BREAKING THROUGH THE CLUTTER IN 2016
Amidst the flood of Christmas cards and seasonal electronic messages, one line in one email struck what communications experts call “a resonant chord”.
When a resonant chord is hit, something is so accurately expressed that as it’s received it chimes with a feeling that’s already inside us and we think something like: “Yes that’s sooooooo right”.
This particular line was contained in a seasonal email talking about a young girl learning the Lord’s Prayer.
She was doing well up until close to the end when she said “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from email.”
“Me too!”, I can almost hear you say – because you’re probably deluged with emails, along with all the other messages bombarding us on the internet, radio, television and beyond.
The thing to think about, as you’re mulling over your 2016 plans and new year’s resolutions, is that if you’re swamped by communications overload, then the people you want to get through to are probably experiencing the same thing.
The challenge of our time is to communicate in a way that our messages break though and ideally hit a resonant chord amongst those with whom we want to connect.
To do this most effectively, you need to get inside the heads of your audience – whether it’s a massive group, just one individual or somewhere in between.
If you’re doing a presentation, giving a media interview, having a crucial one-to-one business conversation or sending an email to someone who, like you, receives loads of them, getting inside the heads of your target is a critical part of it.
In this way you can best work out what you can say that will grab their attention.
WHAT DO YOU WANT THEM THINKING, FEELING OR DOING?
But of course just getting their attention isn’t enough.
You also have to ask yourself the question that isn’t asked nearly enough. “What do I want my audience thinking, feeling and/or doing after my communication has been transmitted?”
This allows you to get ahead of the game and seek to achieve your desired outcome.
As a professional speaker, the most efficient way for me to help a lot of people to communicate (even) more effectively is by being on stage at your conference.
I thought I should throw that in around the start of the year when you might be thinking: “What on earth are we going to do at our conference in 2016?”
If that comes close to hitting a resonant chord, then there’s more on how to help your team become inspirational communicators at:
https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/speaking-at-your-event/
COMPETING WITH THOSE MOBILES
Of course it’s not just emails that you’re competing with when you want to get audience attention.
There’s also the challenge of mobile phones.
Stopping audiences from becoming engrossed in their phone messages or cruising the internet while you’re doing a presentation is an uplifting quest.
When I’m working with clients to present with confidence, impact and pizzazz and they’re worried about audiences checking their phones, I take a tough line.
If significant numbers of your audience are checking their phones while you’re on stage then it’s your fault!
Your job as a presenter is to be so fascinating that only in the most urgent of cases will audience members feel a need to check their phone.
CONNECTING WITH A CHALLENGING AUDIENCE
I faced this challenge when doing lecturing work with teenagers in a south London college – a potentially tough series of gigs.
The students had dropped out of high school but found they needed to get some basic qualifications if they were to progress jobwise.
They were reputedly a rowdy bunch and lecturers had to compete with the students’ mobiles.
It turned out that they were in fact delightful and keen learners – providing you grabbed and held their attention.
So the challenge was to ensure that every moment was so captivating that they wouldn’t want to allow their attention to drift anywhere else.
They also had the same challenge themselves when they had to present their own work to the class.
One female student did particularly well at tackling this.
When I was teaching radio production skills and the students had to find someone interesting and record an interview with them to be played in class.
The star student, who did the best on the assignment and in popular acclaim from her colleagues, interviewed a young prostitute.
She actually paid the prostitute for the interview – £10 I recall – which wasn’t something I was especially keen to encourage.
But it worked.
The prostitute made a fascinating interviewee as she spoke about details of her life and business.
And the class was riveted and listened to the interview and the story behind it in awe – without a mobile phone in sight.
For whatever reason the student hit on a subject that captured the interest of her audience and had the most attention-deficit-challenged of her fellow students entranced.
There’s more on Presenting with Confidence, Impact and Pizzazz at https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/presenting-with-confidence-impact-and-pizzazz/
No payments to ladies of the night are required or recommended.
STORIES WITH EMOTIONAL PUNCH
Of course one of the reasons the prostitute interview and the student’s comments about it won the attention of the class was that it involved emotion and stories – the story of the prostitute herself, the emotion of her life and the additional story behind my student actually getting the interview.
I’ve been writing about deploying stories and examples with emotional impact in professional conversations for my book “Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work” published by Capstone in June this coming year.
And if you look back on some of the most memorable news stories of the past year, you’ll find that there’s an emotional thread that runs through them all.
There was the emotional outpouring after the publication of that photograph of the body of the three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a beach in Turkey which helped turn the hearts of the world towards being more sympathetic to those refugees risking everything to flee the war.
There was the emotion sparked from the bloodstained streets of Paris which tragically began with the massacre by terrorists at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine – giving rise to the solidarity slogan “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) near the start of 2015.
This was followed by suicide bombers and gunmen causing the deaths of 130 ordinary Parisians and injuring hundreds more while they were enjoying life at the football, a concert and in cafes towards the end of the year.
There was the emotion surrounding the killing in Zimbabwe of the country’s much-loved attraction, Cecil The Lion, who was shot by the instantly vilified American dentist-cum-trophy hunter.
There was more positive emotion when, amazingly, the Japanese team defeated the Springboks at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in what’s been labeled the biggest upset in rugby history (outside some of my Under Sevens team wins with the Dee Why Lions Rugby Club in Sydney).
And still on Rugby, there was emotion surrounding the all-too-early death of South Pacific legend Jonah Lomu – the speedy giant All Black winger who came across with extraordinary gentleness when I had the privilege of interviewing him at Twickenham during the 1999 World Cup.
Touching on emotions – but at the same time ensuring that they are in harmony with the rational element of your message – is a key part of grabbing and holding attention.
It’s worth thinking about if getting yourself and/or your team to communicate more powerfully is amongst your new year’s resolutions.
There’s more on how to do this at: https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/programmes-to-transform-the-communications-skills-of-your-team/
ACHIEVING THOSE RESOLUTIONS
And speaking of new year’s resolutions, motivational guru and human rhino David Hyner says most people have usually failed to stick to their resolutions by the third week of January.
Don’t let this happen to you!
David Hyner will be showing his audience how to utilise his “Massive Goal Principle” to achieve new year’s resolutions and more at the Professional Speaking Association in Marble Arch, London, on Saturday 23 January.
If you’re interested in achieving massive goals and you have an interest in the professional speaking world and hearing from other great speakers as well then check it out at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/psa-london-january-event-tickets-19635428094?ref=ecal
You’ll also learn more about chasing and achieving your aims in the targeted way that rhinos do.
Here’s to a ripsnorting 2015. Keep smiling throughout.
Michael
You can check out the enlightening thoughts of some of my inspiring colleagues at the Professional Speaking Association on these uplifting blogposts:
Focus Your Mindset To WIN WIN WIN – Nicci Roscoe, Fabulous Impact Speaker
http://www.nicciroscoe.com/how-you-can-focus-your-mindset-to-win-win-win/
Taking A Strategic Approach To The “Talent Drought” – Eilidh Milnes, Captain Positive
http://www.captain-positive.com/confidence-blog/talent-drought
Crying Can Make You Smarter – Sylvia Baldock, Unlocking Your Hidden Potential
http://www.sylviabaldock.com/2015/12/crying-can-make-you-smarter/