Skill Development Activity

Engaging your Audience

How Do You Engage an Audience in a Discussion?
You will be meeting with various members of our community not simply to persuade them. You want to engage in a discussion with them.

What makes a discussion inviting?

What makes you want to participate in a discussion?
Elements of an good (inviting) discussion:
o Being open to critism
o Ask questions
o Engage the audience
o Being an active listener

How would you rephrase the following questions to invite more discussion with someone? How do you get people to say more?

ORIGINAL IMPROVED VERISON

Did you like the movie we just watched? What was your favourite part of the movie?

Did you like the characters? What character had the biggest impact?

Do you think that it will win an award? What and why would this movie win an award?

Do you think there was enough action? Why was the movie engaging?

Would you like to see a sequel? If there was a sequel would you watch it and why?

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If someone, perhaps a stakeholder, expressed interest in your passion project, but didn’t know how to engage with you, how
could you engage them? What strategies could you use? What questions could you ask them to invite them to join a
discussion?

o How can we effectively put this idea into motion?

o Ask how they think we could improve our idea.
o How would they do the project if they were us.
o Where they see this idea going

What are some ways to handle questions that you don’t know the answer to?

 Research it
 Say you don’t know yet