Aristotle's rhetoric (Category Speaking)

I often find myself in a situation where I need to convey my thoughts to the audience as effectively as possible, whether it is a public speaking or a meeting within the company. I usually build my story and theses on a rational and logical approach, similar to that of mintoBut it didn't always work, so I decided to go back to the classics. It turned out that the first systematic guide in this field was the treatise of Aristotle.Rhetoric", in which he talked about the three pillars of successful persuasion, answering different questions.

• ethos (Who do I believe?) Trust in the speaker is important: his reputation, competence
• paphos (How do I feel?) - here is important emotional state and motivation of the audience: fear, enthusiasm, boredom, tired
• Logos (How logical is that?) - facts, metrics, diagrams, calculations, cause-and-effect relationships between arguments are important here.

According to Aristotle, success requires a combination of factors, but it is very difficult to achieve. For example, since childhood I was good at relying on the logos, then an ethos was added as an adult. (by the reputation of the expert)But I still struggle with pathos. (||But I'm working on improving my emotional intelligence.||).

Interestingly, in Aristotle’s time, the book helped to successfully perform on ships, public meetings and so on, where it was important for him to convince the audience here and now without any improvised materials: presentations, handouts, video trailers. And now in technology companies, we have a whole range of different tasks in different contexts, and it's kind of getting richer. For example, there are meetings, letters, frequent, RFC/ADR, code-review, design review, business review, etc. As a result, in addition to the goal of persuasion, there are goals to synchronize people, relieve anxiety, build trust, drag through changes.

Now this model with ethos, pathos and logos can be decomposed something like this.

1This today is about how to understand: “Will this assessment / proposal be believed from me?” Ethos develops through the following factors Quality of your decisions and forecasts (Promised, done.) Honest recognition of risks and unknowns Transparency: "That's what I checked, that's what I don't know." Respectful tone, even when arguing

2Paphos today is about how to understand: "What do people feel when they hear / read this?" NIn practice, this can be done in this way. Do not declare changes “dry” by ignoring anxiety ("another priority from above") Show how it affects workload, career, interest in work Helping people go from “oh, nightmare” to “ok, it makes sense, let’s try”

3Logos today is about how to understand: “Is the logic clear and is it reliable enough for solutions?” NIn practice, this can be done in this way. Talk openly about the assumptions and boundaries of the model: “This estimate does not take into account integration with X.” Use visualizations of logic: diagrams, tables, models Comparison of alternatives using clear criteria

In practice, before any important communication, you can ask yourself three blocks of questions that will help make this communication better.

Logos: "Basic" first

• What's the main claim? (1–2 phrase) What data and facts support this? What are the alternatives and why are they worse?
• What assumptions do you make? If you can’t articulate it clearly, the problem is with the logos, not the “bad audience.”

Ethos: Why You Should Believe You What have you checked/done yourself? Whose experience/expertise do you take into account? (SRE, security, product, finance)? How do you show that you are not pushing your favorite solution, but are really looking for the best one? Sometimes it is enough to add a couple of phrases.

Paphos: an emotional goal

• What state of the audience do you want? Is there fear, fatigue, skepticism? How can they be reduced? How do you show people that you are on their side? For example, instead of recycled: Our goal is to get rid of late-night fire releases. The proposed plan would reduce the number of aurals.”

#Thinking #Writing #Leadership #Management