The Power of the First Second

Once again we have a contribution from the insightful and talented Mr. Ivo Feuerbach. This is important stuff. Enjoy!


The Power of the First Second

We’ve all experienced this: You are walking through town and someone comes along. Suddenly you feel uncomfortable or you have to smile intuitively. You don’t know the person, but something has provoked this reaction. The person is gone, but the feeling remains. How long it remains depends on the intensity of the feeling, but it will surely last for a while.

What happened in this second? Our subconscious mind connected something about this person with another person or a situation (a real one, or only something notional). Although the person we saw on the street is a stranger to us, it still triggered the reaction. The one second we saw this person was perfectly enough to manipulate our emotions for a longer time. And we can’t do anything about it. When I think about this, it seems a little bit spooky. But this behaviour of our brain happens all the time. We judge every situation without recognising it. Subliminally a permanent evaluation of the current situation takes place. We are searching in our experiences and trying to connect the current situation with something we already know.

Let’s follow a short example which Daniel Kahneman performs in his Book ‘’Thinking, Fast and Slow“ with the following words:

                          bananas              vomit

In the last 1 to 2 seconds we experienced some pictures and memories. Our face grimaced, maybe we pushed our head a little bit farer away from the screen, our heart beat faster and we felt disgust. Even if we normally like bananas, we wouldn’t want to eat one right now. At least not for a short time. What happened? Without purpose we automatically connected the words banana and vomit and are thinking that the bananas are the reason that we feel sick and throw up. In just a few moments we showed a mental and physical reaction to something we never connected with each other before. But in the future we will remember this. Don’t worry! The antipathy to bananas will not last for ever, no fear! Perhaps you will eat a banana the next time you already feel a little bit sick, because you have a hangover or an upset stomach. If you have to throw up afterwards you will automatically connect this with the banana, even if this is not the most likely reason, because now it is connected in your brain. Let’s eat some bananas tonight while watching our favourite film, to build a positive connection and destroy the other one. Maybe I should have used an example with something unhealthy. Sorry. But we are not on a site for diet consultancy here, even if this experience could also be used there, because there they set mostly wrong connections. (But Rob has a blog about presenting, so sorry Rob for this excurse).
The Question here is: What does this mean for our presentations?

What I explained shows how our subconscious mind works with the first impression. This also happens at the beginning of a presentation. But not when we start speaking. No, it already happens when we enter the room or the stage. In the situation of a presentation this reaction is even stronger, because our brain is prepared to receive information. It is searching for some information, even if this information is provided by our subconscious mind. It is searching for something to evaluate the person in front of us. From the very first moment, and without recognising it, everyone in the room, who does not know me, starts to evaluate me. And especially at the beginning of a presentation we are mostly occupied with other things. Remembering our presentation, the first sentence, what we want to say,  seeing where the boss is sitting and if he looks nice and relaxed, or is he maybe in the wrong mood? So our subconscious mind is doing the same, but our awareness doesn’t recognise it. We are occupied with our presentation. This could lead to heavy problems. If we look angry, because we are concentrating, the crowd will have a picture in mind of someone who is angry. The mad neighbour from their childhood who brought them to their parents, when they kicked the ball into their window, or our boss who is looking angrily at us, for something we are not responsible for. Getting these pictures out of their brain again can influence the development and the success of our presentation. Now we are connected with a negative picture and this connection will last for a while, like the connection of the banana and the vomit in our brain at the moment. If we are unlucky, then this feeling will get stronger and we will have to fight against it again in future meetings.

So we should think about how we enter the room and the stage. What should our presentation stand for? Do we want to convince the crowd that our idea will bring the company forwards? Is our Idea for the future? Then we should enter the room and the stage dynamically, with power. Even if this could seem a little bit out of place, it will have a mechanical positive effect. We also need to bring our actions into the context of the situation at hand. When I’m at a party and want to cheer for the birthday child, I can jump on a chair to do it. But if the presentation is in the office in front of the bosses, that would be out of place. In this case a strong step forward shows dynamism.

So the question, I should ask myself during the preparation of the presentation is: What impression should come to the mind of the crowd at the first moment? How can I make sure that I will reach this goal? Also this first impression can be practiced. If you follow the suggestions I gave to you with my first blog Jazzy Presenting: The Fine Line Between Memorising and Flexibility, you might find some free time to practice the first second.

So remember that our subconscious mind has a huge impact on our impression and a big impact comes from the very first second of entering the room. The presentation does not begin when the official time starts. The presentation begins when you enter the room, or step out on the stage.

Thanks for your attention,

Ivo Feuerbach