Friction vs Fuel Problem Solving, And How it Affects Live Performance and Public Speaking Dynamics
By Stephen Salamunovich CSA
Here’s a quick primer for those who may not be aware of the friction vs fuel, problem solving dynamic:
Is the solution to a given problem, the removal or avoidance of obstacles? (friction)
Or....the addition of effort? (fuel)
Or......a combination?
A quick look behind the curtain: Minimizing both is actually optimal!
Hypothetical Application: A truck is 15’3” tall and a bridge over the roadway has only 15 feet of clearance.
A fuel solution to drive the truck under the bridge would be to demo the bridge and raise it up 4 inches.
A friction solution would be to let air out of the truck’s tires to the point where it was four inches shorter and leave the bridge alone. Thereby, using a minimum of both friction and fuel.
Most presentational coaching strategies advise the addition of fuel to their clients. “Project your voice more, gesture more with your hands, be more animated, smile more, modulate your voice after you project it, don’t use the wrong body language and DO use the right one.” And on and on. They’re all an application of fuel to solve the problem of how to make sure you’re more palatable to and effective with your audiences. It gets even MORE problematic when the coaching fuel involves advising them to avoid doing something, according to a Harvard study!
But here’s the thing: Speaking is something we all do all day long without any problems arising like those that seem to be problematic when we suddenly have an audience! Why should THAT be the case! What’s changed that suddenly brings such fear and neurological obstacles? Actually, very little! The problem is our perspective has drastically changed even though the situation really hasn't changed much. The best performers and speakers are the same people in front of 5 people around their kitchen table as they are in a hall in front of 500. They bring their safety with them through simple changes in their perspective which is always facilitated through the imagination. Something every one of us has and usually, underutilizes! But it’s powerful because both the body and the mind don’t neurologically differentiate what’s real and what’s imagined. For instance, I can’t practice drums if my hands are too dry to hold the sticks lightly. So I keep a picture of climber Alex Honnold clutching the rock face of El Capitan near my drums and when I look at it, my hands start sweating! Even though my brain and body are not on that wall, it doesn’t matter! The response is the same! Great actors with whom I work, use this same process to fool themselves into the characters they’ve created and the better they are at surrendering to that illusion, the more we believe them. So we utilize the imagination to change the perspective and solve the problem which is a low friction, low fuel response. In short, Optimal! When the imagination is applied, all those animated gestures and voice modulations happen naturally without having to think about them. Minimal fuel! And because they’re authentic to the speaker/performer, they’re read that way by the audience. And because you have a minimum of things to think about remembering, your focus can harness the fullest, undivided amount of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual presence for your performance without all those other distractions/assignments! You fully occupy your body and become vitally alive! And that’s a pretty great kind of energy to circulate with an audience as any performer can tell you from the times it’s happened to them. I’ve been pretty fortunate to have experienced it many times since I was a kid and it’s addicting! I’d love to help you or your team experience it for themselves and give them a map for how to always get back there. Watching people blossom in those “at stake” situations is the best part of my job!