Media Training Worldwide

The I-Pod Speech Experiment

Imagine you find yourself at a huge trade conference with back-to-back speakers all day long for three days. Select a morning or afternoon when the all of the speakers are focused on issues that are not crucial to your career. Next, sit on the second row of the auditorium. Only instead of listening to the speakers, I want you to put on an I-pod or a Walk-Man and listen to music. But I want you to watch, really watch, each speaker carefully.

Make notes on their movements, gestures, and facial expressions. See if you can figure out what the speakers are trying to convey. When the series of speakers has finished, go back to your notes and rate which speakers you liked watching the most. Next, rank all of the speakers from best to worst, in your opinion, just on the basis of how they came across visually to you.

Now, go up to several other people who were also in attendance and heard every speaker and ask them, “What speakers did you like the most?” And, “What speakers did you like the least?”

Now, compare your list with the lists of the people who heard every word. What do you think you will find? In most cases, the lists will be very similar. The people we like and the people we don’t like often get rated not by their words, but by the actions, movements and expressions. That’s why it’s never enough to “practice” a speech by reading a script to yourself over and over again. Real practice must consist of standing up in front of people and speaking AND MOVING the way you intent to during the actual speech.

My point isn’t that words don’t matter; they do. But your movement, expressions, eye contact and gestures often count for even more.

If you don’t believe me, then try the I-pod experiment for yourself. Just don’t get caught listening to heavy metal when your boss is speaking.