Download Presentational Approaches To Sophisticated Healthcare Professionals

Getting Your
Message Across To
Healthcare Specialists:
Public Speaking Basics
Ellen R. Cohn PhD
University of Pittsburgh
About the Author
Ellen Cohn PhD is Director of
Instructional Development at
the University of Pittsburgh
School of Health and
Rehabilitation Sciences, with
a secondary appointment in
the School of Pharmacy. She
has taught introductory
classes in public speaking for
over a decade.
[email protected]
Purpose
Most healthcare professionals will need to
engage in some public speaking. This
presentation presents basic concepts for
the beginning speaker.
Words are, of course,
the most powerful drug
used by mankind.
Rudyard Kipling
Basic Communication Axioms
 Communication

is Dynamic
Meaning is mutually constructed
 90+%
of Communication Is Non-verbal
 Communication is Irreversible

We can’t take back communication
 We

Cannot, Not Communicate
Silence and inaction both communicate
 Communication Ain’t


Perfect
It is difficult to achieve total understanding
We need to anticipate and correct errors
Lack of Clarity= Miscommunication
I really didn’t say
everything I said.
Yogi Berra
Misperception=
Miscommunication
The major problem in communication is
the illusion that it has occurred.
Albert Einstein
Misunderstanding=
Miscommunication
There is no worse lie than a truth
misunderstood by those who hear.
William James
Why Messages Don’t
“Get Through”
 Hearing
does not equal listening
 There several different types of noise:
 Physical (e.g., listener has a migraine
headache)
 Psychological (e.g., listener is
preoccupied or upset)
 Environmental (e.g., loud music or
talking)
 Semantic (e.g. an inflammatory word
distracts the audience and reduces the
speaker’s credibility)
Message Penetration Varies
The message is sensed (heard or
seen) but not understood
 The message is misperceived
 The meaning is accurately perceived
 The message is remembered
 The message changes attitudes and
behaviors (the goal!)

I understand everything-except what you’re saying.
Henny Youngman
Good Listening Is Your Most
Important Communication Skill
 Listen

to “Your Gut”
Do parts of your presentation
make you uneasy?
• This often signals an organizational problem
 Listen

to your audience
Especially to their non-verbal cues
 Listen
to the emotional tone
The reason why so few people
are agreeable in conversation is
that each is thinking more about
what he intends to say than
about what others
are saying.
La Rochefoucauld
No man ever listened himself
out of a job.
Calvin Coolidge
The Three Basics: Needs, Messages,
Communication
 Understand


Their needs
Their expectations
 Send

your audience
clear messages
Identify the desired outcomes of your talk
 Communicate

directly
“Connect” with your audience by your words
and actions (e.g., eye contact, voice,
posture, gestures)
Superior Speakers
Analyze the Audience
 Who
will be in the audience?
 What



Know?
Believe?
Do?
 How

do I want the audience to:
is the audience responding?
How do I adapt?
Visualize Your Audience
 Why
will they be in attendance?
 What



Do they have biases or misinformation?
What do they think they need to know?
What worries them?
 What

do they already know?
is the general mood?
Friendly, hostile, neutral….
 How
will they feel about your
subject matter?

Interested, bored, nervous, confident…
Many of the communication
difficulties between persons
are the by-product of
communication barriers
within the person.
Abraham H. Maslow
Audience Members Have
Basic Human Needs
Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs:
Physiologic
 Safety
 Love and Belongedness
 Esteem
 Self-actualization

Basic Audience Need: Physiologic
 These

include:
Oxygen, Water, Food, Habitable
Temperature, Sleep, Conditions and
Behaviors Which Perpetuate the Species
 A hot,
tired, or hungry audience may not
fully absorb your presentation
 Consider
how your messages will help
the audience achieve their needs
Basic Audience Need: Safety
There
are two types of safety:
Physical Safety
 Psychological Safety

• Will audience members feel humiliated?
• Do they feel safe trusting your expertise?
• The speaker should therefore aim to
establish credibility and put the audience
at ease
The
bottom line: How will your
presentation impact upon their
perceived safety?
What Makes a Speaker Credible?
 Confidence,
intellect, knowledge
and experience
 Credible associations


Use endorsements
Cite credible sources
 Trustworthiness


Disclose conflicts of interests
Employ a balanced and fair approach to the topic
 High

standards and intellectual honesty
A credible speaker admits to not knowing
Now when I bore people
at a party they think it’s
their fault.
Henry Kissinger
Employ Ethical Communication
 Provide

So that… the listener can consider all
options and make a fully informed decision
 Verify

that the message is received
Does the audience truly understand the
content of your speech?
 Use

complete information
credible sources
Provide truthful and accurate information
If you always tell the truth
you don’t have anything
to remember.
Dick Motta
Coach, Chicago Bulls
A speech is a solemn responsibility.
The man who makes a bad 30-minute
speech to 200 people wastes only
a half-hour of his own time.
But he wastes 100 hours of the
audience’s time--more than four days-which should be a hanging offense.
Jenkin Lloyd Jones