Nonprofit blogger Beth Kantor often finds gems about presentation. Yesterday she shared a “unpresenting” style of workshop. She writes:
I do a lot of presenting and am spending to much time writing bullet points, creating slides, and practicing what I’m going to say. I think that this puts a stop to creating conversation in the room. I wanted to learn some conversational mechanics — so I could stop talking at people and begin talking with them.
Beth’s main link is to a Google Tech Talk “unpresentation” by Heather Gold. Might be good background listening today. I’m particularly interested in this for two reasons: first, obviously, is that presentations are often very boring and it’s nice to think about more interactive ways of engaging with an audience.
But second, many modern Friends have defaulted to a lecture style in their religious education. I’m not sure it works. I’ve met people who have participated in multiple Quakerism 101 classes and still don’t know basic facts. I myself have rebelled against power point presentations and pre-set curricula to be more engaging but I’m not convinced that this has made me a great presenter. It’s always worth finding new ways to present in a clear and direct and engages them with the issues they experience day to day.
I imagine this would be of interest not only to liberal Friends who give workshops, but pastoral Friends with a concern to stay open to immediate revelation during worship–Cherice B has a great post about this yesterday , a response to part four of Brent Bill’s Modest Proposal series.
Some interesting points from Heather Gold’s presentation on “tummling”
- The best way to tummle is to be a very big version of yourself. Tummle means to make noise.
- If you’re happy, i’m happy. The number one way to do that is to care and to notice them — especially the people who don’t seem that involved.
- I’m noticing [the disengaged person in the back]. if i can involve him a little bit i’m much more likely to involve more of you faster than if i pick the person in the front row with their arm up. a technique to pull everyone in is to go to the fringes. go to the people who seem on the end, who seem like they have lower status in whatever community you’re in (speak less, more nervious, know fewer people) and go up to them.
- Some people will be mad at you. Some people will be schmucks. Some people will want to talk a lot. You have to let all that be okay. Tools and rules will never ever do as good a job as your confidence that you can handle anything. It’s time consuming to run through fifty rules in your mind; it’s not so time consuming to just be there.
As a Quakerism 101 teacher, I know that several of us have moved away from the workshop style to solicit conversation, questions, and engagement. When teaching at a meeting, I generally ask several long-time members to tell me what is most important about being a Friend to them (this is long before the first “class”). Even though I may have notes, that’s a discipline to remind me of important things… realizing that other questions may arise — and they usually do.
I really appreciate your interes in UnPresenting. The little tiny bit I know about Quaker meetings is that there is an element of open participation in which people are moved to speak and anyone can and there is space for that. There’s an element of that in what I’m doing and teaching (http://unpresenting.com) in that it’s very much a flow oriented thing. For me this came from performance and the kind of intimacy and connection I’ve learned how to create there. But I know that religious and AA meetings are examples of more democratized participation.
There is technique that works and you’ll also find some notes at unpresenting.com and on Beth’s blog. I hope to make video classes at some date in the future in addition to the live workshops.
If my understanding of Quaker meetings is accurate then why would Quakers have begun teaching in a different way?
@Heather: cool, thanks for spotting this and giving us the unpresenting.com URL. I hadn’t seen that in my link travels…
It’s always a bit dicey to compare Quaker ministry to anything performance-based. Friends have always placed a big value on meekness and humility and having the message come from the Holy Spirit. Friends talk about “outrunning the Guide” when they go beyond a message they’ve been given and start talking from their own knowledge. One bit of wisdom was to never come to a Quaker meeting prepared to minister but to also never come prepared not to minister.
There’s a couple of hundreds of years’ worth of reasons why this model has been overshadowed. Can we admit that a lot of it is economic? There’s conference centers wanting to fill in weekend slots with popular programs that will pack the visitors in. I’m more comfortable with the Old Time Religion myself but get asked to give these workshops often enough. For me it’s usually an excuse to see friends from the other side of the country but I won’t get asked back if I arrive at one and decide that the Holy Spirit isn’t giving me anything to say (“and can you please reimburse me for the plane and pass that yummy organic vegan vinaigrette?”) My conundrum is to find a way to keep something like this rooted in worship. The unpresenting style keeps presenters more engaged with the spiritual energy in the room. It’s more-or-less the technique I’ve been using. I like to over-prepare presentations in my head over showers the month before and then skip the slides and improvise at the event itself. If a workshop is successful then there will be a point where participants break out of the expected dynamic and start interrupting me. I become just another participant. The Holy Spirit takes over the presentation. It happens, though not every time. It’s a goosebumpy moment.
Martin- apologies it took so very long to reply. Somehow, I am not notified of replies. Sometimes I get goosebumpy moments in my shows. I enjoy the unexpected a lot. Thanks for explaining what you’re doing. In a play (eg http://heathergold.com/cookie) of course I have a lot of it prepared but it’s “scored” often rather than always specifically scripted. And I find once I open the room people do want to jump in. Isn’t that great feeling what folks want in connection? It’s a do-able thing at conferences. I often speak at conferences. But I find the quality of the experience different when there’s room to include possibility in the room.