- Informative versus persuasive speaking, or presenting,
and that's the topic we're gonna talk about today
because in almost any kind of professional role
that you are in, you are going to constantly
have to make choices about how you present
and what your focus is.
So let's get into the details on those options.
(soft music)
Hello there and welcome back, my friends.
Alex Lyon here and if we haven't met yet,
this channel is called Communication Coach,
and everything we do here is for emerging leaders,
especially on the topic of communication and leadership.
And today we're talking about informative
versus persuasive speaking because this is of course
something that you might have done in your public speaking
course in college, but also any time as a leader
you stand and present, you have to make a choice
about how you shape your message
so that it best meets the needs of your listeners,
and this is a typical choice you will make every day.
So let's first look at informative speaking
and what that involves.
Now, informative speaking
sounds just like the name suggests.
You are informing people about something
they need to know that they probably didn't know before
or something they need to know how to do
that you are gonna show them how to do.
Those are both informative approaches to speaking.
Now, a lot of times when you're in a teaching role,
educational role, you're a trainer,
this is really obviously.
You're gonna do this all the time,
but as a supervisor or leader of any sort,
you're constantly coaching people up,
you are showing them how to do things,
you're training them, you're mentoring them,
and that involves conveying a lot of information,
sometimes in a speaking situation.
In terms of the kinds of topics you might talk about,
and I'm gonna talk about general topics here
that you could relate to, like from a college situation.
Let's say you were doing a speech in college
about Thomas Edison, a person, right?
That's an informative topic typically,
where you inform us about his life, his inventions,
and things like that.
Maybe it's a presentation about a historical event
like Pearl Harbor and the importance of that battle
in World War II.
That might be an informative presentation you could do.
How electricity works.
Alternating current, direct current,
and all the details there.
It could be a how-to speech, like how to make sushi.
These are very typical examples you're gonna see
in an academic setting, but they're also
in a professional setting.
Again, you're training people how to use a new
computer process.
You're teaching people about the history of the company.
There are lots of opportunity for informative speaking.
When you're doing orientation talks
to get new employees up to speed,
that's informative speaking.
So, when you're doing informative speaking,
you are filling your main points
in the body of your presentation
with all kinds of what we call supporting materials.
So you're using data, statistics, facts, examples,
quotations, stories.
Those are your supporting materials that convey
the information that you are providing.
So you're not just giving your own explanation of things.
You are supporting everything you're saying
with real concrete kinds of information
that give people a variety of ways to absorb
and understand the message
that you are trying to communicate.
So again, as teachers, trainers, leaders,
you're doing this all the time in professional settings.
Now, one of the telltale signs that a lot of people
don't realize when you're doing informative speaking,
that you're actually informing them
and not persuading them,
is the way your message is structured.
So the main points especially in the body
of your presentation.
You have intro, body, conclusion.
In the body you have let's say three or so main points.
When you're speaking to inform,
you're usually going to decide on something
like a chronological order
or sometimes called a sequence order.
That's a way of approaching a topic so there are steps.
Step one, step two, step three.
Or if it's a historical presentation,
the history of a company for example,
you're gonna start about the beginning,
middle, and present day.
Or beginning, middle, and end,
depending upon what topic you're talking about.
You might also when you're informing people
decide on a spatial arrangement.
Let's say you're doing a presentation
about the United States.
You might divide that by region, North, South,
East, West.
That might be one way to go.
Those are all informative ways to structure a message
and that's a real telltale sign that you're listening
to an informative message or presentation.
Let's now turn to persuasive presentations.
Persuasive speaking is really about one key thing,
and that is changing people's minds or behaviors,
and those things are often related.
So you're not just informing them
and giving them good information to consider.
You are giving information, but to change their minds,
to change their point of view.
You're building an argument with all the materials
that you have.
It's almost like you're a lawyer in a court of law
and you are trying to convince the judge or the jury
to your point of view, and you're doing that
in a lot of ways but you're still using statistics,
facts, examples, quotations, stories,
all of the supporting materials that you would normally see
in an informative presentation.
You still have tons of information,
but you're sharing it as a way to support.
You're sharing it like it's evidence,
because you're supporting a point of view,
an argument that you are putting forth
to try to convince them, and by the way
you can even select some of the exact same topics
as you did before, like you might still do
a presentation about Thomas Edison,
but instead of just informing us about his life,
you might be trying to persuade us
that he was the most influential inventor of all time.
You might still do a presentation on Pearl Harbor,
but you might talk about how it is the key battle
that changed everything in World War II.
That would be persuading us.
So, any real topic can be approached in multiple ways.
Oftentimes you'll see people speaking persuasively.
Really stereotypical examples are politicians
and salespeople and motivational speakers,
and while that is certainly true,
I have found in my roles professionally
I am almost always trying to persuade people
in one way or another, whether it's really a strong
sales pitch or whether I'm just trying
to get them to take some action.
Instead of just leaving them off and informing them,
I want them to take the next step.
Now, one of the telltale signs again
for persuasive speaking is just like informative speaking.
How you organize the main body points of a presentation.
When you're speaking to persuade,
you will most frequently structure it
on some type of problem-solution order,
some variation of problem solution.
So the first point or so is gonna of all the problems
that are associated with your topic
that you're talking about,
and then you recommend a solution.
You're moving them from A to B.
You're changing their mind, changing their behavior.
And so you'll see salespeople do this
where they'll tell you all about the problems
with the other products out there
or the problem in your life, and then they will tell you
about their product that will solve that problem.
So if you have a bad mattress, bad night's sleep,
here's the solution, our mattress.
Politicians do this.
Motivational speakers try to really get you in touch
with the struggles in your life
so that you're more likely to change.
But again, professionally you're going to see
lots of opportunities to speak persuasively
that don't really fit the stereotypical examples
but nevertheless you're there to help people
move from A to B.
In fact, I have two separate videos
that will help move you forward
if you want to get serious about persuasive speaking.
One is on Monroe's Motivated Sequence.
That's a whole way to order your entire presentation,
a map for the whole thing.
And the other is called How to Organize
a Persuasive Speech or Presentation,
and that really goes into how to structure
those main points when you want to make it
a persuasive message.
So, I want to now talk about how they overlap,
because in an academic setting,
you know in public speaking classes they will say,
this is an informative speech,
and this is a persuasive speech,
but really in professional settings
you're almost always doing these at the same time.
It's just depending upon what proportion they're in,
how much are you persuading versus
how much are you informing.
So for example, if I am going to do
even a straight up sales presentation,
I have to bring people along with good information,
I have to train them on how to do something,
and I have to get them educated on a process.
There's no way around those informational aspects of it,
but also in a professional setting,
very rarely am I purely speaking to inform.
I almost always want them to take a next step.
So let's take something like orientation.
Let's say I'm doing an orientation or training
for new employees that sounds like straight information,
but really what I want them to do
is take this information and put it into practice,
to take the next step.
So a lot of times, even in a training
you will get people to chart out their next step
and their takeaways from a training session,
and then I will snap into persuasive mode
to get them motivated to actually try this stuff out
and use it, not just hear it and forget it, but use it,
put it into practice in the future.
So, in real-life situations you're almost always
doing a combination of both of these.
You see that for almost any topic across settings
when you're in a professional context.
So let's talk about application for you.
You want to think about, what's my best approach
for this particular message.
Let's say you have an upcoming presentation
or a speech or important meeting.
You want your message to fit that situation,
whether it's persuasive or informative,
so how do you make those decisions?
Well, you look at your audience and you get clarity
on who exactly your audience is going to be,
who they are, what do they want out of this.
What are your goals as a speaker or a leader?
And then also, what is the occasion?
You want to make sure your message fits
the needs of the moment,
and that's the best way to drive it.
Don't ahead of time try to figure out
if you're gonna persuade or inform.
Figure out what the needs are of the situation
and then customize your message
to those particular needs, and that's the best way
to fit your message, whether it's informative,
persuasive, or a combination of both.
Thanks for listening.
I encourage you to watch those videos I mentioned.
They're linked in the description below this one.
God bless, and I will see you soon.