Next level speakers figure out a way to make their audience care
Next level speakers figure out a way to make their audience care.
When we get up to speak there always exists two agendas between the communicator and the listener. Our audience wants us to talk to them about what they care about, while we want them to listen to what we care about. Great communicators figure out a way to accomplish both at the same time. Speaking of these competing agendas, P.T. Forsyth once said in a series of lectures to young emerging communicators at Yale in 1907, “You are there not simply to speak what people care to hear, but also to make them care for what you must speak” (Preaching and the Modern Mind). And there it is. The onus is on us as communicators to inspire the listener to lean in, engage and truly care about our message. Fail to do this and the message may elicit a few laughs, and provide some momentary entertainment, but it will not persuade and truly move people. Figure out a way to bring the audience with you- to make them care about what you care about- and it will be a transformative experience.
What I am offering to you is not something nice to think about, but absolutely necessary. In every talk, we have to answer the question, “What is the felt need, or the human longing my message will address,” and this question must be answered within the first seven to ten minutes, or we risk talking to a disinterested, unengaged audience.
Recently, I was coaching a young communicator who asked me to help him get better. I listened to one of his messages and pretty much told him he has to make his audience care by addressing their felt need. After a few weeks he sent me a note letting me know how several people had mentioned how his speaking had vastly improved. While they may not be able to put their finger on what changed, their feedback indicates they were more engaged as listeners because he had figured out a way to make them care. I’m telling you, if you do this one thing you will improve instantly as a communicator.
Okay, but how? I have found the following tips to be helpful in making my audience care:
Awareness. For many communicators they do not even think to ask the question of felt need, or human longing. They are not even aware of the different agendas between them and the audience and how it is their duty to make the people care about what they are talking about. I recommend putting a checklist together of things you have to cover with every talk, and having the question, “Did I make the audience care by naming their specific felt need,” right at the top of your checklist. Refer to this checklist every time you put a message together.
Look for it, I promise you it’s there. As a pastor the content I use to speak is the Bible. One of the things which makes every passage in the Bible useful (II Timothy 3:16) is because every passage deals with some human longing. For example, this week I’m preaching on Israel, Egypt and the Red Sea- one of the most famous passages in the Bible. Now unless I figure out what the universal human longing is, it’s just a bit of history with maybe some moral lessons. So as I’m studying, I came across a verse where Israel wants to go back to Egypt because in their minds they had it so much better there. What’s their longing, their felt need? Comfort. Ease. I need to speak to that, and then show them how God’s way is better than our longing. I promise you, if you look for it, it’s there.
Live. In most other professions, the older a person gets, the worse they get at their jobs. Communicators, the older we get, the better we tend to get, and the reason for this is not only experience in speaking, but experience in life. We have a better understanding of the human condition, and are able to quickly connect to the felt needs of our audience.
Create and keep tension. Remember there are two agendas going on while you are speaking- the audiences and yours. By tapping into the felt need of your listeners, you are giving a head nod to what they care about. But your message should either offer the best path for them to express their longing, or a completely different (and better) path to their longing. For example, as I will talk about the life of ease we want, contrasted to the life God wants, I am naturally creating tension, but I also have to show them why God’s way is better. So throughout the talk you want to constantly go back and not only acknowledge their longing, but hold it up to the better way you are providing, and show them why and how it’s better. Nothing keeps an audience engaged like tension.
What I’m Reading:
An Unfinished Love Story, Doris Kearns Godwin
The Anti-Greed Gospel, Malcolm Foley
