1. Movement
Imagine having to force someone to watch a dot on the wall incessantly. This is almost impossible: our eyes constantly want to move, to slide from one object to another. And trying to hold your gaze is more likely to make you want to sleep.
It takes movement to grab attention. Just as literally walking across an audience or stage, and figuratively, moving from one topic to another. Even if you need to dwell on a certain issue for a long time, periodically touch on abstract topics and tell life stories. This will make it easier to listen to you.
2. Surprise
Repeating things make us bored. People who tell the same stories, politicians using the same arguments, make you want to get distracted by something else.
To be perceived with interest, leave room for secrets. Change the story’s timeline, make listeners wonder what’s going to happen next. Start from afar, draw unusual parallels, pretend to lead to one junction, and turn sharply to another.
As you reread your speech, find out for yourself what exactly the audience will be waiting for at each moment—and break those expectations.
3. Well-thought-out behavior
One of the most important things about public speaking is the speaker’s behavior. If you speak without enthusiasm, with your eyes fixed on the floor, turn a blind eye to the audience and show no interest in the topic, the audience will do the same thing — get bored and dream that it will end as soon as possible.
Think about what emotions you want your audience to feel and act accordingly. If you need a stream of ideas from people, then communicate with pressure. If you are interested and enthusiastic, then speak openly and vigorously. This gives rise to similar things — this rule also applies in the field of speeches.
4. Approval chains
Imagine that you receive a cold call from a company. And the first thing people ask you is, “Would you like to use our services?” Of course you say no. Now the caller will have to perform miracles of persuasion to make you change your mind, and he’s unlikely to succeed.
If we start to deny something, our whole nature is aimed at insisting on our own and not changing our position. We close down, start to be skeptical about what we’re talking to, and are very reluctant to accept others’ ideas, even if they have nothing to do with the question we originally answered.
Therefore, it is necessary to create approval chains. Ask people obvious questions to get a few “yes” answers. This will create favorable conditions for the perception of your ideas and will attract the audience to you. A person who says yes is psychologically inclined to absorb information and be willing to listen.
5. Questions
Another good way to revive your audience and get people to listen to you is to ask questions. Public speaking is usually a one-sided interaction. The speaker talks, the others listen. But if you feel people’s attention is slipping away, ask them a question.
This changes the interaction pattern: now listeners have to talk and you have to listen. For a second, the audience gains control over the situation, and this arouses interest and makes them react quickly. People feel included in a conversation, which is much more fun than simply taking in information.
6. Include a new
People have a craving for new information. This is one of the reasons why we love reading the news so much. You can use this trait for your own purposes. To make your speech more engaging, add news stories that are relevant to your topic, but may also arouse interest on their own.
It could be a new invention that will change the entire industry, an amazing discovery in a related field, or something related to the city or country you’re performing in. The main thing is to remember that the news must contain enough familiar information, otherwise the audience will not be able to perceive it. Too much new stuff is just as bad as not having one.
7. Dosing
Sometimes you want to tell the audience everything at once, to share as much information as possible, because time is limited and you have accumulated a lot of experience and knowledge. But it’s better to slow down. A person may not process much data per unit of time, and exceeding this threshold will result in none of your theses being remembered.
If you want listeners to really pay attention to your words, pick one or two main ideas and stream them. You can frame them with less important points, life stories and other information, the main thing is to keep your focus on. If your speech is focused, so will the audience.
Source: https://lifehacker.ru/kak-privlech-vnimanie/
For questions regarding ownership, please contact the author of the original text.