deliver a "eureka" moment
It’s rumored that when the TV show Wheel of Fortune chooses its contestants, they select people who are expected to take longer to solve the puzzles than the average at-home viewer. If true, it’s a great example of how the show’s producers put the needs of the audience first. The main pleasure for people watching Wheel is to come up with the answer themselves, and then feel the pride and satisfaction of being correct when the solution is eventually revealed. As a result, viewers form a strong positive connection with the show, as they repeatedly experience the emotional satisfaction of uncovering something valuable.
Some call this feeling an aha moment, but I prefer the slightly less common term eureka moment. Its translation from Greek literally means "I have found it," but its implications go much deeper, as the word carries a wealth of emotion. In its exclamation, we can hear a speaker's delight in accomplishment, their joy in discovering something new, or perhaps their pride in having solved a difficult puzzle.
We experience eureka moments throughout our lives. Folks in data-driven or analytic-heavy activities have made a career out of pursuing them. They sift through datasets with patience and determination, seeking out those hard-to-find but rewarding insights. Once they've found them, there's a massive burst of positive psychological feedback: “Eureka! This new discovery makes all the effort I’ve put into finding it worthwhile.”
As we grow and take on roles and responsibilities outside of ourselves—those of a parent, a teacher, or a mentor—we start to understand the joys of enabling others to experience those eureka moments for themselves. Realizing something ourselves is wonderful, but seeing someone else develop and succeed because of our help gives us even more satisfaction.
We can reframe our business communications to facilitate these eureka moments. In presentations, we are often striving to bridge a knowledge gap between what our audience previously believed, and what our analysis now tells us is true. But instead of simply coming to a strict, explicit conclusion and telling the audience what it is right off the bat, we can create a presentation structure that allows people to connect most of the dots by themselves.
If we’re thoughtful about how we construct our narrative, then before we reach our final conclusions, people will have already arrived at the same result! Offering them this sense of achievement reinforces the solution we eventually propose. It also gives them a feeling of ownership over the subsequent steps and decisions, since it's something that they would have figured out on their own.
Be on the lookout for opportunities to include these eureka moments in your presentations. Your audience will be more invested in the actions that you ultimately recommend, and you yourself will experience the gratification of watching somebody else achieve success via your influence, which can be particularly fulfilling.
