It’s the haunting scenario that every speaker dreads. You ask a question. But no one answers. Instead of the energetic responses you were hoping for, you are met with blank stares and silence. Ahhhh, the unresponsive audience.
We aren’t very comfortable with silence. In today’s noisy world, it can feel foreign. Researchers have even proven that some people are afraid of silence. But don’t fall prey to the insecure voice that says that the silence means the audience hates you or your presentation. It could mean you’ve got a group of thoughtful introverts, or people who don’t want to speak out in a large group, or audience members who need a little more time to get comfortable.
But even if the reason the audience is silent has nothing to do with your presentation or your skills as a speaker, you can’t just sit in silence forever. So here are 4 strategies to help you manage an unresponsive audience.
1. Prepare for the Silence
If you know you’ll be using a lot of audience participation throughout your presentation, you’ll want to prepare the audience for this. This is especially important if your audience doesn’t know each other. As speakers, we tend to think that if the audience doesn’t respond, there is something wrong with our presentation, or worse, with us. However, it’s probably more likely that the audience isn’t engaging because they are afraid to speak up in a crowd and embarrass themselves. (You know, that whole fear of public speaking thing?)
So to prepare for the silence, try two things. First, incorporate longer pauses into your presentation prior to asking for audience feedback. That will establish that silence is okay, and it will make it less uncomfortable. Second, consider having light discussion questions on the tables, seats, or screens before your presentation even starts. That can get people talking to those seated around them. It will loosen them up and build their confidence prior to having to “perform” by responding in front of everyone.
2. Bring Kindling
You know what kindling is, right? It’s the stuff you need to build a fire. Not the huge logs, but the little stuff, the newspaper or the twigs that catch fire first. Discussion often works like a fire, you need to tend to it before it really catches. So if you ask a question and no one answers, you can be prepared with some fire starters.
You might consider having someone in the audience whom you’ve prepped ahead of time to get things started if no one speaks up. Or you could simply have a few examples tucked away of things that relate to your question. If you are talking about something more serious, don’t go straight for it. Look for the backdoor conversation starters that will guide people toward the larger discussion. And pick things that people already like to talk about to get things going. Remember, your unresponsive audience just needs a little help getting started.
3. Make the Silence Funny
When a question is asked and no one responds, it’s awkward right? Use that awkwardness to connect with your audience by making it funny. For example, when I am met with awkward silence in my classroom, I turn it into a joke about the power of eye contact because immediately, all of my students look away from me. So I say something like, “you guys know that you don’t disappear just because you refuse to make eye contact with me, right? You know I can still see all of you?” Or I joke about their stellar use of nonverbal communication in those moments.
Research has proven that shared laughter helps us to feel more strongly bonded to those with whom we are laughing. It’s the connective stuff we so desperately need in our presentations. So if you call the awkwardness into conscious awareness for the whole group, it creates a bonding moment that releases the tension. Once you get people laughing, people will start talking.
4. Use Small Group Discussion
For some audiences, you can try all three of these tactics and nothing seems to work. In those cases, I switch gears on the spot. Instead of posing questions that I had hoped the whole audience would discuss, I ask the audience to break into small groups. Harvard says 2-5 people per group is ideal. Then I ask those same questions and ask the groups to discuss them. For people who are very nervous to speak out in a larger group, this technique works well because their risk of embarrassment is diminished.
If you have these strategies in mind when you use audience participation, you won’t have to fear an unresponsive audience or that dreaded silence. Simply prepare for it, bring kindling, use humor to connect, or switch over to group discussion.
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