Monthly Archives: January 2018

Effective communication- How to convey a message effectively

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Effective communications is a cross-cutting need; no matter if we are educators looking for alluring our students or entrepreneurs trying to convince an investor about the benefits of our product. This kind of communication aims to get a point across causing an effect on the receiver; however is not an abundant skill nowadays.

So, educators, entrepreneurs, salesmen and everyone with the objective of persuading or conveying a message will benefit applying the following rules developed by Frank Lantz.

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1. Simplicity: Simple messages cause a bigger impact.   So, if you want to be remembered, leave behind technical language and empty words.

2.  Be brief: Remember that less is often more. The attention span of our brains is limited and our audience could not be motivated. So, forget about neverending speeches and try instead to use a limited number of words that could phrase your message with precision.

3. Credibility: Confusing messages will cause doubts about the veracity of your message activating a defensive response in your audience. People just consider genuine information.   So, making your message genuine and avoiding contradictions will gain the credibility of your public and ease the communication.

 4. Coherence: Even if you want to try several topics, our attention is limited and the working memory will filter most of the information. The recommendation is to focus on few elements that should be recalled through repetition

5. Memorable words: The brain has an aesthetic sense which is attracted by elements such as symmetry and rhythm. In terms of speech, using rhymes and sets of words with similar endings or some musicality will make our message be remembered.

6. Novelty: Our brain is trained to detect and get motivated by innovative elements. In this case, surprising our audience with unknown information or data;   will help them to make sense of our message and remember.

 7.Positive messages: We naturally prefer happy endings.   So, connecting the message with emotions and transmitting hope will help your audience to accept the message and remember.

8.Visualization: The brain works building networks. Therefore, if our messages can trigger mental images; it will be easier for our audience to remember and recalling such memories in the future.

9. Using questions: Questioning your audience will help them to feel included. In addition, the mental effort of processing the answer will make them get connected to the topic and help them to remember.

10.Context: Our emotional brain needs to make sense of information in order to get motivated.   That is the reason why your audience should know the importance of the message and how it is related to their needs and ambitions.

Check out this course: Storytelling Tactics to Make Exciting Speeches

Effective presentations. How to avoid Death by Powerpoint?

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No matter if we are students, educators, entrepreneurs or salesmen, we are all familiar with Powerpoint. During two decades, this piece of software from the Microsoft Office family has been the most used tool to present our academic and commercial ideas.

Nevertheless, our presentations are not always as effective as we expect and sometimes we can even trigger in our audience what is called Death by Powerpoint. What is the source of this problem? Is it always difficult to convey a message to our audience? The answer is simple: We have not a properly designed presentation!   We just need to apply some basic rules to improve the effectiveness of our message!

The following are some basic principles to avoid the Dead by Powerpoint.

 

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1.  Write a script: Planning is important, so before using Powerpoint define the message you want to convey. The human brain is designed to remember stories and no matter, if you are having an academic speech or an elevator pitch; creating a timeline and including the elements of a story, will help us to make it memorable.

 

2.  Don´t write paragraphs: Even if you want to show all your knowledge, slides are schematic tools, not documents. Your audience can either listen or read, so if you want to catch the attention of the participants, you must reduce the text in your slides.

 

3.  Be brief: No matter the length of the session, a presentation must be as short and precise as possible.   The average attention span is 20 minutes, and our working memory has a limited size. So, if you want an effective presentation, the less is often more. If 20 minutes is not enough include active pauses and allow your audience´s brain and eyes to get a rest.

 

4.  Don´t dismiss the style: Design is one of the most important elements if you want to catch the attention and be remembered.   Using animations, shadows and overloading your presentation with visual elements is a cause of distraction and could make you look unprofessional. Be careful choosing colors and fonts and use images to stand out your message.

 

5.  Avoid templates: After two decades of using Powerpoint, its templates can be boring and overused. Many of those templates are overloaded with text and their choice of colors and fonts are not the most appropiated.

 

6.  Be wise with bullets: Even if your presentation includes many topics, is not convenient to show them all on a single slide. A long list can overwhelm your audience, so you can distribute your bullets and topics in different slides and use images to avoid being boring.

 

7.  Include questions: Questions give you the chance of interacting with your audience and break the monotony. Including questions can also show that you are concern about your audience perspective. On the other side, the intellectual effort of recalling the answer improves the retention of the message that you want to convey.