ARTICLES TO BUILD YOUR POLITICAL STRATEGIES & SKILLS
Powerful & Persuasive Delivery Techniques
GETTING STARTED: THE MAGIC OF MOVEMENT
Movement is an integral and vital part of all communication. During any normal
oral exchange, we gesture, walk about, or turn in our chairs, to emphasize or
decry a particular point. Let us make a formal presentation, however, and we
become Jekyll and Hyde! The floor beneath us seems to either turn to glue and
hold us rooted, or, to become electrified so we prance about like a Mexican
jumping bean.
To help you return to normal, program movement into your presentation to
match what you are saying. If, for example, you are referring to a dimension
such as height or width, physically show us. Measure it from floor or table,
spread your arms, reach for the ceiling, or, use your arms, alternately, to show
from here (Chicago) to there (Toronto).
If you tell us you see, or saw, something
and are going to describe it, walk across the stage and pretend to examine it.
Visualize it and then point to or `touch' each segment as you refer to it.
Try
it. One of the following examples will help you get started.
Example 1: "The grass is always greener . . ."
Contrast your neighbour's beautiful lush green lawn with your own spotty
patches of dandelions and crab grass.
To do this effectively, you have two choices:
- totally describe his lawn and then totally describe yours; or,
- describe and then compare each feature.
Should you
choose to contrast, feature by feature, you would accommodate the change
by simply facing first one way, then the other, as you alternated.
In either case, as you draw a verbal picture for your audience you would
also texture it by feeling your neighbour's lush carpet of grass. Run
your hand through it, wiggle your toes in it, contemplate sprawling on it.
Then feel your own grass. Pull out a few dandelions, scowl at the crab
grass, and, perhaps turn away from the unpalatable sight, or grind it all
up with a rototiller and start again.
Example 2: "Quality Control"
Helping your audience visualize a service, concept, or process, requires
extra care. Because you have no physical picture or prop to rely on, you
must find other techniques to assist your audience to relate, especially if
they have never experienced anything similar. Movement can be an
enormous aid in communicating.
Let's consider, for example, a chemical or manufacturing process. You
might decide to show a series of slides of each operation; but, this
technique has a tendency to segment the process and to lessen the ability
to display alternate paths.
If, on the other hand you make full use of
your presentation platform, you can walk your audience around the plant as you
describe it. Even more effective is to ask the audience to visualize you
as the raw material moving through the process and changing as you go.
The possibilities for movement are endless, as are the possibilities for
positively influencing your audience by rubbing your nice smooth edges
(tolerance .0001mm) or revelling in your sulphur bath. (Now that takes
imagination!)
If you prefer a somewhat safer approach, walk your audience through to
each spot, and then use a slide or picture to aid in the visualization. Do,
however, use your body to look inside, turn the knobs or place things
in the curing oven. Remember, though, that each time you talk about a particular operation you should go back to the same spot to discuss it. The audience
will rapidly relate to that.
The same technique can be used to differentiate between economic theories,
planning alternatives, or segments of any talk. Provide a specific spot
on the platform, or, on the table in front of you if that is your setting, for
your audience to use as a visual focus for each abstract concept or
physical unit you wish them to remember.
Once you have programmed movement and gestures to help your listeners see what they are hearing, you won't have to worry about the what else your hands and feet are doing. They are too busy communicating.
A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. I am alone, and feel the charm of existence in this spot, which was created for the bliss of souls like mine.
I am so happy, my dear friend, so absorbed in the exquisite sense of mere tranquil existence, that I neglect my talents. I should be incapable of drawing a single stroke at the present moment; and yet I feel that I never was a greater artist than now.
When, while the lovely valley teems with vapour around me, and the meridian sun strikes the upper surface of the impenetrable foliage of my trees, and but a few stray gleams steal into the inner sanctuary, I throw myself down among the tall grass by the trickling stream; and, as I lie close to the earth, a thousand unknown plants are noticed by me: when I hear the buzz of the little world among the stalks, and grow familiar with the countless indescribable forms of the insects and flies, then I feel the presence of the Almighty, who formed us in his own image.
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