CorpComms Magazine

They seem to think we have a magic wand! They expect us to read their minds! These were just two of the phrases that were bandied about the office when I was a PR consultant and clients were being more demanding than usual. I, however, had learned to find other ways to vent my frustration when I actually acquired a magic wand and even attended a few mind reading lectures from Derren Brown before he was snapped up for TV. Midway through my PR career I had developed a real passion for magic and the more I learned about it, the more I found that some of the principles for directing attention, persuading and convincing were extremely useful in my day job.

Joining The Magic Circle enabled me to formalise my thinking and gradually I identified the 'Rules of Magic' - techniques that come instinctively to the best magicians and prove equally effective in business. Many of the rules are delightfully simple: rule six states that attention tracks from left to right, then settles on the left, because we read that way. Consequently, I always set myself (and any visual aids) left to right from the audience's point of view.

The principles are simple, but the magic helps to bring them alive. I had always been aware that concentrated attention requires a single point of focus (rule five), but it had much greater impact when demonstrated at a magic convention by a Canadian mind reader trained in psychology. Don't divide attention between yourself and what you are doing he said, spreading out a pack of cards at arm's length, because attention will flit between your face and your groin - of all places! Much better to bring them up to head level, creating a single point of focus. Watch a master presenter, such as Steve Jobs [chief executive of Apple] and his long, detailed presentations are wrapped up in a single, simple message. For the launch of the MacBook Air, the world's thinnest notebook was the theme that ran through all the words, graphics, actions and props, resulting in a memorable phrase that also triggered the finer details automatically.

The most important rule is number one - the framework for any communication is determined by the expectations and perceptions you trigger. I usually illustrate this by asking someone to pick a card and quickly telling them exactly what they have chosen; their brains have automatically opened a series of 'files' telling them whatever they know about cards - 52 items, two colours, four suits - and shutting out what doesn't fit - such as the possibility that all the cards are the same, which in fact is the ridiculously simple solution as to how I name their selection.

Magicians are very aware that, by doing and saying certain things, their audience is geared up to take their message on board. We should all do this whenever we are about to address an audience - consider what 'files' we are opening in the minds of the people we are addressing. We then need to apply rule two expectations and perceptions can be reinforced or diminished by prestige, atmosphere and environment and desire. How can we enhance or, if necessary, diminish the expectations and perceptions we are triggering? I preface my card prediction with a mention of my Magic Circle membership (Prestige) and I paint a picture of our secret HQ and the characters involved (Atmosphere & Environment), so adding impact to the message I am about to deliver. With judgment and a little luck I have also managed to find a volunteer who likes magic (Desire).

Rule 19 - People put more reliance on something they have worked out for themselves - has particular resonance when I am coaching PR consultants. While most of a magician's communication is about being as clear and direct as they possibly can, when it comes to convincing, they know that a rather more subtle, suggestive approach can be most successful. Just as PR can be more effective than hard sell because it floats an idea in front of the right people at the right moment and allows them to come to their own decision, a magician will often deploy an apparently accidental glimpse of, say, an empty hand. When he then produces something from that hand the effect is all the more powerful because he has not been actively 'selling' the fact that the hand is empty. Your brain will believe whatever you tell it, but it will question everything that someone else tells it.

So my style of coaching is to provide everything you would expect for presentation skills - based on 20 years' experience as a PR consultant - with additional elements drawn from the world of magic woven in to add real impact. And it can be great fun too, because I usually get delegates to present a specially tailored magic trick as well as a business presentation. A magic trick is like a whole presentation compressed into a few minutes, so there is much that can be learned about opening, closing, handling visual aids, and building to a climax. James Randi, a wise old guru of magic, once said: “Magicians are the world's greatest communicators; it's just that everything they are telling you is wrong”.

Randi was my inspiration and I like to think I am beginning to put those skills to better use than simply pulling rabbits from hats and making perfectly good things disappear!

www.nickfitzherbert.co.uk

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