Speaker coach Mike Domitrz argues that asking audiences to raise their hands kills engagement. Hand-raising singles people out and wastes time. Vocal prompts instead let everyone respond at once, keeping energy high and the room unified.
Everybody hands up, hands up. Everybody do this right now. I'm going to explain why I will never do hands up. Never. I speak on a very sensitive topic. If I ask them to raise their hands, they literally feel like they're pointing themselves out as the one who made the mistake. So there's no way I would do that. Second of all, do you know how long it takes somebody to raise a hand? Here's where they start. They start at the chest line, and I'm not exaggerating, right? If they're timid at all, they start here. Maybe they stop at the shoulder. Maybe they get to the ear. Very few people do this right away. Those are your really extroverts, but the majority of the audience isn't doing that. Do you know how much time you just took killing the energy of the room? But when you ask a question that's so easy for the whole room to answer, they don't even realize till after they've answered it, oh my gosh, I just said that. But they're like, yes, right? Or absolutely. And the whole room's with each other. They're unified. The energy is incredible because vocal energy out, out, out, outplays raised up and down hands every single time.
