I have dis­cov­ered that my clients all love a good hook, and are always look­ing for new ones. Let’s review what a Hook is and isn’t. Then I’ll pro­vide two dynamic Hooks for you to use in your next pre­sen­ta­tion or train­ing session.

What a Hook ISN’T:

Fluff. Never make the mis­take of think­ing that a hook is unim­por­tant and can be left out. It is an essen­tial part of the learn­ing expe­ri­ence.
Lengthy. A hook is typ­i­cally not a full-blown exer­cise, ener­gizer or ice­breaker.
A pre-test. Don’t use a hook to iden­tify the “smartest guys in the room.”
A way to fill those ner­vous first moments of a train­ing ses­sion when you feel least con­fi­dent. A hook has a def­i­nite role. Don’t waste the pre­cious first moments of a train­ing ses­sion with com­ments about the weather or unre­lated issues.

What a Hook IS:

• A way to imme­di­ately engage your listeners.

• Rel­a­tively short. Although there is no actual rule about length, the hook should serve its pur­pose concisely.

• Con­nected to the session’s topic or pur­pose. Although any­thing can serve as a hook, it should have a rela­tion­ship to your session’s pur­pose. Don’t lob out a mean­ing­less joke just to get laughs.

• Con­nected to who your par­tic­i­pants are. You must know your audience’s con­cerns. The best hooks relate to their past experiences.

• Emo­tional, even if only mildly so. Adults become engaged through their emo­tions. Good hooks incite almost any kind of emo­tion, includ­ing laugh­ter, groans of recog­ni­tion, anx­i­ety, or excitement.

• Inclu­sive. Use a hook that all the par­tic­i­pants can relate to. Again, the best hooks elicit the past knowl­edge, emo­tions, and/or expe­ri­ences of most peo­ple in your audience.

Devel­op­ing a hook takes care­ful prepa­ra­tion. How­ever, your par­tic­i­pants’ imme­di­ate inter­est and involve­ment is on the line, so a lit­tle prepa­ra­tion on your part is worth the effort.

Two Dyna­mite Hooks

You can use lit­er­ally any­thing as a hook. Train­ers have used visual aids such as short videos or toys from the local Dol­lar store. They have used rid­dles, music, anec­dotes, yoga stretches, and many more ways to imme­di­ately engage their participants.

The two Hooks I’ve out­lined here have proven to work with a bang every time.

1. Real-life Questions

These may be the eas­i­est type of hook to cre­ate.  As for all hooks, make sure you know enough about your audi­ence to use top­ics that res­onate. Also, as in all hooks, ensure that your ques­tions elicit an emo­tional response.

See if you can guess the top­ics for these Hooks:

“How many of you get so frus­trated with your com­puter some­times that you’d like to put your fist right through that screen?”

“Raise your hands if you’ve ever par­tic­i­pated in a night­mare meeting.”

“Raise your hands if you’ve ever hit your boil­ing point around kids—even if you don’t have any!”

Guide­lines:

• Always ask a min­i­mum of two ques­tions. You need this many to get your par­tic­i­pants’ brains mov­ing in the direc­tion of your train­ing session.
• Cre­ate your ques­tions so that nearly every­one will respond in the same way (for exam­ple, 99% of hands in the room go up or down.)
• Insist on a phys­i­cal response (hands up, stand up, thumbs up, etc.)

Option:

Start your ques­tions with the following:

“How many of you would NOT be will­ing to…(Remember, your goal is to get everyone’s hands up. Ask­ing in the neg­a­tive may be more provoca­tive and par­tic­i­pa­tory than ask­ing in the positive.)

2. “Did You Know?” (Provoca­tive Fact or Statistic)

The world is full of provoca­tive sta­tis­tics you can use to hook your par­tic­i­pants. Just keep your eyes out as you read blogs, news­pa­pers and arti­cles. You can usu­ally make the most unre­lated sta­tis­tic rel­e­vant to your participants.

See how one trainer brought together issues as diverse as straw­ber­ries and per­sonal choices:

“Did you know…that Delta Air­lines recently saved $210,000 a year sim­ply by remov­ing one straw­berry from sal­ads served in First Class? One lit­tle straw­berry was removed and pas­sen­gers didn’t even notice it. Big results can be achieved by lit­tle changes. Today, we’ll talk about how lit­tle changes in your thoughts and atti­tudes can have big results in your own life.”

Here are two other exam­ples, used in actual classes:

1. “Did you know that in one second…

• A tele­phone sig­nal can travel 100,000 miles?
• A hum­ming­bird beats its wings 70 times?
• And guess what, in one sec­ond, eight mil­lion of your blood cells die.

A lot can hap­pen in one sec­ond. This ses­sion will give you tools to decrease your response time in house­hold emergencies.”

2. “Did you know that ‘Gen­er­a­tion X’rs’ have watched 23,000 hours of tele­vi­sion by the time they are 20 years old? They also believe they have a bet­ter chance of see­ing a UFO in their life­time than a Social Secu­rity check. In this work­shop, we’ll see how gen­er­a­tional dif­fer­ences in the work­place affect all of us.”

3. “Before the rule, more than 50 peo­ple here were dying in trenches every year. When you get killed in a cave-in, it’s not an easy way to go. You’re lit­er­ally crushed to death under the weight of the soil. Soil weighs approx­i­mately 3,000 pounds per cubic yard. Nobody deserves to go to work and die that way.”

Guide­lines:

• Turn a provoca­tive fact into a hook sim­ply by pref­ac­ing it with the words “did you know?”
• Make sure your data is correct.
• Make sure to inte­grate emotion.
• Con­sider com­bin­ing your fact or sta­tis­tic with another hook, such as a Real-life question.

Always use a Hook if you are seri­ous about imme­di­ate engage­ment and interest!

Learn about Guila Muir’s Pre­sen­ta­tion Skills Workshops.

Guila Muir is a pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com