How to speak so students will listen

CharlotteWhelan,ExecutiveRegionalDirectorCST

I recently listened to the fifth most popular Ted Talk of all time- Julian Treasure’s ‘ How to speak so that people will listen’. You can read this blog either before or after you have watched it, but I highly recommend that you do (I mean both watch it and read this blog!) .

In his talk, Treasure talks about the bad habits speakers have that make people not want to listen. Recently I have been training staff on achieving orderly corridors. I have linked four of Treasure’s seven ‘bad habits’ and reasons why people are not listening when we speak to the high frequency errors we often make when out on corridors so students don’t listen to us.

Treasure’s Bad Habits

Gossip

Staff talking to each other and to individual students - it doesn’t have to be gossip - it can be chit chat - but it takes our eyes off the main purpose. We should be frontloading our expectations by giving students meaningful, achievable instructions to ensure they get to lessons on time and in an orderly manner.

Negativity

Coming across as ‘naggy’ is not conducive to getting students where they need to be in the right frame of mind and ensuring compliance to the rules. Instructions worded as ‘Don’t do that’, ‘not like that’ should be avoided.

Judgement

Students need to feel that we are all in it together. That staff and students are on the same team and that we need to all ensure that we are doing what is expected. They need to know that you will not accept disorder but they are not bad people, they just have bad or undeveloped habits that we are helping them fix.

Complaining

‘I’ve told you 100 times’, ‘I am sick of this, you know the rules’. These phrases seem obvious no nos but we have all heard it said- particularly when staff are weary. Top tip - tell them 101 times and tell them again so they know the rules.

Treasure then goes on to talk about the good foundations of speaking so that people will listen. Again, I have contextualised this according to how teachers make themselves heard in the corridors.

Treasures ‘Good Foundations’ for speaking so people will listen

Speak with:

Honesty we state our expectations with truth and sincerity

Authenticity we own our comments. We don’t sound like we are parroting rules that we don’t believe in

Integrity we stick to the systems. We follow up non - compliance every time. We do what we say we are going to do.

Love we deliver the instructions with warmth and good humour. We let students know it is for the good of the community and the school.

It is also worth noting that Treasure uses the acronym ‘HAIL’. This fits in with our ethos at Community Schools Trust.

To hail (verb)

Meaning one: to greet enthusiastically we always say good morning or good afternoon in the corridor. Every interaction is the possibility to build a positive relationship.

Meaning two: to signal or attract attention we signal to students what we expect them to do. We frontload our instructions so that students know how to be successful

Meaning three: to publicly praise or show approval for a person or an achievement we praise the expected behaviour.

Treasure provides a ‘Toolbox’ for our voices so that we speak so that we are listened to. (Register, Timbre, Prosody, Pace, Pitch and Volume). He also recommends that we practise warming up our voice before we use it.

I have tried to encapsulate this voice variation in training staff on how to tackle poor corridor behaviour with the following formula

Promote - Frontload your expectations for the corridor conduct.

What staff say

• Single file, left hand side

• First time, every time

• Every second counts

• Quick, you don’t want to be late

How they say it

• They speak to no one in particular.

• They use a sing song voice (prosody).

• They use their ‘broadcast’ voice

• They are upbeat

• They demonstrate they expect compliance first time, every time by not using rising prosody. It’s a statement, not a question

Praise - Broadcast who is doing it right

What staff say

• Well done, Tia. First time every time - That’s the Petchey Way

• Brilliant boys. Lovely left line. It’s who we are, it’s what we do!

• Great Tao, you are hurrying to your lesson. Lots of merits to be had and you will definitely be in line for the golden ticket!

How they say it

• They speak directly to individuals

• They use prosody - upbeat, sing song voice

• They give loud specific praise, pointing out the required behaviours

• They promote the expected behaviour

• They reinforce the social norms and pro -social behaviours

‘Pick Up’ Phase - they follow up and sanction every infraction

What staff say

• Ok stop, young man. You are not on the left. Here is a slip. Now I don’t want to see that again.

• Come here please. Unfortunately you were not following the expectations for Petchey. It’s normal for Petchey to walk on the left.

• Ok you are not moving. You are standing here talking to your friends. Every second counts. Here is your slip.

How they say it

• They use a low, calm voice

• They speak from their diaphragm

• They are speak with authority

• They act surprised

• They slow down for emphasis

Warm up

Treasure finishes his Ted Talk by getting the audience up and out of their seats practising their voice warm ups. At CST we firmly approve as deliberate practice is the cornerstone of how we get better faster. We warm up (practise) in private, before we deliver to our audienceour wonderful students.