I love TED talks, not only for their information and enjoyable anecdotes, but for simply having spoken word playing while I am working on design projects. It has a pleasant effect and allows me to tune out to either take a break from a creative roadblock or to design without overthinking. Today I listened to Julian Treasure’s excerpt, “How to speak so that people want to listen.” In his brief monologue, he outlines how attitude, sound, and meaning all affect the degree to which others listen to us while speaking. The main section that really stood out to me was what he called the, “Seven Deadly Sins of Speaking” which are as follows:
Gossip
Judging
Negativity
Complaining
Excuses
Lying
Dogmatism
All of these have their own forces to deter others from wanting and/or having the capabilities to listen to us carefully and attentively. Ultimately, this leads to inhibiting our own personal growth as well as cultivating meaningful relationships and developing a strong community. Spoken word is a staple of civilization and if it is not respected or paid attention to, we all lose. He ended the speech with one of the best portrayals of empathy I have ever heard:
“...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.”
Paying attention to how we speak, what we are saying, and the context in which we are expressing ourselves is one of the most beneficial things a person can do. Today, challenge yourself to not give into any of the Seven Deadly Sins of Speaking and instead begin to pay attention to what you say and how you are saying it.