4. How to speak effectively?

Speaking effectively is one of the most important skills to have in today’s world, in order to become successful at what you do. It allows us to form connections, influence decisions, and motivate change. Here is a nice story that I came across that explains one of its aspects.

Story

There was a sale in a shop across the busy street. There were two sets of crockery on display. 

The first crockery set had 6 pieces of dinner plates, 6 pieces of side plates, and 6 pieces of bowls.

The other crockery set had 6 pieces of dinner plates, 6 pieces of side plates, and 6 pieces of bowls, 4 pieces of mugs (2 of them had a crack), and 2 pieces of jars (but old & little tarnished).

A group of individuals was asked to quote a price that they would be willing to pay for these two crockery sets.

The average price for the first crockery set that people were willing to pay came up to 326 dollars. And the average price for the second crockery set that people were willing to pay, surprisingly, was 192 dollars.

The second set had all the items in the first set plus additional mugs & jars. What happened?

This is called the Dilution Effect. The broken & old items diluted the overall perceived value of the crockery set, even though it was superior to the previous one. This underlines an interesting cognitive behavior in our minds, which used correctly can assist us to become better communicators.

Learnings

When speaking up, to have maximum impact and influence, provide your strong and relevant arguments only.

When our minds take in information, it does not add the pieces of information, it averages them out. So irrelevant/weak arguments will only dilute the overall value.

Also, by increasing the number of arguments, you don’t strengthen your case. But rather weaken it. You cannot increase the quality of an argument, by increasing the quantity. 

Similarly, when presenting investor pitches, we are taught in the startup world, if something on the PPT doesn’t add any value, just remove it. It will only serve as a distraction. And that has worked great for me and I have seen great results.

This re-affirms my faith in speaking effectively (albeit less) rather than speaking more and gibberish. How about you?

If you liked this article, let me know the appreciation in the comments below. If you didn’t, I owe you a good article (hopefully next one).

Sources: Counterintuitive Way To Be More Persuasive