How much does anyone remember from the average business or technical presentation? Not much even after a few hours, let alone a few days. One reason for poor retention is lack of audience involvement. Retention is a critical issue for training professionals, but is often neglected in our everyday communications experiences.

The secret to having your listeners learn and remember something is to take their involvement up the steps from Seeing to Responding, and Responding to Doing.

According to consultant George Morrissey, people remember:

• 16% of what they read
• 30% of what they aretold
• 50% of what they both see and are told
• 70% of what they see, are told, and respond to
• And a whopping 90% of what they see, are told, respond to and do

The actual doing step is not always feasible, of course. You may have to be content with the responding step. But after seeing these statistics, you begin to understand how a little effort on your part will pay off in big memorability percentages for your future presentations. After all, absorption and application of new knowledge is, next to persuasion, the primary objective of most business presentations.

And remember, responding and doing are integral to creating the communication experience!