When you plan for a dinner party at your house, you know that the combination of guests will influence the event. If you were oblivious to the relationships between guests, your dinner could be a disaster. For example, perhaps two of your friends dated in the past and now hate each other, or your neighbor Peggy is annoyed by the very presence of Ron, who always takes her parking space. Perhaps Jim from your elementary days is a hardcore, outspoken republican, and your Greenpeace librarian friends are there too. Do these combinations make for a challenging evening? Absolutely!

As a host, you get to choose the makeup of your dinner event. As a speaker, you do not. The audience members bring their relationships with them, and these relationships have a true impact on the experience. If you do some pre-work to understand your audience makeup, you increase your chances for a positive, interactive exchange during the speech. You can't do much about their history, good or bad, but you can be aware of relationships and acknowledge them.

Add these questions to your Pre-Program Questionnaire to better understand the audience members' relationship with each other and set yourself up for success.

What is the general makeup of the audience? Identify the larger group to whom you are speaking. Is it a marketing department, an entire diverse company, the western region, or senior sales managers?

Explore the general relationships and physical demographics, but make sure you also know the hierarchical or lateral relationships. Is there a large differential in status among attendees? Will some people feel intimidated by the others? Will some feel superior?

What subgroups will be attending? . What branches, departments, agents, and staff members will be present? Use this question to identify natural divisions in the audience, to find out who works directly with whom, and to identify any cliques. Do these subgroups have a feeling of kinship or of separation? Is there task-specific tension between one subgroup and another? Does each of these subgroups understand the same language?

What are the physical locations of various subgroups? Do they work on the same floor, in the same building, city, state, country? It's helpful to know the commonalities and differences that come with working in the same or different vicinities. For example, if the payroll group is in an isolated area due to security, this tends to isolate them literally from the rest of the employees, making them feel like outcasts. Do one or more groups feel isolated from the rest? Do physical distances result in some subgroups feeling "out of the loop" or less important than others? Will regional or cultural differences influence how different subgroups understand and respond to your message?

What is the degree of familiarity among attendees? If the speaker says something funny, an audience member will laugh harder and be more likely to nudge a neighbor to laugh she knows the neighbor and is comfortable. The same goes for the audience members raising their hands and volunteering for the speaker when she requests it. If the audience member is not comfortable with the people around him, he will be more tentative in his reactions . Should you expect a relaxed comfortable audience, or will you need to work hard to create a sense of familiarity?

Are there any major conflicts between subgroups? Is there a history of conflict between specific subgroups? Is there a current conflict brewing under the surface? Have mergers or strategic changes in the organization make one or more subgroups antagonistic? Is this event part of a change strategy that is resented? In what ways must you take care not to flatter one group at the perceived expense of another group?

Organizationally speaking, is this an old or a young crowd? How many audience members will have joined this group within the last year? How many people do not know the routines? How many people have new ideas? How many may be feeling out of place? How many baby boomers vs. other generations make up this audience? Is your job to "shake up complacency?" or to "make them feel part of the team?" Is the culture conservative, youthful, or playful? What examples and analogies will resonate with this crowd?

Are you the decision maker? Are you on a committee? When is the proposal due? If they are not the decision maker, you may need to rethink your sales process. You might want to ask them how to make their job easier to sell you to the committee, whether it be a cheat sheet concepts to emphasize or making more hard copy marketing collateral. Maybe this person does not have the same knowledge the decision maker possess, so basing your proposal on this information may not be accurate.

As a speaker, you don't get to choose the mix of relationships in your audiences. You can, however, prepare for the mix. The more you know ahead of time, the better chance you have of creating a positive, interactive experience for everyone involved. Knowing your audience dynamics can make the difference from "good to great!"

by Jolene Jang, Jolene the Fun Specialist, www.FunSpecialist.com

For permission to reprint, please make your request to Jo@FunSpecialist.com 425-489-1073