Why high stakes communications need to be dialogue not monologue
"I'm terrified of what they'll say". These were the words of a stand up comedian at a comedy night I was hosting.
We were talking about crowd work, which basically means a comedian's interaction with the audience. Talking with them as opposed to just at them. "Fair play to you for doing it" he said. This was a comedian who'd recently won awards.
Different strokes for different folks
There are two aspects to stand up comedy. One is delivering pre-written jokes, the other is interacting with audience members in an unscripted way. Not all comedians do both. Think of them as monologue and dialogue.
Why involve your audience?
When you involve your audience in a stand up routine something special happens. When its done well that is. Due to its unscripted nature it feels organic, as if it grew out of the moment. And your audience gets to feel it was totally bespoke to them.
Repeated with a hundred audiences you'd get a hundred different responses and interactions. No two audiences are exactly the same. Your audience got to take part in something that will never happen in the same way again. A strike of communication lightning.
They helped build it
Those interactions were created as much by the audience as the comedian. The comedian prompted them, but didn't tell them what to say. This makes the interaction more authentic and equal. A co-creation if you like. The audience are now co-owners of the experience.
How does this apply to leadership?
In high stakes communication moments, like major organisational change, announcing redundancies, or a strategic shift, you want those you lead get behind and support your decision. Surely it helps if they feel they're part of that decision making not just passive recipients?
What does it look like in practise?
Like comedians, great communicators are able to read the temperature of their audience and engage with those who don't seem to be buying in. They stop, and try to understand the individual. They address it. Think of it like sales objection handling.
if you're not comfortable doing corporate 'crowd work'
If heatmapping and responding to your audience in the moment sounds slightly outside your communication comfort zone that's fine. The next best thing to do is to is to ask them relevant questions you've prepared in advance.
If you've worked with me you'll know I use survey listening methods to generate insights that create our questions to put to your audience. If you don't know how to do this its fine, just have some questions ready to ask and get the conversation flowing.
Start 'asking' your audience rather than just 'telling'
We all know that "any questions?" rarely prompts good ones, and that leaders only answering pre-screened safe questions does little for building confidence and trust in them.
Get your audience involved by showing you want to understand them and their perspectives rather than just telling them yours. This way everybody owns what's being said...
