The folks over at MIT Media Lab have created some interesting ways to assess whether someone is interested in or even paying attention to a conversation. In fact, using a machine that measures a person’s speaking style (activity, stress, empathy) the MIT researchers can predict the outcomes of a conversation with almost 90 percent accuracy – from just a few minutes of listening.

One tool is the Jerk-O-Meter, which measures how engaged you are with the other person on the phone and sends you messages, from   “you’re a smooth talker” to  “stop being a jerk” so you can alter your behavior.

Other tests include the The ElevatorRater, a program that analyzes charisma based on a speaker's delivery, using non-linguistic speech features like pitch, speaking rate, pause durations. Another is the Human Interest Meter, measuring how interested people are in conversations.

I think tools like these hold some potential for communicators, giving us ways to more scientifically help people relax and be more genuine. They can also help us to crack the corporate speak syndrome, showing people just how engaged or unengaged others are when listening in to their podcasts, webinars, and in-person presentations.

One of the MIT researchers has suggested that perhaps people need to become better actors to be seen as "engaged."   I say rubbish to that notion.

If we want genuine interest we need to be genuinely interested in what we’re talking about – and the people with whom we’re talking.

 In today’s conversational world, whether online or in-person ,we have to learn how to find points of view – or help others in our organization find them – that are interesting to others and that we LIKE talking about. Points of view are an “also” to the traditional vision/mission/messaging basics; they’re beliefs, ideas, advice, and perspectives that are fresh, relevant and have a little emotion wrapped around them.

 Harder than the usual “messaging” and best practices and feature/benefits? Surely.  But if we don’t speak with conviction, research shows that people will tune us out in less than three minutes – despite the words themselves.

How a Point of View Differs