326 15.3 speaKinG to inForM
their own good. So when speaking to an adult audience, realize that any
information or ideas you share will more likely be heard and understood if
you relate what you say to their chock-full-of-activity lives. People working,
going to school, raising families, and involved in their communities need to
be shown how the ideas you share are relevant to them.
• Help listeners solve their problems. Most people have problems and are look-
ing for solutions to them. People will be more likely to pay attention to
information that helps them to better understand and solve their problems.Clarify Unfamiliar Ideas or Complex Processes
If you want to tell your listeners about a complex process, you will need more
than definitions to explain what you mean. Research suggests that you can
demystify a complex process if you first provide a simple overview of the proc-
ess with an analogy, vivid description, or word picture.^6
Use anaLogies If a speaker said, “The Milky Way galaxy is big,” you would
have a vague idea that the cluster of stars and space material that make up the
Milky Way was large. But if the speaker said, “If the Milky Way galaxy were as
big as the continent of North America, our solar system would fit inside a coffee
cup,” you’d have a better idea of just how big the Milky Way is and, by compari-
son, how small our solar system is.^7 As we discussed in Chapter 8, an analogy is
a comparison of two things. It’s an especially useful technique to describe com-
plex processes because it can help someone to understand something difficult to
grasp (the size of the Milky Way) by comparing it to something already under-
stood (the size of a coffee cup).^8
By helping your listeners compare something new to something they already
know or can visualize, you are helping to make your message clear. Here’s
an example of this idea based on what professor of business Chip Heath and
communication consultant Dan Heath call the principle of “using what’s there—
using the information you have (what’s there) and relating it to something more
familiar.”^9 Try this short exercise: Take 15 seconds to memorize the letters below;
then close the book and write the letters exactly as they appear in the book.
J FKFB INAT OUP SNA SAI RS
Most people, say these experts, remember about half the letters. Now note
the difference when the same letters are organized just a bit differently. The letters
haven’t changed, but we have regrouped them into acronyms that probably make
more sense to you. You are more likely to make sense out of something for which
you already have an existing mental category. An analogy works the same way.
JFK FBI NATO UPS NASA IRS
Use a viviD, DesCriptive WorD piCtUre When you describe, you pro-
vide more detail than you do when you define something. One way to describe
a situation or event is with a word picture. A word picture is a lively description