Facial expressions or lack of, taking notes or checking emails. Us thinking bipeds have many simultaneous needs. Numerous sources say that the human attention span for a learning session drops flat after about 45 minutes. This realization is visible in the faces of the audience.
Just as speakers seem to speak from different points of view, listeners listen from differing points of view, from various levels of need. Each person’s needs vary depending on their mood, how hungry they are, what their boss said yesterday, how they feel about their relationships at the moment, how they feel they fit into the picture.
Always in the mind are complex desires, driven by the connectedness of what is known as the three levels of thought. The age-old division of body, mind and spirit is actually reflected in the layout of the human brain. Brain scientists now understand more about the divisions of thought in the structure, (simplifying here); the primitive inner core, the next layer is the emotional limbic area, and the outer layer, the rational neocortex regions. Now, you are probably engaging the rational and asking where is this going in terms of public speaking? This is an easy cognitive leap, from recent reading.
Through the duration of a speech (and any other time) our full spectrum of needs is monitored. Analysis is a higher function and requires comfort and support from the other layers. Comfortable legs and sitter - check, good message from the inner cortex. No longer upset about that last argument with my boss - check, good feelings from the limbic layer. Thinking about what the speaker just said and processing how it fits into my values - check, in-the-moment analysis by the rational region. Each level of the brain can direct all levels of the human experience, that is, where we encounter differing priorities, personality can emerge. Let’s say all systems are functioning, but; woops - a priority message is received by the lower brain which says the bladder needs to find a time slot for attention. Then, geez, the speaker just said something that triggered sad memories from childhood, and I think I may cry, just like the woman beside me - central region processing in action. Uh-oh. That buzz on my phone could only mean that the deal at work is going badly - and a rational brain is needed for that problem.
We all operate at these differing levels to differing degrees all the time. Each person may be more disposed to one level or another at the moment (remember Maslow?), but these classic divisions are always active and apply to listening skills. This is why as speakers, it is to our advantage to speak to the whole person - body, mind, and spirit - self, ego, and thinker - in order to create a bond of trust, comfort and learning. This can be easy when you think about it (rationally :))… How many times have you seen a speaker ask if everyone is comfortable (self)? How about that appeal for expanding the outreach of your personal “brand” (there's the ego, and doesn’t the audience perk up)? How many times do we see leaders appeal to our sense of compassion and our drive to serve others (spirit)?
Research tells us that the human brain is listening to satisfy the needs of the whole system - body, mind, spirit. The more we can incorporate language which appeals to each of the layers of human experience, the more directly we are engaging the attention of the whole person. "Feeling safe? Ready to connect emotionally? Ready to see this problem in a new way? Lets think about this together… "
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