Hello, I'm Matt Abrahams and
I teach Strategic Communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Welcome, to Think Fast Talk Smart, the podcast.
Communication can be tricky and messy.
We've all been in situations with our co workers,
bosses, friends and family that haven't had clean and clear resolution.
We started this podcast with the goal of helping you hone your communication,
and expand your toolkit for dealing with these types of challenging situations.
And while we've covered a wide range of topics so far,
we thought that we would take a different approach for this episode, by addressing
specific communication challenges and conundrums, that you in our audience face.
A little bit ago, we put out a call for questions, and
we were thrilled to receive a wide range of inquiries from all over the globe.
Thank you to all of you who submitted questions.
Today we'd like to address a few of these questions.
To help coordinate this Q&A process,
I am excited to invite Chawan Jackson to help me.
Chawan is an MBA student at the GSB.
He is someone who not only cares deeply about communication, but he actively works
to help others be not only better communicators, but better people.
Chawan founded the organization Our Voices Matter.
A culturally sustaining public speaking program that empowers
undervalued high school students, to be advocates for social justice,
wherever they decide to go in life.
The program helps students build their communication skills and
critical consciousness simultaneously.
Chawan and I have had wonderful exchanges about the importance of developing and
honing communication skills.
His insightful questions and thoughtful responses, make him an ideal partner for
what we're doing in this episode.
Welcome Chawan.
>> Thanks for having me today and looking forward to our conversation.
>> I am so inspired by the work you've done with Our Voices Matter.
It's clear that you're really impacting your students and their communities.
Let's go ahead and get started >> Sounds good,
before we get to the questions your audience in turn.
I'd like to start with a question that some of my students
asked me frequently in the our Voices Matter Program.
How do what to talk about in the first place
>> [LAUGH] yeah where do you start that's
a frequent question I get,
the best way to approach that I think is really think about your audience,
think about who they are In what it is they need, what would benefit them.
So I often encourage people to do some reconnaissance and reflection,
to take time to think about who the audience is?
What they know, what their attitudes are and based on that,
begin to hone your communication and focus it on meeting those needs.
From there you can do some research, you can talk to people do some focus grouping
and check in with them to see, if what you're thinking about makes sense and
where you're going is a good direction.
>> I think that's an excellent point.
I really agree with that in terms of thinking about who your audience is and
is something I will continue to emphasize with my students to make sure their
communication actually leads to some positive impact in the world.
Alright, now we're going to dive into audience questions.
Our first question comes from Patricia Pella Cena.
It has to do with being interrupted.
>> Let's listen.
>> How do I deal with being interrupted in social situations when a group of people
are talking, and in professional settings when I am trying to convey an idea.
>> Yes Patricia, dealing with interruptions both in social and
professional situations can be very challenging and quite frankly frustrating.
So here are a couple things to think about that might help you.
In advance especially in professional situations,
if you can set expectations up front.
Set some boundaries if you will, so if you're giving a presentation and
that people are going to want to interrupt or have contributions to make,
set expectations by saying,
I'd like to have just two minutes to share my overall vision for
what I expect we'll be discussing and where I think this should go.
By setting that expectation,
hopefully people will give you that amount of time to get your point across.
It also helps you sound more credible and confident by asking for that time and
setting those boundaries.
Now if somebody actually does interrupt you,
something you can do is to leverage a paraphrase.
Paraphrasing is where you highlight something that somebody said and
gives you the right to take the floor back.
So if somebody interrupts, simply take something that they've said,
comment on it and then gain the floor back.
Taken together Patricia I hope those give you some ideas about how to make
sure that you avoid being interrupted if possible, and if it does happen,
you can take the floor back when needed >> Those are some great thoughts and I
appreciate you sharing that, and I really agree with your point on expectations,
when I'm communicating with people and I fear being interrupted.
I like to use signposting where I say I have three things I want to talk
about today.
One about our theory of change, second about logistics and
third about how we move forward.
And I think when you set expectations that way, you give people a clear sense of
where you're going, so that hopefully they don't interrupt.
>> Chawan, that's exactly right.
I think setting expectations and setting that signpost or preview can really help
people know what's coming and know when it's their turn to share, excellent point.
>> The next question comes from Ryan Brown.
It focuses on applying concepts from spoken communication, to written.
>> Hi, my name is Ryan Brown, and I'd like to know what advice or
recommendations you have for using some of the recommendation and
guidance from Think Fast Talk Smart, when presenting in emails or pitch decks or
other written types of communication, thanks.
>> So Ryan everything that we cover on the Think Fast Talk Smart podcast and
everything I teach in my strategic communication classes and
when I do my consulting, it really applies not just to spoken communication but
written communication.
Many people tell me that after they've really focused on the oral communication
parts of what I teach that they see direct benefit in their writing.
So a few things I'd like to highlight, again it gets back to the very first
question Chawan asked, you have to know your audience.
And you have to tailor what you write just like you tailor what you speak to that
audience, down to the linguistic level the words that people expect to know.
Additionally, you have to have the mantra about being clear, concise and engaging.
Effective communication, written or spoken must be clear, concise and engaging.
And one way to do that, is to leverage structure.
You've heard me talk about structure often in this podcast,
structure helps you as a communicator when you're speaking or writing,
it helps your audience as well to understand.
So if you're writing an email, perhaps you should consider the what, so
what, now what structure?
You start by talking about what it is,
you then talk about why it's important to the person you're speaking to.
And then you conclude by asking what it is you want of that person,
that structure helps your emails and your spoken communication be concise.
If you're writing a pitch or a persuasive presentation,
think about another structure, the problem, solution, benefit structure.
Articulate in detail what the problem is.
Then talk about your suggestions for solving that problem, and
then you can discuss the benefits to enacting your particular solution.
Again, that structure helps you be clear, concise and engaging.
And Shih if you'll allow me one more bit of advice,
when you are writing, it is really important to do two things.
Ask somebody else to proofread your material not just for grammar issues,
but for logic, does it flow well?
And read what you've written out loud, when we write and then when we read it
without speaking it, we sometimes skip over some things that actually
when spoken stand out and we realize we need to change what we've written.
So it's about your audience, it's about structure and it's about the way in which
you edit and proof before you're done >> Those
are excellent points Matt and I think the point on
being concise is especially important with written communications.
People received so many emails every day and
you want to make sure that your message gets directly to the point.
And I especially appreciate what you said in terms of structure,
leading with what your key message is upfront, so
people understand what they should be getting out of your message.
>> Shawan, I'd like to turn the tables now because we got a question that I think is
a perfect one for you to answer.
So I'd love to hear your thoughts on the next question that comes from
William Copans.
His question is about advocating for change,
when you don't have a lot of power.
>> As a student, how can you make change in your school systems,
where the administration is set in their ways and you have far less power?
>> This is an excellent question and you're right.
It is when we think a lot about in the our Voices Matter Program,
where students worry that administrators won't listen to them.
There are a few thoughts that I would offer on this question.
The first is, to think about how you can communicate as a collective.
It's easy for someone in power to ignore one student or one individual,
but it's hard to ignore 100.
Now that doesn't mean that a hundred students have to talk to an administrator,
but what that does mean is before you engage in that conversation.
Think about the stories and quantitative data you can collect from many students,
to show that you're communicating as a community.
And when you communicate as a community as a larger collective,
you're increasing the power that you have in that conversation,
is showing that you're thinking about more people besides yourself.
The second thing that I would offer is, to understand what the administrators care
about and understand what their communication preferences are.
You might consider for example, having a meeting with the administrators simply to
understand what their priorities are, what their top concerns are and
how they like to receive Information.
And it goes back to what you said earlier Matt about knowing your audience, so
that you can design your communication plan in ways that will resonate with your
audience.
And the third piece of advice that I would offer is around a pitfall to avoid.
Sometimes when you're preparing for meetings with those who have more power,
you want to compromise a lot.
And while you should tailor your communication to resonate with
your audience, you want to be careful not to compromise on your values too much
early on, if at all.
People ultimately respect those who stand firm in their beliefs, but
are willing to negotiate the specific solutions,
that allow you to uphold the values that are most important to you.
So to recap I would say you want to one, communicate as a collective two,
think carefully about what your audience wants to hear.
And three, hold true to what your values are and
not compromise too much longer way.
>> Wow, a lot to take away there and
I certainly think that answer will help William in his situation in many of
the people listening in when you find yourself in a situation where,
perhaps the power structure or status structure is not in your favor.
I'll just echo one thing that you said there, Chawan,
that I think is really critical.
Is that, when you start working collaboratively with others,
not only do you benefit from just having more voices to advocate for what you're
advocating for, but you also benefit from the diversity of insight and opinion and
an experience that those people bring that can help you actually hone your message.
Make it tighter, clearer and resonate more with those that you're speaking to.
So, very helpful answer there, thank you.
Before we end, I'd love to ask you to answer the same three questions I
asked everyone who joins me.
Are you up for that?
>> Let's do it.
>> All right, so question number one.
If we were to capture the best communication advice you ever received
as a five to seven word presentation, slide title, what would it be?
>> This is a tricky one but my answer would be, ask yourself what's your goal?
>> Excellent, tell me more about why that is so important to you?
>> I think with communication it's easy for
us to get caught up with all of the ideas we have in our head.
But if we think about what our goal actually is,
we can start to filter out some ideas that don't help us achieve that goal.
Another reason why this question is important to me is, because it helps
you understand if you are the best person to communicate specific ideas or
if you need to bring in someone else.
And, I think if what your goal is you can figure out with some self reflection,
whether or not you're in a good position to advance the agenda that you have or
if you need to have a team of people communicating with you or
if you need to have someone else sharing that message instead.
>> The notion of having a clear goal for
yourself to help guide your communication but also and I love how you added this.
This notion of making sure that you're the right person for
that goal is really insightful, so thank you.
Let me ask you a question number two, and I'll be very curious for
your answer for this.
Who is a communicator that you admire and why?
>> A communicator that I admired is Bryan Stevenson.
He is the founder of a nonprofit called the equal justice initiative,
that fights for criminal justice reform in the United States.
They started off as an organization that was
supporting people who have been wrongly convicted, primarily in the South.
And what I really admire about Bryan Stevenson is that,
he acknowledges hard truths in a way that does not villainize any one person.
And he speaks about these difficult truths, be it racism in the United States
or the prison industrial complex, without making you feel helpless.
He really invites you in to reflect on these difficult moments and
think about what we can do to make things better moving forward.
And I think that ability to acknowledge a difficult moment about where our country
is, coupled with some inspiration about how we can move forward is incredible and
something that I tried to do in my own communication.
In the last thing that I admire about Bryan Stevenson
is his use of personal stories.
He does a beautiful job of portraying the highs and lows of an individual's life,
as opposed to restricting them to one particular moment.
And I think that nuance was storytelling helps to humanize the people he's talking
about, and allows the listeners to develop a stronger connection with that
individual that he shared a story about.
>> Wow, I absolutely look forward to watching some of his communication and
learning from him in many of the same ways that it sounds like you have
learned from him.
Question number three,
what are the first three ingredients that go into a successful communication recipe?
>> I love this question that it's an awesome question.
>> [LAUGH] Thank you.
>> Three ingredients for me.
One, a clear goal, which goes back to what we talked about earlier,
recognizing what it is you're actually working towards, and
how you may not be best suited to achieve that goal.
Two, self awareness, we all have different strengths when it comes to communication
and so you want to do some reflection on that to make sure you're leveraging that,
when you're communicating your ideas.
And three, empathy.
It's so important when we're communicating with others that we understand what their
interests are, what their needs are to make sure that we're actually
engaging in dialogue with one another as opposed to talking past each other.
So I would say a clear goal self awareness and empathy would be the first
three ingredients that I will put into a successful communication recipe.
>> I really don't see how that recipe could come out poorly with those
three ingredients clearly very helpful.
One focused on the message, one focused on yourself and
then one focused on the impact are really important.
Thank you Chwan this has been absolutely delight for me to collaborate with you.
I wish you the best as you continue your impactful work with Our Voices Matter.
And for those of you want to see Chawan in action, I invite you to watch his awesome.
Some low keynotes talk he gave on problematizing persuasion.
For those of you not familiar a low keynote is the GSBs version of essentially
a TED talk.
You can find Chawan talk online, and it is truly amazing in terms of
the communication skill deployed, but the message is so important and critical.
Again, Chwan, thank you so much for joining us.
>> And thank you for having me, Matt.
I really admire the work that you're doing, and how you're pushing so
many of us from group communication.
>> And it was a pleasure talking with you today.
>> And thanks to everyone who submitted questions.
Our podcast is in service of our audience, so thank you for your participation and
response.
>> Thank you for listening to Think Fast Talk Smart the podcast,
produced by Stanford Graduate School of Business.
You can learn more@gsb.stanford.edu
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