Use the power of movies to transform the way you teach or learn communication, presentation & influencing skills
Whatever your role or profession, you’ll need the ability to communicate persuasively and influence others. After all, you may be the most gifted person in your field, but what use is that if you can’t get your ideas across?
While some people are naturally gifted communicators, most of us need to work at it. And our challenge is not getting any easier.
Meet today’s biggest villain to effective communication
Since Apple CEO Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPhone and launched the smartphone revolution in 2006, our attention spans have decreased. Research suggests the average American attention span is now just eight seconds – down from 12 seconds in 2000.
Psychologists have coined the term ‘continuous partial attention’ for the way we habitually flit between our phones, devices and human interactions. The result? Getting people’s attention – and your message across effectively – is becoming harder than ever.
What does that mean for communication skills?
Quite simply: we need to become more persuasive at getting our messages across. I’ve seen this first hand from 20 years of working in employee communications in large organisations. People’s time is increasingly precious. You have less opportunity than ever to get your message across. In the age of TED Talks, bland, long-winded PowerPoint presentations are no longer acceptable.
Fortunately, anyone can become a better communicator, a more persuasive presenter, a sharper influencer. All it takes is thinking creatively about how you communicate, and practising some tried and tested techniques. But if you’re going to learn, why not make it fun?
Why use movies to teach communication?
There are lots of ways to learn effective communication. So why choose movies?
- Movies are designed to grab and keep your attention. And for communication, that makes them a rich source of good practice.
- Movies illustrate the most effective communication, presenting and influencing techniques available in an entertaining, engaging way.
- Movies use stories, one of the most powerful vehicles for changing behaviour.
- Movies dramatise some of history’s most powerful communicators: from Dr Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln to Steve Jobs.
If you teach, train or coach others, movies can help transform your approach. Our shortening attention spans mean we all need to work harder to engage our audience with stimulating and varied content. You could spend many hours watching movies and trying to find relevant scenes to include in your teaching – but we’ve done the hard work for you.
The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting and Influencing
The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting and Influencing is a 73-page eBook which highlights 45 scenes from 27 popular movies to illustrate a wide variety of simple but persuasive communication, presentation and influencing techniques.
These range from more recent releases like Selma, Steve Jobs, Suffragette, Still Alice, The Imitation Game, Lincoln and Bridge of Spies to older classics like 12 Angry Men, An Inconvenient Truth, Mr Holland’s Opus and Amistad.
You’ll find characters doing amazing things: abolishing slavery, fighting for civil and women’s rights, overcoming disability, raising awareness of climate change, running the country. But the simple techniques they use to communicate effectively can be broken down and learned by anyone.
The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting and Influencing breaks key communication, presentation and influencing skills into five areas:
CRAFTING YOUR MESSAGE examines how you can present your argument so it has the best chance of landing effectively. It looks in detail at six simple techniques that will help your message ‘stick’: Sharpening your focus; Analogy; Story and emotion; Humour and quotes; creating dramatic STAR moments; and Word power.
BUILDING RAPPORT looks at how you can create a bond between you and your audience.
COMMUNICATING BAD NEWS discusses techniques for communicating tough messages.
PERSONAL IMPACT looks at authenticity, body language and using voice to boost your impact.
THE KEYS TO INFLUENCE illustrates different practical tactics for getting people on your side.
In each section, you’ll find a brief description of the technique, followed by detailed notes of movie scenes that illustrate or stimulate discussion on that technique. For each scene you’ll find:
- A short synopsis of the movie context, what’s happened to date, and what happens in the scene.
- Notes on why it models the technique, and suggestions for discussion points.
- Scene length and start and end points for where it appears in the movie.
- A direct link to the scene on YouTube where a high quality version is available (currently included for around one third of the scenes).
- A link to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) where you can find further information about each movie.
This eBook comes in A4 landscape PDF format, designed to be easily read on PCs, laptops or tablets.
Who will benefit from this book?
- Learning and development professionals, trainers, coaches involved in communication, presentation or influencing training.
- Managers and employees who want to sharpen their communication skills using a fun and different approach.
Get it now
You can get The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting and Influencing eBook via instant download for just £20. Inject life into your communications training, presentations and events, or sharpen your communication skills the fun way: by watching scenes from movies!
To buy The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting and Influencing click the ‘buy now’ button on the left below.
OR buy The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting and Influencing AND 100 Movie Scenes which Highlight Great Leadership and receive 20% off the total price.
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100% money back guarantee
All our eBooks are covered by a 100% money back guarantee. If you’re unhappy with your purchase of The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting and Influencing in any way, just email me at dave@movieleadership.com within 14 days of purchase to confirm in writing that you’ve deleted it and not shared it with anyone else. I’ll refund your money in full.
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To buy The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting & Influencing click the ‘Buy Now’ button on the left below.
OR buy The Movie Guide to Communicating, Presenting and Influencing AND 100 Movie Scenes which Highlight Great Leadership and receive 20% off the total price, using the ‘Buy Now’ button below,
Thank you for taking the time to read this page, and I hope you enjoy the book. Please let me me know what you think at dave@movieleadership.com.
I’d love to hear how you’ve been using it. And remember, you can find lots more information and resources on leadership in the movies at movieleadership.com