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.
Hi Nick – this is an interesting issue for me. I think your tips for getting and SO are good ones, very good ones, but…..
I’m not 100% convinced that a standing ovation is something to aim for. Sure it’s nice for the presenter’s ego, but is that what the presenter is there for?! Isn’t it more about the audience and what they can get out of the presentation?
I’m not saying an SO is always bad, just that, for me, it shouldn’t be something the speaker *aims* at or *tries to get)… just something that’s great when it happens.
Hi, Simon —
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I certainly agree that an SO in itself shouldn’t be the aim of a speaker — that’s just ego gratification. The audience should always be the focus. . . . There’s also a bit of a cultural difference between the UK (and Europe) and the US. US audiences are more likely to heave themselves to their feet, so much so that it’s more of a disappointment if a speaker doesn’t get a SO, if you see what I mean. My piece was aimed at speakers who (“you know you want one”) would never admit that they were thinking about an SO, but secretly wanted one. In other words, I was shamelessly gratifying those secret urges….
Nick:
Good points, here.
People want solutions. They don’t want to hear about you.
If you solve their problem, they’ll appreciate it with spontaneous applause. If they rise from their chairs, it’s icing on the cake!
Thanks!
Fred E. Miller
I agree with you. You have kept very good point in the front of us..Thank you very much !