Engage With Purpose

In our own unique way, we’re all presenters. As business leaders, teachers, coaches, parents, mentors, family members, siblings, friends…we all have the opportunity and awesome responsibility to make a positive and lasting impact on others with every presentation, every interaction, every conversation, and every moment we engage.

When we look at presenting from this lens, it’s important we embrace some basic techniques to interact with intention and engage with purpose, so our messages become more about substance and less about show. Our teams - staff, players, children, family, friends, community - will recognize the power of our words, but more importantly, they’ll be moved by our actions. So, when we make it interactive, our self-awareness, preparation, approach, and focus on impacting others in a safe, fun, comfortable environment… must be our top priority.

I say this with experience, care and concern, because I’ve seen too many well-intended “interactive, ice-breakers” do more harm than good. When these games fail to break the ice, when they lack purpose, intention, and direction, our audiences can feel uncomfortable and disconnected. If our goal is to create a safe environment for learning, building trust, and bringing everyone together, but we’re presenting to look good, to simply entertain, and get some likes, we’ve lost our way. So, what are we doing wrong and better yet, what can we do to get back on track?

For over 25 years, we’ve used improvisation and game dynamics as a driving force for our Game On curriculum. Early on, while working with college/pro teams, corporations and military personnel, we created a framework (which we’ll share in more detail over the next several weeks), that has helped us interact and engage safely, purposefully and effectively, while protecting our curriculum, our instructors and, most importantly, our audiences.

Our presentations shouldn’t be too tricky and/or trick-out our audiences. The only “trick” we need is to rely on intentional interaction and purposeful engagement…not to serve ourselves, but to serve our audiences. If we just trust the importance of being present and the power of authenticity, our audiences will not only CARE about the message, but they will REMEMBER the concepts and the experience forever. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

If we can focus on purposeful interaction, practical concepts, and tangible techniques to deliver our authentic messages safely, we’ll all be much more equipped to move our audiences, and our audiences will feel safer and much more comfortable to be engaged…and to engage with purpose.

Game On.