It feels good to share your thoughts. Make a great point. Impact someone else's perspective. This is especially true in the world of presentations. You've spent time polishing your thoughts, working through the visuals, getting them just so…and then you're ready to present someone with your 20 min walk-through on the difference between Branding and Marketing.

Good plan. But bad idea.

Ever been to a conference and the speaker actually starting involving the audience? Whether he grabbed someone on stage, asked people questions, and so on – participation gives you the feeling that you were a part of something; its more than just being at something.

As counter-intuitive as it is, presentations need room for conversation. Its the difference between a Monologue and a Dialogue (thank you Larry Bolden for the concept). The fear we all have is that by making it a dialogue, you invite critique, cut into your time, break your flow, won't accomplish anything, and on. But if you think about it, by doing so, what we're really doing is making the whole event a one-sided happening. If we make it two-sided, true, we are less efficient. But since when was efficiency the most important component anyways? Isn't trust, via relationship, always job #1?

Its an important perspective that has changed the way I view even simple conversations. Chopping up my words and points to invite others to speak into the conversation. Speaking in sentences rather than paragraphs.

This is not easy, but then again, neither is building relationship and trust.

Try it out next time you're on a call or presenting.

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