Paint & Pipette: The Art & Science of Innovation

S3E14: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Spontaneous Speaking with Matt Abrahams

Dec 25, 2023

53:15

Are you looking for some tips, tricks, and techniques to propel your spontaneous speaking to higher levels? Our guest today is of the belief that there is no right way to communicate, there are better ways and worse ways but no one right way! Joining us today is Matt Abrahams, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot. As you tune in you’ll hear from Matt about the phenomenon of reverse plumbing, how to reframe your anxiety, and how the Rule of Lung works. He highlights why you should be maximizing your mediocracy and takes us through some simple, pragmatic exercises on how to do it. This is a truly insightful episode filled with valuable insights including why heuristics are important, how to hack them, and why having structure can amplify your creativity and freedom. Be sure to tune in now, thanks for listening!

Key Points From This Episode:

We dive into the launch of Matt’s book, Think Faster, Talk Smarter.
Matt describes the phenomenon of reverse plumbing and why it happens.
He highlights a technique for reframing anxiety, and putting it into perspective.
What’s really happening when we reframe our anxiety.
The Rule of Lung and how it works.
How to incorporate the Rule of Lung (in spontaneous or improvisational speech).
Maximizing mediocrity and why he believes we should seek to be mediocre.
A quick note on why memorizing does not work for planned speaking.
Simple pragmatic exercises to strengthen your muscle and maximize your mediocrity.
We talk about heuristics and how they can be helpful in thinking and responding.
He expands on the concept of meta-awareness.
Why heuristics are important, why we need to hack them, and how to do that practically.
A short list of environments where you can use a heuristic.
Matt shares useful hacks (and heuristics) to use in an apology setting.
His thoughts on the biggest communication mistake people make.
Tapping into not what we know but what the audience needs, in a spontaneous moment.
We discuss the concept of cathedral versus brick.
He talks about his podcast, Think Fast Talk Smart.
How he prepares for spontaneity in his podcast.
He highlights why having structure can allow for creativity and freedom to flow.
The value of mistakes and how to reframe them.
Matt and Jeremy answer a question from the audience about adding connection points when answering or responding.