When we stand before an audience we have three means of communication at our disposal: our voice, our body and our visual aids. I have written on the latter two here and here, respectively.
Your voice is the primary means through which you deliver your verbal message. It is important to say the least. Many fail to analyze their message delivery vis a vis the voice itself with unfortunate results.
Overall, you are looking for three things vocally. You want to be be natural, have a conversational speaking style, and employ lots of vocal variety. Remember, sameness is boring, variety is interesting.
There are five key elements to voice: volume, rate, pausing, pitch, and articulation. As you go through each one consider how natural variety could be used to enhance message delivery. Let's take a quick look at each.
Everyone knows that volume refers to the loudness of your voice. What you may not know is how to increase volume, without resorting to yelling.
Your voice emanates from vibrations in your larynx. A small sound is created in your throat. What pushes that small sound out through your nose and mouth to fill the room is the air in your lungs. Air is the force behind your voice.
So when you want to be louder, you need to take a deep breath and project that air to the appropriate volume for the venue.
Ideally you also want to vary your volume to match the emotions of the message.
Rate is the speed at which you speak. A common result of nervousness is to speak too quickly. This will quickly tire out both the speaker and the audience.
But the overly slow speaker can be even worse to listen to. It is frustrating when someone's rate of speech is consistently slow, because we want the message in a reasonable time frame. The slow talker slows our intake of information...it kind of wastes our time unnecessarily.
So you want to avoid extremes for any length of time, but you do want to vary your rate as much as possible.
Pausing is a critical element in the speaker's repertoire. It is simply the part of the speech where you don't speak, and as such should be easy. However, the silence makes inexperienced speakers uneasy and they seek to fill the silence with vocalized pauses (uh, um), verbal fillers (like/you know) and any assortment of verbal tics(mmm/'nkay?).
Pausing must be embraced and employed for maximum effectiveness. Great speakers build a rhythm, a dramatic arc almost, to their presentations via pausing and rate variation. A pro can help you learn and master this art.
Pitch is the highness or lowness of your voice on a musical scale. Poor use of pitch results in the dreaded monotone speaker.
The key to using pitch effectively is to use the entirety of our pitch range--albeit the extremes pretty rarely. When you excitedly tell a story, your voice dances up and down the musical scale like Tina Turner on crack! Great speakers bring that same pitch variety to the speaking situation.
Articulation refers to the clear crisp production of the sounds that exist in a given language. Someone who mumbles has poor articulation. Sometimes rate and/or nervousness can affect articulation--as can too much alcohol! Even dental issues can be a factor.
Folks with articulation issues probably need some time with a professional who knows the articulatory features of each sound in the language, or to take a Voice and Articulation course at a local college.
Some people over-articulate and sound less than natural. If you really "pop" every sound of every syllable you can come off sounding silly or worse.
Remember our three goals: a natural and conversational voice with lots of vocal variety and you are well on your way to being a better speaker.
That's all for today friends. Be well, speak well, and as always. thanks for reading. If you are interested in learning more about Dan Leyes private and group consulting see Semiosphere Consulting.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Your Nonverbal Delivery
Your delivery has two components: what you say, and everything else. That everything else is your nonverbal delivery, and it is every bit as important as what you say. There are several components to your nonverbal delivery. Lets look at them individually.
Your appearance is vitally important. So important that I wrote an entire blog devoted to it. You can read that here. How we dress and adorn ourselves sends a message and we have to be thoughtful as to what kind of message we want to send. It will be interpreted by the audience, the only question is how they will interpret it. Are they inclined to be open minded about dress? Do you care? One thing is for sure, being totally out of place in your attire will be noticed and runs the risk of making you feel self-conscious. Dress in a manner that makes you feel good about yourself, is comfortable, and will not detract from your message or reputation.
Eye Contact is essential to your communication. The eyes have tremendous expressive power. Old sayings like "The eyes are the windows of the soul" attest to the magnitude of what we encounter in the eyes of another. In our culture we often equate eye contact with honesty, and its absence an indicator of deception.
As audience members, when the speaker does not look at us it send all the wrong messages. For starters, when someone doesn't look at me while talking, it feels like he is not talking to me, or I am invisible. And if he is not talking to me, I have no obligation to listen. I have seen numerous students and even colleagues engage in non-listening behavior like texting or grading papers, during speeches--extremely poor listening behavior. I suspect they felt emboldened to do this because they felt invisible or lost within the crowd.
Eye contact connects you to your audience in a meaningful way. Perhaps most importantly it allows the speaker to read the feedback the audience is providing. The tell-tale signs of engagement include reciprocated eye contact, nodding, smiling or something other than a blank expression. When you read feedback it allows you to make the necessary adjustments to what you are saying and how you are saying it so that you keep them engaged.
One of the most frequent questions speaker's have is regarding gestures. "What do I do with my hands"? I have written an entire blog on this and encourage you to read it. Rather than repeat what I have already written, I will simply encourage you to keep your gestures natural and non-distracting, If I am noticing your gestures, I'm probably being distracted from your verbal message.
Your stance is something worth mentioning. You should keep both feet planted firmly on the floor, no "dancing". If you have the frequent habit of rocking side to side, try pulling your feet together and pointing your toes toward the audience. It is almost impossible to rock or sway when you do this.
Movement is another factor in your physical delivery. There are two frequent practices here. The first is to move "when the spirit moves you". While this can be effective and natural, there is the risk of your movements being totally random and not supporting your message as strongly as it could. The other is what I call transitional movement. This involves moving while you transition from one main point to the next. When you say "Now that I have covered X, let's move on to Y", you move as you say that line. In this way you nonverbally support the structure of the speech. One thing you definitely want to avoid is constant movement. It makes you look nervous, does not support your message, and can tire the audience out!
Another big aspect of your nonverbal delivery is the use of visual aids. For an extended coverage of this topic I refer you to "Powerpoint is Satan", and "Using PowerPoint Effectively, or Keeping Satan at Bay", two of my early blogs.
That's all for today. Be well, speak well, and as always, thanks for reading!
If you would like to learn more about Dan Leyes' consulting work, see Semiosphere Consulting.
Your appearance is vitally important. So important that I wrote an entire blog devoted to it. You can read that here. How we dress and adorn ourselves sends a message and we have to be thoughtful as to what kind of message we want to send. It will be interpreted by the audience, the only question is how they will interpret it. Are they inclined to be open minded about dress? Do you care? One thing is for sure, being totally out of place in your attire will be noticed and runs the risk of making you feel self-conscious. Dress in a manner that makes you feel good about yourself, is comfortable, and will not detract from your message or reputation.
Eye Contact is essential to your communication. The eyes have tremendous expressive power. Old sayings like "The eyes are the windows of the soul" attest to the magnitude of what we encounter in the eyes of another. In our culture we often equate eye contact with honesty, and its absence an indicator of deception.
As audience members, when the speaker does not look at us it send all the wrong messages. For starters, when someone doesn't look at me while talking, it feels like he is not talking to me, or I am invisible. And if he is not talking to me, I have no obligation to listen. I have seen numerous students and even colleagues engage in non-listening behavior like texting or grading papers, during speeches--extremely poor listening behavior. I suspect they felt emboldened to do this because they felt invisible or lost within the crowd.
Eye contact connects you to your audience in a meaningful way. Perhaps most importantly it allows the speaker to read the feedback the audience is providing. The tell-tale signs of engagement include reciprocated eye contact, nodding, smiling or something other than a blank expression. When you read feedback it allows you to make the necessary adjustments to what you are saying and how you are saying it so that you keep them engaged.
One of the most frequent questions speaker's have is regarding gestures. "What do I do with my hands"? I have written an entire blog on this and encourage you to read it. Rather than repeat what I have already written, I will simply encourage you to keep your gestures natural and non-distracting, If I am noticing your gestures, I'm probably being distracted from your verbal message.
Your stance is something worth mentioning. You should keep both feet planted firmly on the floor, no "dancing". If you have the frequent habit of rocking side to side, try pulling your feet together and pointing your toes toward the audience. It is almost impossible to rock or sway when you do this.
Movement is another factor in your physical delivery. There are two frequent practices here. The first is to move "when the spirit moves you". While this can be effective and natural, there is the risk of your movements being totally random and not supporting your message as strongly as it could. The other is what I call transitional movement. This involves moving while you transition from one main point to the next. When you say "Now that I have covered X, let's move on to Y", you move as you say that line. In this way you nonverbally support the structure of the speech. One thing you definitely want to avoid is constant movement. It makes you look nervous, does not support your message, and can tire the audience out!
Another big aspect of your nonverbal delivery is the use of visual aids. For an extended coverage of this topic I refer you to "Powerpoint is Satan", and "Using PowerPoint Effectively, or Keeping Satan at Bay", two of my early blogs.
That's all for today. Be well, speak well, and as always, thanks for reading!
If you would like to learn more about Dan Leyes' consulting work, see Semiosphere Consulting.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Speaking with a Clear Purpose
It is imperative that every time we step in front of an audience we have a clear sense of our purpose.
Our goal should be articulated in one clear concise sentence along the lines of "to persuade my audience to purchase my product" or "To inform my audience about our new webpage" .
The best way to formulate it is based on the outcome you desire from your speech. Post speech, how will your audience be different? Will they know more? Be inspired to take action? Be entertained?
Your purpose drives everything. It crystallizes what you hope to accomplish into one simple sentence. The Specific Purpose Statement has three key elements: the general purpose, the target audience, and the topic focus.
The general purpose usually falls into one of three options: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. Since each of these options dictate a different approach, it is essential that we are clear on it. There are obviously grey areas, e.g., you provide information in a persuasive speech or your informative speech may be very entertaining, but your overriding goal must be clearly focused on one outcome which takes priority.
Your target audience is the most important part of your purpose, because the audience is the reason you give a speech. It's all about them, not you. By including it in our specific purpose statement we are always reminded to focus on this unique audience and do the necessary audience analysis.
For this reason it may be advantageous to be more specific than "my audience". It might be "the members of the Elks lodge in attendance" or "the Human Resources department of __________". The more specific you are the more you are reminded to take into account why they are there and thus what you need to give them to satisfy them. Their presence is a gift to any speaker, and as such you owe them something in return. You need to deliver the goods, so that they will benefit as a result of your talk.
The topic focus is, well, your topic. It should be something the audience has an interest in, whether they know that at the outset yet or not. One of your early goals is giving them a reason to listen..
Your topic must also be significantly narrowed to be adequately covered in the available time frame. Never try to fit more information in than you have time for. Audiences hate when you go over your allotted time and you invariably wind up rushing and not doing justice to the material. Less really is more. No one ever complained about a speech being a little shorter than expected, while running too long can tarnish an otherwise fine presentation. Folks resent it, and rightfully so.
Remember though, that the real purpose you give a speech is to change your audience. It's all about increasing their appreciation of your topic, changing their mind-set, or inspiring them to take action. Your speech is about them not you.
That's all for today folks. Be well, speak well, and as always thanks for reading! If you are interested in learning more about Dan Leyes' consulting work, visit Semiosphere Consulting.
Our goal should be articulated in one clear concise sentence along the lines of "to persuade my audience to purchase my product" or "To inform my audience about our new webpage" .
The best way to formulate it is based on the outcome you desire from your speech. Post speech, how will your audience be different? Will they know more? Be inspired to take action? Be entertained?
Your purpose drives everything. It crystallizes what you hope to accomplish into one simple sentence. The Specific Purpose Statement has three key elements: the general purpose, the target audience, and the topic focus.
The general purpose usually falls into one of three options: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. Since each of these options dictate a different approach, it is essential that we are clear on it. There are obviously grey areas, e.g., you provide information in a persuasive speech or your informative speech may be very entertaining, but your overriding goal must be clearly focused on one outcome which takes priority.
Your target audience is the most important part of your purpose, because the audience is the reason you give a speech. It's all about them, not you. By including it in our specific purpose statement we are always reminded to focus on this unique audience and do the necessary audience analysis.
For this reason it may be advantageous to be more specific than "my audience". It might be "the members of the Elks lodge in attendance" or "the Human Resources department of __________". The more specific you are the more you are reminded to take into account why they are there and thus what you need to give them to satisfy them. Their presence is a gift to any speaker, and as such you owe them something in return. You need to deliver the goods, so that they will benefit as a result of your talk.
The topic focus is, well, your topic. It should be something the audience has an interest in, whether they know that at the outset yet or not. One of your early goals is giving them a reason to listen..
Your topic must also be significantly narrowed to be adequately covered in the available time frame. Never try to fit more information in than you have time for. Audiences hate when you go over your allotted time and you invariably wind up rushing and not doing justice to the material. Less really is more. No one ever complained about a speech being a little shorter than expected, while running too long can tarnish an otherwise fine presentation. Folks resent it, and rightfully so.
Remember though, that the real purpose you give a speech is to change your audience. It's all about increasing their appreciation of your topic, changing their mind-set, or inspiring them to take action. Your speech is about them not you.
That's all for today folks. Be well, speak well, and as always thanks for reading! If you are interested in learning more about Dan Leyes' consulting work, visit Semiosphere Consulting.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Using Values in Persuasion
Using Values in Persuasion
As persuaders, we need to think about what is important to
our target audience. An individual’s values are what s/he believes to be
important in life.
If properly understood, values can be used in at least two
ways: 1) in developing commonality with the audience by showing you share
certain values, thus making you more trustworthy, and 2) by using things the
audience values as motivation for taking the desired action you seek of them in
your speech.
Some values are ends in themselves, while some are means to
attain those ends. To help understand this, it is useful to be familiar with
the work of Milton Rokeach. His research focused on human values and in his
1973 book The Nature of Human Values,
he identified two kinds of values, “Instrumental” and “Terminal”. Terminal values
are goals people believe it is important to attain in their lifetime, while
instrumental values are specific behaviors or characteristics that help us
attain our terminal values.
The following are the values Rokeach identified as being
valuable to people.
Terminal Values
|
Instrumental Values
|
|
1. cheerfulness
2.
ambition
3.
love
4.
cleanliness
5.
self-control
6.
capability
7.
courage
8.
politeness
9.
honesty
10.
imagination
11.
independence
12.
intellect
13.
broad-mindedness
14.
logic
15.
obedience
16.
helpfulness
17.
responsibility
18.
forgiveness
|
Please note that order of importance varies from individual
to individual. Thus you must think about your target audience and what you
think they would deem more or less important and construct your message
accordingly. Your goal is to explicitly state how the action you ask of them in your speech
will help provide them with the things they value.
I hope you find this useful.
That's all for today my friends. Be well, speak well, and as always, thanks for reading.
For more information about Dan Leyes Consulting work, see Semiosphere Consulting.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
My 10 Most Popular Blog Entries
Here is a list of my ten most read blog entries. Enjoy...
Listening is Sacred
Listening is a Life Changer
Do You Need a Speech Coach?
Practice: Read This Before Your Next Speech
Some Favorite Links
Your Pre-Speech Communication Matters, a Lot
Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety
Communication as Possibility
Likeability: The Speaker's Secret Weapon
Video Recording is a Must
Have a favorite? Please feel free to comment.
That's all for today. Be well, speak well, and as always, thanks for reading!
Interested in Dan Leyes' consulting work? Check out Semiosphere Consulting!
Listening is Sacred
Listening is a Life Changer
Do You Need a Speech Coach?
Practice: Read This Before Your Next Speech
Some Favorite Links
Your Pre-Speech Communication Matters, a Lot
Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety
Communication as Possibility
Likeability: The Speaker's Secret Weapon
Video Recording is a Must
Have a favorite? Please feel free to comment.
That's all for today. Be well, speak well, and as always, thanks for reading!
Interested in Dan Leyes' consulting work? Check out Semiosphere Consulting!
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Six Tips for Being an Authentic Speaker
There is an inherent problem that communication consultants and public speaking trainers face. In our desire to make speakers more effective, we run the risk of making the speaker something s/he is not. In the process of trying to become better speakers, they often lose themselves. This is detrimental to the speaker's success.
In fact, there is a very real possibility of coaching making you a less effective speaker. Here are six tips that can prevent that from happening. It's all about authenticity.
1. Remember the goal is to be yourself, at your best. If someone is trying to turn you into some ideal that they have in their head, you are probably being led down the wrong path. Micromanagement of every single gesture and every utterance is generally a bad idea. A good consultant takes the time to understand you, your unique personality and communication style. Then they try to bring out your best qualities and minimize any poor habits you may have gotten into. Sometimes this means "un-teaching" bad methods we have picked up along the way.
2. You must believe in your message with all your heart. Sincerity is visible and resonates with audiences. Likewise, if you are not being true to yourself, it shows. We, as an audience, can tell if you do not have the courage of your convictions. But when you do, it can become mesmerizing!
3. Share a bit of yourself in your message, Personal stories, honest reflection, and just plain honesty in general are recognized and appreciated. Share a little of who you are as a person in every presentation. Audiences find it a refreshing change from facts and data (which are too often overdone, sapping the life out of speeches).
4. Become comfortable with being the audience's focal point. You are the star of the show. Don't hide behind a lectern or podium if possible. Get comfortable with your own style of movement. Practice it, play with it, have fun with it (if possible/appropropriate). You are a performer and you would be surprised with your ability to "perform" while still being yourself. It's just your performative side. Some are more comfortable with it than others, but we all have that ability for playfulness that is the source of our performative ability.
5, Develop your talk without presentational aids (i.e., PowerPoint). You can and probably will add them in later, but too many START with PowerPoint and that's just bass-ackwards. YOU are the most important part of your message. So make sure your presentation can stand alone without presentational aids.
6. Know your audience. I have seen so many speakers who simply did not do their homework about the audience and context for their presentation. The audience quickly recognizes your presentation has not been developed for them and you are just talking at them. They resent it, you and may dismiss what you are saying because of it. Always remember, you give a speech FOR AN AUDIENCE. You are not speaking for a paycheck, a boss, or your professional survival. You are there for them, the audience.
In summary, be true to yourself in all you say and do. An engaged audience will forgive small technical imperfections, but they will not forgive inauthentic communication!
That's all for today. Be well, speak well, and as always, thanks for reading.
Daniel Leyes is the President of Semiosphere Consulting and Professor of Speech Communication at Brookdale Community College.
In fact, there is a very real possibility of coaching making you a less effective speaker. Here are six tips that can prevent that from happening. It's all about authenticity.
1. Remember the goal is to be yourself, at your best. If someone is trying to turn you into some ideal that they have in their head, you are probably being led down the wrong path. Micromanagement of every single gesture and every utterance is generally a bad idea. A good consultant takes the time to understand you, your unique personality and communication style. Then they try to bring out your best qualities and minimize any poor habits you may have gotten into. Sometimes this means "un-teaching" bad methods we have picked up along the way.
2. You must believe in your message with all your heart. Sincerity is visible and resonates with audiences. Likewise, if you are not being true to yourself, it shows. We, as an audience, can tell if you do not have the courage of your convictions. But when you do, it can become mesmerizing!
3. Share a bit of yourself in your message, Personal stories, honest reflection, and just plain honesty in general are recognized and appreciated. Share a little of who you are as a person in every presentation. Audiences find it a refreshing change from facts and data (which are too often overdone, sapping the life out of speeches).
4. Become comfortable with being the audience's focal point. You are the star of the show. Don't hide behind a lectern or podium if possible. Get comfortable with your own style of movement. Practice it, play with it, have fun with it (if possible/appropropriate). You are a performer and you would be surprised with your ability to "perform" while still being yourself. It's just your performative side. Some are more comfortable with it than others, but we all have that ability for playfulness that is the source of our performative ability.
5, Develop your talk without presentational aids (i.e., PowerPoint). You can and probably will add them in later, but too many START with PowerPoint and that's just bass-ackwards. YOU are the most important part of your message. So make sure your presentation can stand alone without presentational aids.
6. Know your audience. I have seen so many speakers who simply did not do their homework about the audience and context for their presentation. The audience quickly recognizes your presentation has not been developed for them and you are just talking at them. They resent it, you and may dismiss what you are saying because of it. Always remember, you give a speech FOR AN AUDIENCE. You are not speaking for a paycheck, a boss, or your professional survival. You are there for them, the audience.
In summary, be true to yourself in all you say and do. An engaged audience will forgive small technical imperfections, but they will not forgive inauthentic communication!
That's all for today. Be well, speak well, and as always, thanks for reading.
Daniel Leyes is the President of Semiosphere Consulting and Professor of Speech Communication at Brookdale Community College.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Communication is Creative and Self-Reflective
Today I would like to talk a little about the nature of communicating in the semiosphere.
The Semiosphere is the context for the creative and self-reflective process of communicating in one's lived-world.
The semiosphere, like reality, is ever-changing. In fact, I wrote a blog entry developing this idea at length entitled "Communication as Possibility". If you haven't already read it it might help understanding this.
In this ever-changing reality, what we communicate creates what will be in the next moment. Remembering that communication involves both perception and expression, we see that the meaning we are attributing to our surroundings creates our conception of "reality". Simultaneously we are expressing ourselves verbally and nonverbally. This is what is happening when a person stands alone in the room. Now when another person enters the room we have a crashing of two lived-worlds. Together they form a semiosphere, a world reliant on navigating codes and sign systems. Depending on their mutual knowledge of certain codes the two people may communicate famously, or they may not "get" each other.
This is a fact I share with my students on the first day of the semester when I tell them to be careful when former students tell them about "Leyes' Speech class": Because the person talking is speaking about THEIR Speech class and theirs is over. OUR Speech class is yet to be. What will THIS speech class be? I don't know, because it hasn't happened yet. WE will create it. Sometimes it's magical and sometimes it's awful. I do pretty much the same spiel for every section, yet some of them respond wonderfully and others less so. The difference of course, is what the students bring to the show. TOGETHER we create the course. Their unique questions, speech topics, rhetorical choices all add to the discursive reality that becomes "the course" in our memory. The course is a process of co-creation between 26 people over 15 weeks. I am only one of the 26.
.
When I say the semiosphere is self-reflective, I mean that what I say says more about me than than the thing I am talking about. Every utterance is an expression of my perception. If, for example, I say "She is beautiful" I am in fact talking about MY judgement and my definition of beauty. My statement is a reflection of how I perceive the situation. If I say "this soup is too spicy" what I am REALLY saying is that I prefer less spice in my soup. This emphasizes the importance of "owning" one's message and stating it accurately. So when student A says to student B (from another class) "Leyes' class is a blast, he's so funny", she is talking about her perception of the experience in HER class. Student B may find this to be off base, as nobody laughs at his jokes in his class, in fact it's kind of dull.
But what does all this mean for public speaking? Well, every speaking situation takes place in the semiosphere. We need to understand that the audience is made up of individuals, some more central to our purpose than others. To convince them of something we must understand the lived-worlds of our key audience members and adapt our message to them. Their lived-worlds have their own codes and sign systems that drive behavior. By putting our focus on these codes and sign systems we are better able to construct messages that "speak to" them directly. And in so doing we are more likely to get the responses we seek from them.
I hope this makes sense for you. I am happy to entertain questions in the Comments section below.
That's all for today. Speak well, be well, and as always thanks for reading!
If you would like to learn more about Dan Leyes and his consulting work, see Semiosphere Consulting.
The Semiosphere is the context for the creative and self-reflective process of communicating in one's lived-world.
The semiosphere, like reality, is ever-changing. In fact, I wrote a blog entry developing this idea at length entitled "Communication as Possibility". If you haven't already read it it might help understanding this.
In this ever-changing reality, what we communicate creates what will be in the next moment. Remembering that communication involves both perception and expression, we see that the meaning we are attributing to our surroundings creates our conception of "reality". Simultaneously we are expressing ourselves verbally and nonverbally. This is what is happening when a person stands alone in the room. Now when another person enters the room we have a crashing of two lived-worlds. Together they form a semiosphere, a world reliant on navigating codes and sign systems. Depending on their mutual knowledge of certain codes the two people may communicate famously, or they may not "get" each other.
This is a fact I share with my students on the first day of the semester when I tell them to be careful when former students tell them about "Leyes' Speech class": Because the person talking is speaking about THEIR Speech class and theirs is over. OUR Speech class is yet to be. What will THIS speech class be? I don't know, because it hasn't happened yet. WE will create it. Sometimes it's magical and sometimes it's awful. I do pretty much the same spiel for every section, yet some of them respond wonderfully and others less so. The difference of course, is what the students bring to the show. TOGETHER we create the course. Their unique questions, speech topics, rhetorical choices all add to the discursive reality that becomes "the course" in our memory. The course is a process of co-creation between 26 people over 15 weeks. I am only one of the 26.
.
When I say the semiosphere is self-reflective, I mean that what I say says more about me than than the thing I am talking about. Every utterance is an expression of my perception. If, for example, I say "She is beautiful" I am in fact talking about MY judgement and my definition of beauty. My statement is a reflection of how I perceive the situation. If I say "this soup is too spicy" what I am REALLY saying is that I prefer less spice in my soup. This emphasizes the importance of "owning" one's message and stating it accurately. So when student A says to student B (from another class) "Leyes' class is a blast, he's so funny", she is talking about her perception of the experience in HER class. Student B may find this to be off base, as nobody laughs at his jokes in his class, in fact it's kind of dull.
But what does all this mean for public speaking? Well, every speaking situation takes place in the semiosphere. We need to understand that the audience is made up of individuals, some more central to our purpose than others. To convince them of something we must understand the lived-worlds of our key audience members and adapt our message to them. Their lived-worlds have their own codes and sign systems that drive behavior. By putting our focus on these codes and sign systems we are better able to construct messages that "speak to" them directly. And in so doing we are more likely to get the responses we seek from them.
I hope this makes sense for you. I am happy to entertain questions in the Comments section below.
That's all for today. Speak well, be well, and as always thanks for reading!
If you would like to learn more about Dan Leyes and his consulting work, see Semiosphere Consulting.
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