The Seven Strategies of Master Presenters - Lifecycle Performance ...

Make It Memorable, Actionable, and Transferable / 151
Visually. Master Presenter Janet Lapp demonstrates anchoring
visually with the following memorable visual metaphor:
I try to create useful, deeply connecting programs with humor
and stories that are hard for audience members to erase from their
minds. I do that in the framework similar to music composition—
say a symphony from the Romantic Period—with highs and lows,
different speeds, all built toward a climax. I find that works well.
Then of course I use visual effects. For example, sometimes I
physically carry someone on my back across the stage; usually a
fairly robust man, and the audience connects that with carrying
around too much, doing too much. Then I follow with a quote
by Peter Drucker: “Businesses don’t fail because they don’t know
what to do; they fail because they don’t know what to give up.”
The fact is, some people “listen” with their eyes. That is, visual
learners can learn more by seeing one physical illustration or demonstration
than any printed or spoken explanation will ever accomplish.
Aurally. Another way to anchor your material in your audience’s
long-term memory is to anchor it aurally. For example, Brad was in
London in 1986 and decided to visit the underground war rooms where
Winston Churchill lived and held some of his war cabinet meetings,
which had recently been reopened as a museum. Remarkably, they
were untouched since they had been closed in 1945 at the end of the
war. The underground command center made quite an impression.
However, the most memorable part of the visit was hearing Churchill’s
voice saying, “We will never, never, ever surrender…” Brad says that
he can still hear Churchill speaking in his mind today, as if he just
visited the museum. The memory was anchored aurally.
Master Presenter Marcia Steele provides another example. 5 In
Marcia’s presentation she speaks eloquently of her experience emigrating
from Jamaica to New York. Then she stops and sits down in a
chair on stage next to a writing table. Instantly, the audience is transported
back into time, as it hears the recorded voice of Walter Cronkite
announce the tragic news that Martin Luther King, Jr., has been assassinated.
Marcia uses nothing but sound to illustrate a transition in
her life and in the life of her country. It is a powerful moment, anchored
aurally.