What do you do if you feel your audience “checking out” when you’re explaining a technical topic? How do you get their attention back on the matter?
Sort By:
Oldest
Chief Technology Officer in Software3 months ago
Best way is to explain the technical topic in a layman term. Say you are explaining a very deep technical topic and you can correlate it day to day life examples, it will help others grasp it better.Mix your discussion with technical, business, generic terms when you are in front of mixed audience.
COO3 months ago
Happens all the time, as so many topics these days are technical and nuanced. My best strategy is to ask a question. If people are less engaged it could be because you are talking too much and not interacting enough.
TL; DR; We tend to only drop our language 1 skill level when addressed with someone who has less skills in the particular domain. E.g. an expert (level 5) when talking to a layperson (say level 1 or 2) tends to only drop their language to level 4, which is still too high.
Assess the person you are talking to, if they are really lay in terms of your area of expertise, you're going to have to go right back to basics, but of course, still treat them like adults. Try to find good analogies or examples that they will be more familiar with from a more common domain.