THE OL' GIVE AND TAKE

FEEDBACK IN ACTION

This isn't a Communications 101 class, so we're not going to cover all the different modes of communication that exist. However, because public speaking is a specific kind of communication, we are going to go into detail about the mode of communication that public speaking falls under.

Not a One-Way Street

At first glance, public speaking might seem like a one-way, linear form of communication: the speaker stands in front of an audience and the audience receives whatever message the speaker is sending. (Whether the audience actually understands the message is another story.)

The thing is, public speaking isn't one-way. It's a give-and-take between the speaker and the audience.

Why? Because the audience is sending messages to the speaker at the same time the speaker is sending messages to the audience.

In fancy academic terms, this means public speaking is an example of the transactional model of communication.

In the transactional model, the message a speaker sends is actually affected by the messages they're getting from the audience. These messages from the audience are called feedback, and they come in many forms. Here are some examples of feedback categorized into three basic forms: verbal, paralinguistic (which refers to the non-wordy, a.k.a. "nonlexical" parts of speech), and nonverbal. (Source)

Verbal:

• "Speak up! We can't hear you in the back!"

• "You lie!"

• "Boooo!"

• "Yeah, that's right!"

Paralinguistic:

• Tone of voice

• Volume of voice

• Pitch of voice

Nonverbal:

• Hand gestures (both the rude and the polite)

• Facial expressions

• Fidgeting

• Outright ignoring

• More subtle ignoring

The fact that public speaking comes with this kind of audience feedback is a big reason why so many people fear it. It's easy to give a speech all by yourself in a room, where you don't have to worry about people throwing their shoes at you.

Throughout this course, you're going to learn about ways a public speaker should prepare for and deal with audience feedback of all kinds. No, it doesn't involve wearing padded clothing to absorb the impact of a steel-toed boot. It also doesn't involve doing agility exercises to get really good at dodging. (Although maybe if you're the President of the United States, it certainly might. We're not exactly up on all the types of training POTUS goes through.)

It also doesn't involve making sure your speech is so inoffensive and vague that nobody would ever be tempted to throw anything at you.

Feedback in Action: Stand-Up Comedian

There are a million more types of feedback an audience can give to a speaker. Let's take a look at two very different examples of public speaking in which the speaker does a pretty masterful job of handling very different kinds of audience feedback.

Watch the first two minutes of this video of stand-up comedian Jim Breuer. As you watch, feel free to jot down all the kinds of audience feedback you see happening. You may want to make liberal use of the pause button and restart the video several time to make sure you're capturing all the types of feedback that audience throws at the stage—there's a lot, and it comes quick.

When you're done, take look at our list and compare it to yours:

Verbal:

• Shouts of "Whoo!" and "Ohhh!"

• People talking quietly amongst themselves

• People actually shouting phrases to the comedian

• People talking to a server

Paralinguistic:

• The volume and tone of the "Whoos" (loud and high)

• The volume and tone of the "Ohhhs" (loud and low)

• The volume of people voices (shouting, quiet murmuring)

• The volume of laughing and clapping

• Whistling

Nonverbal:

• Laughing

• Clapping

• Raising hands

• Standing up

• Pointing at the stage

• Standing to give the comedian a high-five

Does it seem strange to think of a stand-up comedy as a public speaking? Clearly, though, that's exactly what it is. Comedians have to have super-sharp public speaking skills, because look at all the kinds of crazy feedback they have to deal with.

(As Jim Breuer demonstrates, a comedian can't just get away with ignoring or quietly acknowledging feedback. A really good one can create an improvised comedy routine off of that feedback.)

Now let's look at another job that requires pretty sharp public speaking skills: the President of the United States.

Feedback in Action: President Barack Obama

Watch this video, which is a two-minute summary of Obama's 2016 State of the Union speech. As you watch, do the same thing you did for the last video and keep track of all the types of audience feedback you notice.

The video doesn't show all of the audience reaction to the speech, but there are still plenty of examples. Here's our list:

Verbal:

• Cheering

• Shouting the word "Yeah!"

Paralinguistic:

• Volume of cheering and shouting

• Number of people cheering (big group versus one or two individuals)

• Number of people clapping (big group versus one or two individuals)

Nonverbal:

• Clapping

• Nodding

• Laughing

• Note-taking

• Silent, full attention

• Dude at end giving the air-five

Obviously, some of the types of feedback in the two videos was different. You wouldn't expect people at a stand-up gig to be taking notes, just like you wouldn't expect anyone at the State of the Union to actually approach POTUS for a high-five (hence the awesome "air-five" move).

But some of the feedback in both videos was the same: cheering, clapping, laughing, and so on. But the quality of each of those types was very different, right? The people in the audience at the State of the Union knew to save their cheering until the president had made a statement, then paused. The audience at the stand-up gig didn't bother with that kind of politeness—they cheered whenever the felt like it.

One of the ways a speaker can prepare for a speech is to understand the type of audience they're going to have and the norms and expectations come along with that audience. A speaker also needs to remain open to that feedback and be willing to adjust their own message based on it. For example, a stand-up will adjust his act based on how much the audience is laughing.

That's something we'll talk about further in the next lesson and throughout this course.

We'll Say it Again: Not a One-Way Street

We've discussed the ways an audience can communicate messages to a speaker. But it's important not to forget the obvious inverse: the speaker communicates many messages to his or her audience.

That means the speaker is conveying all three types of messages, too: verbal, paralinguistic, and nonverbal. A stand-up comedian, the President of the United States, and any speaker can convey just as much information with the raise of an eyebrow as they can with a sentence.

Later on in this course, we'll go into more detail about the ways a speaker can control the verbal, nonverbal, and paralinguistic messages they're sending.