Here’s an entertaining – but relevant and educational – video about how to use visualisation well (and badly!) in delivering a message:

Whether you’re delivering a presentation in person or electronically (by teleseminar or webinar), you might sometimes find yourself dealing with a less-than-ideal audience. They might be frustrated, annoyed, angry, upset or even just indifferent. How do you bring them around – or at least to the point where they’re willing to listen to your message?

Here’s a six-step process, which I call “Offer 3″. Use this before your presentation during your planning.

1. Know your OUTCOME.

It’s easy to focus so much on their attitude that you forget your outcome from the presentation. What do you want to achieve as a result of your presentation? Knowing this ensures you remain flexible in everything else you do. It also guides you in dealing with the audience, because everything you do to deal with their attitude should be leading towards your outcome.

2. Understand their FEELINGS.

They’ll act on feelings, and justify it later on logic. The better you understand their feelings, the better you’ll be able to tailor your message to take these feelings into account. Don’t judge or interpret their feelings – simply understand and respect them.

3. Know their FRAME.

Their frame of reference, or point of view, is probably different from yours. This is where you look for their logic, reasoning and thinking; and compare it with yours. For example, you might not have all the facts, or they might not have all the facts.

Also recognise that everything they’re doing has some positive intent (for themselves). For example, a dominant person who’s always arguing with you might not be doing it to be rude; they might be protecting their status among their friends in the audience. This doesn’t excuse their behaviour; but it gives you an opportunity to work with them rather than against them.

4. ENGAGE them.

Of course, your message always has to be engaging, but this is even more important with a hostile or indifferent audience.

In particular, put more time into answering their four “Why” questions:

• Why This? What are the benefits of listening?
• Why You? What authority do you have?
• Why Now? What is the urgency to take action now?
• Why Me? Why is this a good fit for them?

5. REFRAME their concerns.

Is there a way that your message does address their concerns – even though they might not realise it?

For example, if you’re addressing salespeople who’ve been taken out of the field to attend a compulsory sales training course, and they’re impatient because they’re losing valuable time with prospects, demonstrate how your training gives them more time in their day.

This step isn’t always relevant or appropriate, but it’s very effective when you can use it.

6. Look for a THIRD option.

Don’t make it a “You vs. the audience” confrontation. Look for a creative third – and fourth, fifth and sixth – option that allows both your needs to be met.

For example, if you’re addressing busy people for a two-hour program, is it possible to offer a summary version in the first 20 minutes, and then give people the option to leave at that point if they don’t need to stay for the rest of it? Even giving them the choice will improve their attitude, and many of them will elect to stay anyway.

Finally, with a hostile or indifferent audience, it becomes even more important than ever to do these things well before your presentation. The worst thing to do is to turn up unprepared for that audience, and be forced to tackle these issues on the spot.

Would you like to know more about preparing for any audience – even one that’s hostile or indifferent? I cover this in more detail in my book Magnetic Messages: The Art and Science of Persuasive Presentations.

The “traditional” presentation – with one presenter talking at the front of the room, and an audience sitting silently and giving her their full attention – is dead. Even breaking up your presentation with interactive segments isn’t good enough any more.

Modern audiences expect more – much more. And if you don’t provide it for them, they’ll find ways to create it themselves. They’re getting out their Blackberries, iPhones, netbooks, phones and laptops, and doing stuff.

But is it the stuff you want them to do?

Well, that depends …

They’ll be checking their e-mail, surfing the Web, sending and responding to tweets, and checking their Facebook profile.

You could pretend this isn’t happening, and just keep presenting the way you’ve always done it. But then, given your lack of respect and lack of direction, you can bet they’re ignoring you.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The alternative is to embrace this technology, so you create a conversation with your audience. They’re going to be using their technology anyway, so why not help them put it to good use?

For example …

Instead of a show of hands, use an SMS polling service to survey your audience.
Create a Twitter back channel for the audience to send questions and post comments.
Schedule an e-mail to be sent to them during the presentation.
Tell them to visit your Web site and sign up for something.
Offer a prize for the first person to do some Google research on something and report back with an answer.
When they break into groups for discussion, ask them to post their findings to an on-line forum for everybody to read.

Sure, these things take time and effort to set up. And they take some courage as well, because you’re stepping away from being “the” authority, and becoming more of a facilitator.

If it helps, keep in mind that the authority bit is only in your head anyway, not theirs!

Presentations at medical conferences can be dull, boring and highly technical. In contrast, Val Jones is a breath of fresh air. Her seven-minute presentation “A Tale of Two e-Patients” – with a serious message about the dangers of relying on junk medicine – was presented using pecha kucha (20 slides, each showing for 20 seconds) and limericks.

Can you do something innovative and different in your next presentation? It can be very engaging, especially if it’s different from what everybody expects.

I recently watched Elizabeth Coleman’s talk at TED.com, where she talks about radical reforms that the education system requires:

It was an informative presentation, and even got spontaneous applause three times from the TED audience. But I couldn’t help but contrast it with my favourite TED.com talk of all time, from Sir Ken Robinson, who is also talking about reforming education:

Ken Robinson’s talk is at the top of the list of “most favourited”, whereas Dr Coleman’s talk is nowhere near that position.

Now perhaps it was never her intent to make a “popular” presentation, and there’s certainly no obligation to cater for popularity, especially if it’s at the expense of content integrity. But I think Ken Robinson was able to achieve both popularity and depth, integrity and accessibility.

I invite you to watch the first five minutes of both presentations, and make a list of the things he did to make his presentation engaging and memorable; or conversely, what Elizabeth Coleman didn’t do.