Drilling Deeper Into Issues
Very few presenters really engage the audience, even though they may be using an Audience Response System (ARS). Most often, the system is used for asking the group’s opinion on a few basic questions and typically, very little dialog surrounds the results graph.
In fact, discussing results and the reasons why people voted as they did, is one of the most powerful aspects of using a polling system. Doing so will help build a true understanding of the issue, and will lead to better information with which to make decisions.
Let’s take an example, one of my favorites.
Our corporate values are clear, concise, and representative of how we should conduct business.
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree
Most often, the results look something like this:
What we see is a mean average of 3.3 which is of course just above neutral. More important, we see a sharp split between those who agree and those who disagree. This is an excellent place to launch discussion. The moderator might comment something like: “very interesting. . . we are obviously split on this issue. Let’s see what this issue looks like when we cut it by gender”.
Assuming we have asked the question, “what is your gender? 1. Male 2. Female” the audience response system operator can now cut our “values’ question by our “gender” question. In this example, the results are:
What we see is that males are in agreement with the statement, whereas females are not. This is the power of demographic questions in that they give you the ability to drill deep into issues. An experienced presenter will now ask for discussion: “can anyone tell me why we are seeing this?”
When meeting participants see that they are not alone in their opinion, they are far more likely to speak up. So most often, discussion is lively. In our above example, you would probably receive 3 or 4 reasons as to why the group voted as they did. But the most common reason is that the organization’s values are communicated to only senior level people and since very few females are in the senior level, women by-and-large are not even aware of the company’s values.
As you can see, within just a few minutes of voting, we have determined that there are two major issues in play. First, communicating organizational values is seriously lacking. Second and probably more important is the acceptance of women in senior roles.
I think it is fair to say that the audience response system has done its job. More so, the demographic question has helped reveal some major issues. This one happened to be gender related. But, others could be related to functional area within the company, time with the company, or even geographic location.
So, it is wise to include 2 or 3 demographic questions that are the most appropriate to your meeting topics. But don’t over do it. Asking too many demographic questions can undermine anonymity. For example, I might be the only male, from the southwest region who has been with the company for less than one year. If so, I might feel that by asking all of those demographics, someone would be able to zero in on me and determine how I answered every question.
So use demographic questions, but only those that will have value and use fewer for smaller audiences.
In fact, discussing results and the reasons why people voted as they did, is one of the most powerful aspects of using a polling system. Doing so will help build a true understanding of the issue, and will lead to better information with which to make decisions.
Let’s take an example, one of my favorites.
Our corporate values are clear, concise, and representative of how we should conduct business.
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree
Most often, the results look something like this:
What we see is a mean average of 3.3 which is of course just above neutral. More important, we see a sharp split between those who agree and those who disagree. This is an excellent place to launch discussion. The moderator might comment something like: “very interesting. . . we are obviously split on this issue. Let’s see what this issue looks like when we cut it by gender”.
Assuming we have asked the question, “what is your gender? 1. Male 2. Female” the audience response system operator can now cut our “values’ question by our “gender” question. In this example, the results are:
What we see is that males are in agreement with the statement, whereas females are not. This is the power of demographic questions in that they give you the ability to drill deep into issues. An experienced presenter will now ask for discussion: “can anyone tell me why we are seeing this?”
When meeting participants see that they are not alone in their opinion, they are far more likely to speak up. So most often, discussion is lively. In our above example, you would probably receive 3 or 4 reasons as to why the group voted as they did. But the most common reason is that the organization’s values are communicated to only senior level people and since very few females are in the senior level, women by-and-large are not even aware of the company’s values.
As you can see, within just a few minutes of voting, we have determined that there are two major issues in play. First, communicating organizational values is seriously lacking. Second and probably more important is the acceptance of women in senior roles.
I think it is fair to say that the audience response system has done its job. More so, the demographic question has helped reveal some major issues. This one happened to be gender related. But, others could be related to functional area within the company, time with the company, or even geographic location.
So, it is wise to include 2 or 3 demographic questions that are the most appropriate to your meeting topics. But don’t over do it. Asking too many demographic questions can undermine anonymity. For example, I might be the only male, from the southwest region who has been with the company for less than one year. If so, I might feel that by asking all of those demographics, someone would be able to zero in on me and determine how I answered every question.
So use demographic questions, but only those that will have value and use fewer for smaller audiences.
