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Improve each time you present – Great tips by @CharlesGreene3 on getting feedback
Hands up if you’d like to improve your public speaking – each time you do a presentation. Well here’s some great tips from speaking coach Charles Greene for doing just that.
He suggests you hand out a feedback form every time you present. And Charles even published the 8 questions he asks his own audiences after every talk.
To save time and effort, just use Charles’s questions
So to save yourself time and effort, you could just use Charles’s questions instead of “reinventing the wheel”. (Thank you, Charles, for sharing generously.)
I really like that Charles asks just 8 questions, so most people will be happy to respond. And most of his form simply asks people to rate his talk on a fixed scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” (a Likert scale) against various criteria. For instance, his 1st question asks people the degree to which they agree that:
“The speaker grabbed my attention.”
Using an agree/ disagree scale makes it easy for people to respond
Like by using just 8 questions, using an agree/disagree scale makes it easy for people to respond, which will greatly boost the response rate.
Mind you, he does also ask a few “open-ended” questions where people write out their answers in their own words. For instance, his last question is really neat:
“What question do you have now that you wish had been answered?”
What a great way to improve your content, and to prepare for giving the same talk again.
You get much more insight from open-ended questions
I really like using both fixed-scale (agree/disagree) and open-ended questions. Most people are happy to answer fixed-scale questions because those are so quick and easy. Yet you get much more insight from open-ended questions – but only a few people will take the time to answer them.
So using the 2 types of questions gives you the best of both worlds:
A high response rate to the fixed-scale questions
Insights (and even testimonials) from the few open-ended answers you get.
You might like to add one more question to your feedback form: At the end of forms I’ve used, I usually ask people to (optionally) give their name and contact details. That approach has 2 benefits:
Asking for their name last means the earlier feedback is likely much more candid.
Marking the question as optional underlines that I’m mainly interested in their honest opinion, but that I’d like the chance to respond if they’re happy to add their name.
In the case of positive feedback, getting the person’s name also lets you credit them, which makes your testimonials more credible. And it builds a great relationship with one of your happy customers too!
Your turn
So I hope Charles’s post inspires you to give out feedback forms each time you present.
Feedback forms are often poorly thought out
His questions sharply contrast with many feedback forms I’ve seen, which is a good thing. That’s because feedback forms are often poorly thought out. For instance, recently I saw a form (after a webinar) that asked me to rate the event on a fixed scale, but didn’t ask me what I liked or disliked.
So in that case, imagine what would happen if most people rated the webinar poorly. What could the organisers actually do to improve their rating next time? D’oh! Maybe someone should tell them that finding out what caused the response they get should be a vital part of the process!
Lastly:
What are your thoughts on getting feedback after your talks?
What examples have you seen of good (or bad) feedback questions?
Please share your experiences by .
Check out these related posts
Stop Q&A hypnosis! (A unique way to handle questions during your talk)
2 kickass training activities – put your learners’ needs 1st,and last! (Includes a very quick and novel way to get feedback)
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