ATTENTION 00:00:08 PLEAS How to Make Sure Other Officials Get Your Message By Brent Killackey
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ot some information you need to deliver to your fellow sports officials at the next officials association meeting or clinic? Want them to remember the message you’re trying to get across, such as some key points about this year’s rule change or mechanics officials keep tripping over? Sure, your information is important. But we all know today’s attention spans aren’t what they used to be. In fact, author and communications consultant Paul Hellman’s book title says it all: You’ve Got 8 Seconds. The title is based on an insight gleaned from a 2015 study on attention spans conducted by Microsoft. (Which, incidentally, is a shorter attention span than that of a goldfish.) If you think the officiating industry somehow bucks the trend, you haven’t been paying much attention to the vacant stares — and heads lowering to check cell phones — during recent association meetings. Or
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on Zoom, those eyes darting aren’t darting around because they’re engrossed in what you’re offering — they’re looking at other browser windows they’ve opened. You may have information to present — vital information for the work officials do on the fields, courts, pitches and other game venues — but you’re vying to be heard amid a constant bombardment of information. “We’re in the information age,” Hellman said in an interview with Referee. “Nobody wakes up in the morning feeling we’re lacking information. Most of us are drowning in information.” Hellman’s book targets the business world. But many of the insights apply to the business of officiating — and the business of presenting information to others. Hellman offers some tips that can help win that battle for people’s attention and keep it, so more information is retained. And that’s vitally important in an industry where we’re expected to know all the rules and
mechanics without being able to look at reference materials while we’re doing that job. Here are a few tidbits you can use to craft your next presentation to grab your fellow officials, hold them and help them retain what you’re saying.
Before Your Presentation Three Questions “Focus doesn’t just mean to say less, but also to design a compelling message,” Hellman writes. One of the methods to improve the focus of your message is to ask three questions. Hellman’s “Fast-Focus Method” advises presenters to ask themselves three key questions when formulating their presentation: 1. Why should I listen (or read this)? Have a purpose statement with the audience in mind that guides you in crafting the presentation. Put yourself in the audience and ask what reason they should listen. Or, it might be telling your audience the cost of not listening, he said. In officiating, the message might be: Pay attention or you’ll repeat this mistake and end up on next week’s videos. That can be compelling to a degree. 2. What exactly are you saying? Spend some time finding and crafting your main message. Determining
