What Is Hip? An Example of Powerful Communication

In previous articles, I’ve described one of the hallmarks of great communicators: They connect their message with something the audience can relate to and care about.  A colleague of mine once described an experience of hers that I thought represented an outstanding example of communicating with impact.

As she was preparing to conduct a class in making effective presentations, my colleague met with the leader of the participant group to gather some background on the group's learning needs. The leader mentioned that members of the group frequently had to make persuasive presentations to senior leaders but too often became scattered and unfocused in their pitches.  The leader told her that his team often had “only one shot” at making an impression but frequently didn’t think through in advance exactly what they would say.

Armed with this information, my colleague went into the effective-presentations training and addressed the group with the following opening:

"I understand that many of you often only have one shot at making an impression with senior leaders, is that right?"

(Nods and murmurs.)

"Well, let me ask you this: If you only have that one shot, how effective do you think you'll be if you shoot from the hip?"

(And here she struck a "shoot from the hip" pose.)

Immediately the group sat up and took notice. Just by making this simple analogy (complete with pantomime), my colleague led them to realize the ineffectiveness of taking a scattershot approach to communicating with such an important audience. They were ready now to listen to ideas and approaches for thinking through their presentations in advance.

I can imagine as well that, by incorporating the leader’s “only one shot” comment in the training session, my colleague served to build her own credibility in his eyes.

  

REFLECTIONS FOR THE YES! LEADER

My colleague’s story is a great everyday example of a device that performance improvisers refer to as a callback - that is, a reference in one scene to something that was said in a previous (and usually unrelated) scene from the same performance. Using callbacks truly challenges a performer to be fully present and to quickly note connections between things that otherwise might seem totally unrelated.

As a Yes! Leader, what would happen if you were to do the following?

• Listen for key words and expressions – especially metaphors – in others’ speech as a guide to what they care about, how they think, and how they communicate.
• Ask people what matters to them – and then treat them in a way that shows you heard them.
• Explore the topic of building rapport with others.