The Placebo Effect and Presentation Skill

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Take a bunch of old men on a retreat and tell them to act as if they were reliving the 1950s.  Give them the clothes, the music, the food, the posters they had in college, and watch them get younger.

Tell another group of older men just to sit around and talk about old times, and watch the same thing happen.

Test each group’s vital signs before and after each event—heart rate, cholesterol, vision, hearing, reflexes—and guess what?  You see a statistically significant improvement in a large number of tests and individuals.

Why is this?  Because the mind makes it happen.  All the men on the retreat knew they were pretending, but it happened nonetheless.

What if we were to test an actor before and after a scene in a play in which he learns that he has won the lottery?  I suspect the actor in the dressing room before the scene would have a very different series of test results than the man tested off-stage immediately after.

Again, the mind pretends and the body responds.  Perhaps we can only sustain such changes for short periods of time, but that’s perfect for presenters.  We’re only on stage for an hour or so.

So here’s the question for all of us.  How do we take advantage of this naturally occurring magic?

I am currently offering a public program called Presenting for Results ^SM in New Jersey (the next one is October 19^th and 20^th).   In it, we are conducting experiments with the “As If” technique.  If old men can literally improve their eyesight, hearing, and reflexes by pretending to be young, why can’t we improve our speaking skills in the same way?

So  when we plan, write, and deliver presentations—when our reputation for intelligence, reliability, and interpersonal savvy are on the line—why not pretend that we are calm, confident, and full of conviction in ourselves and our ideas?

Can “pretending” lead to “being?”  In the short term, it seems so.  Why not find out?

I’d be happy to have you among the ten lucky people at Presenting for Results ^SM on October 19^th and 20^th in New Jersey (at the beautiful Upper Montclair Country Club.)

To register, or to download the brochure, go to http://www.simswyeth.com/services/pfr/ And if you know people who could benefit from an invigorating educational experience, would you please forward them this post?

Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

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