pocketspeak4e

Recognize That We Listen Selectively

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In any given situation, no two audience members will process the information in exactly the same way. The reason lies in selective perception—people pay attention selectively to certain messages while ignoring others. Several factors influence what we listen to and what we ignore:

We pay attention to what we hold to be important.
We pay attention to information that touches our experiences and backgrounds.
We sort and filter new information on the basis of what we already know (i.e., one way we learn is by analogy).²

With these principles in mind, try to:

Identify what’s important to your listeners, including their interests, needs, attitudes, and values.
Show them early on what they stand to gain from listening to you.
Touch upon their experiences and backgrounds.
Build repetition of key ideas into the speech.
Use analogies to help listeners learn new ideas.
When appropriate, use presentation aids to visually reinforce your message.

Beat the Odds by Listening

Each of us devotes between 20 and 40 percent of our daily lives to listening.³ For executives, the figure rises to 45 percent.⁴ Yet most people retain only half of what they hear immediately and only 35 percent of what they heard after twenty-four hours.⁵ Employers actively seek out new hires who can beat these averages, and those who do so tend to get hired and promoted first.⁶