Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

"It's not an accent, it's an identity."
The way we speak shapes more than how we're understood—it shapes how we're perceived. Peter Novak believes the goal of communication isn't to eliminate an accent, but to communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and authenticity. As a linguist, communication coach, and expert in accent bias, Novak helps multilingual professionals communicate more effectively while embracing the identity their voice represents. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, he joins Matt Abrahams to explore how accent bias influences the workplace, why clarity matters more than sounding "native," and the practical techniques anyone can use to communicate with greater confidence and impact.

Key Takeaways:
  • Clarity matters more than sounding native. Effective communication comes from making your message easy to understand, not eliminating your accent.
  • Your accent is part of your identity. Multilingual communicators bring unique perspectives and strengths that should be embraced, not hidden.

Activity:
  • Focus on clarity. Record yourself explaining a familiar topic for one minute. Listen back and identify three words or phrases to emphasize and two places to pause. Record it again, focusing on clarity rather than sounding perfect, and compare the difference.

Episode Reference Links:
Connect:

Chapters:

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (00:52) - Accent Bias
  • (03:55) - Accent and Identity
  • (05:55) - Processing Fluency
  • (08:25) - Clarity Over Perfection
  • (10:26) - The Power of Prosody
  • (15:33) - Speaking with Confidence
  • (17:56) - The Final Three Questions
  • (22:13) - Conclusion

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Creators and Guests

Host
Matt Abrahams
Lecturer Stanford University Graduate School of Business | Think Fast Talk Smart podcast host
Guest
Peter Novak
Professor Emeritus | High-Stakes Speaker Coach | Founder & CEO of the Strictly Speaking Group

What is Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques?

One of the most essential ingredients to success in business and life is effective communication.

Join Matt Abrahams, best-selling author and Strategic Communication lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, as he interviews experts to provide actionable insights that help you communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact. From handling impromptu questions to crafting compelling messages, Matt explores practical strategies for real-world communication challenges.

Whether you’re navigating a high-stakes presentation, perfecting your email tone, or speaking off the cuff, Think Fast, Talk Smart equips you with the tools, techniques, and best practices to express yourself effectively in any situation. Enhance your communication skills to elevate your career and build stronger professional relationships.

Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes. Subscribe now to unlock your potential as a thoughtful, impactful communicator. Learn more and sign up for our eNewsletter at fastersmarter.io.

Matt Abrahams: When we communicate, we not
only communicate our ideas, we communicate

our identity My name is Matt Abrahams,
and I teach Strategic Communication at

Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Welcome to Think Fast,
Talk Smart, the podcast.

Today, I look forward to
speaking with Peter Novak.

Peter is a former vice provost at
the University of San Francisco

and former dean at Yale University.

He is the founder of the
Strictly Speaking group.

Peter leverages his doctorate
and background in linguistics and

acting to help non-native speakers
master clear communication.

He has an award-winning LinkedIn
learning course on public speaking

for non-native English speakers.

Welcome, Peter.

I am really excited to bring you to the
show and to share what you've shared

with my students here with everybody.

Thanks for joining.

Peter Novak: Thanks so much.

I've been so looking forward
to this conversation.

Matt Abrahams: Shall we get started?

Peter Novak: Absolutely.

Matt Abrahams: Great.

On the show, we've often spoken
about how word choice affects the

strength of our messages and the
impressions people form of us.

Your work highlights the impact accents
can have on people's perceptions.

Can you share a bit about this?

And please make sure you define what
you mean by accent bias, because

I think this is really important
for what we'll talk about today.

Peter Novak: Absolutely.

Let me start with the
definition of accent bias.

So accent bias is essentially that
reflex that we have to trust people who

sound like us, and this happens a lot
with people who are the in-group and

people who are part of the out-group.

And the idea of accent bias, of who's
in and who's out, and what that means,

it really affects the workplace.

It can affect hiring decisions,
it can affect promotion decisions.

It often affects how people
feel about leadership qualities.

And so all of these aspects of
accent bias creep into our workplace

without us really understanding
or knowing the full impact of it.

Matt Abrahams: And we could have our
career and our trajectories be affected

by something we don't even know.

Have you found that there are
advantages to having an accent, or

that non-native speakers bring to
their communication maybe through the

focus of the specific words or the
way they speak versus those who don't

have an accent in a given environment?

Peter Novak: Or who don't have the accent
of the majority in the specific group?

Absolutely, and I love the framing of
this question around the advantages

that non-native speakers have, because
so often they come to the table

thinking it's a disadvantage to have
an accent when they're speaking.

And so I think what's fun about
that is that when you think about

multilingual speakers, seventy-five
percent of people in the US and

Canada and Australia and Great
Britain don't speak another language.

And so when you've got multilingual
speakers, their skills in being able

to code switch between language and
cultures, in being able to be more

intentional, which is part of your
question, I think, about that focus

that they have about the language choice
that they're having, is really profound.

And I think it's up to native speakers
to recognize that non-native speakers

are doing a hell of a lot more work in
the workplace than native speakers are.

We tend to take our proficiency
in English for granted.

We don't think about how we use it.

We don't think about ways to use it
more clearly for non-native speakers.

And I like to say, remember Ginger
Rogers and Fred Astaire, the

dancers from the 1940s and '50s.

Everyone said that Ginger Rogers
did everything Fred Astaire did,

only backwards and in high heels.

And in many ways, that's what
non-native speakers are doing, too.

They are in the moment involved sometimes
in translating what was said into their

first language, oftentimes, translating
what they want to say from their first

language or another language, thinking
about tone, thinking about word choice,

thinking about all these other things
that native speakers don't have to.

And I think we need to give them credit
for that and then create the structures

around that that enable a greater
linguistic flexibility in the workplace.

Matt Abrahams: And just recognizing
that the difference even exists

and that you should take the
time to reflect and accommodate.

I have found that the folks I know who
speak multiple languages, some of whom

who have accents and some who don't,
their ability to listen and discern

subtlety is far superior to mine.

Really interesting.

I have heard you say in my class and
in things you've written, "It's not

an accent, it's an identity." What do
you mean by this, and how can it help

someone who is concerned about their
accent to reframe it in this way?

Peter Novak: Sure.

You know, language carries with
it culture, it carries identity,

it carries individual stories.

And so why would we want
to try and fix that?

There's no reason to really fix that.

The goal, actually, is clarity.

And I think sometimes, there was a
great episode of Modern Family with

Eva Longoria, was that, who, who said,
"Do you even know how smart I am in

Spanish?" And this is what happens.

If you ask a multilingual speaker, do they
feel like different personality traits

emerge with the different languages that
they speak, they will say, "Absolutely.

I am so much funnier in my first language,
and I don't have access to the same

type of comedy in English or in a second
language that I do in my first." And so

really, there's this interesting part
of identity that shifts because of the

different languages that we speak, and
I think that needs to be celebrated.

It needs to be brought into the
workspace a lot more than it normally is.

Matt Abrahams: You just reminded me,
I was coaching a very senior leader

who was a native French speaker.

In English, he was a little more stilted,
a little more buttoned up, but when I

actually had him say the same thing in
French, he became much more lively, much

more connected, and we were able to use
that as a tool, as a guide to allow him

to feel more free speaking in English.

It really is interesting
how we have these different

compartmentalizations based on language.

Before I ask you to share some specific
techniques that those with accents can

take to feel more confident in their
communication, I'd love to ask you to

define some foundational principles
that I know you refer back to.

And in fact, these principles apply not
just to people who are speaking in a

language other than their native language.

They, they apply to all of us.

So can you help us understand what
you mean by processing fluency,

intelligibility, and comprehensibility?

Peter Novak: Absolutely.

So in a nutshell, processing
fluency is the ease with

which we understand something.

And I think the goal of every
speaker is to try and make what

they say as easy as possible to
understand for the listener, for your

audience, whoever that audience is.

And it really means getting to know
your audience as well as possible.

And processing fluency
is essentially that.

Processing disfluency is anything
that gets in the way of that

message being understood.

That could be content, right?

You ramble or you don't
have a good structure.

Or it could be delivery, right?

Things that make it difficult for
people to hear and understand.

And that brings us to the linguistic
ideas around intelligibility

and comprehensibility.

Intelligibility is how much
I understand of what you say.

Comprehensibility is how hard I
have to work to understand you.

It's the effort that I put
in to understanding you.

Let me put this into an example.

Let's say you're on a Zoom call and
it's a little glitchy on the other end.

But maybe you understand what the
person said, but still there was,

"I'm losing you a little bit," and
so you have to work harder to do it.

That's the difference between
intelligibility and comprehensibility.

And the best part about this is
that there were major studies done

20 years ago and more that say
that people who speak English as a

second, third, or fourth language can
improve both their intelligibility

and their comprehensibility with
no noticeable shift in accent.

And so there are some really
interesting things to focus on to

help you do that without worrying
about what your accent really is.

Matt Abrahams: So processing
fluency is the ease with which

we take in the information.

And there's a whole bunch of things
we can do, making sure we know our

audience so it's easier for them.

We're using relevant concepts and
ideas that they can connect to.

Structuring the information,
making it more concise.

And then intelligibility is the
understanding, and the comprehensibility

is how hard we work to understand.

And anything we can do to reduce
comprehensibility, I would assume,

helps with processing fluency.

Excellent.

So let's get very tactical and practical.

What are some techniques and approaches
you recommend to help people who want to

work on their accents or increase their
intelligibility while not increasing the

comprehensibility of what they're saying?

Peter Novak: Well, they want to do both.

They want to have both
high intelligibility and

high comprehensibility.

And so what I would say is
that the goal is clarity.

That's number one.

First and foremost, the goal is clarity.

Matt Abrahams: So clarity of meaning.

Peter Novak: Clarity of meaning, right,
and then clarity also of delivery.

Matt Abrahams: Got it.

So I clearly understood you,
but I also clearly heard you.

Peter Novak: That's right.

Matt Abrahams: Okay.

Very good.

Peter Novak: And so there was an
interesting study from McGill University

in Canada, and basically it said this:
Your car breaks down in a city that you

don't know very well, and your phone
is out of juice, and so you're trying

to find a garage that you can go to.

And so you ask the first person,
they tell you to go one direction.

You ask a second person.

The first person is a native
speaker, sounds like you.

You ask a second person, they tell you
to go in the opposite direction, and

they have an out-group speech or accent.

That's right.

Foreign or something you don't recognize.

Who are you going to trust more?

And in essence, the study found that you
trust people who sound like you more.

That's what accent bias is.

However, if the person who speaks with
a different accent than your own speaks

with confidence, then it reduces that gap.

And so the question becomes,
what does speaking in English

with confidence actually mean?

What are people who speak English as
their first language listening for

that tells us that person is confident?

And so we know this.

We know what some of those
elements are, and some of them

are all related to prosody.

So prosody is an element of speech
that thinks about the musicality of

the language, which thinks about volume
and pacing and the power that you

lend to certain words and inflection.

It's all of the things outside of the
words and the sentences that carry

meaning that we often don't think about.

Matt Abrahams: When we had Lerone Martin
on talking about Martin Luther King Jr.,

we talked a lot about prosody and, and how
he was able to leverage that as part of

the, one of the many things that made his
orations really powerful and meaningful.

Peter Novak: And every language
has its own musicality.

So the biggest return on investment
is understanding and really

working on prosody of the language.

Not individual words, not individual
phrases, and if you've got the

pronunciation just right, you don't
need to worry about any of that.

It's really more about the paralinguistic
features outside the language itself

that carry more meaning, that make us
relate better when we're communicating.

Matt Abrahams: Can you give me an
example or two of maybe an activity

or a thing you would coach people
to do to really touch on that?

Peter Novak: Sure.

And I'm gonna give some advice
that is often the opposite of

what a lot of speech coaches give.

And that is, if you're giving a
presentation or if you're talking over

Zoom even, to prepare by recording
yourself into a speech-to-text app.

And that speech-to-text app will give
you a transcript of what you're saying.

So you just have to rehearse it
once, and then all of a sudden you've

got a script of what you're doing.

You can then put it
through AI if you want.

You can put it through AI and say, "I
need this to sound like me still, so

keep my syntax, keep the way that it…"
So that it sounds authentic to you.

And once you have a script, you score it.

And one of the best techniques that I can
think of is to underline what are called

content or focus words in a sentence.

If I have the sentence for you, "I
never said you should have hired

him." If I stress a different
word, it means something different.

I never said you should hire him.

I never said you should hire him, right?

I never said you should hire him.

I never said you should hire him, right?

Every time you say the sentence
and you put a stress on a different

word, it changes the context.

And if you look at your words and your
sentences in your prepared speech, and

you start to underline or bold just those
three or four content words per second

and focus on those words, the meaning
of what you're going to say will come

across regardless of anything else.

And so if you're stressing just those
words, all of a sudden you get a really

clear picture of what's being said.

So that's one thing that you can do to
score your script for what are called

operative or focus words or content words.

The second thing is to put in slash
marks for small pauses, because people

forget to pause when they're speaking.

And oftentimes non-native speakers
get told to slow down when that's

not always the best advice.

What's more helpful is to take a sentence
and divide it into thought clusters,

groups of speech that have complete
meanings on their own but don't often

have the punctuation to make you pause.

And these are simple phrases in a
sentence like even when I was just

saying a thought group is a group of
words that has a complete set meaning on

its own that we don't give meaning to.

And so when you break up a sentence
into those thought groups, it becomes

easier to understand and follow.

And so putting those slash marks
into a script can help do that.

And then the third way that you can really
help is to provide intonation assistance

in a script, in a scoring a script,
using downward inflections, which words

to focus on in different ways, how to
use inflections and we have three basic

inflections in English: the upward, where
I'm asking a question; the downward, where

I'm making a statement, and we do that in
two different ways; and then the sustained

inflection, which I really like, which
is so, it's all on one note, and you're

waiting for me to either go up or down.

When you learn to incorporate
some of those inflections, you're

really tapping into, I think, the
power of the language in ways that

native speakers are listening to.

Matt Abrahams: Paralanguage, the
things that happen around the

words are so powerful in so many
ways, and I love these activities.

Using a script as a tool to
help you plan and prepare your

paralanguage, I think is beautiful.

I love this idea of getting a
transcript of what you're saying.

Not to say that you're going to say
it exactly that way, but to begin

to look at what are those words of
inflection, of focus of that vocal

highlighting that need to stand out.

And this is a tool that I think will help
everybody, not just non-native speakers.

Thinking about clustering of the key
concepts and how to punctuate them in

terms of pace and rate, really important.

In fact, I believe they found some
versions of the Declaration of

Independence that had weird marks
on them that they finally concluded

were actually marks for oration.

That, that when people would read
it, because so much of the population

at the time was not able to read.

So giving yourself these little
cues and clues of what to do.

And then finally thinking about
how you end phrases and words.

Many of us will swallow
what we say and get quiet.

Some people have uptalk where
everything sounds like a question.

And just it being able to strategically
think about it as a question,

although I believe I know the answer.

The more you do this, the more it becomes
a habit where you don't need to do it.

Peter Novak: That's right.

Matt Abrahams: You have
extensive training in phonetics.

For our listeners who feel their
voice doesn't always carry authority,

whether native speaker or not, what
are some vocal adjustments that we

can make to come across with the
gravitas and clarity that we look for?

Peter Novak: There are so many
different things that we can do.

First and foremost, one of the
things that I recommend is to really

understand, that I talked about earlier,
intonation, how we end sentences.

In English, we do that in two ways.

One is we either step down, like
on the words, "I'm a professor,"

where you notice we go up on the
penultimate sound and then come down.

"I'm a professor. I teach math."
And so we either step down or we

glide down at the ends of sentences.

And oftentimes people will
swallow their last few words.

They don't end with strength, and
let me talk about what that means.

And so if you combine the strong
downward inflection in speaking with

slowing down your last few words
when you're done speaking, it signals

that you've completed your thought.

It signals a strength in the end of
your communication, and you can use

it almost any time you're finished
speaking to make sure that people

know you've finished speaking.

And it works really, really well.

And you can either score that on a
script that you've got for text, or you

can think about ending just by slowing
down and using that downward inflection.

Matt Abrahams: I love that technique,
and I loved how you role modeled it.

Thank you.

And we can all record ourselves on
audio voice memo and listen to hear

how we're doing it and to become more
sensitive to what others are doing.

We can work on these skills
through reading out loud.

I often encourage people reading
out loud allows you to focus on how

you're saying something because the
words are right in front of you.

So I'm not saying reading your
script to give a presentation.

I'm saying just read your emails out loud.

Read anything and notice how you
can do that to train your brain

to be more comfortable doing it.

Behind all of it, I believe, is also
this notion of breath and breath control.

You know, when we get nervous,
we breathe shallow and up.

So we have to remind ourselves that
your voice is a wind instrument and that

you have to have the breath behind it.

So I often tell people we need to build
vocal stamina through breathwork as

well, which could be reading out loud,
just becoming aware of where it is.

You have provided so
much rich information.

Thank you.

Before we end, I'd like to
ask you three questions.

One I make up just for you, and two I've
been asking everybody for a long time.

Are you up for that?

Peter Novak: You bet.

Matt Abrahams: Excellent.

You created a national curriculum
regarding alcohol abuse and

sexual violence prevention that
reached over a million students.

When you're communicating about
such sensitive, high-stakes, and

emotionally charged topics, how do
you balance clarity with the necessity

of being empathetic and concerned?

A lot of us are in situations
where we have to talk about

emotionally charged issues.

What advice do you have that
came from that experience?

And by the way, thank you for
creating a curriculum like that.

Peter Novak: It, it's my pleasure.

I was, uh, the Stanford graduate students
actually took our program, which is

great, and it was throughout, I think,
over now 2,000 universities have used it.

And it was deeply important
work for me, but you're right,

it is very emotionally charged.

And so what you have to create first
and foremost is a psychologically safe

space for people to be able to speak,
and that requires a great empathy and

understanding what happens with trauma.

Once you've created a psychologically
safe space, the goal is to not

re-traumatize with your language or
to re-traumatize by asking people to

contribute their story when they don't
feel psychologically safe to do so, and

to build in a system of the way that you
communicate that has its foundation in

trauma-informed ways of communicating.

And I think that's an incredibly helpful
tool that has empathy at its core and that

really helps us understand communicating
on a very human-to-human level.

Matt Abrahams: So it starts with
empathy, which builds to psychological

safety that then requires some
intentional thought about how to allow

for the kind of dialogue that needs
to happen in these emotionally charged

situations without retriggering or
causing people to become defensive.

Tricky, but possible.

Peter Novak: Tricky, but possible,
and you also have to build the

structure of all of that into your
policies, into your procedures.

So it's not just the one-on-one
communication, it's also the

larger support structure also
needs to be framed that way.

Matt Abrahams: I like to talk a
lot about people, process, and

infrastructure, and you need all
three of those to come together when

you have emotionally charged issues.

Question number two, who's a
communicator that you admire and why?

Peter Novak: I love Trevor Noah.

I think his cultural discussions,
his ability to see different cultural

dynamics and how they manifest, not only
from his native country and the way he

speaks, but to the US and to Europe and
to every place that he tours and bring,

he brings different stories, and he does
it in a way that is enlightening, that

is approachable, that is funny, and he
has a lot of humility, believe it or not,

in the way that he communicates, too.

And so he's one of my
favorite people to listen to.

He's got some great
stories around accents.

He does take on some accents sometimes
and talks about them, but he's

got some really profound things to
say around language and accent and

accessibility and what is considered
a standard sound and what isn't.

There is no standard for English.

There are world Englishes, and I think
Trevor Noah gets to that really clearly.

Matt Abrahams: He is a very engaging
speaker, great storyteller, and he

does a really nice job with some
of these paralanguage clues and

cues that you're talking about.

Final question, what are the first
three ingredients that go into a

successful communication recipe?

Peter Novak: The first is comfort,
feeling comfortable in being able to,

and that's where the psychological
safety, I think, comes in as well.

The second would be conversational,
and this is all delivery, by the way.

This isn't content.

This is delivery, I would say.

So the second part is really
making it sound conversational,

like you're actually talking to
someone, not talking at someone.

And the third, I would say, is conviction,
or people will say confidence, but

having the passion behind what it is
that you're saying so that you're making

a connection that is important to you.

Matt Abrahams: I love things
that are easy to remember.

The three C's: comfort,
conversational, conviction.

And those are all helped by the
techniques that you have taught us

and that you teach on a regular basis.

Peter, thank you so much for your time.

I appreciate you highlighting
the value that people who speak

another language bring and the tools
that can help all of us feel more

comfortable in our communication.

Thank you.

Peter Novak: Thank you so much, Matt.

It was great being here.

Matt Abrahams: Thank you for joining
us for another episode of Think

Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.

To learn more about communication
best practices, please listen

to episode 82 with Nancy Duarte.

This episode was produced by Katherine
Reed, Ryan Campos, and me, Matt Abrahams.

Our music is from Floyd
Wonder, with special thanks

to the Podium Podcast Company.

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