What Kind of Information
is Best Communicated by Public Speaking?

This is not a trick question! If you have information which applies to a wide audience, then it does make some sense to create a presentation to address many people at once rather than repeat yourself over and over again. So the information best communicated by Public Speaking is information which needs to be shared with more than just a couple of people. This seems like an obvious answer, but you would be surprised at how many people don't take advantage of opportunities to share information with groups. Consider these situations, all of which are appropriate for presentations:

1. Your organization has a new benefits program. No one seems to understand it, and there is a lot of suspicion about why the benefits have changed. This situation is a very natural one for you to introduce in presentations to members of your organization. The key here is to make sure that you also explain to your audience that any and all of them may ask individual questions of you at any time. Make sure you make this offer. The danger in providing such presentations is that people may assume that they don't have an opportunity to ask questions critical to individual situations. Make sure they understand they do have this opportunity to get more information.

2. Your organisation has a particular class of employees who may qualify for particular kinds of benefits. Many, many organizations are centralising benefits administration. The problem with this stance is that individuals whose situations are outside the "norm" do fall through the cracks in the system. So, the presentation you offer to your employees needs to make it clear that you, their advocate, will continue to follow their "outlier" cases. An example? Well, consider the hourly employee who has found himself crippled by arthritis in his early 50s. As well-intentioned as your benefits organization may be, they simply may not be equipped to deal with the not-so-normal situations which arise. This presentation should be offered to all your employees. Why, since so few of them will fall outside the system? Well, it's because the employee who is actually impacted himself may not be well enough or savvy enough to react to the information provided. But he may have a friend at work that can so react.

3. Your company, or your part of your company, is for sale. Your employees, the backbone of your company, are very nervous about the future of their ongoing employment with the company. This is a tricky one. Some of them want to jump ship. Some of them are looking for a severance package. And some of them want to hold on, no matter what's happening. Believe it or not, there are managers who do truly believe that communication should be shut down at this point. They believe that employees should be kept in the dark, and if they are kept in the dark, they are far less likely to leave. Nothing could be further from the truth. Open communication, provided honestly and often, is your best alternative in this kind of situation. Presentations should be available at least monthly to update employees. But what if you have no updates? Then you need to communicate that information. This is a case where you do both the company and your employees a real disservice by not communicating often. And if a number of employees are involved, presentations may be the best way to get the information out.

Do you get the idea? any information which more than a couple of employees need to know is appropriate for a presentation. What if you make a presentation and nobody comes to it? So what! You have done the right thing in providing the information. And if your organization learns, over time, that you are willing to provide information to employees, your presentations won't go unattended for long. Believe me, if you are providing the information, they will come.