Beware the standing ovation

August 1, 2012 by · 4 Comments

When presenting to an audience whose minds you wish to fundamentally change, a standing ovation means you failed.

First, recognize that you seldom find yourself delivering a presentation designed to change minds. Instead, you present mostly to audiences who already agree with you, or are prepared to agree with you. No mind changing required. That’s because given the choice:

  1. a person will attend the presentation of a speaker he already agrees with
  2. a speaker will tailor her message to an audience so that it resonates with their existing worldview

But in the case you do find yourself with both the opportunity and the courage to actually change people’s minds, know that standing ovations, wide-eyed smiles, thunderous applause or any overly enthusiastic reactions are all false positives. They’re signs you fascinated, entertained, inspired, but you didn’t go deep enough to provoke real change.

Think about a deeply held belief you have and imagine someone successfully poking holes in it, convincing you of your need to change, and then forcing you to confront the painful realities associated with that change. In the moment, you’re more likely to jeer that person than praise him.

On the other hand, skepticism, mild resentment, sadness, confusion, reactions that normally horrify speakers, might actually signal that your audience is seriously considering a transformation. These expressions are usually accompanied by a polite golf clap, not a standing ovation.

But if you’re really serious about changing minds, you ought not look too hard for signals of success altogether. Because although individuals are capable of changing at any moment during the course of your presentation they rarely will. Instead, they’ll change their mind over breakfast a week later, so they can convince themselves it was their idea all along.

The true champion can deal. The cause is more important than the credit. Maybe some day in the future they’ll realize the gift you gave them. Maybe on on another night, they’ll give you a true standing ovation.

Filed Under: Uncategorized ·
  • Tom LaForce

    As a guy who does a ton of presentations, I had never before considered this. Good point.

  • http://predictablesuccess.com/blog Les McKeown

    Ah… no.

    A cheap grab for a blog post title that drives traffic doesn’t make the underlying argument right (I know – I’ve tried it dozens of times and continue to do so on a weekly basis :) .

    Yes, of course a standing ovation *can* mean you have pandered to your audience. As the kids say these days, ‘Duh’.

    But to suggest that the alternative – genuinely challenging your audience – means only taking them to the point where they ‘jeer’ or exhibit ‘skepticism, mild resentment, sadness, confusion’ is just lazy writing.

    Of course that stage doesn’t need to be the conclusion of a presentation – one can take the audience to the point where they see the point of , accept, and are appreciative of what you are saying – where you can get a S.O. because you pulled them over the line to acceptance of a new way of seeing things.

    I’m not suggesting you can do this every time – but to rule this out (as you seem to) appears arbitrary – almost as if you’d prefer to write something that generates traffic and discussion rather than something that is true.

    My glass house is, of course, collapsing at this point…

    • Al Pittampalli

      Hi Les,

      Challenging your audience is not the same as changing them. Also, admitting that you yourself use cheap blog titles, doesn’t make you any less a hypocrite for (falsely) accusing me of the same.

      • http://predictablesuccess.com/blog Les McKeown

        That is true :)