You know you want one – a standing ovation.  Speakers don’t like to admit that they’re so needy, but let’s be honest.  You put yourself and your ideas on the line; who wouldn’t want to close on a roar of approval and an audience that surges to its feet to express its love and admiration? 

So here’s how to get one, in 5 easy steps. 

1.  Begin with a compelling framing story.  This is not an anecdote about your trip to the venue, or a story about your kids.  It’s a compelling, brief narrative making concrete and interesting the general problem you’re talking about.  If you’re talking to an internal audience about declining customer satisfaction, say, then you want a story about a specific customer who was unhappy because of something an employee did or didn’t do.  Make the narrative more than one and less than three minutes long. 

2.  Then talk about a problem the audience has.   The guts of any “Standing O” talk is not information, it is sharing your perspective on a problem the audience has.  It’s all about the audience!  That’s so crucial, I’ll say it again:  it’s about the audience, not about you.  You want to delve deep into the problem, on both intellectual and emotional levels.  To get that Standing O, you’re going to have to focus on the emotional response of the audience to the problem. 

3.  Involve the audience in analyzing the problem.   This is a crucial step.  You want to get the audience participating in the discussion of the problem.  Ask for their input, their stories, their understanding.  Break them up into small groups if necessary, but figure out some way to get them doing some of the work. 

4.  Then show the audience how they can solve the problem.   This is where you get to be most didactic – and helpful.  Share your expertise with the audience to solve the problem.  But just as crucially, figure out a way for the audience to get involved here too.  Set the broad outline of the solution, and then let them fill in some details. 

5.  Close with a call to action that involves the audience.  The trick here is to finish strong, using the magic word “you” where “you” is the audience.  “Together, we can do this, and you will be the first team to achieve XXXX in the history of YYYY.  Is that not worth a few long nights?  Let’s get started!” 

And they’re on their feet.  A Standing O comes about because the audience wants to give energy back, because it’s inspired by the speaker.  Applauding is the first way to do that, but standing is a more energetic way, and therefore more satisfying – for the audience.  All you have to do is make it about them, let them get involved – and get your own ego out of the way.