{"id":674,"date":"2025-05-15T22:18:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T22:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/?post_type=chapter&p=674"},"modified":"2025-07-13T21:53:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T21:53:56","slug":"invite-discussion","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/chapter\/invite-discussion\/","title":{"raw":"Invite Discussion","rendered":"Invite Discussion"},"content":{"raw":"The key factor distinguishing invitational speaking from other forms of public address is the speaker\u2019s intentional effort to create space for audience perspectives. This can be achieved by embedding open-ended questions that encourage audience members to co-construct meaning and, potentially, offer alternative perspectives on the topic. Do not worry if audience members are hesitant to respond to your invitation immediately or if at first there are long pauses between contributions. It usually takes listeners a moment to collect their thoughts. The dialogue typically begins with the speaker asking open-ended question of the audience.\u00a0 An open-ended question is simply a question that can\u2019t be answered with a single word or short phrase. Closed-ended questions include questions that ask who, when, where or whether audience members have done something.\u00a0 The responses associated with these questions are often short, single word or phrase responses.\u00a0 Better to ask an open-ended question which solicits a greater depth of explanation.\u00a0 Questions such as what, how or why are much more likely to elicit a longer response with the speakers reasoning for a perspective or position.\r\n\r\nCall on respondents in the order they sought recognition and maintain eye contact while a person is responding. In order to ensure everyone in the audience has understood the point it might be necessary at times to restate or paraphrase the contribution of an audience member.\u00a0 If you paraphrase something it is always beneficial to ask if you have understood accurately. This paraphrase skill demonstrates good listening.\r\n

Facilitate Discussion Equitably<\/h2>\r\nThe role of the facilitator is to make easy the path for creating mutual understanding of all involved.\u00a0 It requires the speaker to develop a supportive climate, a place safe for participants to share their perspectives.\u00a0 It is essential that the speaker limit revealing their position initially in the conversation so that audience members feel their perspectives are welcome.\u00a0 Additionally, it isn\u2019t necessary to defend or respond to an audience member\u2019s contribution.\u00a0 Rather, it might be more meaningful to invite additional discussion based on the observation shared.\u00a0 Using responses such as \u201cI see\u201d or \u201cThank you for that observation\u201d might demonstrate your appreciation and acceptance of the contribution without evaluating the right or wrongness of the response.\u00a0 In addition, you might invite others to either support or offer an alternative perspective with follow-up or probing questions such as: \u201cHave others had similar experiences?\u201d \u201cHas anyone had a different experience they would like to share?\u201d\u00a0 These invite further discussion and might help gain a measure of how common an experience or belief is among the audience.\u00a0 When the goal is to gain a variety of perspectives it may be necessary to ask the audience to take on the perspective of those not present.\u00a0 It is acceptable to invite your audience to imagine how an issue might impact those community members not present \u2013 for instance young people, seniors, caregivers, Veterans, chronically ill, neurodiverse people, blind or deaf or hard of hearing people, incarcerated or formerly incarcerated persons, etc.\u00a0 This requires speaker and audience flex their empathy muscles and exercise emotional intelligence.\r\n
\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nImportant skills to develop for effective invitational speaking<\/strong>\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • Establish clear organization.<\/strong><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Create a supportive climate<\/strong> conducive to inviting insight through dialogue.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Sharpen interviewing skills<\/strong> to invite insights with open-ended questions.<\/strong><\/li>\r\n \t
  • Improve facilitation skills<\/strong> to manage discussion and ensure voices are heard.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Model effective listening skills<\/strong> to ensure shared understanding.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"

    The key factor distinguishing invitational speaking from other forms of public address is the speaker\u2019s intentional effort to create space for audience perspectives. This can be achieved by embedding open-ended questions that encourage audience members to co-construct meaning and, potentially, offer alternative perspectives on the topic. Do not worry if audience members are hesitant to respond to your invitation immediately or if at first there are long pauses between contributions. It usually takes listeners a moment to collect their thoughts. The dialogue typically begins with the speaker asking open-ended question of the audience.\u00a0 An open-ended question is simply a question that can\u2019t be answered with a single word or short phrase. Closed-ended questions include questions that ask who, when, where or whether audience members have done something.\u00a0 The responses associated with these questions are often short, single word or phrase responses.\u00a0 Better to ask an open-ended question which solicits a greater depth of explanation.\u00a0 Questions such as what, how or why are much more likely to elicit a longer response with the speakers reasoning for a perspective or position.<\/p>\n

    Call on respondents in the order they sought recognition and maintain eye contact while a person is responding. In order to ensure everyone in the audience has understood the point it might be necessary at times to restate or paraphrase the contribution of an audience member.\u00a0 If you paraphrase something it is always beneficial to ask if you have understood accurately. This paraphrase skill demonstrates good listening.<\/p>\n

    Facilitate Discussion Equitably<\/h2>\n

    The role of the facilitator is to make easy the path for creating mutual understanding of all involved.\u00a0 It requires the speaker to develop a supportive climate, a place safe for participants to share their perspectives.\u00a0 It is essential that the speaker limit revealing their position initially in the conversation so that audience members feel their perspectives are welcome.\u00a0 Additionally, it isn\u2019t necessary to defend or respond to an audience member\u2019s contribution.\u00a0 Rather, it might be more meaningful to invite additional discussion based on the observation shared.\u00a0 Using responses such as \u201cI see\u201d or \u201cThank you for that observation\u201d might demonstrate your appreciation and acceptance of the contribution without evaluating the right or wrongness of the response.\u00a0 In addition, you might invite others to either support or offer an alternative perspective with follow-up or probing questions such as: \u201cHave others had similar experiences?\u201d \u201cHas anyone had a different experience they would like to share?\u201d\u00a0 These invite further discussion and might help gain a measure of how common an experience or belief is among the audience.\u00a0 When the goal is to gain a variety of perspectives it may be necessary to ask the audience to take on the perspective of those not present.\u00a0 It is acceptable to invite your audience to imagine how an issue might impact those community members not present \u2013 for instance young people, seniors, caregivers, Veterans, chronically ill, neurodiverse people, blind or deaf or hard of hearing people, incarcerated or formerly incarcerated persons, etc.\u00a0 This requires speaker and audience flex their empathy muscles and exercise emotional intelligence.<\/p>\n

    \n

     <\/p>\n

    Important skills to develop for effective invitational speaking<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Establish clear organization.<\/strong><\/li>\n
    • Create a supportive climate<\/strong> conducive to inviting insight through dialogue.<\/li>\n
    • Sharpen interviewing skills<\/strong> to invite insights with open-ended questions.<\/strong><\/li>\n
    • Improve facilitation skills<\/strong> to manage discussion and ensure voices are heard.<\/li>\n
    • Model effective listening skills<\/strong> to ensure shared understanding.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-674","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":666,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/674\/revisions\/675"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/666"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/674\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1150publicspeaking\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}