Getting Your Message Across To Healthcare Specialists: Public Speaking Basics

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Getting YourMessage Across To Healthcare
Specialists Public Speaking Basics

• Ellen R. Cohn PhD
• University of Pittsburgh

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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.
• ecohn_at_pitt.edu

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Purpose

• Most healthcare professionals will need to
  engage in some public speaking. This presentation
  presents basic concepts for the beginning
  speaker.

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Words are, of course,the most powerful drugused
by mankind.

• Rudyard Kipling

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Communication is power.Those who have mastered
its effective use can change their own experience
of the worldand the worlds experienceof them.

• Anthony Robbins

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Basic Communication Axioms

• Communication is Dynamic
• Meaning is mutually constructed
• 90 of Communication Is Non-verbal
• Communication is Irreversible
• We cant take back communication
• We Cannot, Not Communicate
• Silence and inaction both communicate
• Communication Aint Perfect
• It is difficult to achieve total understanding
• We need to anticipate and correct errors

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Lack of Clarity Miscommunication

• I really didnt sayeverything I said.
• Yogi Berra

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MisperceptionMiscommunication

• The major problem in communication is the
  illusion that it has occurred.
• Albert Einstein

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MisunderstandingMiscommunication

• There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood
  by those who hear.
• William James

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Why Messages DontGet 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 speakers credibility)

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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!)

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I understand everything-- except what youre
saying.

• Henny Youngman

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Good Listening Is Your Most Important
Communication Skill

• Listen to Your Gut
• Do parts of your presentationmake you uneasy?
• This often signals an organizational problem
• Listen to your audience
• Especially to their non-verbal cues
• Listen to the emotional tone

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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 othersare
saying.

• La Rochefoucauld

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No man ever listened himself out of a job.

• Calvin Coolidge

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The Three Basics Needs, Messages, Communication

• Understand your audience
• Their needs
• Their expectations
• Send 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)

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Superior Speakers Analyze the Audience

• Who will be in the audience?
• What do I want the audience to
• Know?
• Believe?
• Do?
• How is the audience responding?
• How do I adapt?

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Visualize Your Audience

• Why will they be in attendance?
• What do they already know?
• Do they have biases or misinformation?
• What do they think they need to know?
• What worries them?
• What is the general mood?
• Friendly, hostile, neutral.
• How will they feel about yoursubject matter?
• Interested, bored, nervous, confident

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Many of the communication difficulties between
persons are the by-product of communication
barrierswithin the person.

• Abraham H. Maslow

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Audience Members HaveBasic Human Needs

• Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
• Physiologic
• Safety
• Love and Belongedness
• Esteem
• Self-actualization

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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

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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?

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What Makes a Speaker Credible?

• Confidence, intellect, knowledgeand 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

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Now when I bore peopleat a party they think
itstheir fault.

• Henry Kissinger

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Employ Ethical Communication

• Provide complete information
• 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 credible sources
• Provide truthful and accurate information

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If you always tell the truthyou dont have
anythingto remember.

• Dick Motta
• Coach, Chicago Bulls

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A speech is a solemn responsibility.The man who
makes a bad 30-minute speech to 200 people wastes
onlya half-hour of his own time.But he wastes
100 hours of the audiences time--more than four
days--which should be a hanging offense.

• Jenkin Lloyd Jones