Getting a Squirrel to Focus: Engage and Persuade Today's Listeners

By Patricia B. Scott

What can achieve a 23,900% increase in the attention span of a squirrel? An acorn! As listeners, our attention spans are more like a squirrel's than you might think. In this book, world-renown communication consultant and sought after speaker, Dr. Patricia Scott will explain how these message ingredients make your message an acorn for your li

• Language: English
• Publisher: Uhmms
• Release date: Oct 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9780986124822

Book preview

Introduction

Getting your message across is harder today than it has ever been.

More information, more distractions and shorter attention spans provide competition for every message you create.

More information, more distractions and shorter attention spans provide competition for every message you create. It is hard for us to listen, and we jump from one thought to the next very quickly. This jumpy and sporadic listening behavior reminds me of the squirrels I see in my yard. They are constantly moving and seem fidgety and unfocused. The only thing that seems to gain and hold their interest is an acorn.

Through my years of experience in research and teaching I have found that squirrels are like today’s audience. There is a way to get their attention and keep it. The ACORN Communication Strategy™ presented in this book is an efficient communication tool to get your audience focused on your message. Remember: no matter how brilliant you are, if you can’t get your message across, you can’t lead, sell, educate, persuade, advocate or help.

But are today’s listeners’ attention spans really similar to squirrels’?

Fact about squirrels’ attention spans:

• One-second attention span on normal things, but can focus for about four minutes on an acorn. ¹

Facts about humans’ attention spans:

• When browsing the web, our attention span can be the same as a goldfish’s—9 seconds. ²

• In recent years, the op-ed has been shortened by 25%, no doubt a concession to generations raised on new media.… Especially in this age of shortened attention spans, readers are more apt to abandon you mid-article than to follow you to a second issue. ³

• 99% of business people said their attention spans are shorter today than three years ago. ⁴

Today’s audience—Human squirrels

There is more data out there today than there has ever been before. The world population is on track to produce about 988 billion gigabytes of data per year by 2010 and the amount of information that is being produced is expanding exponentially.⁵ Unfortunately, attention spans have not expanded exponentially to meet the new quantities of data. Attention spans have changed over