Public speaking: should you present the objection to your own recommendation?
Managers defending a recommendation often address people who have already formed an opinion. The management question is specific: does presenting a strong objection yourself help the audience examine the proposal rather than defend its initial position?
What the literature establishes
Charles G. Lord, Lee Ross and Mark R. Lepper (1979, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) studied how supporters and opponents of capital punishment evaluated conflicting research findings. Participants tended to assess evidence consistent with their position more favourably, and exposure to the same body of information could increase the divide between them. Providing evidence to both sides therefore does not guarantee that their judgements will converge.
The mechanism: examining what would change a judgement
Charles G. Lord, Mark R. Lepper and Elizabeth Preston (1984, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) tested instructions asking people to consider the possibility opposite to their initial judgement. In their experiments, this approach reduced certain judgement biases more effectively than a simple instruction to be impartial. The relevant mechanism for speaking is not to add a token qualification, but to prompt the audience to examine an interpretation it might otherwise dismiss.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that speakers become more persuasive as soon as they present a counterargument. These studies do not establish that: they concern the evaluation of information and the correction of certain biases, not a general formula for oral persuasion. A caricatured objection that is immediately dismissed does not invite the same scrutiny as a genuinely plausible alternative. (our executive and employee training programmes)
The limits of the evidence and of current practice
These experiments reproduce neither the hierarchical relationships of an executive committee nor the operational consequences of a decision. They cannot establish an optimal length for presenting an objection or guarantee an effect in Sion’s economic sectors. In practice, approval expressed after a presentation remains an ambiguous indicator: it may reflect analysis, but also a prior preference or reluctance to challenge the manager.
A practical check in Sion
As part of SHR’s “Public Speaking & impact” programme, an exercise in Sion could focus on a recommendation concerning hydropower, healthcare, viticulture or Alpine tourism. Randomly assign participants to two versions of the same presentation, equal in length: one presents the supporting arguments, while the other replaces part of that discussion with a strong objection and the condition under which it would invalidate the recommendation. Then collect individual written responses and measure the proportion of participants who can correctly identify that condition, using a scoring rubric established before the exercise. Compare the results without treating them as a measure of agreement: the criterion here is the quality of scrutiny, not the speaker’s victory. To go further: explore the Public Speaking & Impact training in Sion in the canton of Valais, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Public Speaking & Impact in Sion
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