The course is titled YOU & YOUR AUDIENCE:

It is a one day course. The ideal group-size is seven. There are Six Modules:

Module One: GETTING THE ATTENTION OF YOUR AUDIENCE

In the first twenty minutes, delegates learn about Status and the dynamics of the Performer - Audience relationship. This is taught using a series of theatre games. They learn how small changes to the way they use Space, Time, Breathing, Voice and Energy help them to:

• Get the full attention of their audience in a few seconds.
• Develop greater presence.
• Keep control of the agenda and situation.
• Put across their ideas with greater authority.
• Modulate their Status so they come across as both authoritative and approachable.

Inexperienced or less confident speakers will want to spend longer on Module One than those who are comfortable standing up and speaking in front of an audience. Experienced speakers find it useful to explore how to get the attention of an audience when one is sitting down - say, around a boardroom table.

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Module Two: KEEPING THE ATTENTION OF YOUR AUDIENCE

Actors learn that key to keeping an audience’s attention is Punctuation. Participants learn how to use breathing, eye contact and gestures to punctuate their speech. These theatre-based techniques can:

• Ensure the speaker’s arguments come across as far more structured.
• Relaxes the audience, so they listen more closely because they find it easier to follow.
• Gives the Speaker a feeling of being in control of the situation and the agenda.

Experienced speakers find this training enhances their ability because it shows how to use the voice and gestures to punctuate a speech. Less experienced and less confident speakers can use this technique to both master a situation that they find challenging. Knowing and using these techniques can then give them the basic confidence that can open the way to future development in their speaking skills.

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Module Three: EFFECTIVE USE OF THE VOICE

In this module, participants learn how to make more effective use of the Voice. The voice is the most subtle and sophisticated of speaking skills. It is also the most underused. Craft of Communication coaching makes full use of the disciplines in Theatre Voice Training to teach Speakers how to:

• Increase their vocal energy – this ensures they are always heard.
• Articulate arguments with greater clarity.
• Influence an audience by subtle vocal changes.
• Hold an audience’s attention by using more vocal variety when presenting their material.

A speaker’s vocal problems can be resolved by one of our Specialist Coaches (See Voice coaching page).

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Module Four: MANAGING YOUR AUDIENCE

This set of skills helps speakers to master those aspects of presentation where an audience’s focus can be distracted away from the speaker. In this module, participants learn how to

• Develop a professional PowerPoint technique.
• Ensure that PowerPoint enhances, but never dominates, their presentation.
• How to control Q & A sessions.
• How to run group presentations involving handovers from speaker to speaker.
• How to demonstrate a product.

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Module Five: NOTATION METHODS:

You need to do a presentation. How do you notate it? Do you use the slides as a prompt? Or do you speak from notes? In both cases, it’s likely you’ll be trying to read whilst simultaneously speaking. The human brain is not good at this because the faculty for processing the written word is situated on the opposite side to the faculty for processing the spoken word. Using that notation method is likely to make you feel tense, lose your place and make it tough to keep in contact with the most important people present – your audience.

We teach two alternative systems of notation that help you to use alternative circuits in the brain - your memory and your visual imagination.

The Cicero System is about 4,000 years old. It’s named after the Roman Senator Cicero who used to deliver four hour speeches in the Senate. It uses Memory Triggers, one or two words long arranged across the page in a hierarchy. This ensures a speaker never gets lost in detail and has a very clear idea of where they are in their argument.

Mind Mapping also uses memory triggers, but where the Cicero System is linear and favoured by those who thinking logically, Mind Mapping appeals to those whose approach is more intuitive. The Cicero System uses straight lines, Mind Mapping sets down the memory triggers in a circular format. Many speakers, especially those who think visually, prefer this.

Whichever system is preferred (and we teach both) the effect is to strengthen the speaker-audience relationship. Delivering that presentation, your audience may notice you glance down for a moment to see the memory trigger, but then you will be back with the audience, fully focused on them, speaking spontaneously from memory.

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Module Six: INFLUENCING YOUR AUDIENCE

This module helps speakers to deal with the most challenging aspects of Presentation.

• How to deliver Bad News.
• How to change how an audience thinks about a subject, and see it from your point of view.
• How to run Q & A sessions with difficult, argumentative or disruptive questioners.
• How to deal with audiences that are critical, difficult, inattentive, distracted or even hostile.
• How to deal with the unexpected - interruptions, delays, being cut short etc - will always happen.

This module teaches skills to help Speakers deal with situations where the need to change the mind of their audience, or persuade them to another point of view or win round an audience who may be divided, resistant, critical, inattentive, distracted or just plain hostile.

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John Abulafia, Tara Shaw, Colin Farquharson