Why ‘Impossible-To-Goof-Up’ Questions Relax Your Audience

Posted by Wordtracker on 07 July 2011

Would you like your audiences to be as animated and relaxed as a two-year old watching her favorite Barney video? In part ten of his 12-part series on giving perfect presentations, Blackbelt Presentations author Sean D’Souza explains how to relax your audiences by asking easy questions with no wrong answers.

Put a two-year old child in front of a Barney video for the first time and watch the child’s face. It’s intent. It’s focused. And not very relaxed at all.

But put that child in front of that same Barney video for the seven hundredth time, and watch the anticipation on her face.

She’s shaking her arms and feet, nodding her head, and singing ‘B-I-N-G-O’ merrily.

You already know what causes the child to be so animated, don’t you?

Now if only your audience was quite as animated when you stand up to give a presentation or make a speech. Instead most audiences are quite rigid. They look at you like you’ve just landed from one of Jupiter’s 62 moons.

So how do you get an audience to warm up really quickly? You ask ‘impossible-to-goof-up’ questions.

So what’s an ‘impossible-to-goof-up’ question?

An ‘impossible-to-goof-up’ question is where there’s no wrong answer.

It’s an easy question where everyone knows the answer the moment the question floats through the air.

This ‘impossible-to-goof-up’ question is one that gets the audience to feel safe enough to raise their hands or call out the answer.

So let me give you an example

When I’m doing a speaking engagement for the Brain Audit, I’ll do a preset format to get the audience’s attention.

I’ll sit on a chair. And get up. 
I’ll sit on a chair. And get up. 
I’ll sit again. And then I’ll get up for the third time.

Then I’ll turn to the audience, and say: So why didn’t the chair break? 

Do you know the answer to the question? 

You may not know where I’m headed with my line of thought, but the question is completely non-threatening. Which causes several members of the audience to call back their versions of the answers.

“You’re not fat enough,” they say.
 “The chair is built to take a lot of sitting and standing up.”
 “The chair is designed for people to sit on.”

Within minutes you’ve got a rather quiet audience to get involved. And as you already figured out, there’s no wrong answer.

So here’s another example



I talk about driving from one state to another. And how I’m listening to the music in my car, and how I have not a care in the world. And my speed limit goes up from 70 kph, to 80kph, to 110kph.

And then from the corner of my eye, I spot a cop car ahead. So what do I do next?

See? You know the answer already.

When you know the answer, you get participative. Even if you’re not calling out the answer out aloud, like some of the audience members, you’re verbalizing the answer in your mind.

And every time I get you to answer the question correctly, the stiffness rolls out of your body and brain. You start to relax.


But won’t all this ease make the audience overly chatty?

No it won’t - provided you keep control. In every presentation, you have to move the audience between what I call ‘new’ and ‘knew.’ They ‘know’ the answer to the question so they relax.

Then you pull out the ‘new’ stuff; the stuff that’s unique; the stuff that gets their attention and stops the chatter.

And so you swing between things they know the answers to, or situations they’re familiar with - and then situations they’re not quite so chummy.

And you’ll notice the back and forth switching between excitement and curiosity.

Of course the question does arise: how many of these questions should you create in a single speech?

What I tend to do is create two or three of these questions so that they pop up within about five-seven minutes of my speech.

These five or seven minutes are the part where the audience is in the starchiest zone of all.

So making sure those questions roll out in quick succession is pretty critical in getting audience involvement.

But you must construct the questions using the following parameters

• The question must be so simple that anyone in the room can answer it.


• The question must align with what you’re going to say next.


• The question must appear almost ‘too easy’ to answer.

When you have these parameters in place, and you ask the ‘impossible-to-goof-up’ questions, you can be in a room of twenty people or twenty five hundred people. The result is always the same.

You’ll always find someone calling out the answers. And if you look around, you’ll notice that subtle shift in tension as the audience slides into a comfort zone of sorts.

So here’s what you need to do

1) Evaluate the content of your speech.


2) Pepper the first five-seven minutes with ‘impossible-to-goof-up’ questions.


3) Make sure no matter what the answer, your presentation can move along and is perfectly aligned with what you’re going to say next.


4) Use ‘new’ and ‘knew’ to keep control over the situation.

Do it right, and within seven minutes or less you’ll have that audience following your speech with the same gusto as the two-year old singing B-I-N-G-O.

And not only does the audience relax, but you do too. And yup, you’re well on your way to a rousing ovation.

PS, Note: I used the same concept of relaxing you right at the start of this article.

I asked you: Do you know why the child is relaxed when watching the video for the seven hundredth time? And without thinking about it much, you knew the answer.

And so I eased you into the article, before I pulled out the 62 moons of Jupiter. Then again I eased you back, using the ‘new’ and ‘knew’ concept right through the article.

And what works for this article works will work just as well for your next presentation.

More great advice on presentations

This is part ten of a 12-part series on writing perfect presentations by Sean D’Souza, author of the Blackbelt Presentations series. Further articles will be published in the coming weeks.

Read more about Sean D’Souza’s new Blackbelt Presentations series

Read Part 1: Simple steps to take the fear out of your presentation

Read Part 2: Why variation is the hallmark of outstanding presenters

Read Part 3: Do you quickly want to get the attention of your customers when you’re speaking?

Read Part 4: How to keep your audience coming back for more

Read Part 5: How to get your audience to remember what you said more

Read Part 6: Should you take questions at the end of your presentation?

Read Part 7: How the wrong example alienates your audience

Read Part 8: How to be a rock star presenter

Read Part 9: How to handle questions when training