Believe it or not, this is an icebreaker a friend of mine used quite successfully to warm up a crowd. Why? Because she knew her audience.

Ann Riordan is a hair designer who teaches a lot of classes at salons. She eyeballed her audience and saw a lot of young, hip, edgy women. By the time she had gone around the room with this question, the class was not only in stitches, they had an “inside joke” as a group. And, most importantly, were ready to hear everything she had to say.

Ann implemented three good techniques in the first three minutes of her presentation.

First, she observed and assessed her audience before she even opened her mouth. We’ve spoken in earlier newsletters about the importance of audience research (see January, 2005).

Start by finding out some basic information about your audience, which you can usually get from the person who hired you to speak. I like to find out things like age-range, male/female mix and typical professional backgrounds. I also like to find out why they are attending. Did they win a contest and their prize was to hear you speak, or are they there to beat a traffic ticket?

Next, you want to be flexible enough to change an icebreaker you have planned, based on what you observe. Even though Ann trains at a lot of salons, she only uses the stripper game when she senses that it will work with that particular audience. She has other, tamer games in her repertoire.

So, let me be clear. I am NOT suggesting you play the stripper game when you are addressing the United Nations.

The second clever thing Ann did was involve her audience very early in her presentation. We touched on this last month in our discussion about sharing the stage. Face it. We all like to talk more than we like to listen. By engaging each audience member at the start, she literally gave them the energy to listen.

Finally, Ann gave the class a way to bond. This is a great thing to do, particularly when you are presenting to a group who may have a lot in common, but may not know each other personally. I guarantee you that stripper names were discussed at the first coffee break. As humans, we have a natural desire to affiliate with others. I’m pretty sure that’s #3 on American Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, right behind food and shelter.

So, next time you are planning a presentation, put yourself in the position of your audience members. What would engage THEM? What motivates THEM? How can you bring THEM into the moment?

Being a good speaker is not about applying the Golden Rule -- do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s about applying the Platinum Principle: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.