Storytelling Bites 16: Visual Description.

Why is it that some people seem to speak with great clarity?

I don’t mean their diction, pruh-nuhn-see-ay-shn or projection, but rather that their content comes through with no space for misinterpretation, misconstruction or misunderstanding.

We instantly ‘get’ what they are talking about. We are able to see the relevance of their message to us, to understand how things will play out, to imagine the outcomes and effects.

How do they manage to find this clarity, and could we all pull it off?

The answer to the latter is a resounding ‘Yes!’ and to the former, that they are probably incorporating the key storytelling technique of visual description: they’re telling their audience what whatever they are talking about looks like.

Simple as that.

Here are five reasons why visual descriptive language works so well:

1. Your audience will imagine themselves into the world you are creating, rather than imagining their own version which may well stray from what you had in mind and lead to misunderstandings.

2.  As visualising is part of listening, by participating audience are more likely to remember what they visualised about your message, so use visual description to emphasise aspects you want to stand out.

3. As the speaker, you need to make choices and find specificity in your content. By using more visual description in the preparation of your communication than you will include in your telling, you will ensure you’re on top of the detail, know the meaning you want to convey and will be ready for questions from your audience.

4.  Visual description is the ultimate jargon buster. Instead of employing all those tired phrases so overused by your organisation that they have lost meaning, keep things fresh and direct by converting jargon words into the description of what they look like.

5. Visual description is emotionally objective. Rather than telling people what they should feel about a situation, by laying it out visually in front of them, your audience will bring themselves and their emotional reaction to your description and not feel like they’re being played or manipulated.

And the best bit is, it’s a really easy technique to master. In our workshops we help participants practise descriptive language so that it becomes second nature and they can sprinkle it like expert seasoning throughout their communication, highlighting aspects that need remembering whilst giving clarity and ensuring everyone gets what you’re talking about.