You Can Never Really Tell Who You Shut Out

Photo credit — Shutterstock.

In a previous post, we discussed various ways through which audience members could find themselves feeling excluded from the experience you provide on the stage. So what might exclusion from the physical stage or the virtual platform look like? Let’s look at a few examples today.

Picture yourself in front of an audience of about 100 people, delivering your typical content (a keynote, a training session, a workshop, etc.). Out of everyone who shows up to hear you speak that day, can you ever tell:

• How many people are mainly visual learners, auditory learners or kinesthetic learners?
• How many are colourblind, and generally struggle with colour perception?
• How many are dyslexic and struggle with the written words on your slides?
• How many have vision or hearing issues, and struggle with perceiving your content?
• How many have attention deficit disorders and are easily distracted by the environment?
• How many have cognitive challenges that make it harder for them to understand you?
• How many are non-native speakers struggling with the words or metaphors you use?

Are you consciously paying attention to all of those things? Of course, you don’t. Can you ever tell who might…