"Those silences have achieved such significance (pause) that they have overwhelmed the bloody plays."
– Playwright Harold Pinter on the Pinter Pause
As Ted Lasso fans, we don't need for this TV series to do anything but delight us. Yet, we find there are all kinds of public speaking lessons and techniques that are tucked into scenes.
Season four keeps those learning opportunities coming. In one episode, AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton meets with team sponsor Elaine Pinter of Pinter & Sons. Rebecca asks Elaine Pinter if she's related to Harold Pinter. Elaine Pinter responds with a definitive pause, followed by a simple "No."
If you're not a theater nerd, this little joke may have slipped by you. Elaine Pinter was using the Pinter Pause, a joke that comes back around in the season finale. It's also giving us a reason to revisit the power of silence for public speaking and presenting.
What is this Pinter Pause?
If you're familiar with the work of British playwright Harold Pinter, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005, you probably already know: Pinter's plays include a number of directions for how actors should use silence to communicate.
Pinter used three related but distinct directions in his plays: pause, silence, and long silence. His pauses can convey suspicion, uncertainty, hostility, humor, or the thought a character cannot quite bring themselves to say out loud.
Theater director Peter Hall worked extensively with Pinter. He emphasized that every actor needed to be deliberate in using silence. Hall said when actors don't understand what's remaining unspoken, their pauses can seem artificial, affected, or silly.
How deliberate silence can improve a presentation
Like Pinter and the actors in his plays, you can use silence to heighten the impact of your messages. Our founder, Reid Buckley, wrote in his book Strictly Speaking, "Learn to relish the silence. Become comfortable with it. It's the amateur who hurries."
When all eyes are on you, though, it can be difficult to remember that silence projects confidence, not your lack of knowledge.
Here's how we encourage our students to think about silence, an approach they say that helps: Your audience needs silence to stay engaged with your message. So don't just do it for your image, do it for them.
Time your pauses to promote understanding
Imagine you're announcing a bold new product your company will be launching: We're bringing self-baking cakes to every home in America.
What happens if you immediately dive into how that will be done, without taking a pause?
It's possible you'll lose your audience before you get to your third sentence, no matter how excited they might be about a carrot cake that makes itself.
If the product is truly bold and new, your audience may need a moment to consider: Did they just say self-baking cakes? What is that? Do I want it? Can a cake bake itself?
When you make a bold statement, pause for a beat to let it sink in before you provide the supporting information. If you're explaining a process, take short pauses as you move through it, so people can stay with you. As you go from one big idea to the next, pause even longer to indicate you've started a new paragraph.
Remember, when an audience is listening to your live presentation, they can't press a pause button. You have to press it for them—by using short, planned silences that give them a chance to keep up.
Use silence to bring variety
Variety in how we deliver is another way we help audiences pay attention. If every line you speak is the same length, if your vocal tones never change, if your pauses become predictable and mechanical, you make it harder for your audience to stay engaged, even when they're interested in the topic.
Silent pauses add variety when:
- You time the pause to support your message.
- Avoid pausing in predictable patterns.
- Get rid of filler sounds like uh and um and let moments of silence replace them.
These ideas work in concert with our next suggestion…
Pause to pack a bigger punch
To be deliberate in your use of silence, you need to think about how the unspoken works in concert with what you're saying. A pause can invite an audience to supply their own answers, consider what they think, anticipate what you're going to say, or to have a heartier laugh.
Some examples of artful silence include:
- Pausing after you ask a rhetorical question, to allow the audience to consider their own answers before you provide yours.
- Pausing in a story before you deliver what happens next, creating drama by making the audience wait for it.
- Pausing after you say something amusing, so the audience can get the humor and enjoy a laugh.
- Taking a moment to consider a statement or answer, signaling that what comes next is thoughtful, not pre-planned or automatic.
Use it but don't overdo it
Take a pointer from Pinter: Every pause should not be a ponderous theatrical event. In 1987, the playwright complained that actors were taking his pauses too far, doing too much with them.
Public speakers with a penchant for pausing would be wise to keep that same notion in mind. If presenters pause dramatically to reveal mundane information, their colleagues might think they're nuts. A speaker who pauses excessively can make an audience want to scream "just spit it out."
Our advice on other speaking techniques comes into play here: Overuse diminishes impact. We often say when a speaker does too much of anything that it's like highlighting every line in the textbook.
Context is important, too. A dramatic pause that plays well from the stage during a keynote might be out of place in an informal presentation. In a virtual setting, a long pause might seem like a technical glitch. When you're reporting bad news to the boss, long pauses or too many of them might make you seem reticent or uncertain.
Here are some tips for incorporating pauses:
- Find two or three important points in your next talk. Determine how a pause can make those points stronger.
- Record yourself and listen for patterns. Do you pause in predictable ways? If so, smooth out phrasing and work on pausing for clear reasons.
- The next time you present, ask a trusted colleague to pay attention specifically to how and when you pause, then give you some feedback on that.
- Don't wait for a formal speaking assignment. Experiment with pausing when you speak in meetings or in conversation. See what happens.
Silence has a place in your public speaking. Pauses can be powerful. As with all the techniques we can use when presenting, the key is to use the unspoken with purpose.
LEARN MORE
Find our founder's thoughts on the power of the pause here.
If you're using filler sounds instead of pausing, here's a way to get that habit under control.
Faced with questions, speakers are often flummoxed when they don't have ready answers. Here's how a little planning can help you avoid relying on "good question" to fill the void.
