Imagine, you are about to give a presentation to an auditorium full of onlookers. You have practiced your speech, perfected your outline, and arranged your information well to be presentable to the audience. The sensation of stage fright creeping in can grip your body if you haven’t considered the importance of tone to what you are about to present. Even the most practiced speakers will feel as though something is amiss right before giving the initial introduction to a talk if they are undecided on which type of atmosphere to promote. The most important aspect of any speech is to keep the tone conversational.

Anyone and everyone can resonate with the idea of having a meaningful conversation. Conversations can leave an impact through building rapport, answering difficult questions, or providing purposeful perspective through sharing of points of view. Richard Greene’s 2014 TED Talk The 7 Secrets of the Greatest Speakers in History (YouTube link in References below) outlined the importance of a conversational tone to keeping audiences connected through contributory feedback that promotes standing on common ground with the speaker. The ability of a speaker to make the audience feel as though they are actively and concertedly contributing to a meaningful conversation will create an ethos of care that can be capitalized on by both the speaker and the audience.

At Professional Public Speaking, we view any speech as an opportunity to engage in a meaningful conversation with an audience. Even if you are already a talented public speaker, the goal of keeping any speech conversational is to be able to continuously and conscientiously adapt to audience feedback. Here are a few easy to remember tips that can help to encourage any public communication to be more conversational in orientation.

1 Use Andragogy to Your Advantage

Andragogy, or the science of how adults learn (Discussed in Module 1), was proposed by Knowles in 1978 and extended extensively in 1984. Knowles found that adults differ distinctly from children in that adults are self-directed with a clear motivation to learn for their own intrinsic benefits. Adult learners engage actively through participating in their own learning journeys. Especially when there are specified, practical solutions that are being learned through direct participation in the learning process. The goal of all adult learners is to add to the corpus of their lifelong learning through experiential learning and creatively solving real-world problems.

To keep the speech conversational and engage adult learners where they are:

  • Involve the need to participate with active responses being encouraged. Ask participatory questions that encourage audience members to raise hands. Simple participation, like raising a hand, can create an opportunity for audience members to actively assess where they fit in with their fellow audience members or the speaker.
  • Use rhetorical thought prompts such as ‘think about, imagine, or consider’ to prompt thoughtful reflection.
  • Provide personal anecdotes or refer to the experiences of yourself or others you know to illustrate the practical perspective shifts that have been beneficial to you and others.
  • Arrange information to highlight problems that are followed intentionally by immediate solutions to connect to practical applications and practical adaptations that will be valuable to adult learners.

2 Remember, Your Goal is Not to be a Performer

Although the projection of a theater performer might help to exhibit command of voice, the goal of a conversational presentation should be to engage authentically with the speaker’s beliefs, experiences, and points of view. Do not act, rather react to feedback. Be authentic through engaging the audience as if they were a friend, you were sitting down with one-on-one. This can be a difficult proposition for anyone who is new to the process of public speaking. However, practiced speakers can scan the audience to find someone who is presenting indicators of positive feedback. Scan the audience but periodically focus on the people who are providing positive feedback. Connection with the people who are providing positive feedback can make audience members feel appreciated.

Make sure that tone and volume changes come from a place of truth. If you are telling a story that made you angry or sad it is perfectly reasonable to mention your emotional state, slow down speech intentionally, or provide vivid descriptions that help to enhance emotional appeals to the audience.

Say what you mean and mean what you say. Speak to what you believe, and you will have no need to conceal your experiences or flaws that you think might make the audience view you negatively. The goal should not be to preach to the audience. However, when you practice what you preach you can be confident in what you say. Don’t preach if you don’t practice what it is you want the audience to accept. Speakers who exemplify expertise are not afraid to address past mistakes because these are always opportunities to illustrate to the audience how to overcome an issue and ultimately better themselves.

3 Ask Purposeful Questions

To keep the audience engaged in the feedback process make sure each question asked has a specific purpose. Related to the above section on Andragogy, questions should have an identifiable purpose to the speaker that will hopefully also be identifiable to a critically thinking audience member. For example, asking the question, “who here hopes to learn something they can use to be a better person, today?” has an explicit purpose to the speaker to prompt participation and hopefully an assumed purpose to the audience member to illustrate engagement with the speaker. Simple prompting questions can enhance the conversation through creating a sense of give and take between the speaker and his or her audience.

Complex questions can prompt audience members to reflect, share, or introspect when engaged directly by the speaker. I like to use the question “who was your favorite teacher as a kid?” when teaching adults about Andragogy. I follow that initial question with a more complex question, “Was your favorite teacher responsible for your easiest class?” Either way the responses go I have an option to engage authentically. If people say yes to the latter question, I might make a joke about how easy it is to get people to identify themselves as lazy. If people say ‘no’ or do not participate with a head nod or raise of hands, then I can actively engage the notion that adult learners often thrive on the prospect of a challenge because a challenge inherently links to the ability to solve a problem or hone a skill.

4 Provide Immediate Answers

Try not to leave the audience hanging. A strategic pause or two can create a sense of anticipation, but lack of clarity and leaving the audience without a resolution can have a negative impact on the perceived credibility the audience has for the speaker. If you ask a question, provide an immediate answer that either illustrates your unique perspective, draws on your past or present experiences, or gives insight into how you think about the solution to the question. When you have the courage to provide a purposeful answer to the question that was just raised, you are actively exemplifying to the audience that you understand the meaning of the question and how the question might impact them.

Be willing to adapt to feedback that indicates disagreement. If people are shaking their heads or staring forward without positive or negative feedback, be willing to rephrase, recontextualize, or rework your answer to fit what might be more salient or useful to the audience. Again, find an opportunity to engage authentically. If you do not know the answer to the question you just posed, be honest and tell the audience why you were inspired to ask the question. It is perfectly fine to say “I don’t know…that’s why I am asking you…”

5 Always Make Time for Audience Participation

A good speaker is not afraid to answer questions. Whenever possible, allot time for a question-and-answer session that allows the audience to actively engage with the speaker and what they have heard throughout the speech. If there is no time for a Q and A Session, encourage the audience to leave feedback through connecting through your website, social media, or the event organizer. Even if there is no time for questions, you can prompt the audience to explore the ideas presented by having conversations with one another. A simple restating of what you hope the audience learned through hearing you speak can prompt audience members to compare what they learned, gained, or questioned from hearing your perspective.

Be the Example You Would Want to See

Whether you are a novice communicator or an expert orator, the ability to keep a conversational tone can make your ideas, perspectives, and information more persuasive and approachable to an audience of your peers. At Professional Public Speaking, we hope to provide strategic public speaking coaching and planning that will help you be the example of a successful speaker you would hope to see from others and that others will clearly be able to view from you.

At Professional Public Speaking, we’re here to help learners at every stage. Whether you’re preparing for a keynote, a classroom presentation, or a career opportunity, Professional Public Speaking offers a solution tailored to your needs. Our courses are designed to meet you where you are and help you grow with intention.

Are you ready to learn, grow, and hone your skills as a communicator? Explore our courses, preview a module, and see how you can create your conversation today.

References

Green, R. (2014, November 5). The 7 secrets of the greatest speakers in history. TEDx. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0a61wFaF8A

Knowles, M. S. (1978). Andragogy: Adult learning theory in perspective. Community College Review, 5(3), 9-20. 

Knowles, M. S. (1984). Theory of andragogy. A Critique. International Journal of Lifelong. Cambridge MA.