Transitions in speech are the secret sauce to keeping your ideas flowing and your audience glued to your every word. Words, phrases, and narrative transitions can be effective devices, but combine them with hand gestures, facial expressions, and body language and you can multiply your impact.
If you have a microphone in one hand, you can still gesture with the other and use facial expressions, posture, and body stance to guide your audience through your presentation.
Let’s look at a menu of 11 non-verbal elements you can practice achieving smoother transitions in a speech or presentation:
1. Enumerate with your fingers
Let your fingers guide listeners through your ideas. If you have three solutions to a problem, show three fingers and then signal the start of the first idea by holding up one, then two, and then three digits at the right transition points. This type of gesture is ideal for situations where you’re counting down, listing things, or using a number from 1 through 10. You’re emphasizing your point visually, and people are more likely to remember what you’re saying at the moment. For example, if you’re saying something like, “You’re faced with four choices,” hold up four fingers to illustrate this.
2. Stay in your body’s action zone
Hand gestures are not limited to your fingers. Engaging your hands and arms up to your shoulders is considered the “action zone” and with practice, these techniques will elevate your message and appear natural. Dynamic movement from side to side can mark transitions in time and place, and up and down movements can signal increments and comparisons.
3. Follow the bouncing ball
When shifting topics, you might use a hand gesture to indicate a change, much like the bouncing ball used in animations and cartoons. Gentle movements can signal that you’re moving from one point to another and help the audience follow. When you’re explaining a sequence, such as steps in a process, use a gesture that mirrors that sequence. For example, if you’re discussing a multi-step process, you might use your hand to trace the steps in the air. This visual representation creates continuity and helps your audience remember the sequence better.
4. Hold on, there’s more
Raise your hand and make a “wait” gesture as a signpost that you’re about to move on to more of a great idea or a new point altogether. This gesture gives your audience a moment to prepare for the transition or advance to something unexpected.
5. Rub your hands together
People who rub their palms together are usually talking about something positive and exciting (“can’t wait”). You can use this hand gesture in situations where you’re transitioning to a big reveal or building expectations for what comes next.
6. Change your stance
Take a half step forward or lean toward your audience and you’re showing them that something important is going to happen. The shift in body weight heightens interest, grabs attention, and signals a key point or a transition to a new topic. Looking up or down for a couple of seconds in silence will let the audience know that something dramatic is coming, too.
7. Move your position
Spatial movement can also be a powerful transition tool. Moving from one side of the stage to another can signify a shift in topics or perspectives. For instance, if you’re changing from discussing a problem to presenting a solution, physically moving to a different part of the stage can visually demonstrate this transition. This approach helps to create a clear demarcation between different sections of your speech and keeps the audience tuned in.
8. Sit or stand for emphasis
Working with the same problem-solution structure, you could sit on a stool to set up the problem portion and stand for the solution. You could move into narrative mode with a story and background to the situation then transition to an emphatic solution, summary, or conclusion. In the right context, the sitting-standing combination could be powerful.
9. A well-placed smile
When combined with a three-second pause, a smile can serve to draw your audience in and introduce a new section of your talk. Changing your facial expression to match the tone or mood of the next section can help convey the desired transition. For example, shifting from a serious expression to a more relaxed one can signal a lighter topic.
10. A magnetic pause
A two- to three-second pause creates a space between ideas. People are naturally drawn to a flash of silence that breaks the cadence of a presentation. Use pauses deliberately and wisely to move through the structural transitions of your speech. This moment of stillness draws attention to the upcoming change and prepares the audience for more information. It’s a subtle but impactful way to signal a shift without relying solely on verbal cues.
11. The deep inhale
Stop speaking, pause and take a very deep inhale, and pause again before exhaling to introduce a big new idea. An in-breath is often a sign that something important is coming, something that people will want to hear. You’re signaling, “Hold your breath…you’re going to love what’s coming.”
Experiment with combinations of verbal and non-verbal transitions when you practice your speech. Deliberate movement and gestures can reinforce, repeat, and even regulate an audience’s response to your messages. Hand gestures put your hands and arms to work and answer the common question: “What should I do with my hands?”
Whatever non-verbal transitions you choose, you want to come across as comfortable and natural, not awkward, and robotic. The combination of verbal and non-verbal transitions can make an idea memorable and lead the audience to the next point you want to make. Just be sure that your body sends the same message as your words.
Watch my video series on body language for more pro tips and techniques on using your hands and facial expressions for effect when you speak.
