SECRETS OF DYNAMIC COMMUNICATION

PREPARE with FOCUS, DELIVER with CLARITY, SPEAK with POWER

Thomas Nelson

Contents

CHAPTER 1

The Most Important Ingredient

Focus, Focus, Focus

What is your secret?"

Every time I turned around, someone asked me that question. Atthe back of the room after an event, in letters from fans, during mediainterviews, and even today after more than forty years of professionalspeaking, I'm asked, "What is your secret?" That's why I wrote this book.

But before we get to the secrets, a little history.

I think I was born with the communication gene. Most people fearpublic speaking. I have loved doing it as far back as I can remember.When a radio interviewer asked when I first started making people laughand listen, I answered, "When the doctor slapped me on the rear andsaid it's a boy."

During my junior year in high school, Francis W. Peterson, myEnglish teacher, inspired/blackmailed me to enter a speech contest. Shealso encouraged my participation in class plays and debate. Once I hadtasted the rush of rhetoric and the joy of creating laughter, there was noturning back.

After graduating from high school I studied to be a pastor, one of themost challenging communication occupations there is. Congregationsacross the country still celebrate the day I chose not to follow thatpath. Instead, I found myself fielding calls from people in all walks oflife who had heard me speak and wanted me to come and make presentations.I developed a high school assembly program called "Nothingbut the best" that I delivered to nearly a million students across thecountry. I was invited to speak at some of the top corporations in thecountry, as well as in many churches.

As my career took off, people who were interested in honing theirspeaking skills began to ask: "What is your secret? How is it possible foryou to speak to such a variety of audiences and hold their attention? Canyou teach me how to do it?" I was embarrassed to confess that I didn'tknow the secret. I didn't even know there was a secret. I thought it justcame naturally. Eventually the question could no longer be ignored. Idid some research and began observing the best communicators in thecountry to discover what common denominator kept them in constantdemand. What separated them from the average after-dinner drone?What gave one speaker the ability to empower and persuade so effectivelywhen another could only inspire yawns?

At first the evidence led me to believe that the secret was in the"dynamics" of communication, that spark of enthusiasm, wit, humor,and animation that was the mark of so many great communicators. Sowe put together our first conference, called it "Dynamic CommunicatorsWorkshop," and taught our students how to develop those dynamics. Itwas at that workshop we discovered the real secret. Although the "dynamics"were common denominators to all of the most gifted communicators,there was something else, something less visible that set the best apart fromeveryone else.

If I were to ask you what that ingredient was, what would your answerbe? Humor? Voice inflection? Interesting material? Good illustrations?Dynamic personality? Grab your highlighter. All of those are important,but the real secret to effective, dynamic speaking is ...

FOCUS

When we conducted our first workshop, now called the SCORREConference, 90 percent of the curriculum consisted of lectures andbreakout sessions that taught those physical, dynamic aspects of presentation.Yet at the end of the workshop every student who attendedidentified the most valuable takeaway of the week was a forty-minutesession on how to prepare a presentation with a single focused objective:focus. Everything else seemed to hang on this one teachable skill.

It's now been over thirty years since that first SCORRE Conference.Thousands of students have confirmed that if you want people to listen,learn, and take action, you must speak with crystal-clear focus.So why is it such a secret? Because focus doesn't happen in public ona well-lit platform. It happens in secret. In the quiet of your home oroffice.

FOCUS

We watch an amazing quarterback throw a perfect pass for the winningtouchdown and wonder, "What is the secret to such precision?" Andthe answer is so unglamorous. It is hours of unseen practice, developingthe "mundane" foundational basics such as how to hold the ball,how to stand, and how to develop the most efficient throwing motion.I wipe tears from my eyes as I listen to an orchestra bring a concert hallof patrons to their feet in wild applause. What is their secret? Years ofplaying scales, practicing the nuance of timing and volume. It's a secretbecause we don't see it. We just benefit from the result. It is in seclusionthat the great communicators carefully craft that great public performance.In private they practice the secrets of dynamic communicationthat effectively drive their message home.

It is only after that focused preparation they can step on the platformto speak with confidence, move people to action, and change lives. Andthose of us who aspire to be great wonder, what is their secret? A relentlesscommitment to ...

FOCUS

Unfortunately the most widely excepted philosophy of communicationis something quite different.

Shortly before I graduated from high school, I was invited to go deerhunting with the men from our community. Most of our neighbors andfriends owned small farms and had little income. They depended on thishunt to help feed their families during the long Minnesota winters. Tobe invited to this ritual was an honor I had dreamed of for years. I canstill feel the excitement of that frosty November opening day of deerseason. A dozen men were lined up on a road prepared to march througha stand of timber and scare the ticks off any deer that might be hidingthere. At the other end of the forest another group of men were posted intree stands prepared to shoot any deer that tried to escape.

What a thrill. This was my rite of passage. I was now a trusted memberof the adult providers in our community. I had hiked less than ahundred yards into the woods when a shot rang out. The bullet fromthat shot hit a tree only inches from my face and the splattering bark leftwelts on my cheek. Dazed, I remember thinking, That was close.

I took a few more steps and a second shot zipped above my head. Asbits of leaf and branch landed on my shoulders, my naive young mindconcluded, What a coincidence. Two close calls. The third shot followedalmost immediately and came so close to my ear that I felt heat as itpassed. I needed no more evidence. My mind screamed, Someone is shootingat you! My body responded.

I dived for the ground as bullet after bullet buzzed above my head.When the shooting stopped I looked up and could see the man who hadbeen firing. He had used up all his ammunition and was in the processof reloading his gun. With a vocabulary I am not proud of, and screamsof outrage that could be heard throughout the county, I managed toconvince him that it would be hazardous to his health to shoot in mydirection again.

Here's my point. This dangerous person should never have beenallowed out of his pickup truck. I'm sure he was filled with enthusiasm andwas probably using excellent equipment, but he lacked focus. Evidently hisphilosophy of hunting was, "There are deer in the woods somewhere. IfI just shoot enough bullets in there, I'm bound to hit something!" Yeah,like me!

This is a dangerous and ineffective hunting strategy. It is also an ineffectivecommunication strategy. Yet I am convinced that it is the unconscious,unspoken approach of many sincere communicators. "There are peopleout there everywhere," they reason. "If I just shoot enough information intheir direction, something is bound to hit."

Nothing could be further from the truth. If you aim at nothing, youwill hit nothing every time.

How can you expect an audience to get what you are aiming at if youdon't even know yourself? In the first few moments of your speech, theaudience decides whether you are worth listening to. If they sense a lack ofdirection or focus, you might as well pack your bags and go home becausethat's what their minds will do. Too often we end up preparing ineffectualshotgun messages, desperately wanting something—anything—toget through to the audience. We try to say it all, and end up communicatingnothing.

Several years ago we did an informal survey of over two thousandpeople who had just listened to speakers in various communication settings.Although each survey was conducted less than fifteen minutes afterthe presentation, over 70 percent of the people leaving a presentation hadno idea what had been communicated. Some could remember a joke orillustration, but most couldn't identify any purpose or direction for thetalk. Why had the speaker even bothered to talk?

That isn't the sad statistic. We also interviewed the speakers and discoveredthat more than 50 percent of the speakers could not articulatean objective or FOCUS to their talk. They didn't know what they weretrying to say or accomplish. No wonder the audience didn't know either!

That's why a dynamic presentation is secondary to a focused presentation.What good is it to be dynamic about nothing? What good areillustrations that go nowhere or interesting material that ends up on adead-end street? Dynamics and theatrics without focus are merely entertainment.Nothing wrong with that, unless you are trying to communicate.Novels and plays have a plot, trips have a destination, life has a purpose.If you want to communicate, the single most important ingredient is anunmistakable aiming point and a careful plan to hit it. FOCUS, FOCUS,FOCUS. Focused purpose. Focused preparation. Focused presentation.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNFOCUSED COMMUNICATION

A new generation of speakers and leaders sometimes question theeffectiveness of establishing a crystal-clear objective and constructinga speech that will lead to that objective. They believe that a smorgasbordof thoughts regurgitated in a creative manner will more effectivelyinstruct, persuade, or encourage an audience. My question is, are youtrying to communicate something? If so, then why not know what thatsomething is and move people toward it? When pressed on what it is theywant to communicate, many don't know. At best their response indicatesthat there are many "things" they want to say.

The same philosophy behind effective communication is utilized tofunction successfully in our day-to-day lives. When driving, we choosea destination and then choose the roads that will lead us there. Whenhungry, we take action to sate that hunger. In every case, all efforts arefocused on one specific target or goal. If you find yourself in a strangeairport and need power for your iPhone, your focused objective is to findan outlet. Only when you achieve that objective and finally slide thecharging cord into an outlet and hear that wonderful "ding," can yourelax and then choose a new objective.

This objective force drives our lives. In communication it is so powerfulthat if we don't set a focus for our presentation, an unconscious onewill take over. Here are some of the vague, power-stealing, unconsciousobjectives that can rear their heads and steal power from a speech:

• I hope they like me.

• I need to fill the time.

• I need to get through the material.

• I want to impress the audience.

• I want to regurgitate my research.

• I want to make my quota.

• I must cover every item on the agenda.

The insidious nature of these diversions is that they negatively affectevery aspect of a presentation and its outcome without you even beingaware of it. If your unconscious objective is to be liked, you will unconsciouslydesign and deliver a speech to meet that objective. People willlike you! But is that what you wanted to accomplish with your presentation?If so, Hollywood might be a better career choice.

The power of unconscious objectives was graphically illustrated onanother of my hunting trips. Years ago I exchanged my guns for a bow andarrow. I wanted to make hunting more of a challenge. I practiced until Iwas able to put all my arrows in an apple at twenty yards, and on severaloccasions I even split arrows in the target because I was shooting them soclose together. The only way to achieve that kind of accuracy is to concentrate,not on the apple, but on one tiny spot right in the center of the apple.I worked at this concentration until it became second nature.

One day while hunting, I peeked over a ridge to discover one ofthe biggest bucks I had ever seen standing only yards away completelyunaware of my presence. This deer was every hunter's dream. His hornslooked like trees. To be successful I had to shoot an arrow in an areaabout the size of a small paper plate just behind his front shoulder. Therewas no way I could miss. At this range I could hit a fifty-cent piece everytime. I could picture those monstrous horns adorning my den as I pulledback the bow and released the arrow. It flew as if in slow motion andstruck the deer ... in the horns! Instead of picking a tiny spot to aim at,I hit the object of my focus.

Without conscious thought, I had concentrated on the horns, andthat is exactly where my arrow stuck. That deer is probably still wearingthe arrow ornament today, telling his grandchildren the story about thecrazy guy with a sharp stick and a lack of focus.

In the early days of my career, my unconscious objective was "I hopethey like me." I was working with youth and trying to communicate avery important message of faith. Because I was unfocused in my preparation,I was hitting the horns instead of the heart. My unconsciousobjective was met. They did like me, but I wasn't getting my messageacross. One night, I overheard a parent who was picking up her child ask,"What did Ken talk about tonight?" To which the student responded, "Idon't know, but he was sure good." I no longer take this as a compliment.good at what? Good at entertaining maybe, but certainly notcommunication.

Nothing will create more fear and anxiety than agonizing over whetherthe audience will like you or not. There are many great organizations outthere designed to help people get over the fear of speaking. According tosurveys this fear is second only to death, followed closely in our home bythe fear of spiders. Understanding two facts can help minimize the obsessionwith being liked and the fear of speaking that is married to it. First,confidence comes from focused preparation. Second, communication isnot about you.

Communication is not about you or what people will think about youor how well you will perform. Communication is about the people sittingin front of you. It's about giving to them, helping them, instructing them,and persuading them of something that will enrich their lives.

Dave was one of our SCORRE students who was on the ground floorof developing a medical delivery program that would benefit both physiciansand patients. In essence it was the forerunner to HMOs. Part of hisjob was making presentations to doctors and patient advocate groups toconvince them of the value of the system. There was one problem: Davehated public speaking. After I had worked with Dave for several days, hetold me, "I feel like I am so vulnerable in front of every group I speak to.What if I blow it? What will they think of me?"

Here was a man who was offering a new product that would save millionsof dollars for both the consumer and the provider, and yet his majorconcern was, "What will they think of me?" I remember leaning acrossthe table and telling Dave, "It is not about you! You are not there to getpersonal approval; you are there to offer amazing benefits to your listeners.Instead of thinking about what they think about you, think about whatyou are giving to them."

After that Dave never looked back. The power of his presentationswas multiplied, his sales soared, and he actually began to enjoy speaking.
(Continues...)Excerpted from SECRETS OF DYNAMIC COMMUNICATION by KEN DAVIS. Copyright © 2013 Ken Davis. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
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