I am running a presentation class in shenzhen this week. Like many presentation class, the participants have the chance to present for a few minutes in order to try out new skills and receive feedback. One conducted a briefing on an internal enquiry system to the Relationship Managers - not an easy presentation since it is full of dry fact by nature. During the feedback session, we suggested that the participant should address more the'WIIFM'. The participant argued that since the Relationship Managers' job requires the system knowledge by nature, it is enough to just remind the audience about this in the beginning of the briefing.
In theory it is true, but not so in reality. I asked 'in our life, is there thing which we should know but we just do not pay attention to?' We all know that it is important to understand well the safety measures on the plane, but most of us do not pay attention to the crew demonstrate it before taking off.
So, when we say 'WIIFM' is important, it is not enough to have 'the participants are required by their job to know the presentation content' We got to help them to have a reason to pay attention and keep reminding the reason during the presentation. And this 'them' should be on the personal but not organizational basis- often the participants are not interested in the content though the departments they represent are. In short, an '˜institutional' reason is not enough. We need a personal one.
