Friday, July 20, 2012

How To Get People To Follow Instructions - Tip Of The Day

Ever get frustrated leading a group who don't follow the instructions you just gave them 5 minutes ago?....yea, me too.

So here's tip that works whether you're talking one-to-one with a staff member, facilitating a board meeting or presenting in a training seminar.  When giving your audience instructions, stand still....don't be handing out papers,  pointing to your PowerPoint slides, walking around or writing on the wall.....just stand still.  By doing so you help your audience focus upon you...and your instructions. 

It works....try it.

3 comments:

Tom Rath said...

Excellent suggestion. When I was board chair at MACTC my policy was all handouts to be distributed before the meeting starts and that any information in those handouts of particular relevance should be noted in advance.

This avoided the shuffling of papers and the passing around of big stacks of material during the meeting. This this one too. It works just as well

Michael said...

Thanks for the tip Tom. I'm doing a leadership seminar this fall for new Board Presidents and will add your example to the mix

Anonymous said...

Excellent tip! Thanks!