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.