Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot

random. She deployed a structure that I taught her called What–So What–Now What.

Structure’s third benefit—in addition to helping people engage with our communication more fully and remember it better—is that it makes processing information easier.

I spend that fifteen seconds choosing a structure and then very cursorily applying it to the topic. Considering the topic and audience, I ponder whether I might use a persuasive structure like Problem–Solution–Benefit, a chronological structure like Past–Present–Future, or a comparative structure like Comparison–Contrast–Conclusion. To my students’

Some Classic, All-Purpose Structures18 What–So What–Now What Discuss the topic, why it matters, the practical implications. Prep (Point, Reason, Example, Point) Make a point, give the rationale behind it, offer some illustrations, wrap up by returning to the point. Problem–Solution–Benefit Evoke an issue, offer a solution, and end by discussing the

By sketching out a basic road map at the outset and by then executing on that plan, I made it easier for visitors not merely to stay with me but also to relax, pay attention, and absorb what I was saying. If visitors hadn’t known what to expect, a little voice in their minds might have continued to wonder about what they would later experience. Set

information. In researching this book, I spoke with Myka Carroll, editorial director of the For Dummies brand and author of New York City for Dummies.14 As she relates, the popular For Dummies franchise follows a very clear format that contains cues and guideposts for readers. The franchise’s objective is to assist readers with a process called “wa

The best, most robust transitions tend to review what was said and then signpost what is coming next. And they do it in the context of a larger logical flow that we’ve established at the outset.

A third and final category of symptoms are cognitive. We become flustered, blanking out or forgetting what we want or need to say. We fixate on our awareness of others watching us and can’t focus on our audiences and their needs.

Research in cognitive neuroscience supports the importance of orienting audiences when communicating. Scholars like to talk about “processing fluency”—how easily and smoothly information gets encoded in our brains.