100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People

66. People Need to Feel Safe in Order to Participate

The best event I’ve ever been to was a performance by Bobby McFerrin. His performances involve music and extensive audience interaction. I saw him in a 1,500-seat theater in a small city in Wisconsin. The theater was full and the audience was appreciative but reserved. By the end of his 1.5-hour performance, he had the entire audience on the edge of their seats ready to do anything he asked of them, including coming up on stage. He is a masterful performer, and he is a master at getting people to participate. He does this by slow commitment and by using the group. You are sitting in a theater with a lot of strangers, and you don’t want to look silly, but he gets you to make one small noise, ...