How to Speak So That People Want to Listen – Julian Treasure

While we are the only animal species capable of language, human beings, nevertheless, have a lot to learn about listening and speaking. A sharper, more robust communication toolkit provides enormous benefits to anyone tasked with conveying an important message, whether they are conversing with friends, presenting data to a small group of coworkers, or speaking to a packed auditorium. Luckily, we can have enormous sway over the content we create, the way in which we deliver it, and how our words are ultimately received by others.

So, what exactly can you do to beef up your communication skills? How can you kick hardened habits and make lasting changes to your mindset, body, and environment in order to speak and listen more effectively? And can you really transform yourself into a confident and powerful public speaker? To answer these and other questions, renowned public speaker and TED Talks presenter Julian Treasure presents the nine engaging episodes of How to Speak So That People Want to Listen. Packed with exercises you can practice at home and before important speaking engagements, this course will help you become a confident and successful communicator in every context.

With Julian as your expert guide, you will:

• Explore how the failure to communicate effectively can negatively impact everything from your physical health to your mental well-being;
• Discover how listening and speaking are interrelated, and why a good listener makes for a powerful and cool-headed speaker;
• Trace the mechanics of speaking and listening from the ear down to the diaphragm, and spend time practicing how to breathe and stretch before important public speaking events;
• Understand the difference between content and delivery when it comes to conveying a message, and see how you can improve your skills in each of these two areas;
• Examine how you can address large audiences with authority and conviction by changing how you practice, prepare, and deliver your content; and much more.

The Power of Listening

Speaking and listening go hand in hand—you cannot excel in one arena without excelling in the other. How to Speak So That People Want to Listen will provide you with the tools you need to become a more constructive and attentive listener. By understanding and critically evaluating the varied perspectives from which we receive messages, we can train ourselves to hear past the noises and biases that often hold us back.

Above all else, Julian knows how to listen. As the founder of The Sound Agency, he works with airports, retailers, and offices to design and maintain soundscapes that encourage productivity and calm. Julian will have you delve into the physical and sensory mechanisms involved in listening. You will explore how you can deal with distractions that interfere with your listening abilities. You will examine the many filters—culture, language, locality, audience, values, attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and expectations—through which human beings listen, and how these filters impact our perception of the world around us. You will understand the difference between active and passive listening and how to switch between the two based on what the situation demands of you. And you will walk away armed with exercises like the mixer and RASA to help you develop the four Cs of listening: consciousness, commitment, compassion, and curiosity.

Communicating in the Modern World: Body, Mind, and Environment

The realities of the modern world present unique challenges for those who wish to communicate clearly and effectively. But human beings are not powerless in this regard; we can change the way we talk to one another. We can retrain our lungs, professionalize our voices, strengthen our muscles, refine our body language, alter our states of mind, and deal with the unfriendly environments around us to change the way our intended messages are communicated, and thus how we are received by audiences of all shapes and sizes. The transformation process, however, is multifaceted. It must target a range of areas, including:

• Our Bodies. Muscles, organs, and senses are heavily involved in speaking and listening. In fact, a good and nutritious diet; well-trained lungs; and a strong, balanced posture can revolutionize the way a speaker’s message is delivered and how they are received by the people they are speaking to. Zero in on the physicality of communicating and explore the parts of the body involved in speaking and listening, from the ear to the stomach. To this end, you will learn how you can refine your eating habits, strengthen your breathing, and correct your posture to become a more effective communicator.
• Our Minds. While speaking and listening can feel purely mechanical, we occupy a particular perspective that can depend on psychic qualities like intentions or personalities. On top of that, the mind plays an outsized role when it comes to public speaking. It is quite difficult and, in fact, destructive to step foot on a stage without giving some thought to the kind of message one wishes to convey and how one wishes to convey it. With How to Speak So That People Want to Listen, discover how you can become conscious of the mind’s role in speaking and listening. In nine fast-paced episodes, learn how to calm your public speaking nerves, kick your bad listening habits, and acquire the mental tools you need in order to create and deliver good content. Also, explore the many ways you can inject confidence into your communicating endeavors.
• Our Environments. From open-plan offices to bustling convention halls, where we speak impacts how we speak—often for the worse. But we do not have to sit idly by as noisy soundscapes plague our ability to communicate and listen effectively. In just nine episodes, discover how you can create environments that are friendly, productive, and happy. Investigate the true power of silence to see how spending more time in silence can enhance your physical health and well-being. And learn how you can navigate noisy environments if you have no choice but to deal with them head-on.

By the end of this course, you will be able to conquer communication’s final boss: public speaking. Splitting the task into three major phases—practice, preparation, and delivery—you will work with Julian to see how you can deliver your most important messages to large audiences, under lights and professional pressure. Outfitted with tips that range from recording yourself in advance to using anti-shine make-up, you will be able to walk away from these episodes unafraid of taking the stage.

9 Lectures