Audience Analysis

In the training company where I used to work, at the beginning of a three-day class we asked participants to put themselves in one of three
categories—a prisoner, a vacationer, or a learner, based on how they view themselves relative to the session.

A prisoner is someone who has been sent by management and personally doesn’t see the need to attend.

A vacationer is the person who says, “I can chill out in this class! I really don’t need to work. I’ll just come to the workshop and do other
work.”

A learner, on the other hand, is someone who truly desires to gain new skills and knowledge and grow personally and professionally.

It happens sometimes that all the participants are prisoners and do not want to be there (sounds familiar?).

Here are a few points that can help you manage a class of “prisoners”:
§ What may have caused the workshop participants to all feel like prisoners?
§ What could you have done earlier in the workshop to get people to be willing to engage?
§ What do you need to make clear to others so that they can choose whether or not to engage in a training session?

When you have a resistant audience you need to name what’s going on in the room and tell the truth about how you are experiencing it.

You also need to give people choices. In my experience, when given a choice about applying themselves, most people are “willing to work”because they want to do what’s right.