Julian Treasure shows us how

Julian Treasure teaches us the art of speaking powerfully in his inspiring and very entertaining 10-minute TED talk, which helps us positively and effectively change what we say and how we say it. Here are some excerpts.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Speaking

“What I’d like to suggest, there are a number of habits that we need to move away from… I’m not pretending this is an exhaustive list, but these seven, I think, are pretty large habits that we can all fall into.”

He describes each one’s detrimental effect:

• Gossip
• Judging
• Negativity
• Complaining
• Excuses
• Exaggeration
• Dogmatism

HAIL: The four powerful cornerstones we need to stand on

“So what do they stand for? See if you can guess. The H, honesty, of course, being true in what you say, being straight and clear. The A is authenticity, just being yourself. A friend of mine described it as standing in your own truth, which I think is a lovely way to put it. The I is integrity, being your word, actually doing what you say, and being somebody people can trust. And the L is love. I don’t mean romantic love, but I do mean wishing people well, for two reasons. First of all, I think absolute honesty may not be what we want. I mean, my goodness, you look ugly this morning. Perhaps that’s not necessary. Tempered with love, of course, honesty is a great thing. But also, if you’re really wishing somebody well. It’s very hard to judge them at the same time. I’m not even sure you can do those two things simultaneously. So hail.”

It’s also how you say it.

“You have an amazing toolbox. This instrument is incredible, and yet this is a toolbox that very few people have ever opened. I’d like to have a little rummage in there with you now and just pull a few tools out that you might like to take away and play with, which will increase the power of your speaking.”

Using his own voice as an example, he then goes through these tools so we can hone them for ourselves: register, timbre, prosody, pace, pitch, and volume. And then he takes us through a warm-up exercise. Don’t miss it!

View video: http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how…

“What would the world be like if we were speaking powerfully to people who were listening consciously in environments which were actually fit for purpose? Or to make that a bit larger, what would the world be like if we were creating sound consciously and consuming sound consciously and designing all our environments consciously for sound? That would be a world that does sound beautiful, and one where understanding would be the norm, and that is an idea worth spreading.”