One of the great questions for regular public speakers is, what will the room look like when I get there? Few of the places we speak have great sight lines, perfect acoustics, and comfortable seating for the audience. We’re usually working with less-than-prime conditions. So it helps to be ready for most of the possibilities. In other words, be ready to answer the question, how will I use this room to my advantage and work the crowd?, with minimal stress and uncertainty.

If you’re thinking, I just stand behind the podium, look down for my notes, and fire away, and let the audience take care of itself, then you don’t have much to worry about. Your audience may well fall asleep, but why should that concern you?

You need to choreograph your talk

If, on the other hand, you want to actually reach your audience, and change the world by moving them to action, then you’re going to need to choreograph your talk.

Here’s why. Every face-to-face communication is two conversations – the content and the body language. If the two are aligned, then you can communicate effectively. If the two are not aligned, then the audience believes the body language every time. The whole art of choreography springs from this insight.

Most speakers spend a lot of time thinking about content, and very little time thinking about body language. As a result, most speakers’ two conversations are not aligned, and as a result, they are not effective communicators. For example, a common trap that speakers fall into stems from their use of PowerPoint. They cue up a slide, facing their computer, half-turned from the audience, looking at the screen to see that the next slide is in fact the one they’re expecting. Then, they may turn back to the audience to explain the slide.

But just before they finish that explanation, they turn back to the computer, because their mind is racing ahead of their mouths, and they want to cue up the next slide.

Beware the body language message

Now, when someone turns away from us, the body language message is, you’re not important, or, what I’m saying is not important, or, I’m finished with you. That’s the message that conflicts with the end of the explanation of the slide. I call it the PowerPoint Triangle of Death, because the speaker tends to stand midway between screen and computer, moving slightly toward one or the other, forming a triangle of body language that is signaling disinterest and disconnection to the audience.

Let’s look at one more example. Most speakers go into a session with lots on their minds. They’re thinking about their to-do list, what they have to say, how nervous they are, whether or not they’ll be able to catch that plane in time after the talk given the traffic on the freeway, and a host of other issues. When we are thinking about a lot of things, our body language signals that mental confusion.

We’re not charismatic. We’re diffuse. And that is the message we send to the audience. So all our carefully chosen words of persuasion conflict with the body language message we’re sending out: “meh.”

How to increase the audience’s interest

The good news is that focusing on the talk at hand, and carefully choreographing your talk will prevent this weak message from coming through to your audience.

So let’s talk about choreography.

Every time you move toward the audience, its interest level is raised. Every time you move away from the audience, the audience cools down. An audience unconsciously monitors the space between it and the speaker. More than 12 feet is public space, and our unconscious minds are not strongly engaged. If the speaker comes within 12 feet, but not as close as 4 feet, that’s social space, and we start to pay attention. Less than 4 feet, and we’re in personal space, and we’re suddenly wide awake and fully engaged.

So your goal is to move into that personal space (but not closer than 1.5 feet, because that’s intimate space and you’re not allowed in there, unless it’s a close friend or family member). That’s where your audience will be paying attention most powerfully.

Use your audience’s mirror neurons

But wait, you say, how can I move into the personal space of an audience of 500 people? You can’t, of course, but here’s where a property of the human mind comes into play. We have mirror neurons in our brains whose sole purpose is to fire away when we see someone nearby experiencing an emotion. So if we see the speaker coming toward another audience member, our interest is piqued in the same way as if the speaker were moving toward us.

The effect diminishes over space and large numbers of people, so you need to work the crowd as much as you can, but you only need to get into the personal space of a few people in the audience for everyone to feel connected with you.

Do you begin to get the choreography that is involved in making a speech? You want to move toward select members of the audience when you’re making a point, and then only move away when you’ve finished the point and are ready to go to the next one.

How does this dance work in practice? You want to first study your speech to find the high points. What are the 3-6 most important moments in the speech? Those are the points when you want to be in the personal space of a selected audience member.

Now, in order to balance your approach to the audience, divide it up into sections in your mind. Begin your speech standing stage center, where everyone can see you. After the first few minutes, then begin to move to stage right, and find an audience member on your right hand that can represent that section of the audience. Make your point to that person. Then, a few minutes later, move to stage left. Repeat. Move back to stage center. And so on. Work the room in rotation, without making it look mechanical. Finish your speech back at stage center.

Now consider some the variations involved in some typical room layouts.

The U-Shape

My favorite room layout by far is the U. You can begin your speech in the center, at the top of the U, and work the audience easily up and down the sides. You’re never far from anyone, and everyone feels connected. Some U’s are several rows deep, and for those you may want to walk up – once or twice only – into the second row, depending on how hard it is to navigate. But never stay long deep in an audience, because some people will experience your back to them, and that’s not good for the reasons I’ve already outlined.

Classroom style

The success of a classroom style layout depends on how many aisles there are. If there’s at least one, you can work the aisle to get deep into the rows at least once or twice. If there’s no aisle, then the studies show that you’ll only connect with people who are in an inverse triangle in relation to the front. The base of the triangle is the front row, and the tip is at the back center. It’s why goodie-goodies sit at the front of the classroom, and hooligans sit at the back. The former want to connect with teacher, and the latter do not.

Auditorium style

Auditorium style layouts give you lots of opportunities to work the aisles, provided that they’re accessible, and you don’t have to leap over obstructions, or climb down dimly lit stairs to get to them. When you study the hall beforehand, decide on your strategy. If it’s too difficult to get into the audience, then work the stage. The audience will interpret your efforts as attempting to get to them, and that’s second best. Once again, don’t spend too long deep in the aisles, because people can only turn with difficulty in auditorium-style seating.

Rounds

These are perhaps the worst sort of settings, because it’s very hard to work the audience when it’s spread all over and facing in different directions. And yet it’s a style you will see in hotels across the known universe. Meeting planners love rounds, because they get tables to set, and they can put interesting centerpieces on them, they can feed the audience, and so on. But they are tough on speakers.

You still need to work the audience – in fact, you need to work harder. Try to negotiate with the meeting planner to have the rounds only half-filled, facing the front, so at least half the audience won’t have its back turned toward you. Keep the house lights turned up if possible, and consider beginning your talk in the back of the room in order to get closer to the people there. Then move to the front, and work the center, left and right, going into the second set of rounds once or twice.

Rectangular Breakout Rooms

These are rooms where audiences go to die. They’re long, the acoustics are typically awful, and the ceilings are low. The audience feels like it’s in a shoebox, and tends to sit near the back so that it can make a surreptitious exit half-way through. In these rooms, ask the audience to move forward to the front rows, pleading acoustics, and work the front and left and right sides. If there’s a center row, use that to get deep into the shoebox once during the talk in order to revivify the audience in the back.

Good choreography is the quickest way to raise your speaking up a level, from mediocre, everyday, and average, to memorable and world-changing. Practice with making your moves while talking and smiling at the same time. You’ll be richly rewarded with positive audience feedback. Audiences today crave a connection with their speakers, and this is the best way to give it to them.