Chris Davidson

This week I want to return to the work of my friend and colleague, Frowa Schuitemaker, a professional speaker from The Netherlands and member of the Professional Speakers Association Holland.

Frowa has created a seven step process for more effective speaking, called:

"Speaking with the brain in mind"

The steps are based on research conducted into the brain activity of normal people when they are listening, learning and experiencing certain emotions. Integrating these steps into how you communicate with your audience will make you a more effective communicator.

In summary, the brain patterns of participants were scanned using fMRI scanning, (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Frowa has examined this (and other) data and come to the following conclusions. Each of these conclusions is a step in her seven step process - the more steps you have integrated into your performance, the better off you ought to be, in terms of connecting with your audience and giving them an amazing experience.

1. It's all about connections
Brains love making connections between different sets of data. The more connections, the greater the retention. Beyond straightforward connections between different data sets is the connections between our senses. I still recall of of the most vivid presentations I attended. It was all about maintaining a healthy diet. Instead of the presenters giving us a whole load of information about different food stuffs and calories, etc, they get the audience involved in making stuff - there and then - they handed out blenders, all manner of fruit, vegetables, nuts, etc and got us making fresh smoothies for each other to taste. Impact: The audience ended up working with each other and the presenter brought our senses of taste and smell into the learning process - something few speakers manage to achieve. Result: Loads of learning - loads of retention - loads of fun. Excellent.

2. Making a connection with the audience
This is a subtle and tricky point for professional speakers. Often, speakers like to "challenge" their audience members. This is all well and good, but are you challenging them so much that you're triggering their "fight or flight" response? If you are, they'll switch off and stop listening. The key here seems to be one of establishing trust first, so the audience know that they're in a safe place. My karate instructor has established this within his dojo. We all trust him not to hurt us during our training sessions, even though he most obviously could. Because he has the trust of the students, we're all happy to try our best, holding nothing in reserve. So, what do you do to engage the trust of your audience?

3. Listing with a goal
A personal goal activates the reticular formation of the brainstem. This makes it easier for the listener to take interesting information home. It's important that you make it clear to the audience what your goal is for them. It's also important that you give them time to formulate their own.

4. Prior knowledge - friend or foe?
If the audience is given the possibility to activate their prior knowledge, they will create extra connections between the new material and their existing information. This will help learning and retention, and in this respect, existing knowledge is a "friend". If activation of prior knowledge isn't encouraged then it can forma barrier to accepting new data and in this sense become a "foe". For best results, create a process within your presentations which enables the audience to activate their prior knowledge.

5. Facts and emotions
I've written about this at length previously, so will cover it briefly here. Buying is an emotional experience. If you want people to"buy into your message" you have to take them on an emotional journey. Telling stories is an excellent place to start.

6. Both sides of the brain
Make sure you link the auditory and visual message. Let's be very clear on one thing here. that is *not* reading words out loud that are written up for all to see. It *is* having an image that supports what you're saying.

7. Time for reflection
Even if audience and presenter speak the same language, the audience is still going through a translation process, in order to be able to take your information on board and do something useful with it.

I'd like to thank Frowa for her permission to publish this summary of her work. I know that she'd welcome your commentary on it, so please feel free to send you comments to me and I'll make sure that they are passed on to Frowa.

That's it folks for this week - as usual, your comments welcomed and appreciated, particularly with reference as to what you'd like to hear about. I do get quite a few e-mails by the way, and I read them all, so please don't feel shy about getting in contact.

Best wishes for the coming week.

Chris Davidson
Editor, Professional Speakers Journal
editor@professionalspeakersjournal.com

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