How to Hold Attention: 12 Tips from Jiří Toman

The ability to attract and hold listeners' attention is of great importance in public speaking. There are several ways to attract and maintain listeners' attention. Here are twelve tips from Czech philosopher and sociologist Jiří Toman.

How to start a speech and attract attention?

Since it's best to attract listeners' attention from the very beginning of the narrative, you should start with an interesting comparison or example. And it's even better when you immediately start talking about solving some important problems. Don't delay listeners' attention with a long introduction – immediately move to the essence of the matter.

Tell about something new and interesting. All people have curiosity, interest, and a desire to learn something new. At the same time, everyone strives to gain new knowledge as quickly as possible.

Talk about something unusual that causes surprise. People love to hear about incredible adventures, exceptional people, new achievements in science and technology, about interesting travel experiences, and generally about everything that differs from ordinary life.

In addition, listeners' attention can be attracted by news from their field of activity or interests.

How to maintain attention during a speech?

You can attract the attention of one listener by telling them about what is connected to their personal interests. If you have a larger number of listeners whose interests don't coincide, you need to speak on topics or problems that unite them.

Verify the information you're talking about for accuracy. Discussion and argument always attract attention. But only if it doesn't turn into personal conflict, then it can work against you.

A listener's attention can be attracted by offering them new aspects of the matter and new arguments they didn't know before.

What technical techniques help maintain attention?

Good speech style also attracts listeners' attention. Many speakers don't realize that abstractly presented thoughts are perceived worse than concrete facts or examples. Moreover, short and simple sentences are much more understandable than long and complex ones.

Change the tone and strength of your voice, use gesticulation, meaningful pauses, and emphasis on individual words. Demonstrate objects you're talking about: photographs, drawings that can visually enhance your speech.

Don't talk too much. Talk only about the most interesting things.

Jiří Toman also emphasized that for every speaker, the topic they choose for their speech plays a key role. This needs to be considered from the very beginning. A correctly chosen topic already half ensures the success of the speech, while an unsuccessful topic can ruin even a flawlessly executed speech.