Are You Practiced or Engaging?

How is your delivery with the routine things you say? Practiced or engaging?

I used to be a BNI member when I was in business in Toledo.

The idea was each week we would have something different to say about ourselves and our work, opening the minds of those in the room to how they could remember us between meetings for referring business our way.

To get this result, we needed to work at our 60-second introduction.


For the long-standing members there was usually little deviation in what they said, "Hi, I'm John from ABC, your local rep, here to bring you the most value." You could tell they had been saying the same thing over and again, to the point they were bored with their own words.

They weren't working at their introduction. They were doing the little they needed to get through the requirements of the introductions.

Similarly, I have watched judges give instructions to juries as though they were simply getting through the ordeal. Sometimes they would even say prior to the instructions, "Bear with me while I read these instructions."

That's when the reading of the instructions is painful.

In each of these cases, both John and the judge described above are quite practiced in their delivery. But it doesn't help them. The only thing we remember about them is their negative feeling toward what they are doing. We don't pay attention to the content, because they aren't focusing on it either.

Make even your routine presentations memorable. Otherwise, it's a waste of our time.

Change these presentations up a bit.

Actually share the positive or important pieces and then see what a difference it makes. Just like the airline steward who is demonstrating the necessary evacuation instructions, when you make it meaningful you make it memorable. Folks sit up and take notice.

Ever seen what happens when a visiting minister delivers the liturgy in a church?  Congregants are pulled out of their stupor. They sit up, lean forward. Their is a hush among the pews. Because the visiting leaders have their own way of saying things that causes us to pay attention.

To create engagement with your audience, engage yourselves with what you are saying. It's that simple.