Renowned economist Mohamed El-Erian connected with his audience by admitting he was scared. He appeared vulnerable and human by showing he knew his audience expected him to be boring and not really worth listening to. In this way, he managed to win them over.
The fact is that good communicators are indeed able to make themselves look smart. But great communicators make their audience feel smart. Grant recalled this story again to appreciate how central to communication an audience’s emotions are.
What do you want the audience to feel?
Maybe you don’t want them to feel so much as to think. However, hoping merely to reason with your audience’s world view may not get you very far. You need to persuade both their hearts and minds. So first choose which emotions you want to spark.
Then, chances are you want to add a bit of humour. When you use humour, you can tell immediately whether your audience is truly on board. The golden rule is to make fun of yourself, not others. And it is precisely this that requires vulnerability. Before Professor Grant began his talk to the TED staff, he asked himself what the humble economist El-Erian would do in this situation.
Then he strode to the centre of the stage and said: “Nothing is more nerve-wracking than speaking at TED. The only exception is speaking to TED.”
His audience laughed, the ice had been broken – and he could take it from there.
-jk-