[MUSIC]
Communication is critical for
our professional and
our personal lives.
I'm Matt Abrahams, and
I'm a lecturer at Stanford Graduate
School of Business, and
the host of the GSB's Think Fast,
Talk Smart, The Podcast.
I am so excited today to share with
you five key takeaways from my
class, essentials of
strategic communication.
[MUSIC]
When it comes to our communication,
many of us
make a fundamental mistake,
we start from the wrong place.
We start by saying,
this is what I want to say,
rather than thinking about what our
audience needs to hear.
We need to do reconnaissance,
reflection and research to better
understand our audience's knowledge
level, their attitudes,
their resistance points, along with
their expectations and motivation.
By taking the time to really think
about our audience,
we can make sure that our messages
resonate, and are more likely to be
remembered, and acted upon.
[MUSIC]
Most communication needs
to be goal-driven,
especially strategic communication.
To me a goal has three parts,
information, emotion, and action.
In other words, what do you want
your audience to know?
How do you want them to feel?
And what do you want them to
do when you're done with
your communication?
Having a clear goal,
allows you to focus your message on
the needs of your audience, and it
allows you to judge the success of
your communication after the fact.
[MUSIC]
Have you recently been victimized
by somebody who just rambles
on and on?
Doesn't feel so good, does it?
We need to make sure that we
structure our information, so
we make it easier for
our audience to follow.
In fact, our brains are wired for
structured information.
There are lots of structures and
frameworks you can use to
communicate, my favorite is,
three simple questions.
What?
So what?
And, now what?
What is the information that
you're conveying?
It's your idea, it's your belief,
it's your, product, your service,
your offering.
So what is about the relevance for
your audience?
What's the value that your idea of
products, service, or
belief brings?
And then finally, the now what?
That's what's comes next,
maybe you're taking questions, or
showing a demonstration, or
setting up another meeting.
By leveraging structure, you not
only help your audience process
your information more fluently, but
it helps you to think about your
message in a more concise and
clear way.
[MUSIC]
Attention is the most precious
commodity we have in
the world today.
We are constantly bombarded with
information.
If we are to achieve our
communication goal and
help our audience with the content
we're giving, we must take the time
to engage them.
To me engagement is just
sustained attention.
And there are three engagement
techniques I'd like for
you to consider using.
The first is physical engagement,
where you get your audience
actually doing something,
responding to a poll,
typing into the chat,
collaborating on a whiteboard.
The second is cognitive engagement,
getting people answering questions
or considering an analogy.
And the third is linguistic,
using the word you or
people's names, draws them in.
Using terms like picture this, or
imagine, or think back to when
are ways that you can get your
audience to visualize what you're
communicating.
Using engagement techniques,
help enliven your communication,
and they help your audience
to engage and remember.
[MUSIC].
Finally, even if we have the most
audience centric, goal directed,
structured and
engaging communication, we can fall
flat if our presence isn't strong.
Having an authentic, confident
presence in your writing or
speaking is critical to
your communication success.
If you're presenting,
record yourself and watch.
If you're writing,
proofread what you've read, and
certainly ask others for
feedback to help you.
Communication is critical to your
success.
Using these takeaways, can help you
improve your communication.
We must take the time to
dedicate to this improvement
through repetition, reflection and
feedback, but doing so, will help
you get your points across.
[MUSIC]
I never had a problem talking, so
I don't think people who knew me
would be surprised that I'm in
a role where I'm doing a lot of
speaking.
But I thought I was going to be
a doctor, and then I met calculus
and we didn't get along, and
then I met chemistry and
we got along even worse.
So, I found communication as my
passion.
So, I finally found the subject
that started with a C that
worked for me.
[MUSIC]