What makes some people naturally better at organizing their thoughts when speaking? How can you learn to communicate more clearly in impromptu situations?
In Think Faster, Talk Smarter, Stanford lecturer Matt Abrahams reveals how structured conversations can transform the way we communicate. Like jazz musicians who improvise within familiar patterns, speakers can use simple frameworks to organize their thoughts and deliver compelling messages.
Keep reading to discover how structure can make your spontaneous communication more engaging, memorable, and effective.
Structured Conversations
Abrahams explains that organizing the ideas you’re talking about makes your message more interesting and memorable. We’ll cover why structure is important for presenting information and discuss how to engage in structured conversations.
Why Structure Is Important
Abrahams argues that structuring spontaneous communication doesn’t restrict you; instead, it liberates you to communicate more effectively on the fly. The author compares structured spontaneity to when jazz musicians improvise within preset musical structures. Just as these musicians use familiar song structures as a base for their creativity, speakers can use basic structures to organize their thoughts quickly and effectively during impromptu situations.
(Shortform note: Jazz is an especially fitting analogy for creativity—one study found that jazz is associated with the strongest creativity compared to other music styles. The researchers theorized that one reason the jazz musicians have superior creativity is they typically practice loosely, with less focus on perfection. This relates to Abrahams’s ideas on cultivating creativity by avoiding perfectionism.)
Logical structures make storytelling compelling and memorable. By organizing information into narratives with clear beginnings, middles, and ends, you can keep your audiences engaged while making complex ideas easier to process.
How to Structure Your Conversations
Abrahams recommends using what we’ll call a what, why, and how framework as the “do it all” structure for organizing information. Here’s how to apply it to your conversations:
- What: Start by introducing what you’re talking about. For instance, consider the start of this section, under the header “Structure your Conversations”: We began by learning this section will be about using structure to improve your communication skills.
- Why: Next, elaborate on why the topic at hand is relevant or important to your audience. For example, the second part of this section explained that learning to use a structure liberates you, improves the experience for your listener, and helps you stay on track.
- How: Finally, provide details about how to go about applying the information you’re presenting. For instance, the subsection you’re reading now tells you how to use a structure to organize information.
| How We Evolved to Appreciate Structure One writer explains that structure seems like a counterintuitive way to cultivate creativity because we’re conditioned to associate structure with limitation after being raised with restrictive rules during childhood. However, structure promotes creativity by helping us focus our creativity, which might otherwise wander unproductively. Even though we tend to associate structure with limitation, structure resonates with us because it engages our human instinct for narrative, which has evolved as a vital skill for survival and cooperation. Conveying ideas through stories helps your audience imagine future outcomes, share common goals, and align their efforts with others on a large scale. Research suggests that the most universally compelling stories are arranged in the following structure: • You have a goal. • You have a compelling motive to reach that goal. • You face challenges when trying to achieve that goal. • You find resources to help you achieve it. • You reach your goal, or not, and your reality is changed. This story structure aligns with the what, why, and how organizational structure that Abrahams suggests, which may explain why Abrahams’s logical structure can be appealing and effective: • Your what could be seen as your goal. For example, imagine you begin a conversation with your family by stating you want to start a landscaping business. • Next, you explain why you want to start this business, which could also be your motive: You enjoy working outdoors and you think it could be a lucrative business. • Finally, you discuss how you’re going to succeed in your business: This would entail laying out the challenges you’ll face, what resources you’ll employ to overcome them, and what your changed reality will look like when you get your business running. |
