Tom Hollihan (a professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School), was one of my teachers at USC a couple of lifetimes ago. I was working toward the Ph.D. (never finished the dissertation – one of my regrets).  He was a good teacher, a passionate communicator – able to explain complex ideas clearly.

I ran across this interview with him, and he describes just what is needed for an effectively communicated message, boiling it down to its true essence:

The arousal and fulfillment of your audience’s desires…  You want to pique their interest, and then you want to satisfy that interest that you’ve piqued – and if you fail in either regard, you haven’t had an effective message.  If you don’t arouse them, they never get engaged, they never connect, and never listen.  If you don’t fulfill them, they walk away, saying well, you know, that wasn’t a very satisfying talk.

When I teach presentation skills, and my speech classes, I strongly stress the importance of the Introduction of a speech. I describe how those first few seconds need to hook the audience’s attention, and especially engage the heart of the listener.  This short excerpt from Dr. Hollihan helps me understand the other end of the formula – to bring the promise of the speech/presentation to fruition with a sense of fulfillment.  Arouse and fulfill — a pretty good, really useful formula.

There’s much more in the interview that is valuable and useful, like:  Stories have to be told again and again to gain traction. You can read the full interview here.