Attention - Articles - Andrew Schwartz

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Attention
by Andrew E. Schwartz

There is nothing wrong with talking to yourself in private. It can be a constructive emotional safety valve. Many presentors, however, talk to themselves in public when they train without the audience’s attention. Their training presentations are boring and dry, and waste both their own and their listeners’ time. It is crucial that a presentor learn how to gauge the level of audience attention. Without audience attention, you might just as well pack up your notes, aids, projector, easel charts, and go home. There is nothing to train but an empty room.

A major cause of this is stage fright. Being so self-involved the presentor has very little energy to devote to making personal contact. It is not unusual for this to happen, and there are ways to avoid it. You can capture and hold an audience’s attention if you begin by giving your listeners your attention first.

First and foremost, you must deal effectively with your own emotions, ego, hang-ups, inhibitions, and fears. This will release you to focus on the audience is their attention level. A presentor must prepare thoroughly, believe in the message behind the words, and be committed to attaining his or her objective. But most important is a continual awareness of the audience members as individual persons, and not as merely a faceless mass.

Observing Audience Attention: There is only one way to find out whether or not an audience is paying attention. That is to look at them, not through them. The best way is to look at individual faces and directly into their eyes. This reveals whether they are looking and listening, and forces them to do so if their attention has wandered. A presentor should make every effort to get and hold eye contact with the audience, since it is the only way to talk directly to people. This may be difficult with larger groups. Sometimes it is necessary to concentrate only on the first few rows and use them to gauge the rest. Yet it is possible with a little practice to look into the eyes of people fairly far back even in a large audience, or to make them sense eye contact.

The larger auditorium audience does pose an additional problem to a presentor, who may be working from a stage or in a darkened room. Here, voice and other devices must be relied on more to maintain audience contact.

Other gauges of how well an audience is listening are such things as shuffling feet, movement, scribbling, and general restlessness. All of these must be circumvented if you are to get and maintain attention.

Develop a Feeling of Mutuality: Many presentors unconsciously place themselves in opposition to their audiences, and this comes through in their delivery. People are more likely to listen to someone who agrees with them. It is almost always possible to find some area of agreement with which to begin, even if it is nothing more than the mutuality of the audience’s and speaker’s joint presence. But it can usually go deeper than that. You should work from the assumption that both you and your audience are on the same side, mutually seeking a solution, seeking to learn, to find the benefits of this or that technique. The word is adaptability - an attribute which any person willing to study human nature can and must develop.

Act Friendly: A smile can more effectively start a training off right than anything else you might do. And the remarkable thing is that it will also have a positive impact on you. Try this experiment with your next group of participants. There is no rule that says you must begin to speak immediately on reaching the podium. Say nothing, and simply view the audience. Look into the faces of as many individuals as possible and smile in a friendly way. This will relax both you and your audience. Continue to smile as occasions present themselves. Look at people, interact with them warmly, disarmingly and sincerely and see what happens.

Use your Audience’s Language: Part of the larger philosophy of speaking from the audience’s point of view is through the use of their language. It identifies you with “their side.” They will automatically feel more closely in agreement with a person who speaks as one of them.

If you are presenting to a group who sells boats using words such as “bow” and “stern” rather than front or back will help establish closeness and unity with your audience. At a presentation to a group of scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which we recently attended, the presentor repeatedly pronounced the acronym “NASA,” with a long “a” as in day, instead of with the accepted short “a” as in cash. A small enough matter, yet it told the audience that this person was an outsider, and his lack of familiarity with their name might be an indication of his lack of knowledge of their problems as well. The more you are able to couch your ideas in your audience’s terms, the better are your chances of establishing true rapport, and you gain one more advantage in your attempt to hold their attention.

Eliminate Distraction: If possible, physically arrange the audience so that they’re less distracted by late arrivals. Try to group them so that there is a minimum of space between them. Do not permit guests to remain on the podium during delivery. While setting up and choosing a room, remain aware of audience comfort—ventilation, heat, and cooling. Eliminate unnecessary material from the podium such as flowers, signs, or unused equipment. Keep visuals covered unless they are actually in use. Keep the chalkboard clean. Check lighting to be sure that it focuses on the podium and directly on the speaker. The podium should be the best lit spot in the room. Dress conservatively and impeccably. Be pleasant to look at! Do not wear highly reflective colors or jewelry. Stay on schedule so that the audience will not be distracted by time pressures.

Be Vigorous and Energetic: There is an old saying: “The first thing to do when the audience goes to sleep is to prod the speaker.” Most presentations are not intense enough. The average audience is lulled to sleep by droning monotony. A really energetic presenter can lose a pound or more in the course of an hour-long presentation, which gives some idea of the vigor which can and should go into it. If you are alive, alert, intense, enthusiastic, the audience cannot put their attention elsewhere.

Communicate with People: Never in the course of the presentation lose sight of the fact that you are speaking to people. Keep what is said on a personal level. Speak directly to individuals. Never slip out of focus and begin talking to the room in general.

Furnish Variety and Relief: People don’t relate well to the same activity repeated over a long period of time. Try to alternate activity and lecture. Intersperse things such as chalkboard use, demonstration, lecturing, and audio-visuals so that no single one occupies too long a period. Do not “bounce” all over the podium, but furnish the audience enough variety of action and speech so that they will have some opportunity to stay alert.

Let the Audience Participate: Direct participation by audience members is one of the best ways to keep their attention. When appropriately used, audience participation usually will focus the eyes and ears of almost every audience member on what’s happening. You should always be alert to possibilities for letting people in your audiences do and say. You may simply ask questions. You may ask for volunteers to demonstrate, or use a visiting expert.

Use Creativity: A presentor dryly discussing how to motivate people in an organization basically has just another “point-by-point” presentation. But suppose that he mounts the podium and begins to speak. Suddenly, a phone on the lectern rings. He ignores it at first, trying to continue. Finally he gives up, excuses himself and answers it. It is an engineer (off-stage voice) with a series of questions relating to the organization and the lecture topic. Although the presenter protests that this is “highly irregular,” the offstage voice indicates that the issues are pressing and must be answered on the spot (while visual support flashes on the screen). Humor meaningful to the audience may be injected, such as, “Why aren’t you at the meeting?” The lecture time is up, the presentation time has been used, and the presenter complains he “never got a chance to talk to the audience.” But the audience members have received the information that the presentor had come to share with them, and in an attention-getting way.

Use the Audience’s Natural Curiosity: There are many ways to use an audience’s natural curiosity, ranging from hinting, to a “surprise,” to out and out staging. Innovation and creativity are the catchwords here. Covered material, a wrapped package even silence or blank space might sometimes be used. Suppose, for example, that a series of slides were flashed on a screen in absolute silence—pictures of several product applications, then some competitive equipment, then a customer, then an engineer at his drawing board. No sound or speech. A desired momentary or prolonged audience response during this part of the presentation might well be something like, “What’s going on here?” “Somebody fouled up...forgot the sound.” Curiosity and attention are aroused. Then the spoken part of the training begins.

A Time to be Unequivocal: No presenter should be afraid to be definitive, to come right out and let his audience know that “this is the way it is.” Hedging weakens the whole presentation. From the standpoint of attention, an unequivocal statement can make an audience sit up and take notice. For example, “Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve undoubtedly heard some presentors say that planners and calendars are ineffective tools in time management. This is not true!” If spoken with proper emphasis and self-confidence, the statement implies that the person knows what they are talking about and is not afraid to say so. An audience will notice and respect it—even if they disagree.

Using these methods will give you greater confidence and enthusiasm in presenting to your audience. But more importantly, these suggestions and the kind of thinking they represent will put you well on the road to becoming a presentor who can get and maintain audience attention.

Andrew E. Schwartz, CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates of Boston, MA a comprehensive management training and professional development organization offering over 40 skills specific programs and practical solutions to today's business challenges.

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