables me to review my notes later and then direct some of my content for better value to the organizer. As the event draws near, I like to review my plan with the organizers.

In preparing such a presentation I’d draw on my experience, and theoretical concepts to quickly draft an outline. Here’s an example;

1.    Set the stage – Clearly introduce the topic and objectives

2.    Round table introductions (small group)

3.    My background;

a.    Toastmasters International, L’Arche, other volunteer work, family endowment fund, corporate background

b.    Emphasize professionally presenting one’s credentials

4.    Contrast management versus leadership – Blanchard

5.    Discuss Situational Leadership – Hersey-Blanchard

6.    Comment on financial measures and reporting

7.    Introduce a Model for a Basic Leadership Speech

8.    Etc

 

Summary

You can spend a great deal of time on audience analysis. Or you can simply have a brief, well-focused conversation with your event organizers. Our world needs more and more simple, direct conversations.

An event organizer, or whoever invited you to speak, wants you to do well, because then she’ll get great feedback and be praised for her wisdom in inviting you.  Engage with the event organizer.

A few simple questions as I’ve illustrated will help you better understand the audience the host expects to have in the room.  It might also help him or her clarify what they hope to see as an outcome from your speech.

Additional Viewpoint On Audience Analysis

Here is another point of view on audience analysis

https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/audience-analysis