ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Julian Treasure - Sound consultant
Julian Treasure studies sound and advises businesses on how best to use it.

Why you should listen

Julian Treasure is the chair of the Sound Agency, a firm that advises worldwide businesses -- offices, retailers, airports -- on how to design sound in their physical spaces and communication. He asks us to pay attention to the sounds that surround us. How do they make us feel: productive, stressed, energized, acquisitive?

Treasure is the author of the book Sound Business, a manual for effective sound use in every aspect of business. His most recent book, How to be Heard: Secrets for Powerful Speaking and Listening, based on his TED Talk, offers practical exercises to improve communication skills and an inspiring vision for a sonorous world of effective speaking, conscious listening and understanding. He speaks globally on this topic.

More profile about the speaker
Julian Treasure | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2013

Julian Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen

Filmed:
40,379,785 views

Have you ever felt like you're talking, but nobody is listening? Here's Julian Treasure to help. In this useful talk, the sound expert demonstrates the how-to's of powerful speaking -- from some handy vocal exercises to tips on how to speak with empathy. A talk that might help the world sound more beautiful.
- Sound consultant
Julian Treasure studies sound and advises businesses on how best to use it. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:14
The human voice:
0
1960
2110
00:16
It's the instrument we all play.
1
4070
1922
00:18
It's the most powerful sound in the world, probably.
2
5992
2356
00:20
It's the only one that can start a war
3
8348
1768
00:22
or say "I love you."
4
10116
1824
00:24
And yet many people have the experience
5
11940
1296
00:25
that when they speak, people don't listen to them.
6
13236
2974
00:28
And why is that?
7
16210
1136
00:29
How can we speak powerfully
8
17346
1674
00:31
to make change in the world?
9
19020
2116
00:33
What I'd like to suggest, there are
10
21136
1996
00:35
a number of habits that we need to move away from.
11
23132
1840
00:37
I've assembled for your pleasure here
12
24972
2336
00:39
seven deadly sins of speaking.
13
27308
2136
00:41
I'm not pretending this is an exhaustive list,
14
29444
2432
00:43
but these seven, I think, are pretty large
15
31876
2632
00:46
habits that we can all fall into.
16
34508
2624
00:49
First, gossip,
17
37132
2857
00:52
speaking ill of somebody who's not present.
18
39989
2711
00:54
Not a nice habit, and we know perfectly well
19
42700
1668
00:56
the person gossiping five minutes later
20
44368
2332
00:58
will be gossiping about us.
21
46700
3071
01:01
Second, judging.
22
49771
1744
01:03
We know people who are like this in conversation,
23
51515
1808
01:05
and it's very hard to listen to somebody
24
53323
2056
01:07
if you know that you're being judged
25
55379
2200
01:09
and found wanting at the same time.
26
57579
2450
01:12
Third, negativity.
27
60029
1900
01:14
You can fall into this.
28
61929
1730
01:15
My mother, in the last years of her life,
29
63659
1552
01:17
became very, very negative, and it's hard to listen.
30
65211
2155
01:19
I remember one day, I said to her,
31
67366
1937
01:21
"It's October 1 today,"
32
69303
1013
01:22
and she said, "I know, isn't it dreadful?"
33
70316
2824
01:25
(Laughter)
34
73140
2122
01:27
It's hard to listen when somebody's that negative.
35
75262
3178
01:30
And another form of negativity, complaining.
36
78440
2841
01:33
Well, this is the national art of the U.K.
37
81281
4261
01:37
It's our national sport. We
complain about the weather,
38
85542
2128
01:39
about sport, about politics, about everything,
39
87670
2465
01:42
but actually complaining is viral misery.
40
90135
2137
01:44
It's not spreading sunshine
and lightness in the world.
41
92272
4020
01:48
Excuses. We've all met this guy.
42
96292
3004
01:51
Maybe we've all been this guy.
43
99296
1500
01:52
Some people have a blamethrower.
44
100796
2694
01:55
They just pass it on to everybody else
45
103490
2228
01:57
and don't take responsibility for their actions,
46
105718
1628
01:59
and again, hard to listen to
somebody who is being like that.
47
107346
2936
02:02
Penultimate, the sixth of the seven,
48
110282
2322
02:04
embroidery, exaggeration.
49
112604
3606
02:08
It demeans our language, actually, sometimes.
50
116210
2428
02:10
For example, if I see something
51
118638
1302
02:12
that really is awesome,
52
119940
1990
02:14
what do I call it?
53
121930
1896
02:15
(Laughter)
54
123826
2014
02:17
And then of course this exaggeration becomes lying,
55
125840
2498
02:20
out and out lying, and we don't want to listen
56
128338
1568
02:22
to people we know are lying to us.
57
129906
2317
02:24
And finally, dogmatism,
58
132223
3221
02:27
the confusion of facts with opinions.
59
135444
3879
02:31
When those two things get conflated,
60
139323
1939
02:33
you're listening into the wind.
61
141262
1125
02:34
You know, somebody is bombarding you
with their opinions as if they were true.
62
142387
3600
02:38
It's difficult to listen to that.
63
145987
2560
02:40
So here they are, seven deadly sins of speaking.
64
148547
3041
02:43
These are things I think we need to avoid.
65
151588
2433
02:46
But is there a positive way to think about this?
66
154021
2869
02:48
Yes, there is.
67
156890
1283
02:50
I'd like to suggest that there are four
68
158173
2246
02:52
really powerful cornerstones, foundations,
69
160419
3024
02:55
that we can stand on if we want our speech
70
163443
2977
02:58
to be powerful and to make change in the world.
71
166420
3235
03:01
Fortunately, these things spell a word.
72
169655
2868
03:04
The word is "hail," and it has
a great definition as well.
73
172523
3096
03:07
I'm not talking about the stuff that falls from the sky
74
175619
1968
03:09
and hits you on the head.
75
177587
1288
03:10
I'm talking about this definition,
76
178875
1465
03:12
to greet or acclaim enthusiastically,
77
180340
2500
03:14
which is how I think our words will be received
78
182840
2267
03:17
if we stand on these four things.
79
185107
1542
03:18
So what do they stand for?
80
186649
1776
03:20
See if you can guess.
81
188425
1400
03:21
The H, honesty, of course,
82
189825
3458
03:25
being true in what you say, being straight and clear.
83
193283
2971
03:28
The A is authenticity, just being yourself.
84
196254
4041
03:32
A friend of mine described it as
85
200295
1574
03:33
standing in your own truth,
86
201869
1636
03:35
which I think is a lovely way to put it.
87
203505
1938
03:37
The I is integrity, being your word,
88
205443
2636
03:40
actually doing what you say,
89
208079
1788
03:41
and being somebody people can trust.
90
209867
2080
03:44
And the L is love.
91
211947
3183
03:47
I don't mean romantic love,
92
215130
2121
03:49
but I do mean wishing people well, for two reasons.
93
217251
3409
03:52
First of all, I think absolute honesty
94
220660
2247
03:55
may not be what we want.
95
222907
1123
03:56
I mean, my goodness, you look ugly this morning.
96
224030
2633
03:58
Perhaps that's not necessary.
97
226663
3358
04:02
Tempered with love, of course,
honesty is a great thing.
98
230021
3358
04:05
But also, if you're really wishing somebody well,
99
233379
3095
04:08
it's very hard to judge them at the same time.
100
236474
2637
04:11
I'm not even sure you can do those two things
101
239111
2423
04:13
simultaneously.
102
241534
1776
04:15
So hail.
103
243310
1600
04:17
Also, now that's what you say,
104
244910
1757
04:18
and it's like the old song, it is what you say,
105
246667
1768
04:20
it's also the way that you say it.
106
248435
1903
04:22
You have an amazing toolbox.
107
250338
2072
04:24
This instrument is incredible,
108
252410
1860
04:26
and yet this is a toolbox that very
few people have ever opened.
109
254270
3540
04:29
I'd like to have a little rummage in there
110
257810
1521
04:31
with you now and just pull a few tools out
111
259331
1909
04:33
that you might like to take away and play with,
112
261240
1870
04:35
which will increase the power of your speaking.
113
263110
3132
04:38
Register, for example.
114
266242
1744
04:40
Now, falsetto register may not
be very useful most of the time,
115
267986
4194
04:44
but there's a register in between.
116
272180
2054
04:46
I'm not going to get very technical about this
117
274234
1385
04:47
for any of you who are voice coaches.
118
275619
1680
04:49
You can locate your voice, however.
119
277299
1943
04:51
So if I talk up here in my nose,
you can hear the difference.
120
279242
2504
04:53
If I go down here in my throat,
121
281746
1608
04:55
which is where most of us
speak from most of the time.
122
283354
3431
04:58
But if you want weight,
123
286785
1857
05:00
you need to go down here to the chest.
124
288642
2478
05:03
You hear the difference?
125
291120
1610
05:04
We vote for politicians with lower voices, it's true,
126
292730
4040
05:08
because we associate depth with power
127
296770
2968
05:11
and with authority.
128
299738
2707
05:14
That's register.
129
302445
1689
05:16
Then we have timbre.
130
304134
1367
05:17
It's the way your voice feels.
131
305501
1769
05:19
Again, the research shows that we prefer voices
132
307270
1920
05:21
which are rich, smooth, warm, like hot chocolate.
133
309190
5445
05:26
Well if that's not you, that's not the end of the world,
134
314635
3288
05:30
because you can train.
135
317923
1442
05:31
Go and get a voice coach.
136
319365
1244
05:32
And there are amazing things you can do
137
320609
1576
05:34
with breathing, with posture, and with exercises
138
322185
2736
05:37
to improve the timbre of your voice.
139
324921
2514
05:39
Then prosody. I love prosody.
140
327435
1792
05:41
This is the sing-song, the meta-language
141
329227
2176
05:43
that we use in order to impart meaning.
142
331403
2074
05:45
It's root one for meaning in conversation.
143
333477
2838
05:48
People who speak all on one note
144
336315
2223
05:50
are really quite hard to listen to
145
338538
1857
05:52
if they don't have any prosody at all.
146
340395
2216
05:54
That's where the world monotonic comes from,
147
342611
2975
05:57
or monotonous, monotone.
148
345586
2720
06:00
Also we have repetitive prosody now coming in,
149
348306
3297
06:03
where every sentence ends as if it were a question
150
351603
2720
06:06
when it's actually not a question, it's a statement.
151
354323
2048
06:08
(Laughter)
152
356371
2783
06:11
And if you repeat that one over and over,
153
359154
1586
06:12
it's actually restricting your ability
154
360740
1867
06:14
to communicate through prosody,
155
362607
1288
06:15
which I think is a shame,
156
363895
1925
06:17
so let's try and break that habit.
157
365820
2921
06:20
Pace. I can get very, very excited
158
368741
1990
06:22
by saying something really, really quickly,
159
370731
1552
06:24
or I can slow right down to emphasize,
160
372283
4296
06:28
and at the end of that, of course, is our old friend
161
376579
2341
06:31
silence.
162
378920
2439
06:34
There's nothing wrong with a bit of silence
163
382555
1871
06:36
in a talk, is there?
164
384426
2135
06:38
We don't have to fill it with ums and ahs.
165
386561
2864
06:41
It can be very powerful.
166
389425
2398
06:43
Of course, pitch often goes along with pace
167
391823
2328
06:46
to indicate arousal, but you can do it just with pitch.
168
394151
2528
06:48
Where did you leave my keys?
169
396679
1704
06:50
Where did you leave my keys?
170
398383
1904
06:52
So slightly different meaning
171
400287
1903
06:54
in those two deliveries.
172
402190
1966
06:56
And finally, volume.
173
404156
2246
06:58
I can get really excited by using volume.
174
406402
3401
07:01
Sorry about that if I startled anybody.
175
409803
2177
07:04
Or, I can have you really pay attention
176
411980
2311
07:06
by getting very quiet.
177
414291
2051
07:08
Some people broadcast the whole time.
178
416342
2085
07:10
Try not to do that.
179
418427
1473
07:12
That's called sodcasting,
180
419900
3359
07:15
imposing your sound on people around you
181
423259
2616
07:17
carelessly and inconsiderately. Not nice.
182
425875
3040
07:21
Of course, where this all comes into play most of all
183
428915
2656
07:23
is when you've got something really important to do.
184
431571
2328
07:25
It might be standing on a stage like this
185
433899
1636
07:27
and giving a talk to people.
186
435535
1475
07:29
It might be proposing marriage,
187
437010
2529
07:31
asking for a raise, a wedding speech.
188
439539
3154
07:34
Whatever it is, if it's really important,
189
442693
2006
07:36
you owe it to yourself to look at this toolbox
190
444699
3480
07:40
and the engine that it's going to work on,
191
448179
2330
07:42
and no engine works well without being warmed up.
192
450509
3095
07:45
Warm up your voice.
193
453604
1976
07:47
Actually, let me show you how to do that.
194
455580
1848
07:49
Would you all like to stand up for a moment?
195
457428
3108
07:52
I'm going to show you the
six vocal warmup exercises
196
460536
2916
07:55
that I do before every talk I ever do.
197
463452
3473
07:59
Anytime you're going to talk to
anybody important, do these.
198
466925
2771
08:01
First, arms up, deep breath in,
199
469696
2966
08:04
and sigh out, ahhhhh, like that.
200
472662
3102
08:07
One more time.
201
475764
1628
08:09
Ahhhh, very good.
202
477392
2998
08:12
Now we're going to warm up our lips,
203
480390
1742
08:14
and we're going to go ba, ba, ba, ba,
204
482132
2352
08:16
ba, ba, ba, ba. Very good.
205
484484
2952
08:19
And now, brrrrrrrrrr,
206
487436
3440
08:22
just like when you were a kid.
207
490876
1450
08:24
Brrrr. Now your lips should be coming alive.
208
492326
2527
08:26
We're going to do the tongue next
209
494853
1575
08:28
with exaggerated la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
210
496428
4422
08:32
Beautiful. You're getting really good at this.
211
500850
1510
08:34
And then, roll an R. Rrrrrrr.
212
502360
3595
08:38
That's like champagne for the tongue.
213
505955
2216
08:40
Finally, and if I can only do one,
214
508171
2320
08:42
the pros call this the siren.
215
510491
1807
08:44
It's really good. It starts with "we" and goes to "aw."
216
512298
2433
08:46
The "we" is high, the "aw" is low.
217
514731
1260
08:48
So you go, weeeaawww, weeeaawww.
218
515991
6715
08:54
Fantastic. Give yourselves a round of applause.
219
522706
2176
08:56
Take a seat, thank you. (Applause)
220
524882
2830
08:59
Next time you speak, do those in advance.
221
527712
2624
09:02
Now let me just put this in context to close.
222
530336
2640
09:05
This is a serious point here.
223
532976
2296
09:07
This is where we are now, right?
224
535272
1831
09:09
We speak not very well
225
537103
1665
09:10
into people who simply aren't listening
226
538768
1368
09:12
in an environment that's all
about noise and bad acoustics.
227
540136
2919
09:15
I have talked about that on this stage
228
543055
2065
09:17
in different phases.
229
545120
1678
09:18
What would the world be like
230
546798
1634
09:20
if we were speaking powerfully
231
548432
1720
09:22
to people who were listening consciously
232
550152
2056
09:24
in environments which were actually fit for purpose?
233
552208
3394
09:27
Or to make that a bit larger,
234
555602
2983
09:30
what would the world be like
235
558585
1097
09:31
if we were creating sound consciously
236
559682
2628
09:34
and consuming sound consciously
237
562310
2033
09:36
and designing all our environments
238
564343
1627
09:38
consciously for sound?
239
565970
1477
09:39
That would be a world that does sound beautiful,
240
567447
3224
09:42
and one where understanding
241
570671
1896
09:44
would be the norm,
242
572567
2015
09:46
and that is an idea worth spreading.
243
574582
2673
09:49
Thank you.
244
577255
2408
09:51
Thank you. (Applause)
245
579663
1300

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Julian Treasure - Sound consultant
Julian Treasure studies sound and advises businesses on how best to use it.

Why you should listen

Julian Treasure is the chair of the Sound Agency, a firm that advises worldwide businesses -- offices, retailers, airports -- on how to design sound in their physical spaces and communication. He asks us to pay attention to the sounds that surround us. How do they make us feel: productive, stressed, energized, acquisitive?

Treasure is the author of the book Sound Business, a manual for effective sound use in every aspect of business. His most recent book, How to be Heard: Secrets for Powerful Speaking and Listening, based on his TED Talk, offers practical exercises to improve communication skills and an inspiring vision for a sonorous world of effective speaking, conscious listening and understanding. He speaks globally on this topic.

More profile about the speaker
Julian Treasure | Speaker | TED.com

Data provided by TED.

This site was created in May 2015 and the last update was on January 12, 2020. It will no longer be updated.

We are currently creating a new site called "eng.lish.video" and would be grateful if you could access it.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to write comments in your language on the contact form.

Privacy Policy

Developer's Blog

Buy Me A Coffee