You're not speaking to a room full of goldfish, despite what you've been told
Do you remember the last time you were compared to a goldfish?
I just got back from a marketing conference this past week in Burlington, Vermont, and reference to the orange, scaly denizen of the home aquarium made its way into at least one presentation and in several conversations with other attendees.
I bet you know what I’m talking about ... that pervasive cliché that speakers and presenters love to toss into their talks about humans having a shorter attention span than a goldfish.
This claim is often cited as an authoritative statistic, and it’s accepted as truth because it resonates with a genuine, lived experience of our era: the widespread feeling that it is increasingly difficult to focus deeply on a single task.
Believing that your fellow humans are the homo sapien equivalent of Dory from “Finding Nemo” (I know, I know, Dory wasn’t a goldfish) has significant implications for speakers and presenters who fear losing their audience’s focus.
But would you believe me if I told you that it simply isn’t true?
And that understanding what’s really at play could help you be a better speaker?
Attention mythbusting
Let’s set the record straight on the “humans have a shorter attention span than a goldfish” myth.
First, research into the intelligence and memory of goldfish shows they are far more capable than popular lore suggests. Studies show goldfish can remember things for months at a time, navigate complex mazes, recognize their owners, and even be trained to respond to cues, like associating a routine with feeding time.
So give Goldie some slack, will ya?
What’s more, in the studies I’ve found about the shrinking human attention span, the “stimuli” were boring and mundane, or the test subjects performed uninteresting tasks like working in a Word doc or checking email.
While it’s true humans’ attention spans are getting shorter, I submit to you its because we have better options than staring at grey rectangles on a screen, checking our email, or ... ahem ... listening to a boring speaker.
There is an entire world waiting just a few finger taps away from you or your audience at any time. And when a person determines that something is uninteresting, it is just too stinkin’ easy to find something more appealing.
To try to solve for declining attention spans, many speakers and presenters believe the solution is to rush through material, use fast-moving slides, or adopt a high-energy, fast-paced delivery to “keep up.”
However, this overlooks a critical finding from cognitive science: keeping someone’s attention isn’t about just putting on a good show.
May I have your attention please?
So, let’s consider the flip side.
Ever binge-watched a new TV show? It’s “Shrinking” and “Severance” for me.
Ever get lost in a great book? I just finished “All the Colors of the Dark” and barely put it down.
Ever get lost in a conversation with a friend over coffee and realize you haven’t looked at your phone in two hours? One of my favorite things ever.
Humans actually have an incredible ability to pay attention.
When the story is good enough, relevant enough, and coming from someone we like or trust, we can lock in for a looooong time.
This is where your ability to tell a story — one filled with scenery, tension, observations, resolution, and your takeaways — makes all the difference. Attention is highly selective and thrives on relevance.
Not hyperactive movements. Not speed-rushing through slides to keep the pace up.
Instead, to grab the attention of the room, you need to take your experience and perspective and infuse it with meaning others can understand and relate to.
And it happens best through the stories you tell.
What are we really up against?
Here’s the thing: You don’t get a free pass on the storytelling.
The kind of storytelling that’s going to capture and keep attention isn’t just narrating the goings-on of your day or monologuing your inner thoughts.
There has to be intrigue from the start — something that makes the person in the audience say something like:
This is for me!
Oh, that’s interesting!
What’s going to happen?
Wait, is that true?
Because while people can give you their attention for a long time, you have to get past the snap judgment moment when they determine if you — the speaker — are worth their time and attention in the first place.
You must earn the right to the audience’s ongoing focus.
Studies show that “humans make rapid guesses about the trustworthiness, intelligence, and personality of another person in less time than it takes to blink an eye (about 100 milliseconds).”
You are one involuntary eye spasm from either losing your audience, or, earning one of their most precious resources — their attention.
Rather than pour your efforts into overcoming some made-up statistic about a 50-cent pet store fish’s ability to focus, turn your own attention to crafting stories that are so good others can’t help but lean forward in their chair and wonder, “Where are they going with this?”
Don’t know what stories to tell and how to tell them to overcome that blink-of-an-eye judgment? That’s exactly how my speaking coaching can help.
As always... keep asking questions!
