[PRL] Useful advice on presentations

[Mitchell Wand]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rick Reis <reis at stanford.edu>
Date: Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Subject: TP Msg. #953 Shifting Attention Spans
To: tomorrows-professor at lists.stanford.edu


"The minute the audience members start to think, "This speech is going on
too long," or "This guy is so monotonous," or "What time do they serve
lunch?" they've stopped listening to you, and your connection with them is
broken. Your job is to be aware of this and work to win the attention
struggle. Think of it as a game of tug-of-war."
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Folks:

The posting below gives some excellent advice on the the do's and don'ts of
public presentations .  It is from Chapter 2, Principle 2 - Perfection, in
the book, The 7 Principles of Public Speaking: Proven Methods from a PR
Professional by Richard Zeoli,  Skyhorse Publishing Inc. Copyright 2008 by
Richard Zeoli. Skyhorse Publishing, 555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, New York,
NY 10018 or infor at skyhorsepublishing.com [www.skyhorsepublishing.com]


Regards,
Rick Reis
reis at stanford.edu
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                       Shifting Attention Spans

As a speaker, you are competing with real life, and the demands of real life
are intense. Unlike going to a movie, when people consciously choose to walk
into a theater and forget about life for ninety minutes, most people who
come to hear a speech are extremely aware of the world around them, and they
are waiting-sometimes patiently, sometimes not-for the speech to end so they
can rejoin that world. Your job as a speaker is to remember this and do your
best to draw them into your speech.

There was a great line from a Hollywood director who once said, "If they
take their eyes off the screen you've lost them." He was giving a modern
variation on William Shakespeare's concept of the willing suspension of
disbelief. In movies, the minute the audience stops to say, "This is just a
movie," the disbelief becomes real and the connection between audience and
screen is broken.

Common "disbelief" thoughts include things such as: "Come on, that can't
happen; that's so unrealistic," "I wonder how much that explosion cost,"
"That is a stuntman, no way that's the star," or "That was the corniest line
I've ever heard."

When the audience thinks these thoughts during the movie, you can be sure
the movie isn't going to be winning too many awards.

And once the connection is broken, it is virtually impossible to repair.

The same is true with public speaking. The minute the audience members start
to think, "This speech is going on too long," or "This guy is so
monotonous," or "What time do they serve lunch?" they've stopped listening
to you, and your connection with them is broken. Your job is to be aware of
this and work to win the attention struggle. Think of it as a game of
tug-of-war.

On one side you have the speaker pulling the audience toward the speech, and
on the other side, you have the demands of the world and people's natural,
limited attention spans. Now, imagine that above the attention span, the
"tug," are words like:

Bills
College Tuition
Angry Boss
Car Repair
Weekend getaway
Starving
BlackBerry

These are the things that give fuel to the other side, making your job to
keep the tug alive and in balance require that much more work and attention.

Most speakers think that they'll rein in their listeners with slides and
pictures (and we'll discuss these tools in depth), but the key to remember
is that audience attention usually comes in waves. That is to say, it's not
so much that the audience is with you for a while and then you lose them for
the remainder of the speech. Rather, people will be with you for a few
minutes, then their attention will wander for thirty seconds or so, and then
it may come back, or it may continue to wander. But people will usually
check in and check out. As speakers, if we think creatively about how to
keep bringing people back into focus, we'll do our job.

First of all, never be the kind of speaker who gets angry at the audience
members for his own inability to keep them interested. I've heard speakers
use demeaning tones and say things like:
"Come on, people, stay with me," "what, does this crowd have ADD or
something?" or "Look, this is important, pay attention."

I know one thing: Those speakers have never received a standing ovation.
They have not only broken the connection with their audience but also have
most likely created a hostile audience that is not going to care one iota
about what they have to say. There is no quicker way to lose your listeners
than to insult their intelligence.

Respect you audience members' attention, and never belittle them. It's not
their fault that this tug exists; it's natural. Hollywood has special
effects and thematic music on its side to win the struggle. All you have is
your speech. (Even if you wanted to use special effects, you could never
compete with Hollywood.)

So it's your job to pull your listeners in and keep the tug-of-war in
balance.
How do we do it?

Eye Contact

A good speaker will never read a speech. This sounds like common sense, but
even people who wind up making note cards often fall back on reading those
cards because of the security they afford. Looking into other people's eyes
may seem intimidating, but it is not. It's something you do every single day
when you are having conversations with people one-on-one. So why should
adding a few more eyes to the mix be intimidating?
The truth is we make it intimidating because we are not used to it, but by
consciously remembering that in our culture eye contact is a normal part of
human interaction and something we do every time we have a conversation, we
should have no problem doing it during a speech. In reality, public speaking
is nothing more than having a conversation.

Here is where Principles 1 and 2 begin to intersect. Eye contact has the
direct effect of signaling to someone, "I should pay attention here; someone
is talking to me." It also makes people feel important and makes them feel
like you care about them. And they are much more likely to put all their
worries on hold and focus on you for a few more minutes if they believe you
care about them.

Many years ago, a public speaking coach gave bad advice to clients who were
nervous about eye contact. He told them to pick a spot on the back of the
wall that is right above the audience members' heads, such as a clock, and
look at that to give the audience members the feeling that you are speaking
to them. Gimmicks such as this do not work, and audiences are too smart to
fall for them. If you take the bad advice this coach gave, your listeners
are going to wonder why you keep looking over their heads, and they will
tune you out faster than they would a bad commercial during their favorite
Thursday-night television show.

Another gimmick often used by coaches consists of advising people to look
that the audience's foreheads to give the illusion you are making eye
contact with them. All this will do is leave the audience members wondering
if they somehow managed to get part of their lunch on their face or if they
have really bad dandruff. Don't fall back on gimmicks. They never work.

Good public speaking is all about having that conversation with the
audience. Good speakers are not afraid to look other people in the eye.

Tone & Pitch

Tone of voice and vocal emphasis are also essential to keeping this struggle
in balance. Good speakers will write their remarks in a way that
occasionally throws in phrases designed for vocal inflection, because when
the audience hears the speaker's tone of voice shift, it is an automatic
verbal cue to pay attention. If a speaker drones on and on about tax laws
and all of a sudden says the room is on fire in the same tone of voice, only
those smelling the smoke will pay attention. But if the speaker delivers the
fire warning in the way it should be delivered-with urgency and
inflection-you can bet everybody will wake up and call the fire department.

So while you should never yell "fire" in a crowded auditorium, you should
write lines that cause your voice naturally to go up, and you should also
write lines that cause your voice to go down, even to the point of becoming
quiet. Believe it or not, when you lower the tone of your voice, it actually
causes people to listen and tune in just as effectively as if you were to
shout something. Plus, it's a whole lot more respectful to your audience.

So how do you write these inflection lines?

Think about places within your remarks that would allow such entries. For
example, if you are giving a speech about tax law, throw this line in after
a particularly boring paragraph about changes to the tax code:
"But the GOOD NEWS, everyone, is that this means substantial (dramatic
pause) savingsŠ for all of us!"
Or perhaps this line: "But guess what, friends, (dramatic pause) this means
we are allŠgoingŠtoŠpay a little more this year. I know, I know. This is not
my favorite part of the speech."

Lines like these will bring the audience back into focus, and it will do so
in a way that causes your listeners to like you much more than if you
scolded them for tuning you out for a few moments.
Good speakers take the necessary time to plan such lines throughout their
speeches.

Action Steps: Creating Your Key Lines

As you work on your material, think about the benefits you are offering your
audience as well as any potential downside to what you are saying. Write
both down in a column, just like in the example on the next page.
All of these advantages and disadvantages can be used to bring the
audience's attention over to your side of the tug. As you write your speech,
think creatively of where these remarks should go. Remember, people's
attention spans go in waves so they are usually with you at the opening of
your speech, especially if you have a strong opening, as we will discuss
later. People are also usually with you during the close of your speech
because they recognize that all good things must come to an end and you have
prepared them in your speech for the imminent closing.

It's usually during the murky middle of the speech that people's minds tent
to wander, so try to insert a line that allows your tone of voice to go up
or down at least once or twice in every paragraph. This will ensure the
audience member stays with you longer rather than focusing on his or her
car's need for an oil change.

Benefits

Substantial savings to the family
New exploration of undersea medical cures
Lower interest rates for homeowners with good credit
New deductions give you more money back for dependents

Disadvantages

Increased paperwork
Big expense to the healthcare industry
Increased disclosure means harder to get a mortgage today
The maximum number of dependents you can declare is four

The Dramatic Pause

President Bill Clinton is an artful user of the dramatic pause, and you
should be, too. Most speakers tend to think that a dramatic pause is deadly
and that the audience will feel the dead air and get antsy. Just the
opposite, however, is true. A well-timed dramatic pause has the effect of
sending a cue to the listener to tune in, because chances are something good
is coming.
Watch Bill Clinton at a press conference. When he is asked a question, he
usually pauses for a few seconds, even occasionally looking off as if he is
gathering his thoughts, and then gives a very well-considered answer. And
because he pauses for a few seconds, the listeners stop thinking of
everything else in the world and tune in to hear what he has to say.
A dramatic pause has a number of advantages and should always be a part of
your speaker's arsenal.

A well-placed pause:

Sends a verbal cue to the listener that something important is coming.
Breaks up the tone of voice, allowing the ear to recognize new vocal pitch.
Causes the audience to think that the speaker really has his or her thoughts
together.
Is good theater and is a technique used all the time in quality drama by
great actors and public figures.
Will always feel longer to the speaker than to the audience. So don't rush
it. You will be more aware of its length than your listeners will, as they
are focused not on the pause, but on your next words.

There are also things you can do to make sure your speech is going to be
comfortable for everyone. Anyone who attends a taping of the Late Show with
David Letterman is advised to bring a light jacket or sweater, even during a
hot New York summer. That's because Dave keeps the temperature in the Ed
Sullivan Theater in the 60s. Why? So people don't fall asleep! A theater or
venue that is too hot will make it more difficult for you as a speaker to
rein your audience in. That doesn't mean that you can always control the
temperature but you can try.

Ask the event coordinator about the temperature and see if you can get to
the event early to make adjustments if necessary. Remember, people's normal
body temperature is approximately 98 degrees, so a group of people will
cause a room to heat up very quickly. Adjust for that. I always recommend
that venues keep the temperature around 68 degrees. This will leave room for
the audience's natural body heat to warm up the venue without it becoming
uncomfortable.

Particularly in the winter-when many venue coordinators come in from the
cold and jack up the heat while they are still freezing-it is important to
keep in mind how quickly a roomful of a hundred people will warm up. So take
this into account.

Returning to this chapter's opening concept-that when you make a mistake, no
one cares but you-remember the following:

If you are onstage and you make a mistake, such as fumbling on a word, keep
going. Chances are the audience didn't notice because of the reality of
shifting attention spans. The odds that your listeners were really with you,
right at that moment, and that they caught your mishap are slim anyway. But
even if they did notice, so what? As we've discussed earlier, they aren't
going to start laughing at you, and you will be able to recover. So keep
going.

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