Attention grabbers of the worst kind. You need to get them, before they get you! If you aren’t fully prepared, these mental muggers will slip in and hijack the attention of your audience. When that attention begins to shift and drift away from you, and from the points you want to make, it can be challenging, though not impossible, to get that attention back.
Whenever we are giving a presentation, as speakers we need to remember that the brain is an amazing organism that does millions, billions of calculations per second. It’s always on. It’s looking for action. Most of us speak in the range of 120 to 150 words per minute. At the other end of the scale however, people listening to us can hear about 300 words per minute. This gap between words spoken and words heard, leaves the audience’s mind ‘time’ and space, to be sucked in by attention grabbers of the worst kind.
So, who are these mental muggers? Here are five attention grabbers that you need to stop in their tracks or they will distract, disrupt and divert the focus of your audience.
1. Semantics become attention grabbers when a speaker uses words or acronyms the audience doesn’t know, has never heard of, or the speaker mispronounces a word in some way making it sound unfamiliar. When this happens, the audience opts out of listening and diverts its attention to figuring out the meaning of what was said.
2. Psychological attention grabbers are those that refer to the audience’s attitude and its willingness to listen to you as the speaker. Do they like you? Does your topic have meaning for them in some way? Are they happy to be there or would they rather be someplace else?
3. Facts. Too much information can distract. This happens when an audience is swamped with so many facts and minute details that the main points or key ideas are left to drown, and the audience walks away without any clear message.
4. Physical attention grabbers can be found everywhere in the presentation environment. Different colors or bright lights through a window or in the room can distract. Sounds from people or equipment inside or outside, smells of food, even touch can disrupt the concentration process, if people feel pressed too close together.
5. Physiological attention grabbers have to do with the body. If a listener is tired or not feeling well their attention will be hijacked by how they feel and they will not be able to absorb the fullness of the speaker’s message.
In any presentation situation, some of these mind muggers are within our control. Others are not. But, in the end, it’s how we handle them that will make the difference in our speaking success.