5 Supporting agreement and action
Influential talk makes uses of many features covered in previous sessions of this course. In particular, listening, empathy and body language skills, if effectively used, can increase the participants’ personal credibility and perception of trustworthiness, as Table 1 shows.
| Skills from previous sessions | More general influencing skills | Key ingredients of the message |
|---|---|---|
| Active listening | Credibility | Structure (STPC) |
| Summarising | Rapport | Positive language |
| Empathy | Trust | Logic and evidence |
| Body language | Authenticity | Emotive words/vision |
| Conciseness |
While logic, data and structure of a message may gain you agreement to a proposition, arguably it is positive language, emotive words and delivery that is more likely to persuade your listener to take action (Kyndt and Rowell, 2012).
- Logic + data + structure = agreement
- Logic + data + structure + positive language + emotion = agreement and action
In reality, of course, things are never that simple. This formula works as a basic principle, but remember that approaches need modifying according to context and people’s needs.