Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that effective communication means your audience understands your point,
Speaker 1: and the point should not be that you are an
Speaker 1: extremely smart person. I mean you are, but usually we're
Speaker 1: best off trying to convince people of something different than that,
Speaker 1: so it's best to keep our eyes on the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1: Today's tip comes from a webinar from Emily Oster of
Speaker 1: parent Data. The webinar was about science communication, but her
Speaker 1: perspective is broadly relevant for people in all fields. Oster said,
Speaker 1: effective communication means the other person leaves not thinking that
Speaker 1: you are smart, but that they are smart and you
Speaker 1: are trustworthy. She explained that this means that they need
Speaker 1: to understand what you're saying. The goal should not be
Speaker 1: to show how much you know about a topic, but
Speaker 1: instead you want to focus on communicating in a way
Speaker 1: that is accessible and relevant. I think this is good
Speaker 1: advice as you are thinking about presenting or writing in general,
Speaker 1: could consider a few things about your message. First, why
Speaker 1: is this content important for my audience? Why should they care?
Speaker 1: People are busy, There's a lot going on in the world.
Speaker 1: For people to be convinced of your point, they usually
Speaker 1: need to feel that it is relevant to their lives. Also,
Speaker 1: consider exactly what you would like your audience to take
Speaker 1: away from this communication. With my talks, my goal is
Speaker 1: always to have my audience try a few things that
Speaker 1: I think will help them manage their time better. Anyone
Speaker 1: who has been studying a topic for a long time
Speaker 1: knows a lot of arcane details that we probably find fascinating.
Speaker 1: I would love to talk about historic time diary use sometime,
Speaker 1: but most audiences won't. If the audience remembers nothing else
Speaker 1: or does nothing else afterwards, what would you like them
Speaker 1: to leave with? As Ostar said, you also want your
Speaker 1: audience to think that you are trustworthy. This means that
Speaker 1: your audience needs to trust your communicating for their benefit,
Speaker 1: for them to take away something good from this, not
Speaker 1: for any other reason. So explain to how you reached
Speaker 1: your conclusions in a way that makes sense and is straightforward.
Speaker 1: A lot of evidence of your expertise will come across
Speaker 1: naturally when you do this. The goal is that the
Speaker 1: audience feels smart afterwards, which generally means that they leave
Speaker 1: thinking something like, oh, I'd never thought of it that
Speaker 1: way before, and here's what I'm going to do, rather
Speaker 1: than Wow, what a clever speaker, or for written communication,
Speaker 1: wow what a clever writer? That will come from thinking
Speaker 1: the first part. But everyone's time is limited. The goal
Speaker 1: of communication is generally to change something in the world,
Speaker 1: which means inspiring other people to do something. Being clever
Speaker 1: is awesome, but it is a lot less than half
Speaker 1: of the equation. In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.