You need to have handouts

Today, when you speak to a group, the emphasis is always on handouts - have your handouts to the organizers by a certain date, rate the quality of the speaker's handouts on the evaluation form, print out your slides and use them as handouts, etc.

This won't make you popular with the people who asked you to speak, but you should do all that you can to fight the handout fetish. Considering today's short attention spans and considering the "clutter" of everyday life in terms of forms of communication and various stimuli, handouts are a distraction instead of being an aid. Holding your audience's attention is tough enough. Why would you willingly hand them a reason to not listen to you?

More and more researchers are coming to the conclusion that multitasking is a myth. Yes, people can do more than one thing at a time. But it's becoming apparent that they can't do more than one thing WELL at a time. When the anesthesia is taking effect on the operating table, you don't want the last thing you hear to be the surgeon asking the nurse to bring his phone closer so he can check his text messages and E-mails. You want him to be focused on you.

People have different cognitive learning styles - some need to read things to understand them, while others need to hear things instead of reading them. But when you give your audience handouts - a meeting agenda, a proposal, your resume, or anything else that is written - it divides their attention between the written word and the spoken word. You are, in effect, creating interference for your own message. And that's self-defeating.

Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar for your group or business. But don't expect there to be too many handouts. Call 913-631-2985, or E-mail bkthrucomm@aol.com. You'll be a hero for doing it.