It’s a dialogue not a monologue
“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”
As You Like It – William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare had many wonderful monologues in his plays. They served him well. However, when your audience is listening to you – dialogues can be much more engaging. Here are 3 reasons why:
1. TONE
You are more likely to take on a conversational tone in a dialogue. Most of our day to day communication is in conversation and that is when we sound most like ourselves. If you present as a monologue there is a danger that your tone can become more lecture-like.
2. CONTROL
It is a proven fact that when it comes to educating adults they prefer to be in control of their own learning. Therefore, in a presentation if you can involve your listeners more they are definitely more likely to feel in control of the content. This in turn can lead them to taking on board your ideas more readily.
3. FOCUS
We have over 50,000 thoughts racing through our head in one day. If someone is speaking “at” us rather than “with” us we are a lot more likely to tune off into our own thoughts, rather than staying focussed.
So to go back to Shakespeare’s quote above – if you want your audience to love you at first sight, stick to the dialogue not the monologue.
