Briefly Speaking

Are you sometimes left grappling to organise your thoughts when called on to speak spntaneously?

Do you sometimes end up sharig a stream of conciouness rather than concsiely and briefly sharing a logical, well thought through position?

You are not alone. Those people who can appear to do this with little effort might just be employing a few of the tips I'm sharing here.

These short and easy to remember acronyms help you structure your thoughts so that you can speak on a topic that you might not have repared in advance.

1. P.R.E.P

Jot this acronym down and refer to it as a reminder of how to structure your response when asked to share your point of view on a topic. Not only does it provide a clear and relatable route for your audience it also acts as a 'sandwich' to make your point clear and memorable.

2. O.B.S.

When called on to share an idea, first thoughts or even a project update, start by restating the opportunity or need as you see it.

"This project set out to make accessing information easier. Currently data is scattered and hard to find across multiple sources. It means we loose a lot of time and have an opportunity to streamline".

This is a quick way to briefly remind people of the why & set the context of your proposed solution.

Next outline a proposed solution, the work thats happening to close the gap, or a potential concept that could be explored.

"A consolidated dashboard that curates all the relavant information could be one solution" .

Finally outline the one or two key benefits of your solution. People will not remember more so stick to your most compelling benefits.

"A simple dashboard means people no longer have to navigate multiple sources, can access information in one location and is the most cost effective solution to implement".

3. R.R.R.

Let's face it not all situtations we are called to speak on are going to be positive so here's an acronymn to have handy when you have to talk about a negative or regretable situation.

In a sense this is 'crisis communication' and can be effective when you have to break bad news, a project delayed or some other regretable situation.

Importantly start with the regret;

"Unfortunately, the new web page casued some confusion. It meant that not a lot of people are able to access the support we promised".

Explain the reason, people will be more fogiving if the know the why behind the what.

"We beleive the reason is that we failed to test the button that says 'click here for support' and placed it at the bottom of the page".

Finally outline the repair, what is happening to put it right and mitigate any future reoccurrance.

"We acted immediately to place the button at the top of the page and fixed the routing glitch. We've also made it a stand out colour and added a tesating step into our SOP so that it won't happen again".

You will see this tactic used a lot by PR folks and its how politicians are often briefed to respond to bad news stories!

I'd love to hear your 'go to' frameworks, acronyms or tips to help communicate with brevity and calrity in the moment and please feel free to steal and share these.

#Clearcommunication #speakingbriefly #communicationcoach