Who’s the hero now?
Nancy Duarte’s delightful book ‘Resonate’ asks a question of trainers that has stuck with me.
What role do you believe you have when presenting or training?
Most presenters or trainers believe that they have the knowledge to share, the information that the participants need to know, the experience or expertise to lead others into a new and better place. In fact, if that wasn’t true then why on earth would they dare to stand in front of everyone and presume to say anything? If this was a narrative the trainer would take the place of the hero, the one there to rescue everyone else. This attitude and underlying belief is prevalent in training and presentations worldwide – is it yours?
An alternative is to see the audience as the heroes and your role that of guide and mentor. This change in attitude has the potential to change everything.
- It becomes all about the audience, their outcomes, their learning, their stuff
- It’s no longer about how much you can cram into your hour (or day) but about what activities will best release their genius
- You no longer need to know everything and have an answer to every question
- Your audience are much more likely to own their learning and take responsibility for using it
Brain friendly principles say ‘facilitate creation not consumption’. Maybe that becomes a whole lot easier when you stop seeing yourself as the saviour and see the audience as the heroes of the moment. As we say in Kaizen, “Be a Guide on the Side, not a Sage on the Stage”.
Thanks for the mention, Justin. So glad you’re enjoying Resonate.
Nancy! How nice to hear from you. Let me add to the ‘mention’ to say that as well as the excellent content, your book has to be one of the nicest produced and illustrated books I’ve read. You’ve created something with such an engaging look and feel. Thank you.
You might be interested to know that a friend of mine called the book ‘sexy’!
Haha. I love that. I enjoyed writing that book more than almost anything I’ve done (other than raise my kids)
Such a nice perspective, Justin. Thanks for sharing this. How could I get in touch with Nancy to see if she might write about this for the IAF Europe Newsletter?
Kind regards,
Rosemary
nicely depicted, it is as if Luke Skywaker in Star Wars is the Audience (hero) and the trainers were ..?
Releasing the heros inner force for good in the world is the goal I have for the audience.
AU
Justin, I love the concept – a new opening slide for my seminars – ‘You are the heroes’. I’m looking forward to reading the book!
Dear Nancy: I wondered if you might consider writing an article about your thinking on this question for the IAF Europe Newsletter? I would be happy to give you more details if you could contact me at rosemary.cairns@iaf-europe.eu.
Thanks and best regards,
Rosemary