Get Your Audience to “Imagine”
Open with vision
The average employee arrives at their leader's meeting pre-exhausted, just as each audience member a speaker greets enters the room overwhelmed, overworked, and over-stressed. In our time-challenged, attention-competitive reality, the longer it takes the listener to connect with our message, the less likely that message will achieve its intended impact or outcome. Getting to the point is paramount. And the fastest path to our point is “Imagine”.
Asking someone to imagine their own success is far more effective than explaining a process or pitching a product. By imagining what's possible, we can invest in how to actually achieve it. When we “imagine” a better, faster, smarter, cleaner, safer, cheaper, or simpler future just waiting for us to reach out and grab it, the meaning sets up the methodology. That's how we craft winning #CorporateStorytelling.
Imagine if...
Most talks have a goal to sell something, change minds, convince, impress, coerce, or condemn. Initial instinct is to focus all content on challenges and arguments to attain the desired response.
If the target is sales, the speaker will introduce their service or solution, what it does, how it works, and the metrics proving its merit. If the target is to change minds, the speaker will describe the status quo, why it's not optimal, offer their alternate approach, and try to prove its logical sense. All explanations and statistics.
But without "Imagine" we run a risk that as the story (or lack of story) unfolds, our audience may or may not become engaged. Because until they see themselves in that story, it's little more than a lengthy advertisement or half-heard lecture.
"Imagine if..." paints a picture of the possible and drops the listener right into the center of that picture. Rather than wonder if the session might have value, they know it does because we've already made them the star of our story. They're instantly sharing our vision, excited, eager to turn our glorious illustration of the possible into their new reality.
Examples
"Imagine if AI locked onto each network threat long before it reached the perimeter. Then automatically knocked threat one out based on its potential impact scope. No more attack aggravations, not another wasted minute playing worry Whack-a-Mole." Nice picture, right? We don't know the product or how it creates this impressive new power, but we're already leaning in and ready to learn.
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"Imagine a national policy that directly connects every immigrant with their ideal community, available housing, comprehensive support system, open job opportunity, and fastest path from economic drain to economic production and full tax contribution." Sounds great. Regardless of personal views on immigration, or the steps needed to pass such a policy, this powerful vision is likely to get most audiences on board.
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"Imagine you walk into any social event – anywhere, any group, any purpose – and you're 100% cool, calm, confident. Zero insecurity, zero awkward small talk, zero sweat." Yes please! We know that discomfort all too well, and we're eager to hear how you'll take it away.
Bottom Line
The average human attention span is eight seconds. When we speak from the stage or lead a team meeting, time is never on our side. If we don't make a fast and formidable impact we risk losing our listener's attention. Speed counts. So does clarity.
Lead With VALUE™ starts with a meaningful, compelling vision of an exciting, accessible future. Paint the picture for us. Drop us smack in the center of that beautiful reality. Help us see what you see before diving into details and data dumps. Let us imagine our better tomorrow – then you can explain how we’ll get there.
