audience understanding

Preparing to speak in front of a skeptical audience is more than thinking about objections beforehand – there are specific techniques you can use to respond to these challenging situations without sounding defensive, evasive, or dismissive. Here, we offer a few key tips for how to handle skepticism with aplomb.

In this podcast, host Matt Abrahams and Stanford GSB lecturer Burt Alper share how to prepare for these challenges from your audience and discuss the importance of tactics like acknowledging audience input, reframing responses, and how to remain cool, collected, and credible.

Episode Reference Links:

• Burt Alper: Website
• Stanford Profile: Website 
• Ep.102 Create a Presence: How to Communicate in a Way Others Can Feel: Website / YouTube 
• Ep.70 Keep ’Em Coming: Why Your First Ideas Aren’t Always the Best: Website / YouTube 
• Original Episode - Ep.5 From Monologue to Dialogue: How to Handle a Skeptical Audience: Website / YouTube

Connect:

• Email Questions & Feedback >>> thinkfast@stanford.edu
• Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website
• Newsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.io
• Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn Page,  Instagram, YouTube
• Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn
• Stanford GSB >>> LinkedIn & Twitter

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Host Matt Abrahams introduces the episode and guest Burt Alper, a fellow strategic communication lecturer at Stanford GSB

(00:00:55) Handling Direct Objections

Confronting direct objections during presentations, particularly in professional settings like executive meetings or at the GSB.

(00:02:37) Preparation for Objections

The importance of preparation when anticipating objections and strategies for foreseeing potential pushbacks.

(00:03:50) Emotional vs. Logical Objections

Distinctions between emotional and logical objections and how these types of objections manifest in conversations.

(00:06:09) The Power of Reframing

The technique of reframing in objection handling and altering the context of a conversation to address concerns without conceding.

(00:08:17) The Role of Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing as a critical skill for clarifying and addressing objections, with the benefits of accurately restating concerns to ensure mutual understanding.

(00:12:11) The Final Three Questions

Burt Alper shares the best communication advice he’s received, a communicator he admires, and his ingredients for successful communication.

(00:14:55) Conclusion

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For thousands of years, the study of rhetoric was a fundamental part of a man's education. Though it ceased to be commonly taught in the 19th century, my guest today argues that it's an art well worth reviving in the modern day.

His name is Jay Heinrichs, and he's an expert in language and persuasion and the author of Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion. Jay and I begin our conversation with a description of what rhetoric is, why after being taught around the world for centuries it fell out of favor as a component of education, and why it's still essential for everyone, especially leaders, to learn. We then unpack the difference between fighting and arguing, and how it’s the latter that’s a lost art, especially in our digital age. From there we discuss each of Aristotle’s three tools of rhetoric -- ethos, pathos, and logos -- including a dive into how the way your audience sees your character is so important, and how you can even do an ethos analysis of your resume. We then delve into Cicero's five canons of rhetoric, and Jay shares a smart technique for memorizing a presentation, and thus delivering it more persuasively. We end our conversation with a fun game you can play to sharpen your rhetorical skills.

Get the show notes at aom.is/rhetoric.