The Proactive Speaker: the Space

My father moderated a panel discussion of Nobel Laureates at Arcosanti. When he looked out into the audience, he noticed that everyone seemed bored, tired, hot. So, he moved the panel off the stage and into the audience. By changing the space, he changed the dynamic, and the speakers and audience came alive! My dad owned the space and used that sense of ownership to enhance the audience’s experience.

Whenever I walk into a new performance, presentation, or training space, I explore every nook and cranny: the back row, the balcony, the banquet tables, the risers, the stage, the conference table, the backstage, the orchestra pit, the closest seats, the farthest seats, the exits and entrances. I sit, stand, run, hop, inhale, and allow myself to inhabit the space. The Ariel Group has a wonderfully simple exercise we used in our corporate trainings: we all spread our arms wide, taking up physical space, and announced “This is my space,” as we walked around. At first, this simple request, to claim ownership of the space, can make us feel uncomfortable—how dare we own the space? Are we taking space away from others? Quickly, we realize, that the space is open to us all, there is no limit, it is capacious.

The proactive speaker owns the space. Which means, we need to get in there early to explore! I invite you to sit in the way back and ask someone to stand in front and speak. This gives insight into how small, how far, how soft, how big, how loud, how much space, and movement, we can and must give for every person to feel included. And then, during the presentation, remain aware! Are we in the light? Can we be heard and seen? Can we shake off the idea that there are rules we must follow and instead, be inventive, responsive, and creative in how we use the space? As an audience member, we are grateful when we see speakers own the space—they have a sense of freedom and play, they find their light, they walk into the aisles, they explore and surprise us by breaking the rules.

Next time we have a presentation, get into the space early and explore. Own the space. And during our presentations, we toss away the false rules we have internalized and do whatever we need to do in the service of giving a gift to the audience.