| What makes the difference between an
average presentation and one that rocks your world? What makes the difference between a
memorable speech and one that fades into oblivion as soon as the presenter steps off the
stage? The answer sits in four building blocks that are essential for crafting a speech
into a work of art rather than hum-drum blather.
Building Block Number One: Add context to your
content.
Every word we utter, every gesture we make take its nuance
and meaning from the context of the moment. Consider context to be the background or the
stage setting for what is being spoken. Small wonder that Congress recoiled with the Big
Three Auto-makers arrived in individual corporate jets to ask for money. The context made
their mode of travel ludicrous.
If Astronaut Neil Armstrong had said, "One small step
for a man; one giant leap for mankind" while standing on the 16th hole of Pebble
Beach with a #3 wood in his hand, that statement would have been destined for locker room
chatter rather than heard as a defining moment in placing the U.S. on the moon. Context is
everything.
While this is a rather silly scenario, every speaker faces
an audience with a background that brings them together. To connect with an audience, a
speaker must state the context for the gathering, the context for the message. If
President Obama had failed to summarize the concern, anger, and frustration of the average
American as a preamble to his major addresses given during the long election process, he
might very well have never been chosen to lead this nation. When a speaker sets the stage
by providing a context for his words, the audience settles in to listen, believing
"Ah. He understands what I am going through."
Often, the speaker can put into words what the audience has
been experiencing yet is unable-for political or personal reasons-to express. In one
keynote address, I summarized the anxiety and uncertainty the group faced with an
unprecedented spin-off. Being able to put a humorous twist by way of an analogy also got
the group laughing and nodding. Now, we can get down to business!
Building Block Number Two: Remember facts tell but
emotion sells.
Statistics, flow charts, and diagrams belong in handouts.
What brings data to life is the emotion behind the information. If Martin Luther King had
given his "I have a dream speech" but recited all the facts and figures behind
segregation, the audience would have gone to sleep. Instead, he painted a picture and
portrayed his own emotion about seeing races sitting beside each other. You saw and felt
his intensity.
If you think this only belongs in political or religious
arenas, think again. Rita Davenport, president of one of the most profitable direct sales
organizations in the world, Arbonne, never addresses her audience in terms of dollars and
cents. She talks about individuals and what happened in their lives as a result of having
their own business. I've watched this petite and very funny woman bring crowds to their
feet because she captured the emotion of success-not the facts.
Imagine the buy-in when an executive stands up, relays her
story about what it is like to be a female executive in an 98% male organization. Facts
about organizational life? Yes. But also plenty of emotion that captured the attention of
everyone at the conference. Big stuff.
Building Block Number Three: Share what's behind
the curtain.
In The Wizard of Oz, the little wizard created a persona
that was basically a sham. He projected a larger-than-life image on a curtain that both
awed and scared the folks in the Emerald City.
He thought that in order to lead others, he had to be
something he was not. In the end, the curtain was pulled away and we saw him manipulating
an image of himself. In truth, by ripping aside the curtain, the wizard turned out to be a
wise man with keen powers of observation and the "audience" of Dorothy and her
friends ended up listening to him.
What was an incident of fiction is exactly what Pine and
Gilmore, authors of The Authentic Economy, insist is the exactly what consumers and
employees are looking for: authentic people! We're tired of phony baloneys. We're tired of
slick and silly. We're tired of speakers who act as if they have all the answers and then
behave off stage in a manner totally opposite to their presentation. We are hungry for
REAL people.
If a presenter can build in personal examples of failure
and success, or emotional high and lows-as fitting the topic-the audience also relaxes
into a listening mode. One of the best-and shortest speeches-I ever heard would have had
300 people up in a standing ovation were it not for the fact we were held fast by
seatbelts.
United Flight 1180 left Denver for New Orleans. Denver was
snowbound. De-icing was easy. New Orleans --- another matter as huge thunderstorms kept
rolling in from the Gulf of Mexico. Diversion and diversion. All the while the pilot kept
us updated on our progress. We learned that he had been a pilot in Vietnam. And when he
finally announced after many futile attempts to land, "I am an old pilot. Not a bold
pilot," the cabin erupted in cheers. He shared what was behind the curtain and in the
end, we knew he didn't like the situation any more than we did.
Building Block Number Four: Practice storytelling
instead of telling.
"Man cannot live without story any more than he can
live without bread." - Dr. Warren Bennis
Since ancient times when humanity gathered around a fire
ring, painted on cave walls, marked tombs, or wrote on hides and papyrus, we've been
enamored by the stories these drawings tell. The drawings captured what our ear can no
longer hear.
All of human history has, at some point, been summarized
through stories that reveal everything from creation mythology to Biblical lessons to
exploits in outer space.
We just plain love story. We like detail, action, and words
what SHOW us what happens rather than TELLS us what happens. In coaching executives for
presentations, our challenge is to constantly ask "what story would show this
point?" When I want to make a point about the potential downfall of knee jerk
reactions, I tell the story (and act out) cutting down the WRONG fire alarm from the
ceiling. I wiped out a perfectly good piece of equipment because I did not stop to THINK!
That story captures the imagination, makes the point, and
becomes memorable because it also shares what's behind the curtain. We've all made the
too-fast-dumb move. So now, we also have an emotional response as well!
By incorporating these four building blocks into a
presentation, you'll not only be heard but remembered. This makes you stand out from the
herd. And that's no bull!
(c) 2009, McDargh Communications. |
