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informative versus persuasive speaking
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or presenting and that's the topic we're
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going to talk about today because in
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almost any kind of professional role
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that you were in you are going to
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constantly have to make choices about
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how you present and what your focus is
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so let's get into the details on those
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options hello there and welcome back my
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friends
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Alex Lian here and if we haven't met yet
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this channel is called communication
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coach and everything we do here is for
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emerging leaders especially on the topic
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of communication and leadership and
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today we're talking about informative
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versus persuasive speaking because this
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is of course something that you might
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have done in your public speaking course
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in college but also any time as a leader
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you stand at present you have to make a
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choice about how you shape your message
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so that it best meets the needs of your
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listeners and this is a typical choice
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you will make every day so let's first
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look at informative speaking and what
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that involves now informative speaking
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sounds just like the name suggests you
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are informing people about something
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they need to know that they probably
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didn't know before or something they
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need to know how to do that you are
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going to show them how to do those are
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both informative approaches to speaking
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now a lot of times when you're in a
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teaching role educational role you're a
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trainer this is really obvious you're
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going to do this all the time but as a
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supervisor or leader of any sort you're
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constantly coaching people up you're
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showing them how to do things you're
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training them you're mentoring them and
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that involves conveying a lot of
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information sometimes in a speaking
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situation in terms of the kinds of
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topics you might talk about now I'm
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going to talk about general topics here
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that you could relate to like from a
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college situation let's say you were
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doing a speech in college about Thomas
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Edison a person right that's an
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informative topic typically when you
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inform us about his life his inventions
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and things like that maybe it's a
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presentation about a historical event
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like Pearl Harbor and the importance of
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that battle in World War 2 that might be
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an informative presentation you could do
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how electricity
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you know alternating current direct
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current and all the details there could
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be a how-to speech like how to make
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sushi these are very typical examples
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you're going to see in an academic
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setting but they're also in a
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professional setting again you're
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training people how to use a new
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computer process you're teaching people
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about the history of the company there
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are lots of opportunity for informative
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speaking when you're doing orientation
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talks to get new employees up to speed
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that's informative speaking so when
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you're doing informative speaking you
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are filling your main points in the body
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of your presentation with all kinds of
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what we call supporting materials so
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you're using data statistics facts
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examples quotations stories those are
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your supporting materials that convey
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the information that you're providing so
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you're not just giving your own
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explanation of things you are supporting
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everything you're saying with real
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concrete kinds of information that give
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people a variety of ways to absorb and
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understand the message that you are
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trying to communicate so again as
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teachers trainers leaders you're doing
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this all the time in professional
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settings now one of the tell-tale signs
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that a lot of people don't realize when
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you're doing informative speaking that
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you're actually informing them and not
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persuading them is the way your message
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is structured so the main points
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especially in the body of your
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presentation you have an intro body
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conclusion in the body you have let's
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say three or so main points when you're
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speaking to inform you're usually going
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to decide on something like a
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chronological order or sometimes called
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a sequence order that's a way of
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approaching a topic so there are steps
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step one step two step three or if it's
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a historical presentation the history of
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a company for example you're gonna start
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about the beginning middle and present
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day or beginning middle and end
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depending upon how your talk what topic
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you're talking about
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you might also when you're informing
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people decide on a spatial arrangement
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let's say you're doing is the
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presentation about the United States you
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might divide that by region north south
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east west that might be one way to go
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those
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in formative ways to structure a message
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and that's a real telltale sign that
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you're listening to an informative
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message or presentation let's now turn
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to persuasive presentations persuasive
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speaking is really about one key thing
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and that is changing people's minds or
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behaviors and those things are often
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related so you're not just informing
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them and giving them good information to
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consider you were giving information but
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to change their minds to change their
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point of view you're building an
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argument with all the materials that you
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have it's almost like you're a lawyer in
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a court of law
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and you are trying to convince the judge
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or the jury to your point of view and
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you're doing that in a lot of ways but
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you're you're still using statistics
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facts examples quotations stories all of
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the supporting materials that you would
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normally see in an informative
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presentation you still have tons of
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information but you're sharing it as a
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way to support you're sharing it like
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it's evidence because you're supporting
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a point of view and arguments that you
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are that you're putting forth to try to
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convince them and you by the way you can
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even select some of the exact same
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topics as you did before like you might
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still do a presentation about Thomas
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Edison but instead of just informing us
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about his life you might be trying to
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persuade us that he was the most
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influential inventor of all time you
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might still do a presentation on Pearl
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Harbor but you might talk about how it
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is the key battle that changed
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everything in World War two
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that would be persuading us so any real
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topic can be approached in multiple ways
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oftentimes you'll see people speaking
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persuasively really stereotypical
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examples are politicians and sales
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people and motivational speakers and
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while that is certainly true I have
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found in my roles professionally I
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almost I'm almost always trying to
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persuade people in one way or another
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whether it's really a strong sales pitch
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or whether I'm just trying to get them
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to take some action instead of just
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leaving them off and informing them I
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want them to take the next step now one
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of the tell-tale signs again
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for persuasive speaking it's just like
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in form of speaking how you organize the
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main body points of a presentation when
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you're speaking to persuade you will
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most frequently structure it on some
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type of problem solution order some
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variation of problem solution so the
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first point or so is going to be about
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all the problems that are associated
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with your topic that you're talking
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about and then you recommend a solution
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you're moving them from A to B you're
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changing their mind changing their
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behavior and so you'll see salespeople
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do this where they'll tell you all about
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the problems with the other products out
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there or the problem in your life and
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then they will tell you about their
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product that will solve that problem so
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if you have a bad mattress bad night
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sleep here's the solution our mattress
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politicians do this motivational
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speakers try to really get you in touch
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with the struggles in your life so that
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you're more likely to change
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but again professionally you're going to
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see lots of opportunities to speak
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persuasively that don't really fit the
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stereotypical examples but nevertheless
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you you're there to help people move
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from A to B in fact I have two separate
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videos that will help move you forward
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if you want to get serious about
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persuasive speaking one is on Monroe's
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motivated sequence that's a whole way to
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order your entire presentation a map for
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the whole thing and the other is is
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called how to organize a persuasive
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speech or presentation and that really
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goes into how to structure those main
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points when you want to make it a
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persuasive message so I want to now talk
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about how they overlap because in an
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academic setting you know in public
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speaking classes they will say this is
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an informative speech and this is a
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persuasive speech but really in
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professional settings you're almost
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always doing these at the same time it's
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just depending upon how what proportion
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they're in how much you're persuading
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versus how much are you informing so for
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example if I am going to do even a
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straight-up sales presentation I have to
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bring people along with good information
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I have to use you know I have to train
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them on how to do something I have to
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get them educated on a process there's
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no way around those informational
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aspects of it but also in a professional
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setting
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very rarely am i purely speaking
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to inform I almost always want them to
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take a next step so let's take something
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like orientation let's say I'm doing an
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orientation or training for new
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employees that sounds like straight
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information but really what I want them
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to do is take this information and put
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it into practice to take the next step
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so a lot of times even in a training you
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will get people to chart out their next
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step and their their takeaways from a
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training session and then I will snap
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into a persuasive mode to get them
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motivated to actually try this stuff out
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and use it not just hear it and forget
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it but use it put it into practice in
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the future so in real-life situations
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you're almost always doing a combination
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of both of these you see that for almost
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any topic across settings when you're in
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a professional context so let's talk
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about application for you
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you want to think about what's my best
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approach for this particular method
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let's say you have an upcoming
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presentation or a speech or an important
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meeting you want your message to fit
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that situation whether it's persuasive
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or informative so how do you make those
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decisions well you look at your audience
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and you get clarity on who exactly your
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audience is going to be who they are
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what do they want out of this what are
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your goals as a speaker or a leader and
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then also what is the occasion you want
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to make sure your message fits the needs
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of the moment and that's the best way to
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drive it don't ahead of time try to
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figure out if you're going to persuade
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or inform figure out what the needs are
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of the situation and then customize your
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message to those particular needs and
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that's the best way to fit your message
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whether it's informative persuasive or a
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combination of both so thanks for
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listening I encourage you to watch those
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videos I mentioned they're linked in the
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description below this one god bless and
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I will see you soon
