Storytelling Bites 14: Engagement.
Why do we even talk to people at work?
Well, there’s the sharing of gossip, the finding out how they are, the support, the laughs, the listening to tiresome, oft repeated anecdotes, and there’s also the work-related stuff.
And how do people communicate at work?
For the first reasons set out above, it’s generally from an informal, subjective point of view. A similar way to how we speak with friends, family and loved ones. People know what we think and feel about the topic, difficult subjects are negotiated empathetically, humour can spontaneously find its way in. In short, our audience or interlocutor meets us, our opinions, our value judgements: we are our authentic self, and things like ‘I know, I feel, I reckon, I imagine,’ can be heard.
This works well, building community, goodwill, friendship, mutual respect...
And then it comes to the work-related stuff: presentations, public speaking, meeting-discussions, sales pitches, strategy updates, and suddenly, for some people, everything seems to change.
Why do some of us, in these situations, suddenly erect a façade of formality and status around ourselves with both the language we use and the overly formalised use of it?
Listening to these sorts of communicators, it feels a little anonymous. Anyone could be delivering this information: the jargon, the convoluted sentence structures, the tired metaphors, the scripted joke. We don’t get to meet the person at all, just what their somewhat archaic understanding of professionalism and status is.
As a general rule, this latter style works badly as we, as an audience, are not engaged when listening as we’re not connecting to the speaker. And if we’re not engaged in listening to the speaker, we’re not likely to be as engaged as they’d like us to be with the content or purpose of what they’re saying.
I say ‘as a general rule’; there are circumstances and audiences for whom formality is required: without it they may feel insulted, or that you aren’t the sort of underling who would fit in at this sort of place, or for whatever other reason. Absolutely fine: for these people, if that’s the language they require for a shared understanding of status, then by all means employ it as that will allow them to see past the stylistic faux pas of informality and help them engage with the content you’re sharing.
However. For the many others, connect with them on a more fundamental level. Let them meet you, your message, your values. You are the sharer of the message, they’re more likely to listen if they meet you and either like or respect who they’ve met.
Our workshops help you find your authentic voice so that your audience can connect to your purpose because they’ve connected to you.
