Maybe it's the speed-of-light pace of technology, or the stress of having too much to do and not enough time to do it, or both, but when British bank Lloyds TSB set out to study what causes careless (and costly) household accidents, the researchers made an interesting discovery: The average adult attention span has plummeted from 12 minutes a decade ago to just 5 minutes now. That may be especially true at this time of year, when most of us would rather be at the beach.
到底是什么导致了粗心(且成本高昂)的家务事故?是科技的快速进步,还是因为有太多事情要做但却没有足够的时间?抑或两者皆有?为了探明究竟,英国银行劳埃德TSB集团(Lloyds TSB)进行了一项研究,结果有了一个有趣的发现:成年人的平均注意力持续时间从十年前的12分钟已经缩短到现在仅有5分钟。每年到了现在这个季节尤其如此,因为我们大多数人宁愿待在海滩上。
So there you are, planning a presentation that could have a big impact on your career, for better or worse, and it's half an hour long. "With an attention span of five minutes, the average audience is going to tune out 84% of your 30-minute speech," says Sean O'Brien -- unless, that is, you find ways to keep them interested.
假如你正在规划一次至关重要的陈述,它可能会决定你的职业生涯未来是向着更好的方向还是更坏的方向发展,而陈述的时间是半个小时。西恩•奥布莱恩说:“因为听众平均注意力持续时间只有5分钟,所以在30分钟的演讲期间,听众有84%的时间是在走神。”——除非,你能找到保持听众注意力的方法。
An executive vice president at Atlanta-based online meeting and collaboration firm PGi, O'Brien offers these suggestions for doing just that. They're drawn from a new PGi e-book (free on the company's website) called The Little Black Book of Presentation Ideas.
奥布莱恩是亚特兰大一家在线会议与合作公司PGi的执行副总裁。他将为读者提供一些吸引听众注意力的建议。这些建议来自PGi的一本新电子书(可在该公司网站上免费下载)——《讲演妙招黑皮书》(The Little Black Book of Presentation Ideas)
n. 牙科医生