ENRICHING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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Enriching your presentation with engagement strategies
Within another of my resources titled Crafting your Presentation I discussed the use of themes when
developing presentations. In essence themes and key messages address the question of ‘what will be
the subject focus for your presentation’. In this current resource we discuss engagement strategies and
other means for addressing the question ‘how are you going to deliver your presentation’.
When delivering a presentation you are delivering a presentation to a diversity of learning styles, ways
of thinking, desires and other unique characteristics. Incorporating a mix of engagement strategies is
one way you can meet this unique needs and interests of your audience.
This relates to the adage:
“In happiness as in cooking, there is a brew of ingredients to suit different tastes.” Anon
The following are just a few of the vast variety of different engagement strategies that can be employed
in your presentations.
STORIES
Stories come in so many forms including: myths and parables; the stories of other places and times
such as those recorded in historical accounts including diaries; your own stories as shared through
anecdotes and personal stories; and the stories of your audience members.
They can also include quotations and sayings such as those by famous people and also from lesser
known but respected people within a particular profession. As an example of the latter, consider how
many people use testimonials.
Some of the ways of finding stories include spending time reflecting on your own life and what you’ve
experienced – with a bit of crafting you’ll find an untold number of stories wanting to be shared.
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ENRICHING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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Also talk to people both within and outside the area of your presentation subject area. For example, I
often talk to taxi drivers to gain a ‘cabbie’s litmus test of various issues’ and then use the same in my
presentations. You can also find stories within local and regional papers in addition to the city and
national papers.
You can also join your local storytelling association – for example, within NSW (Australia) there is the
NSW Storytelling Guild http://www.storytellersnsw.org.au/ but similar associations can be found in other
Australian states as well as in other countries (often with networking opportunities).
ANALOGIES, METAPHORS AND SIMILES
Analogies, metaphors and similes are used to compare one feature with another and are an excellent
means of helping you explain concepts. They often use a ‘concrete’ perspective to explain a concept or
other perspective.
Metaphors and Similes
Whilst metaphors and similes appear similar, a simile uses the word ‘like’ or an equivalent to make the
comparison. Similes and metaphors also imply a different level of association. For example, the parks
are the lungs of the city is a metaphor and has a different connotation to its simile cousin of the parks
are like the lungs of the city.
Simile
The young fighter had a look like that of a hungry beast.
His car had a turning circle like that of the QEII.
Metaphors
The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
His car had the turning circle of the QEII.
“The past is a pebble in my shoe.” Edgar Allan Poe
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ENRICHING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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Creating your own metaphors and similes
Select the broad subject area you want to focus on. For example, if wanting to describe the morning
mist of a landscape then this becomes your starting point and the objective of what you want to
describe.
We now identify some of the features we want to communicate and then seek out words and phrases
which are related to these features – for example if wanting to communicate the softness of the mist
then you could use the comparative features of a doona.
With these different lists created you now make the link as per the following example:
Broad subject
Feature you want to
Create similar
Make the link
focus
highlight
concepts / ideas
Mist in the landscape
Softness and
Doona
The mist cuddled the
fluffiness of mist
Pillow
landscape like a big,
fluffy doona.
Analogies
Analogies also use more familiar concepts as a reference to help explain the unfamiliar. For example, if
trying to explain an area rather than use hectares / acres you could use the equivalent number of
football fields or how long it would take you to walk around the area. I once heard the distance to
Jupiter described as being the equivalent to flying in a 747 for approximately 60 years (assuming all
planets line up). I believe that using this analogy provides a better idea of distance than saying how
long it would take a spacecraft such as the space shuttle (which would be approximately 3 years) given
most people have not flown in a space shuttle.
Hyperboles
If you want to exaggerate the comparative effect of similes and metaphors try hyperboles – for
example, his feet were as big as a barge.
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ENRICHING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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RULE OF THREES
The “rule of three” is one of the most basic frameworks for public speaking, and it derives from
something almost existential in the human psyche in that there almost something magical about the
number three. We tend to grasp information most easily in threes – for example:
“Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears” – William Shakespeare
I came, I saw, I conquered – Julius Caesar
“The good, the bad and the ugly” – Clint Eastwood Western
“The prince was selfish, cruel and unkind.” Beauty and the Beast.
Once you start listening you’ll discover that these types of phrases are used quite frequently and you
can either borrow them or make your own.
You can also work with the rule of 3’s when developing a flow for your presentation – for example, if
you were asked to speak on the topic of human resource management you could use the following
‘flow structures’ (as discussed the earlier Ochre Resource Sequencing your Presentation):

Using the sequencing of yesterday – today – tomorrow you could discuss how Human
Resource Management has changed over the years - focusing on the practices of yesteryear,
today and plans for the future.

Using the sequencing of local to state to national you could deliver a presentation on how HR
Management vary between local, state and commonwealth agencies.
Other flow structures using the ‘rule of 3’s’:
Past
present
future
Cause
effect
remedy
Before the event the event
the result
Local
national
international
Good
bad
indifference
Social
political
economic
What
where
why
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ENRICHING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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BE INTERACTIVE AND INVOLVE YOUR AUDIENCE
This includes a number of associated engagement strategies such as asking questions, encouraging
people to ‘have a go’ and trying an activity such as engaging the senses (asking people to close their
eyes, listen to sounds, taste the air and what the space ‘feels’ like – especially after a particularly
evocative story).
This can also extend to making the activity personal to your participants by incorporating personal
words and phrases such as ‘you’, ‘everyone here’, ‘remember when we all arrived here this morning
and were greeted by….?’, ‘I’m going to ask you to remember back to’, ‘How many people here enjoy a
sensual coffee in the morning?’
QUESTIONS
There are so many different ways to ask questions and so many different types of questions. For
example:

Rhetorical questions which do not require a response but rather evoke thought on a particular
point (as per the following figure prompting us to think about the disposal of tyres);

Open and closed questions – with the former prompting an extended response and the latter a
short ‘closed’ response such as yes or no;

Questions prompting recall of information – for example, Can anyone remember the date that?
Has anyone seen this particular feature in the landscape?

Questions evoking emotional memories – for example, Has anyone experienced this particular
service? What have been your most moving moments when travelling?
And then there are the questions that are known as the 5 W’s + a H:
Why – a meaning question
What – a detail question (content)
Where – a place question
When – a time question
Who – a person question
How – a process question
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ENRICHING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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IMAGINATION
Our imagination is such a powerful resource.
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give
orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint Exupery
In its simplest definition, imagination is the ability to create a mental image or representation of
something that is not being experienced through the physical senses. These might relate to scenes,
objects, events of other times and places and is not restricted to just the visual sense - i.e. you can also
engage senses beyond the visual as well as feelings and emotions. Through our imagination we are
able to create other ‘worlds’, scenarios and perspectives.
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please acknowledge johnpastoreli.com.au as the source. Thank you.
ENRICHING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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Within our presentations we can engage with imagination in variety of situations - for example, when
asking people to create their goals, or to plan a particular strategy or activity, or to consider the
implications of a nominated strategy. We are also asking people to engage with their imagination when
we describe scenes and recount stories as our audience will be creating their own ‘scenes’.
You can encourage and facilitate the use of people’s imagination by being descriptive, and by providing
moments for reflection and discussion.
DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE
Dry words and dry facts will never fire hearts. John Muir
Some of the ways you can incorporate descriptive language includes:

Being sensory – e.g; smells - the putrid, sweet, pungent;

Being active – e.g. rather than the person walks they sprint, dart, stagger – each of the latter
words will evoke a different image to ‘walk’;

Incorporating onomatopoeic words – for example, slosh, plonk, slop;

Mixing up the ‘phrasings’ you use with a simple example being to mix up the length of your
sentences.

Incorporating different ‘forms’ of language – for example, poetry, song, and other expressive
language that includes metre and/or mnemonics (rhythm).
Keep your wording and phrasing simple – words and language become more interesting with precision
and not length. If you introduce technical and complex language deliver it in digestible chunks.
COMPELLING FACTUAL INFORMATION
Seek out fascinating facts and figures which can either be used in a manner that is relevant to the
content of your presentation or as simply energisers and ‘thought starters’.
For example:
What is the longest length of time a person has held their breath under water? 17 minutes!
At what speed do particles leave the nose during a sneeze? 200kph!
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ENRICHING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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Whilst compelling factual information is of particular interest for those who love facts, they can also add
credibility – for example, using statistics to support a point you are making. And if communicating
statistics via a visual mode such as powerpoint think of mixing up your presentation with pie charts, bar
charts, and line graphs.
THE TONE OF YOUR ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
Each engagement strategy has a particular ‘tone’ and by listening to this tone you can increase the
effectiveness of that particular strategy. For example, if I were to communicate a human interest
perspective I might chose anecdotes and personal stories as this has a greater potential to resonate
more with the human element.
If I wanted to communicate objective and authenticated information then I might chose facts and if I
wanted to create a wow factor I might chose compelling facts.
The above are just a few of the many engagement strategies you can use to enrich your presentation –
I hope you have fun exploring, learning about and working with the many other strategies that are
available to you.
RELATED RESOURCES
Other resources related to this one include ‘The power of metaphors’ and ‘Sequencing your
presentation’. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at [email protected] or on
0422 314 318.
This material is provided to you as a free resource for visiting my website. I hope you find it to be of value. If they are copied
please acknowledge johnpastoreli.com.au as the source. Thank you.