Have you ever sat through a lecture or a class where the speaker pressed on, despite puzzled looks from the audience? This can be especially frustrating when it is clear that the speaker has a firm grasp on the material they are presenting, yet completely fail in their ability to recognize signals from their audience indicating they are not following along at all.
It could be argued that this fails to recognize a fundamental aspect of communication; in order to be effective, communication needs to a reciprocal process whenever possible. Failure to take into account whether the audience is following along makes communication a one-way process, which could also be described as “talking at” the audience instead of “talking to” or “with” the audience.
Clearly, with larger audiences, checking for understanding gets much more complex, but is still just as important as it is for smaller groups.
In order to check for understanding, a speaker should:
It could be argued that this fails to recognize a fundamental aspect of communication; in order to be effective, communication needs to a reciprocal process whenever possible. Failure to take into account whether the audience is following along makes communication a one-way process, which could also be described as “talking at” the audience instead of “talking to” or “with” the audience.
Clearly, with larger audiences, checking for understanding gets much more complex, but is still just as important as it is for smaller groups.
In order to check for understanding, a speaker should:
- Make frequent eye contact.
- Plan where you likely need to check for understanding.
- Make it clear up front that asking questions or indicating confusion is okay. In larger groups, develop a hand signal or other non-verbal sign of confusion.
- Ask if people are still with you throughout the presentation.
- If in a smaller group setting, then ask audience members to recap main points of conversation.
The following is a video example of NOT checking for understanding.
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