But what if you can’t change the topic? In many real-world situations, you may be asked to explain, define, describe, or demonstrate something that strikes you as boring or irrelevant. A CEO will frequently need to address shareholders with reports of profits and losses, for example, and spokespersons for government agencies are often required to make statements about public policies or current events.

In such cases, the speaker must find the relevance of the subject and establish it for the audience quickly and assertively. If your topic seems somehow disconnected from your audience, it’s your job to find the relevance. For example, can you save the audience money or time? Can you help people do something better or improve quality? Even if the benefit is not for the short term, will listening to your speech help them in some way in the future, once they become parents or graduate students or homeowners? Unless you present a clear benefit that people can derive from listening to you, you will not get or keep their attention.

For example, imagine that you are an office manager and need to deliver a presentation to your colleagues explaining how to fill out the company’s new expense reports. One way to get them interested in what they might perceive as an unnecessary presentation is to show them that learning how to do this task will benefit them in some way:

I know it’s hard to get excited about something as mundane as filing expense reports. But the good news is that our new electronic transmittal system will get your reimbursements to you faster and more reliably. As you know, it typically takes four to six weeks for an expense report to be routed, approved, and transmitted to accounts payable and another two weeks for accounts payable to cut the check. With this new system, we’ll be able to have funds deposited directly to your bank account in as little as ten business days. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at how the new system works.

By clearly connecting the subject with the lives and needs of your listeners, you’re more likely to have their attention as you demonstrate the less interesting aspects of the process. If you cannot find the subject’s relevance, you may need to refine or revise the topic.