Live and let learn

After thinking about the lecture as a motivational talk the other day, it was great to read some tips for motivating and engaging people in Kathy Sierra’s post “Better beginnings, how to start a presentation, book, article” :

Nobody knows more about the importance of beginnings than novelists and screenwriters, but too often we think their advice doesn’t apply to us. After all, we give technical presentations. Lectures. Sermons. We cover professional topics, not fiction. Not entertainment.

Oh really? Regardless of your topic, the only way they’ll read or listen to it is if you get them hooked from the beginning. And like your mother always said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” (Or as one writer put it, “You can’t be in the room with the reader to say, ‘trust me…it gets better.’)

Some great ideas for do’s and don’ts, like:

If you have to TELL your audience that they should care, you’re screwed. The motivation for why they should care should be an inherent part of the story, scenarios, examples, graphics, etc.

A lot of the tips here are similar to those in Kathy’s 10 Tips for new Teachers/Trainers, but for me they’re always worth a reminder and reflection on how I can use some of these tips in class.