Not all brains are wired the same. We learn in different ways. Trying to educate someone in the style that works best for you may not work the best for that other person. Adapting how you provide information to your audience may make your presentation and your argument more effective.

People learn in different ways.

• Auditory learners: Retain more information that is told to them. You may want to regulate your voice tone, inflection and body language.
• Visual learners: Benefit from diagrams, charts, pictures and written directions. They will value to-do lists and written notes.
• Kinesthetic learners: Learn through touching, feeling and experiencing the material at hand. As children many of us start as kinesthetic learners then become visual or auditory learners but many adults, especially men, stay kinesthetic and tactual learners.

Use Visual Teaching With Your Client and/or the Opposing Party

Many of us are visual learners.

• The typical visual learner uses visualization techniques to remember things.
• They frequently have a good sense of direction because they visualize maps and directions in their mind.
• Many prefer to read information rather than listen to information.
• Visual learners use sight words in their everyday language, like suggesting you “take a look” at something.
• They may forget what they are told but remember what they see.
• Visual learners have a better sense of space than time (so they may be more likely to be late, but not because they got lost).
• They can be very imaginative and may come up with ideas and/or solutions to a problem, especially if they can “see” it in their mind’s eye (which is a good thing for negotiations or mediation).
• Visual learners retain the most when they can see what they are being taught. They may prefer images, maps, graphs and other visual representations over other ways to communicate information.
• If the person is taking notes of a conversation images, mind maps, lists, and other visual techniques may help them to remember information.
• Visual learners may think in terms of pictures, not language, and have short attention spans.

Ways you can better communicate to a visual learner include:

• Presenting material visually.
• Allowing them to progress on their own. They do better with simple, concise and minimal instructions.
• Your presentation to your client or the other party may be more effective if it contains visual elements such as photos, charts and graphs. PowerPoint may be a good tool for you to use if you can include visual elements and short, concise text.

Your presentation to your client or the other party may be more effective if it contains visual elements such as photos, charts and graphs. PowerPoint may be a good tool for you to use if you can include visual elements and short, concise text. No matter how your audience learns given our increasingly short attention spans and how easily we can be distracted making information visual and to the point may go a long way.

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