Some tips for conveying your science to others.
By Cathy Yarbrough
Scientists can communicate more effectively about their work by engaging the emotional brains of their audience members before trying to inform and persuade them, according to speaking coach and author David P. Otey, M.B.A., who headlined the AAPS webinar, Conversations about Science: A Deeper Dive, held in January 2019.
Otey, a former broadcast engineer, said, “Scientists expect that everyone with whom they speak is as analytical and evidence-based as they are. We like to think that people will see what we see and will reach the same conclusions.”
But they don’t. Studies have shown that listeners will not adopt a speaker’s point of view unless they trust the individual and feel that he or she can competently “do something listeners find useful,” said Otey.
Decisions about a speaker’s trustworthiness and competence occur not in the listeners’ cerebral cortex but the reptilian, fast-reacting limbic system, said Otey. “Our rational brain can access the limbic system but can never own it,” he added. “Thus, we justify emotional decisions with reasoning.”
Engage
To be an effective speaker, a scientist must first emotionally connect with listeners whether speaking to a large audience at a scientific conference or conversing one-on-one with a boss, work colleague, or a nonscientist.“A speaker has only a few seconds to make the connection,” he added. Fortunately, only a few sentences are required.
The most successful way to connect with listeners is telling them a story. “You’re bound to have a story because science is about solving mysteries about how the world works,” Otey told his webinar audience.
Otey recommended the “A wants B despite C” formula of storytelling in which “A” represents the speaker, and “B” stands for the speaker’s goal. “C” is the obstacle to “A” achieving “B.” “The obstacle can be a gap in knowledge or failure in technology or imagination that must be overcome,” he said.
By telling a story, a scientist can engage the listeners’ imaginations and trigger the release of the neurotransmitter oxytocin in their brains. “Oxytocin expression is stimulated when someone has experienced hearing a story,” he said. “Oxytocin prompts feelings of empathy toward another person. ‘I’ll have empathy toward you, and I will want what you want.’” In addition, listeners will be hooked—they will want the speaker to continue the story.
Starting Point
When talking about research, a scientist should avoid the so-called starting-point error, which occurs when the speaker assumes that listeners know a technical topic. The scientist and the audience are not starting at the same point of understanding.
To overcome starting-point errors, scientists can adopt the speaking tool known as, “You know how...?” said Otey, who provided an example. “You know how oncologists have this problem with not knowing whether a drug that they have prescribed to a cancer patient will be effective?” After briefly explaining the reasons that the problem has been difficult to solve, the speaker describes a solution that he or she proposes or has developed.
In the “You know how…?” scenario, the listener in a one-on-one conversation can respond, “No, I don’t know about this problem.” The response enables the scientist to provide more information to help the listener understand the problem.
During a presentation to a large audience, listeners typically do not have the opportunity to tell the speaker that they do not understand the problem. Thus, Otey recommended that speakers avoid saving the Q&A segment of the presentation for the end, but instead call for questions early in the talk, thereby enabling listeners to ask about the problem.
The two speaking formulas can be combined, Otey pointed out. However, “You know how...?” should follow “A wants B despite C,” he added.
Another Formula
Otey described a third speaking formula, STARs. Designed for job interviews, the STARs framework enables an applicant to describe a specific work situation, a task that was not performed effectively, the individual’s action to improve the performance of the task, and the result. The second “s” in the acronym represents “so that,” a phrase that enables the speaker to communicate the benefit to the company/organization.
Otey concluded the webinar by saying, “I want you to think differently about how you communicate and feel confident in how you can use these tools.” These tools have helped him: “Taking my communication skills to a higher level certainly helped my career as an engineer,” he said. “Success in a career depends on more than technical skills.”
Otey has presented other high-value programs for AAPS. At the 2018 AAPS PharmSci 360, Otey’s presentation, How to Connect, Convey, and Convince When You Converse, attracted a standing-room-only audience. See the summary of Otey’s 2017 AAPS annual meeting presentation, Soft Skills in a World of Hard Data.
Cathy Yarbrough is a freelance science writer.