Cognition is, per Google: "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses."
When we are speaking to an audience, it is worth keeping in mind that despite the amazing power of the human brain, it does have limitations when it comes to cognition. Here are some of the "cogs" you should keep in mind both when you are preparing a speech and when you are on the stage.
It doesn't take much effort to find examples of truly deplorable leadership in the present (and it's a slam dunk if you take the historical route). Today, I encountered a LinkedIn article and an NPR radio program that centered around the idea of toxic leadership, so it seemed like an obvious choice for a topic, especially considering how many toxic leaders I've encountered in my own career.
My mother, of all people, use to always say "Screw up, move up." I remember her saying that about politicians when I was a kid and she still says it today. Why is that?
Part it is what is known as the Peter Principle.
At the Fortune Builders' Ignite event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of hearing from Robert O'Neill, the accepted killer of Osama Bin Ladan. A few movies have been made about him and his team, and he wrote a book on the events of the raid: The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior
.As I ponder the possibility of writing a book on public speaking and the social value of rhetoric in human society, my mind wandered over to the animal kingdom as a whole.
Do animals engage in rhetoric? What are the implications of that in terms of animals studies? We're prone, as humans, to anthropomorphize every critter out there. What can we learn from this contrast? (heads up, I'm not even going to try and answer this question... sorry to disappoint, but it's a MASSIVE topic to delve into, but I will talk a little about Koko the gorilla and her kittens.
There's a common activity I see on stage that I feel needs to be addressed and nipped off at the ankles.
I call it "The Pace."
This is that habit that many — arguably most — speakers have of pacing back and forth across the stage. Many folks, such as executives, coaches, and sales people can deliver a sense of authority and magnitude even as they pace. It seems like there's nothing really wrong with this, right? As long as the rest of the delivery works?
The ancient Greeks came up with a framework to define how speeches are to be written, consisting of five canons: Inventio, Disposito, Elocutio, Memoria, Actio.
Memorization is a tricky topic to manage. To memorize a speech rote is to risk a robotic or mechanical delivery. Every speech is influenced by the environment it is presented in and if the speech doesn't have enough flexibility built in, it can't be adapted as well to the needs of the audience, nor even the speaker themselves.
This is where structure comes into play.
Public speaking is a holistic discipline. Over time, a practitioner will see how all the parts connect together seamlessly. What's nice about the learning process is that so much of public speaking can be broken into discrete components, for instance, body motion and vocal variety as two separate areas of practice.
I've recently watched a number of YouTube videos where first quarter of the talk was wrapped up in overly wrought introductions. The topics of these videos tended around informational subjects and the hosts wanted to establish their credibility, as well as promote the video (a very common thing on YouTube).
Long intros like these are a drag. Set aside your ego or your fears of "looking qualified" long enough to get your basic points across.
Credibility is the character or the perception of authority, credibility or experience of the speaker. It is called Ethos by the ancient Greeks.