Move WITH and FOR the audience

Let's talk more about the “Unarticulated Question” …those questions our audience members or our prospects have that they don’t ask us! Recently, Richard Rohr quoted the psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961) - one of the founders of modern psychology. Rohr mentioned that Jung believed that much of our suffering comes from our inability to accept “legitimate suffering” simply because we are human! Rudolf Dreikurs recommended that we have “The Courage to be Imperfect”…because we are! Both psychiatrists thought the idea of perfection was a folly…a misguided approach to life. Being ‘useful’ was far more important than being perfect.

How does this coincide with the “Unarticulated Question”? Well, it seems to me that presenters, speakers, and homilists often strive for the 'perfect something'. A turn of the phrase, a PowerPoint that would Wow, an audience response that is just right, even a good, sustained laughter or applause.

In fact, it is the facilitators and the improvs among us that know that the audience is the brilliant piece, not us. This is why stories told early and concisely followed with small group discussion works so much better than ‘giving a great talk’ or “Let’s review the agenda I prepared”.

Rohr, Jung, and Dreikurs remind us of our common humanity and the more we move WITH and FOR the audience and our teams, the more ‘useful’ we will be. What do you think?