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display their work for the full group
to see.
For Balcony Conversations, the
program has always involved recording
and debriefing roleplays in break-
outs. The built-in recording features of
virtual platforms actually makes this
even easier to do, eliminating previous
problems with inconsistent recording
volumes, switching devices for recording
and playback.
Lean into the performance when
presenting virtually: As Mama Rose
would say, "Sing out, Louise!" (For
non-musical-theatre buffs, that's one
of the classic lines from the musical
Gypsy.) Facilitators need to put out a lot
of effort and use all of their vocal skills
to keep the energy and attention up
during virtual workshops. This is also
true for anyone leading a group meeting
or presenting virtually.
Here's why: Studies seeking to measure
the components of impact of a message
delivered in a live setting generally
conclude that about half of the impact
comes from the visual cues or informa-
tion that the speaker displays; slightly
by introducing concepts briefly and then
turning quickly to a different modality,
such as group discussion or breakout
exercises.
If possible, keep group sizes small, so
participants feel comfortable speaking
up, asking questions and engaging in
discussion. For larger groups, pose ques-
tions and ask participants to share their
answers through a variety of tools such
as reactions, chat and word cloud gener-
ators, and then look at and highlight as
many responses as possible.
In large groups, it also can be helpful
to encourage participants to submit
their questions at any point via chat
and then pause occasionally to respond
to them.
In the Strategic Communications
workshop, small groups are sent to
breakout rooms to work on an exer-
cise together, provided with electronic
instructions, templates and materials. In
this case, on-screen document sharing
actually works better than asking an
in-person breakout group to live edit
on paper. And when groups reconvene
to debrief the exercise, they can easily
less comes from the vocal delivery or
tone and, surprisingly, only a small
fraction comes from the content of the
message itself.
Content is of course important in busi-
ness, but studies like this suggest that
how you look and what you sound like
when delivering your message make a big
difference in terms of how it is received.
Because the visuals on virtual plat-
forms tend to be cluttered and scat-
tered, between shared documents and
the gallery of tiny faces, the quality and
impact of visual information an audi-
ence can take from a speaker in most
virtual situations is greatly diminished.
On-screen document sharing works
better than asking an in-person breakout
group to live edit on paper. And when
groups reconvene to debrief the exercise,
they can easily display their work.
This means the best point of leverage
to ensure you're keeping the audience's
attention in virtual settings is your
voice. Make an extra effort to mix pace,
tone, volume and pauses, for example,
to make delivery more effective and
engaging.
CHRR
Jerry Stauduhar is a
partner at Kenning
Associates, a consultancy
focused on leadership and
organizational
development. He can be
reached at kenningassociates.com.
