Call to Action
Katya’s Non-Profit Leadership Blog has a good post about how even great speakers can forget a crucial element. I have sat through some great speeches that have motivated me and inspired me, but oftentimes they are missing a call to action. If you are presenting-or hosting a presenter-make sure the speech has a call to action or next steps for the listeners. See the whole post here. I like to end trainings with a version of this. I ask participants what is the first thing that they are going to implement as a result of attending the training. It helps to focus them.
On the topic of presentations, Rowan Manahan has a round up, Dodging the Bullets, that has some concrete steps on moving away from bulleted lists towards pictures and other tools which tell the story better.
I had some earlier thoughts and links here.
Jan 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 am
[...] rather than simply complain about the stats, they offer a call to action for people to make a difference with options of giving time or money. This is the leadership that I [...]
Jan 28th, 2008 at 3:01 am
[...] ended with a call to action. Great presentations are relatively meaningless if they don’t ask the audience to make a [...]