The Broadband Connection. Alan Carroll

from the wall, you create an opening through which data, communication, and energy can flow. The more bricks you remove, the greater will be your rapport, affinity, and throughput with the audience.

      The future is broadband. It would be hard to find anybody who prefers a 56k dial-up connection. Broadband is a source of satisfaction on the Internet and is the source of satisfaction in your presentations.

      Broadband means to be yourself without any firewalls between you and the audience. You are no longer inhibited by the audience. You no longer worry about what the audience thinks about you. You have achieved a state of consciousness in which you are open, present, vulnerable, and free from inhibition. You have now regained your power for full self-expression.

      How do you dismantle the firewall?

      If the firewall is in place to protect the I, me, ego from harm, then the presenter needs to create an environment in which all the participants feel safe. I call this environment a safe space. In a safe space, the audience feels no psychological need to protect itself. If there were no need for psychological protection, there would be no need for a firewall. And without a firewall, the speaker will be granted access into the private network of the audience.

      This concept of a firewall helps explain why IT presentations are usually so ineffective. Without a safe environment, the mind tells the firewall to stay up. When the firewalls stay up, the transfer of data between the presenter and the audience flows through a smaller pipe. The smaller pipe means the connection shrinks down to a 56k level of throughput. The less throughput there is, the lower your effectiveness and your audience’s satisfaction will be.

      The good news is that there is a simple formula, which, if followed, will grant you access through the firewalls of the audience. All you have to do is focus on removing as many bricks as possible between you and the audience. Bricks are removed through communication. The more communication that is exchanged in the space, the more bricks that are removed. You start the process by removing the bricks inside your reality. You open yourself up. You share yourself. You reach out, shake hands, and get into communication with the space.

      Why? Because the audience’s firewalls are in place to protect them from harm. By opening yourself up, you are rendering yourself harmless. Once they see that you are open and harmless, it takes away the justification to keep the firewall in place. As it is reduced, the room becomes lighter and the throughput of communication increases.

      Working for more than thirty years with hundreds of audiences, large and small, this response has proven itself true every single time. At the start of each presentation, firewalls are at their thickest; at the end of each presentation, firewalls are thinner. The space is lighter, the “Being” is more present, and the flow of communication is greater.

      Think of this lighter space like a hot-air balloon. There are two ways to make a hot air balloon go up: put heat into the balloon and release ballast. As you remove bricks from the firewall, you are throwing off ballast and the space gets lighter. The opposite is also true. If you have withheld communication, it adds bricks to the wall and the space gets heavier.

      Initially, sharing yourself and removing bricks is an act of courage because you are lowering your defenses and making yourself more vulnerable in front of the audience. But soon, you’ll discover that it doesn’t take any courage at all. In fact, you’ll begin to enjoy the process and look for every opportunity to share yourself, realizing that your ability to contribute and be of service to the audience is directly related to the number of bricks that have been removed from the firewalls in the space.

      Another benefit is that, as you increase your vulnerability and openness, it moves you into the space of just being yourself in front of the audience. Often, after training sessions, the IT professionals will admit that they were not being themselves in front of customers. They were playing a role that was not authentic. Now they are relieved to discover that all they need to do is just be themselves in front of the customer. Being yourself makes you a human being and not some data-dumping IT robot. And, when you reveal your humanity, the humanity in the audience will respond. Sharing yourself will differentiate you from other IT professionals who just make love to the data. The sharing and openness need to be deliberate and relevant to the conversation. It is a great way to hold the attention of the audience and establish your credibility.

      Another benefit of reducing firewalls is an increase in your effectiveness. Effectiveness can be measured by the amount of information retained by the audience over time.

      Being psychologically vulnerable, visible, and open is essential to becoming a powerful and effective speaker. We can draw an analogy from the television show Star Trek. The ship on Star Trek is called the Enterprise. When the Enterprise is attacked, Captain Kirk tells the weapons officer to raise the shields. The shields surround the Enterprise and prevent the enemy phasers and photon torpedoes from causing damage. But in public speaking, when your shields and firewalls are up the flow of communication between you and the audience is reduced. In order to maximize the flow you need to lower your shields, which psychologically make you vulnerable in the space.

      Once again, it takes courage to disarm and open yourself in front of the audience in the beginning. It is so much safer to wrap yourself around your PowerPoint slides, concentrate on the data, and just be a data dumper like everybody else.

      Why even risk it? Remember this business saying: Differentiate or Die. Do you want to spend your entire career playing the presentation game just like everybody else? Or do you want to be regarded by your customers as an outstanding presenter? Do you want to be of service, make a contribution, and have an impact on the well-being of your customers? If so, begin to explore the space that exists on the other side of the firewall. Each time you risk moving outside your firewall, a little voice sensing danger is going to tell you something terrible is about to happen.

      If you are seduced by this message, you will remain trapped in the prison of your mind for the rest of your life. The little voice is not a risk taker and has no interest in you becoming a great presenter. The little voice is your constant companion that labels, judges, assesses, and evaluates every event that occurs in your field of now and even the events that occur in your dreams. As a presenter, you look out at the audience and the little voice will tell you what the audience thinks of you. For those of you who have never heard the little voice, sit down, close your eyes, stop speaking, and just listen for ten seconds. If you still don’t hear the little voice, then perhaps what you heard was: “What little voice? I don’t hear a little voice inside my head. What is he talking about?” That is the little voice I am talking about inside your head.

      As you evolve as a public speaker, you will need to release the suppress button of inhibition and have the courage to step beyond the prison walls of your mind. You will need to have the courage to risk being a fool, to face annihilation, and to have your worst fears exposed in front of the audience.

      The dismantling of the firewall is part of the responsibility you have as the manager of the conversation. You cannot and should not expect the audience to take the lead in this process. You have to take action. The following are some communication strategies you can use to create a safe space, lower your shields, and remove bricks from the firewalls in the space.

      First, let’s start with asking a question: “When does the conversation, the search for common ground, and firewall brick pulling begin?”

      Often, the presenter thinks the conversation/presentation starts when he or she is in front of the audience. I suggest starting the conversation as soon as possible. It could start before the day of the presentation or it could start when you walk into the room.

      When you start the conversation, you are not only in the data delivery business but also in the building relationships, rapport, and common ground business.

      Here are some suggestions of things to do before, during, and after the presentation.

       Before the Day of the Presentation

      The bricks start being pulled through communication before the audience enters the room. Be in communication with the audience—send them e-mails, regular mail, or give them a telephone call. Let