A lot of the organisations I work for (delivering presentation skills training) are membership organisations. I’m often asked along as one of a series of presentations. Â Consequently there are often feedback forms to be filled in at the end of sessions/workshops by everyone who attended.
Do I think this is always a good idea? Nope.
It’s not because I’m afraid of the feedback (heck, if I screw up I want to know why, so that I can apologise, correct it and make sure it doesn’t happen again) but because I’m afraid of the people giving the feedback – more specifically I’m sometimes not sure they know what they want and what they’re providing feedback on.
To cite Henry Ford “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.”
So it is with presentations (or at least should be with presentations if you’ve judged correctly what your audience needs… which may or may not be what it wants/thinks it needs). Sometimes, as a presenter, you’ll have a better idea of what your audience needs than they do. Â Of course, if your audience is enlightened and responds positively (saying things like “You gave us so much more than I thought I needed to know!”) then you’re laughing all the way to the re-booking.
On the other hand, if what your audience was clear about what it wanted but what it wanted wasn’t what it needed, you might be in trouble. Â Of course, the best thing to do is check this out with the organisers beforehand so that this kind of situation can’t happen… but with the best will in the world, sometimes you’re going to be ambushed.
There’s another couple of issue that presenters might like to consider – about the feedback form themselves. Â Firstly, I can tell you based upon over 20 years as a researcher at a University (heck, you didn’t think the Dr Raybould thing was for show, did you?!) it’s remarkably easy to bias your results based upon how you phrase questions…
More importantly, however, is the question of the perfect feedback form. I’m not pretending all my feedbacks are perfect. They’re not. Â A significant minority, however, appear to suggest that I can’t improve. Â While that’s flattering, it’s not helpful. Nor is it true.
So how can I, as a presenter, get constructive and useful feedback about presentations if the audience isn’t the best judge? Â Well I’m sure there are other techniques available but one of our chosen ways is the ‘critical friend’. Â Not only do we sometimes sit in on each other’s presentations but we invite our competitors to sit in on them!
Sure, it’s a risk because we’re giving away our IP, but we think it’s worth it because the feedback we can get from someone who’s an outside expert with no vested interest in us being great can be very useful indeed.
Besides, I’ve made some good friends that way! Â :)
What ways do you think about getting feedback? Â What about giving it?
What I prefer is to ask, “Please give me three things I can improve upon.”
I always know there is something that can be said or presented better. By asking a specific question like the above, I’ll get a better response.
Example: Just today an attendee suggested when I come to the Q&A session, instead of asking, “Does anyone have any questions?” I should change that to. “What questions do you have?”
It’s a great suggestion and I’ll use it next time.
Thanks for the Post, Doctor!
Good point, Fred. I’ve hesitated to be so specific in the past for fear of being too prescriptive… I’m fear that I only ask about the things I want to know about and possibly miss out on what I *need* to know about…. but I think you’ve got a point! I’ll try that approach and see what happens. Cheers.
Of course, it doesn’t help when I have to use the ‘host organisations’ forms, sadly.
I love Fred’s suggestion regarding “Please give me 3 things I can improve upon.” That gets to the heart of the info I really want to know! If possible, I’d love a “confederate critiquer” in the audience, too. Great ideas.
I’d also love to see a re-vamp or a re-work of speaker & event evaluation forms. The standard “Rate 1-5” on various facets of the event seem to lead to sloppy thinking. It’s easier for strangers to check a box than to give a thoughtful critique..
Hi Laura – thanks.
I take your point about the 1-5 thing: it has the advantages of speed and being quantitative but that’s all. To be fair though, we need a bit of that sometimes, especially for the sake of comparisons.
I like to know exactly what my audience remembers about my presentation. What words came out of my mouth as a public speaker, that you will not forget. What did I do right is just as important as what I need to improve.
Hi! Good article, but I think feedback always matter. All presenters sell something one way or another, so audience is, in fact, customers. So why don’t we fully use this situation and ask them for anything e.g. about presentation or even about our products? I hope Presfee (http://www.presfee.com) which is launching soon can help presenters to do that.
Hi.
I’ll look at your link for presfee in a bit – I’m away celebrating my wedding anniversary at the minute! :)
Simon
Hi,
Sorry for late answer. I didn’t receive any notification of new response. Since few days we’ve got new landing page and we’re open for new beta testers so, we’ll be happy if you take a look again at this: http://www.presfee.com .