In the last post I talked about freeing the expectations we put on the people we are working with.
Today, we move on to ‘engage’. Are the people I’m talking to listening? Are they comprehending and making meaning of what I’m sharing?
I offer a simple exercise we use in acting to keep our performances ‘alive’.
In acting, we have objectives. I might want my scene partner to leave the room. Or I may want to make them understand something. These kinds of objectives are great because they activate actors and take us outside of our own heads. The test is in the other person. At any given point I can look to the other actor/ character and ‘test’ (using our senses) am I closer or further from my objective?
This same test can be used to test engagement. You can ask yourself, what would these people look like if they were engaged? This may seem contradictory to our last idea of loosening the grip, but what we’re really after is simply being alive and aware to what you’re receiving from them.
Are they really looking at you and seeing you or are their eyes glazed over? What ever you notice, you can make the assessment as to whether you’re closer to or further from engaging.
This puts us in a very powerful position because we are no longer wed to the action (how we get them engaged) but only to the outcome (whether they are they engaged). This unleashes us to a world of possibilities of how to bring about high levels of engagement.
So as we work through these steps of entertain, engage and educate I invite you continue to test externally whether you are closer or further and change your approach endlessly until you get to the desired outcome.
