I’ve heard people say that our keen visual perception dates back to our early ancestors’ need for survival. “What was that movement I saw out of the corner of my eye? Was it a saber-toothed tiger?” Whether it was used for survival eons ago or not, we can all agree, we still use it today. Look at professional athletes who have developed their eyesight to the point of seeing an object and reacting to it in fractions of a second! For example, a professional baseball player has approximately 4 tenths (.40) of a second to react to a fast ball. Our vision is a certainly a blessing but it’s ignored by many when they speak in public.

When we present and speak to any audience, we can use the power of visual difference to put a spotlight on the areas we want to showcase.  Breaking a pattern and doing something different will lead your audience quickly to a discovery.

Hedwig Von Restorff was a German psychologist who coined a theory commonly referred to as the “isolation effect.” She found that when subjects were presented with a list of items and one was called out in a different way (color, location, size, etc.), the recall of that one item was dramatically increased.

4 ways you can visually be different when presenting

While each of the suggestions below could apply to a PowerPoint slide you create, get creative and think about how you could apply it to any other part of your message delivery.

1.  Change the location

This can apply to items on a slide when everything is in a straight line except for one item, it will draw their attention. When you are speaking at a conference and every other speaker has used the lectern on the stage, step away from it and use the entire stage. Even better, step off the stage for a portion of your delivery and walk out into the audience! If you always have your team meetings in a conference room, move it to the break room area just one time to change the visual stimuli.

2.  Change the size

The first time I saw John C. Maxwell speak, we were handed small booklets about 1/4 the size of a piece of paper with information and for our notes. For some reason, the size itself caused me to want to take notes, and then after the presentation I kept the small booklet like a souvenir! When using slides, if you change the size of any picture or diagram to make it stand out from the rest, the audience moves quickly to the discovery you want them to make.

3.  Change the color

Colors have an effect on us when we view them. Without getting into the psychology of colors, we can simply use different colors to create a spotlight. If one item on a slide is a different color, it will get our attention. For example, this is used quite effectively when a speaker reviews one item at a time and all but one item is grayed out on the slide. As the speaker moves from one item to the next, each item changes to full color. Then when the speaker moves on, the item goes back to gray.

The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam, is a great book on how to use simple drawings to make your point faster. What I found interesting is that Dan illustrated his entire book in two colors, black and red.  The red is used to draw your focus on each page. He’s practicing what he preaches!

4.  Change the shape

There is also a psychology of shapes used in marketing and visual design, but let’s stay practical here. Any time we project a shape that is different from everything else shown, it creates a spotlight. These shapes could be in photos, drawings or computer animations. Nancy Duarte built her company on helping people tell their story in a more visually appealing way. She also created a Diagrammer tool for using differences in shapes to focus your audience.

“ The audience does not need to tune themselves to you—you need to tune your message to them. —NANCY DUARTE

One of my dear friends and a fantastic communications coach also performs improv. When I first met Cynthia Oelkers she taught me something about pattern breaking to get the audience’s attention. She was teaching us how to break patterns for humor. She taught me how to write a joke. A common template for a joke is to offer three items with the third item being an obvious break in the pattern. Do you want an example?

To help prevent accidents or loss due to fire at the office we will… have quarterly fire drills, test all smoke detectors annually, and not allow roasting marshmallows at your desk anymore.

Whether you’re constructing jokes or speaking at the next annual sales conference, remember that when you need to direct the audience’s attention, think about how you can visually create something that is different. If everything appears the same it becomes more difficult to discern what is important and what is not. Now you’re making your audience work to keep up with you! Make it easy on your audience to follow you or they will quit! (i.e. take out their smart phones!)

What have you seen others do visually to focus audience attention?

Still working on it,
Russ

WEEK ONE:  One thing you can do this year to improve your influence – Leverage “Different”
LAST WEEK: Part 1 of 3: How to Leverage the Power of Different – Place Bookends on your Presentation
THIS WEEK:  Part 2 of 3: How to Leverage the Power of Different – Visual Attention
NEXT WEEK: Part 3 of 3: How to Leverage the Power of Different -Stories vs. Data

Corporate Ovations: Your Roadmap to More Effective Presentations on Amazon.

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Russ Peterson Jr. is the co-founder and Managing Director of iSpeak, Inc. – An award-winning professional development training company. Russ is a published author on Professional Sales Communication and Business Communication. He delivers workshops, keynotes, and personal communication coaching services to business professionals in the US and around the world. You can connect with Russ directly through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.