It’s DISCOVERY. Failing to give your audience time to process new ideas/concepts and allow them the space to discover how to implement what they’ve learned.

Big thanks to Victoria Tracy Ringwood and Nikki Jones for providing me the opportunity to present to KONICA MINOLTA, INC. in Mahwah, New Jersey.

I shared lessons about customer centricity from both Purple Goldfish 2.0 and Green Goldfish 2.0. It was an excellent 75-minute session.

Time constraints forced me to skip an exercise at the end of my talk called the ONE THING.

For context, at the end of a presentation, I’ll provide the audience time to think about the one thing they’ll take away from the talk.

The good news is that Vicky and the team had already built in time following my exercise for discovery. Brilliant move. Each table reflected on what they learned… and then they all wrote one new behavior they’d personally focus on.

Those index cards were then grouped into themes and pasted on the wall for everyone to see after lunch.

Credit to the Association of National Advertisers for teaching me about the importance of DISCOVERY. I now incorporate it as the last of four steps when organizing content. Here are the first three:

1. Introduce the new concept or idea.
2. Demonstrate it through a case study or case studies.
3. Create an exercise to apply the concept.

Takeaway: The biggest myth of communication is often the idea that it actually happened. Communication only occurs when your audience can repeat back your message in their words. You need to give your audience time to embrace your call to action and discover how to apply the concepts in their daily lives.