[Neurons] 2024 Neurons #27 GO META OR GO BINDEN

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2024 Neurons #27

July 1, 2024 

 

GO META OR GO BINDEN 

 

As you probably know, we completed our Trainers' Training a few weeks ago.
This is a training for presentation skills whenever a person speaks in
public.  The presentation skills that we offer and train and then benchmark
are the essential and key skills for effective communicating to groups.  So
when I watched the first Presidential debate this past Thursday night
between Trump and Biden, I was absolutely stunned.  That is not the way to
do any kind of public presentation!  No one in their right mind would want
to present like that in a seminar, at a board meeting, in a training, in a
TV commercial, on the internet, or in a debate, especially in a debate as a
discussion about public policy.

 

Nor was I the only one shocked.  Most members of the Democratic party and
the Democratic press (the mainstream media) were equally shocked.  A great
many immediately called for the party to come up with someone else to be
their party's candidate-anyone else!  It was a disaster.  Why?  If you were
not one of the 51 million viewer, then you did not see Biden stuttering,
mumbling, getting lost in his thoughts, speaking gibberish at times, and
starring off into space with his mouth open.  When Trump was speaking,
Binden  often looked shocked, as if he had never in his life had ever heard
what was being said, and given his handlers, he might not have.

 

>From the perspective of top presentation skills that every public speaker
needs, it was a catastrophe.  I heard many commentators on the left say that
they were ashamed, that the presentation was shameful, and that "something
had to be done."  That's how bad it was.  Biden also got lots of facts
wrong.  He said that no service person (man or woman) had died during his
watch.  Well, 13 were killed in Afghanistan when he impulsively pulled out
of that country, then another 3 or 4 were killed in attacks by Iran.  That's
an extremely glaring mistake.   It was not the kind of mistake one which
people of good will could legitimately hold different opinions about.

 

But why the title, "Go Meta?"  The reason is because the debate was held in
a room with the two moderators and no audience.  And?  The "and" relates to
what a speaker has to do when you are primarily speaking to a camera-you
have to imagine the people that you are speaking to.  You have to see them
in your mind because you cannot actually see them.  Sounds simple?  It is to
people who have a strong cognitive awareness.  But for anyone cognitively
challenged-that can be a big deficiency in effectively communicating. 

 

The challenge involves using the highest cognitive functions-planning,
deciding, reflecting, etc.  These functions of the prefrontal cortex enables
you to be aware of your awareness.  And from that higher self-awareness, you
can monitor, manage, and choose your thinking, your remembering, and how you
use your self-reflectiveness.  If you can't, then you'll be operating
strictly at the primary level-thinking and feeling, but not being in control
of those cognitive powers.

 

Now on Friday, the day after the debate, it was noted that as Binden was at
a campaign rally, he seemed to be fully energized.  He looked alive and he
sounded ten times better than he did the night before.  Why is that?  What's
going on with that?  He was could see the audience and he could feed off the
energy of the audience.  What was wrong with him twelve hours before that?
He was cognitively challenged and could not see the audience, could not
remember his 9 days of preparation, and could not maintain 'presence of
mind' under pressure.

 

As a psychologist who has spent the past 35 years studying Bateson's
meta-function, I 'read' Biden's presentation on Thursday night as indicating
that he was cognitively impaired.  This has been a concern for people on
both sides of the political aisle about him for several years.  A few months
ago the Justice Department let him off the hook from being indicted for
mis-handling top-secret files.  The reason?  He is "an elderly man with a
poor memory."  So Thursday night, without notes and without a tele-prompter,
and in spite of 9 days of preparation for the debate, Binden was left to his
own cognitive structures to remember what to say.  Yet in the end, he could
not do it.

 


Your cognitive ability to " be presence," to remember, to keep 'presence of
mind under pressure," are but a few things essential for effective public
speaking.  In Neuro-Semantic Trainers' Training (NSTT) we introduce speakers
to such presentation skills as framing (and reframing), gaining rapport,
engaging the minds and hearts of listeners, inducing state, answering
questions, remembering (using mnemonic devices), and much, much more.  All
of these requires the executive functions of your prefrontal cortex.  And
under pressure, these higher level skills are the first to go.  And my guess
is that Biden was under a lot of pressure- from his 16 advisors that coached
him for 9 days, from his need to disprove questions about his age, from his
need to win the debate, etc.

 


The bottom lines is that every form of public speaking which seeks to
influence the minds and hearts of people requires a high level of cognitive
functioning.  And that becomes especially true when answering questions.  My
recommendation to both men in that debate (and if there is another debate in
September) clarify the question before you answer it.  Trump missed a great
cue when asked about accepting the results of the election.  The way the
question was phrased, if he had been listening, he would have immediately
said, "Yes, absolutely."  When he later said "absolutely," he qualified it
with the very same things the moderate had said.

[BASH:  Will you pledge tonight that once all legal challenges have been
exhausted that you will accept the results of this election regardless of
who wins and you will say right now that political violence in any f orm is
unacceptable?]

 

Of course, both listening and speaking is a real challenge when you are
under pressure.  And I'm sure there's no pressure like having 51 million
people watching you (!).  And that, by the way is why we present the
pattern, Presence of Mind Under Pressure along with other patterns, at NSTT.
If that fits for your future, our next NSTT will be May of 2025.

 

                                           

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, ISNS

738 Beaver Lodge

Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA

meta at acsol.net

 

 



 

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