Provoking conversations

I’ve been reading Bill Jensen’s Simplicity Survival Handbook. It’s not exactly heavy reading, but it’s worthwhile. It’s the last place I would have expected to find an insight into the task of a preacher. I’ve been finding this true in my journey lately. Preaching isn’t primarily about conveying information but about provoking conversations:

Never ìpresent.î
Always provoke conversations. While you cannot ignore the standard measures of your success ñ smile-sheet scores, or delivering new information, or reinforcing whatever your boss wants to say ñ they have little to do with the true effectiveness of your presentation. Your true success is measured by changes in the conversation. Good presentations cause dialogue in the room, in the moment. Great presentations change the conversation afterwards. Thatís when people change their decisions, priorities, and actions. So the real measure of your effectiveness is how peopleís conversations were changed by what you said and did. If your definition of success includes ìWhat will people talk about after my presentation, that they werenít talking about before?î you will find yourself doing less ìpresentingî and more interactive provoking of conversations.

My goal: to become a contumacious provocateur.