You too can present like a priest

The 5 great presentation techniques I watched in a cathedral in Norway.

Last week I had the honour of singing with over 200 other choir members in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. My local choir, Östersund’s Cantilena Kör, joined seven other choirs for a celebratory mass to re-open “St Olavsleden” – a 500 year old pilgrim route between Sweden and Norway. (Incidentally I had translated the event’s PR materials).

Now, I am not a religious person. Add to this that a) it had been a long day, b) the entire ceremony was in Norwegian, c) we were sitting on cold steps, and you have the ingredients for me not paying attention to the actual content of the ceremony. But one of the priests changed all that. In spite of my scratchy Norwegian, sore backside and waning attention – here’s why.

1.  He knew his audience – Underneath his gown (don’t chastise me for not knowing the official name for it), the priest wore walking boots. He had trekked part of the trail – just like his listeners. And he knew what they had been through, some of them having hiked hundreds of kms.
2. He made it relevant – Because he knew his audience, the priest was able to make their experience a central part of his message. He acknowledged the physical journey many had been on and linked it to the spiritual journey most were there for. And he came back to this theme throughout.
3. He varied his voice – Only 20% of communication is verbal, but he got that part spot on. He varied his voice, pitch, volume and speed. In this enormous cathedral his words found their way to all corners, without sounding, well, preachy.
4. He got physical – As he invited the congregation to sit, he sat too. It was an unexpected move and it got my attention immediately. First he sat on a step at the altar, then on one of the benches next to a person in the congregation. He spoke directly to that person, creating an intimacy that somehow we all shared, without it being uncomfortable. And then he walked around. He came right out in to the centre of the cathedral, drew us closer and made eye contact with many. His body language matched his message so well and created variation in the proceedings. Again without it being unnatural or exaggerated.
5. He knew his topic inside out – Well what priest doesn’t?

And aside from all that it was a joyful, thrilling experience seeing the power of music and singing for harmonising a total bunch of strangers.