A521.8.3.RB - Cornerstones of Speaking

Have you ever felt like you're talking, but nobody is listening? Julian Treasure in his video, “How to speak so that people want to listen” demonstrates some useful vocal exercises, shares tips on how to speak with empathy, and offers his vision for a resounding world of listening and understanding. He discusses his seven deadly sins of speaking.

In the video about comedian Kevin Hart, the presenter claims, “anyone can learn to tell a good story”.

Using the information from the Treasure and Hart videos, as well as Whalen’s’ Chapters 4 &19, write a reflection blog sharing what useful information you will take with you to perform future presentations. Describe any particular things you do to capture attention.

The emotional feelings of anxiety and fear are common to when about to engage in communication with other people. Whether it is giving a speech in front of a large audience or confronting a team member about an issue, variations of these feelings are bound to happen. The symptoms that can result include increased heart rate, sweaty palms, dry mouth, or blanking out (Whalen, 2007). However, the uncomfortable nature that communicating may give us can provide the opportunity to grow and learn from the experience. By taking the risk of communicating with others, we are able to gain a reward in interpersonal relationships as well as developing our way in effective speaking.

Treasure (2016) gives a method to craft our message through H.A.I.L. which is honesty, authenticity, integrity, and love. By focusing on these guidelines in the way we communicate, we can improve our message by being more direct and genuine to the listener causing them to be more responsive to our message. By being honest with our message, it allows the speaker to the point rather than beating around the bush. This can help to keep the message simple and straight preventing any confusion or misinterpretation of the message. By focusing on authenticity, it allows the speaker to be who they are in terms of speaking from what the message means to them. This can allow passion to arise because it relates to the speaker on personal level rather than superficially. This ties into to the next component of integrity. This can translate to saying what you mean and meaning what you say. You want people to trust what you are saying instead of taking it as a lie. Lastly, by love, this focus is on wishing people well in that you want them to hear the message and to hopefully agree or adopt the viewpoint as well. This is to allow positive discourse and room for constructive criticism if it arises as well. We are all entitled to our opinions so just because a message is not agreed upon does not mean it is the end of conversation. If you allow people to hear your message, then you should be able to let them respond with their thoughts as well. By using these key components in developing a presentation can help me to give an effective presentation by staying focus on my message while doing so in a professional and responsible manner.

To engage an audience, Hart (2016) uses three tactics to get people to listen. The first one is to develop a more personal relationship with the audience by directly acknowledging them. In order to tell a good story, you need to have their undivided attention first. Without the attention from the intended audience, we are not able to fully relay our message. Secondly, when the attention is received, it is vital to maintain the engagement by staying fully committed to the story. This is in the form of expression or actions that give depth to the message. This also relates to the use of vocal techniques such as register, timbre, prosody, pace, and volume (Treasure, 2016). By varying our intonation, sound, and inflection of our voices, the message can be more impactful by adding to the emotional aspect of the message. These additional expressions help to maintain attention to the conclusion of the story. Lastly, practice makes perfect. By constantly refining our way of communicating, we can figure out what works and what does not work. This will ultimately give us our voice and can give us the charismatic persona to be an effective speaker.

For my presentation, I will focus on crafting my message through the perspective of the intended audience while thinking of the tactic and advice given by Hart (2016) and Treasure (2016). By focusing with who will be hearing my presentation, I am able to perform an audience analysis which will allow my message to be given in an effective manner. This will help to ensure that while defining my purpose I am able to break it down into manageable pieces that are memorable and relatable to the audience. McKay, Davis, and Fanning (2009, p. 301) notes that 'choosing the appropriate language, examples, jokes, and overall tone' are all important considerations to have in communication. My other focus will be to record myself and listen to how I sound to ensure that the intonations and inflections are natural rather than robotic. This will help me to be more self-aware and knowledgeable of how I sound to others. Lastly, while crafting my message, I will ensure that I will not commit any of the sins of speaking according to Treasure (2016):

1. Gossip (i.e. speaking ill of somebody not present)
2. Judging (i.e. very hard to listen to somebody if you know you're being judged)
3. Negativity (i.e. not enjoyable to listen to negative things)
4. Complaining (i.e. simple spread of misery)
5. Excuses (i.e. nobody appreciates someone who can't take responsibility for their actions)
6. Exaggeration (i.e. cheapens language and can feel like outright lying sometimes)
7. Dogmatism (i.e. confusion of facts with opinions)

By focusing on the structure of my presentation, layout of slide content, delivery of speech, and overall message with the methods mentioned above, I should be able to give an effective presentation with these items in mind.

References

Hart, K. [Charisma on Command]. (2016, February 22). Kevin Hart's 3 secrets to hilarious storytelling [Video File]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_L4OPU_rg

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: The communication skills book (3rd ed.). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Treasure, J. [QuickTalks]. (2016, May 18). How to speak so that people want to listen | Julian Treasure (TED talk summary) [Video File]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEkEAFaV818

Whalen, J.D. (2007). The professional communications toolkit. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.