I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve been in the audience in tough public meeting settings and watched the speaker lob verbal duds into the crowd without a clue that he or she is doing it. I don’t know of any institution that provides formalized training in reading audiences, but it’s a skillset that anyone who speaks publicly needs to acquire and develop. This isn’t about just feeding people what they want to hear – I’m not talking about populist political rallies, I’m talking about gauging whether or not what you’re sending is actually landing with people as you intend it. If people aren’t hearing or understanding, why are you still yapping?