Coach Bennett was trying very hard to make sure that all of his players were given an opportunity to learn the basic elements to enable them to play well on the team. He really did not place a high value on innate talent focusing instead on the attitude of the player and whether and he was trying his best to learn the basics. One of the tools Coach used with his team was to enhance their individual basketball skills by using basketball videos to help them learn by watching others play. He discovered that even pictures of team members who were goofing up helped the team members learn what not to do when they were on the court and they were a valuable tool.

Many times how a subject is presented can make a person much more receptive to learning. There are four main tactics that have been successful in the attempt to win over a group of people and they are:

1. Using humor: This is one of the best ways to break the ice during a meeting or instruction session and without a doubt relaxes the listeners immediately. Before they know it, people are responding well and listening better because they do not feel threatened in any way and they want to be in on all of the jokes. A speaker is wise to start out with a joke or humorous antidote just to gain attention and confidence from the audience at the very beginning of a speech. This serves as the “hook” to keep them interested to the rest of the planned talk.

2. Telling about successes and failures: This tactic humanizes the person who is giving the speech and makes the listener tend to believe what is being said. As the coach talked about in the above story learned, discussing mistakes and consequences is often a wonderful teaching aid and the use of talking about failures tends to prompt good discussions and probing questions from the audience. Sharing successes is valuable as well and tends to stimulate the listeners and creates a much more sense of openness and a “can do” spirit.

3. Learning about the institution or group of people there: Making a connection with the group who happens to be in the same room and with whom you are making a presentation to is an intelligent move and it never goes unnoticed when this tactic is used. Folks welcome the effort that has been made researching the products they make or the subjects they teach if it happens to be a learning institution. This is a sure way to win over the audience as they will give the speaker or presenter more respect for the good preparation he or she did before coming.

4. Making eye contact and giving frequent breaks: It is a known fact that speakers who make direct eye contact engage the attention of the listeners. It demonstrates that someone has done their homework and it totally grabs the attention of the people in the room. Giving frequent breaks for the audience to move around is also a good idea.