Effective communication is almost always a critical for success in business. Matt Abrahams, organisational behaviour lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, outlines several communication techniques and exercises to assist with presentations and public speaking.
Communication Reminders
Anxiety management: Focus first on making your audience
comfortable. Greet your anxiety with acceptance. Take deep breaths. Re-frame
your presentations as a conversation. Start with questions. Use conversational
language. Be more present in the moment.
Ground rules: Get out of your own way. Dare to be dull. Frame
your presentation as an opportunity. Think about your audience and how you are
adding value. Slow down in service of your audience.
Value structure: The presentation structure of problem, solution, and benefit can be helpful. Alternatively, you can also employ the structure of What? So what? Now what?
Brain Exercises
We can use the following exercises to practice thinking fast and talking smart:
- Fast random words: Call out words as quickly as you can. Each word named must be completely unrelated to the words that have already been said;
- Fast wrong words: Look at your surroundings and describe them with the wrong nouns and adjectives;
- Gift giving: In pairs and in turns, verbally describe an unusual or nonsensical gift that you are gifting to your partner. Your partner must then explain why they are grateful for said gift;
- Listening presently: In pairs, have a normal conversation. However, instead of pronouncing words, you must spell everything out instead.
- Sales pitch: Practice delivering 1-2 minute impromptu sales pitches for any given object in your surrounding.
References
Abrahams, M. (2014). Think Fast, Talk Smart: Communication Techniques. Stanford Graduate School of Business. Available at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnw168huqA>