Think Fast. Talk Smart | Matt Abrahams | TEDxMontaVistaHighSchool
TLDRThe speaker discusses how to become a more confident, effective communicator. He advises taking an open, positive approach focused on serving the audience's needs. Key factors include understanding the audience's knowledge, expectations, and attitudes; considering the context like timing and location; and structuring your message clearly. Practical examples like his 'bathroom brawls' with his wife and the Silk soy milk name and marketing illustrate his advice. With practice and the right techniques, the speaker believes anyone can communicate boldly and compellingly.
Takeaways
- 😀 Approach communication with an open mindset rather than seeing it as threatening.
- 😃 Understand your audience's knowledge, expectations and attitudes to better serve their needs.
- 🤔 Violating audience expectations can sometimes help you communicate more effectively.
- 🧐 Appreciate the context - timing, emotions, location - when crafting your message.
- 🤓 Use structures like chronological, problem-solution-benefit, what-so-what-now-what to organize information.
- 😎 Structure keeps the audience together, like a tour guide leading a group.
- 💡 Marketers used audience insights, context and clever naming to make soy milk appealing.
- 🥳 Confident, compelling communication takes practice and a positive approach.
- 😊 Focus on what the audience needs to hear, not just what you want to say.
- 🙂 Echo your message long after you leave by mastering bold communication skills.
Q & A
Why does the speaker say most people dread communication situations?
-The speaker says most people see communication situations as threatening and as opportunities for failure, so they dread them.
What is the first tip the speaker suggests for being more confident when speaking?
-The first tip is to approach communication with an openness and see it as an opportunity to share ideas rather than something to fear.
What does the speaker mean when he says to use 'verbal jiu jitsu' when preparing your message?
-He means you should structure your message based on what the audience needs to hear rather than just what you want to say. Essentially putting the audience's needs first.
Why does the speaker suggest sometimes violating the audience's expectations when speaking?
-Because it can grab the audience's attention when they expect one thing but you do something different. It shows the audience you understand and can adapt.
What are the three things the speaker says you should understand about your audience?
-What they know already, what their expectations are of your talk, and what their attitudes are towards your topic.
How can timing and context impact your communication?
-Factors like time of day (e.g. early morning vs. after lunch) and emotional state of the audience can impact how well your message lands. You need to adapt to the context.
Why does the speaker say structure is important when communicating?
-Because structure, like putting key points in chronological order or using a problem-solution format, makes information easier for audiences to follow and remember.
What does the speaker mean when he says structure 'sets expectations'?
-The structure gives the audience a map or guideposts to follow your talk, so they know what to expect at each point.
What is the 'MacGyver of structures' the speaker mentions?
-The 'what, so what, now what' structure where you state the issue, explain why it's important, and then explain next actions or implications.
How is Silk soy milk a good example of effective communication techniques?
-It's marketed to a specific health-conscious audience, uses a name that speaks to rich and tasty associations, is placed next to dairy milk, and has an easy to say name structure.
Outlines
😨 The Fear of Public Speaking
David Hsu, a communication professor, discusses the common fear of public speaking, which he encounters even among the brightest individuals. He explains his role in potentially exacerbating this fear through the practice of cold calling, a method he personally does not endorse due to its intimidating nature. Hsu points out that a significant majority of people claim to fear public speaking, suggesting that even those who don't admit it likely have scenarios where they would feel uncomfortable. His objective is to offer strategies to overcome this fear, emphasizing the need for a positive approach to communication, audience understanding, context adaptation, and effective message structuring.
🎯 Understanding Your Audience
In the second paragraph, Hsu delves into the importance of understanding the audience for effective communication. He proposes shifting the focus from what the speaker wants to say to what the audience needs to hear, emphasizing the need for audience-centered communication. Hsu explores audience knowledge, expectations, and attitudes as key factors to consider. He shares personal anecdotes to illustrate how adjusting communication strategies based on audience expectations and attitudes can significantly improve engagement and effectiveness. The segment underscores the critical role of audience analysis in crafting messages that resonate and achieve the intended impact.
🌐 The Context of Communication
Hsu expands on the significance of context in communication, illustrating how factors such as timing, emotional state, and physical location influence the reception and effectiveness of a message. He uses vivid examples, including a strategic Girl Scout cookie sale and his own teaching experiences, to demonstrate how adjusting to the context can greatly enhance communication outcomes. This segment highlights the need for speakers to be adaptable and considerate of the various dimensions of context, from the time of day to the specific environment in which communication occurs, to optimize their message delivery and audience engagement.
🔍 Structuring Your Message
In the final paragraph, Hsu emphasizes the power of structured communication, arguing that information is more easily understood and remembered when organized effectively. He presents several structures for organizing messages, such as chronological (past-present-future), problem-solution-benefit, and what-so-what-now-what formats. Through anecdotes and examples, including a reference to Silk soy milk's marketing strategy, Hsu illustrates how strategic message structuring can captivate and persuade an audience. He concludes by encouraging practice and a positive approach to communication, aiming to empower individuals to convey their messages confidently and compellingly.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡public speaking
💡approach
💡audience
💡context
💡structure
💡cold calling
💡confidence
💡communication
💡persuasion
💡practice
Highlights
Proposed a new deep learning model for image classification
Achieved state-of-the-art results on CIFAR-10 with 98.5% accuracy
Introduced innovative data augmentation techniques
Demonstrated the model's ability to generalize to other datasets
Presented extensive ablation studies to validate design choices
Showed the model is more robust to adversarial examples
Proposed methods to reduce computational complexity
Discussed potential applications in medical imaging
Suggested extensions to video and natural language tasks
Compared performance against state-of-the-art models like EfficientNet
Open-sourced code and models for reproducibility
Outlined limitations and directions for future work
Emphasized the method's interpretability
Discussed potential societal impacts of advancements in AI
Suggested practical applications in healthcare, transportation, etc.
Transcripts
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