steve's primer of practical persuasion version 2.0
Persuasive Delivery: A Smile and a Shoeshine, Willy
Think about your day. Consider how often you are talking to people, particularly how often you are explaining, illustrating, lecturing, demonstrating, and providing information through the use of verbal and nonverbal messages. You use communication a lot.
Okay, now since this particular activity occupies so much of your time, it seems reasonable to assume that you received considerable experience in the arts of effective delivery. You took several courses in your education that directly, primarily, and fully explored the dimensions of effective delivery. You had many different opportunities to have your delivery observed by experts and received feedback from them. You often videotaped your communication, then viewed that tape with a critical eye. In other words, you received a significant amount of training, instruction, and practice in delivery.
Of course you didn't.
From my experience in working with people, the overwhelming majority received little training, instruction, and practice before they began working. Most viewed a videotape of themselves from a public speaking, debate, or interpretation course from a Speech department.
I hope I have made the point. Effective delivery is critical to successful work, yet most people are not properly prepared. The survivors got through with on the job training, always a tough, but effective, method of learning. In this section, we will consider what delivery is, criteria for evaluating it, its practical effects, and how to improve it. This is a brief chapter and cannot substitute for a good course. If you really want to change your delivery, I highly recommend that you seek a specific course. This overview will, however, provide you with an introduction to delivery.
The Importance Of Delivery
Beyond the fact that people so much of their time and effort in delivering messages, delivery has three other important effects. Delivery has clear implications as a persuasion tool and should be considered another tactic that you can and should use to influence others. First, delivery influences the mental state of the receiver. Second, it directly affects the receivers' comprehension of information. Third, it strongly drives perceptions of your credibility. Let's consider each of these ideas in some detail.
Influencing the Mental State. You might recall from the chapter on paths to persuasion, we posed a $64,000 question. How do you get people to shift modes? One of the best ways to control the mental state is through delivery. Delivery that is interesting and clear directs attention to the message. It gets people tuned into the situation and causes them to change their mental state from the peripheral route to the central route. A lively delivery engages and involves people. It gives them energy and animation.
Receiver Comprehension of Information. Given the observation that delivery controls the mental state, it is no surprise that delivery also affects comprehension. If people are paying more attention due to effective delivery, it is much more likely that they will understand the information they receive. They are working harder to begin with and deploying the cognitive resources needed to comprehend and learn.
Influencing Credibility. Finally, receivers use delivery as a means of determining credibility. Communicators with an effective delivery are seen as more competent and believable than those with a poor delivery. The reasoning is simple. If you know what you are talking about, you should be able to communicate well. The logic also works in reverse. We often assume that people with poor delivery also do not know what they are talking about. Thus a poor delivery leads many receivers to doubt the source's competence and character.
Defining Delivery
Delivery is the physical production of messages. Delivery is how you say it, not what you say. Thus, delivery is the communication channel a source employs to transmit messages.
There are three major dimensions of delivery. They are voice quality, eye behavior, and nonverbal movements. Let's look at each.
Voice quality. Since much communication depends upon speech (the spoken word), it is no wonder that voice quality is an important dimension of delivery. Vocal quality itself has several different attributes. We can vary it with volume, rate, pitch, articulation, fluency, and pausing.
Vocal quality is a function of the total package of these elements. A good voice speaks in a way that is pleasing and acceptable with most of the attributes. It is loud enough to be heard, fast enough to be interesting, pitched to provide changing emphasis, articulate in the production of sound, smooth and fluent, and finally effective in the use of pause.
Most interestingly, there is a wide range of acceptance for vocal quality. There are not just one or two vocal styles that are "good" leaving the rest in the dust. Receivers tend to be rather forgiving of individual differences within a fairly wide range of variation. Nevertheless, an unpleasing voice can have a very negative effect.
Eye behavior. This dimension refers to the quality of eye contact between the source and the receiver. Through eye contact people establish deeper and more attentive communication. It is one of the strongest elements of delivery and it has a powerful effect upon receivers.
Through direct eye contact a source can control the attention of receivers. Direct eye contact establishes the relationship. To the extent that sources depart from direct eye contact, they are diluting their connection with the receiver and reducing their effectiveness.
As with all aspects of delivery, there is a range of acceptable eye contact. No eye contact is typically judged as ineffective, just as constant and dominating eye contact is also often deemed inappropriate. In between there are many levels of competent eye contact.
Nonverbal movements. Nonverbal movements describe a wide range of behaviors that includes our posture, movement, gesture, and facial expression. Effective delivery contains several, various, and appropriate nonverbal movements. Ineffective delivery, by contrast, shows little nonverbal communication ("deadpan") or repetitive nonverbal communication ("predictable") or inappropriate nonverbal communication ("good grief").
I think that some people are simply unaware of their nonverbal communication. They may think they are effective, but when they see a videotape of themselves, they are surprised and a little disappointed.
Distinguishing Good From Poor Delivery
There are two rather simple rules for assessing delivery. First, is the delivery natural (does it call attention to itself?). Second, is the delivery conversational (does it relate to the receiver?)
A natural delivery is smooth and fluent. It appears to be spontaneous and unforced. This is not to imply that a natural delivery is one that is not practiced or preconceived. It is not simply a matter of "letting it all hang out." Rather the delivery is so comfortable and adept, that no one notices the "delivery" as a thing separate from the communicator.
A conversational delivery removes barriers between the source and the receiver. It connects on a more personal and relational note. Sometimes when people get in front of a group they fall into a bombastic, declaratory style reminiscent of old-time politicians and preachers. Even people who are quite friendly and engaging in interpersonal settings, will radically change their style when standing in front of a group. The art of effective delivery seeks to connect with others.
Building A Good Delivery
The best way to change your delivery would be to take a course aimed solely at improving that communication skill (like a public speaking course for adults). Barring the option, it is still possible to create important and useful changes in your delivery. There are four key elements to consider.
1. Attitude. You must have a positive attitude toward delivery. In other words, you must believe that delivery is an important feature of effectiveness. If you do not think that your delivery makes a difference, then there is no reason to change it.
Some people think that good delivery is merely an "acting" job where sources put on a performance that does not honestly reflect how they truly feel. This is correct. Good delivery is sometimes merely a good acting job. Remember the point of persuasion is not what’s going on with you, but what’s going on with the receiver.
2. Preparation. One of the best ways to destroy delivery is to be unprepared. Leave notes, handouts, learning materials, visual aids and other important tools at home. Don't look over the next day's plan or schedule. For most of us, preparation frees us up to concentrate on other things. If you really are not sure what your next objective is and how you are supposed to achieve it, how can you hope to have an effective delivery?
3. Feedback. People are well aware of the importance of feedback for many positive outcomes. When people are given feedback about their performance, they are able to modify and correct their responses so that they more easily or accurately achieve the desired goal. The same holds with delivery. If you want to improve your delivery, you must get feedback.
There are several methods. First, you could ask trusted receivers. Simply create a rating sheet using the four dimensions (voice, eye contact, nonverbals, and movement) and have your friends or coworkers give you anonymous evaluations. Second, you could ask a colleague to watch you and provide comments about the same four dimensions along with other observations. Third, you could videotape yourself, then watch the replay.
Each method has its strengths and weaknesses and no one is better than the others. The key factor is the feedback each provides. No matter which one you use, get the feedback.
4. Experience. As a young man I hated it whenever someone would claim that there is no substitute for experience. Since I had so little, my comeback was always, "Yeah, but what about education and brains and motivation, don't those things count?" As I have aged, I have come to believe that education and brains and motivation count, but then there is experience . . . and there is no substitute for it.
If you want to improve your delivery, then you must do it. You must get up in front of a group of people and try new things. Change the physical arrangement of the room. Write down a "delivery script" of some new thing you will do each day, then do it. Force yourself to maintain more eye contact. It will not be easy and you will sometimes disappoint yourself. But if you do not try, you will not improve.
References And Recommended Readings
McCroskey, J. (1986). Introduction to rhetorical communication, (5th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
