Are We Making Sense?

How to appeal to the senses for a better speaking and listening experience
By Santhanaram Jayaram

As you walk into the room and look round, you see an ocean of unfamiliar faces, hearing their chatter. The time draws close and it’s your turn to the podium to deliver your message. You could smell the sweetness of being in the spot light and yet you taste anxiety as your stomach roars in discomfort and your knees feel weak. Relax and let us make sense of our presentation.

See
When we communicate with others, our intentions have to be clear and concise. In view of what we say, what do we want others to get a scope on? The speaker should not stare off into space but bring forth a mental image of the bigger picture to the audience. The speaker must be able to paint a picture through vivid description of the subject. There must not be a barrier between the audience and the speaker. The audience must be able to get a perspective on the subject the speech is about and some clear-cut, well defined key points that they can take away and apply. As much as the audience appreciates the speaker’s message, the speaker has to bear in mind a few questions,
• Is his speech pattern appropriate for the occasion?
• Does his style suit his personality?
• Does the presenter wear a conducive and more eye-appeasing color that appeals to the audience?
• Does the speaker show congruence of his body movements with his verbal cues?
• Does his gestures go with his message?
• Does he project confidence through his posture?

Hear
Being presenters, we should well inform the audience of our speech sequence. State our purpose clearly by the use of any style and build momentum in our speech. We can use past, present and the future through a time line or a compare and contrast approach. We can derive a solution from a problem or describe an effect from the cause. What ever we do, we have to sing it to the tune others would want to hear. The speaker should sound out some of these questions for a perfect pitch.
• Is tone of the presentation very monotonous?
• Does he or she have a high pitch or low pitch?
• Is there some melody or rhythm that is unique to the speaker?
• Is the presentation loud and clear?
• Does the speaker use proper enunciation and pronunciation of words?

Taste
When it comes to the taste, the audience may experience varied flavors. There are four common flavors of salty, sour, bitter and sweet.
Salty flavor - The audience sense annoyance and irritation. This could be a result of the speaker being disrespectful or grouchy when he or she is giving a presentation. The speaker might be unclear in what he or she is saying or might be repeating their points. The speaker may say words that might be mean and offensive.
Sweet flavor – Speakers have to use anecdotes and stories that add a minty flavor. Use flowery words and quotations that spice up the crowd such as “Lovely”, “Awesome”’ “Fantastic” and “I cannot hear your heartbeat, then you guys might be too far away, lets get closer and be connected”. Inject a variety of positive words in your presentation and the audience will love your recipe.
Bitter flavor – This experience is when the speaker is not congruent with his or her words. The speaker might be contradicting what they say when delivering their message. An example would be when he gives conflicting views during his presentation.
Sour flavor– The audience is not agreeable, with what the speakers preaches. There is a sense of uneasiness and unhappiness in the air. The topics raised might be unpleasant. The speaker might have crossed his boundaries and said sharp penetrating words that might emotional affect the audience. There might be culturally sensitive topics or strong opinions.

Smell
Being a great fan of the wrestling entertainment, I would observe how these wrestlers entertain us through their fancy attires and charismatic phrases. “If you smell, what the ROCK, is COOKING!” these were the expressions coined by an American actor, professional wrestler and philanthropist, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. His words were electrifying. When it comes to speaking to an audience, we have to gain awareness of the aroma of a great speech. Let us sniff out some essential questions.
• How much time and effort do we allocate in structuring a quality speech?
• Would the audience be able to concentrate on the style, content and context?
• Are there too many flowery words?
• Does the message give a pungent experience?
• Is the speech pleasant or unpleasant?
• Is the intensity of the message too weak or too strong?
• Would the audience prefer fragrance and aroma versus stench and stink in their speech experience?

Just like the penetrating odor of the male musk deer, choosing the right words could present us a good aftershave experience. Use simple and easy to understand language. Avoid jargons and words that are not self-explanatory. If not they would create an unpleasant rotten egg experience.


Touch
The human touch would be the most crucial sense as it calls for action. As the speaker conveys his thoughts and ideas, he would want some warm acceptance of his ideas by at least a few members of the audience. One of the concerning and dreadful experiences a speaker has to face is when the audience gives the speaker a hard time by giving their cold shoulder. The speaker has to find some strings to pull and win over the audience. He or she has to find a way to turn on the heat. It boils down to how the speaker is able to read the signals and break their state. For this, the speaker has to be cool, calm and collected. Let us embrace some thoughts about feeling the audience.
• Is there warmth in the presentation or are the words cold?
• Is the presenter able to draw out pleasing moment in the mind of others?
• Does the speaker use sufficient pauses to generate anticipation?
• Does the speaker have stories that evoke emotions?

As we have just experience a journey with our senses, does this makes sense to you. What are you going to do about what you have just read? Are you going to ignore this or are you going to do something about it?

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