How to Give the Speech of a Lifetime
First
things first: Keep it to 18 minutes or less. Then follow these simple
guidelines.
Eighteen minutes or less. That's the length
of a riveting bedtime story; John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech; and the
ultimate TED talk.
At
18 minutes, your pitch or presentation can deliver the impact,
critical message, and enough information to influence your audience and leave a
lasting impression. According to best-selling author and communication coach
Carmine Gallo, creativity thrives under constraints, and a shorter
presentation will elicit the strongest reaction from your audience. Just as
we've learned to create intrigue with just enough information to capture our
audience in 140 characters or less on Twitter, confining your information to
the constraints of an 18-minute presentation will promote creativity and
deliver loads of impact.
One
of many researchers supporting this theory is Dr. Paul King at Texas Christian
University who says that you aren't the only one who may experience anxiety
about your speech or presentation: Your audience members feel anxiety, too. He
calls this state "anxiety in listening performance." This anxiety is
due to the fact that the more your listeners need to remember, the more
pressure their brains take on, creating a backlog of information that causes
the brain to fatigue and tune out. Limiting the length of your presentation
will keep your audience engaged, and even on the edge of their seats if you do
it right.
In
preparation for his most recent book, Talk
Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds, Gallo studied over 500 TED talks and interviewed
many of the speakers, along with researchers in the fields of psychology and
neuroscience. I found his book compelling and educational, and I'm now ready to
shorten and reformat my speeches. In addition to the 18-minute rule, here are
three takeaways (I'm already using one of Gallo's rules here) that I hope
you'll find helpful in preparing your next big talk.
Use the rule of three.
The
human mind can typically hold only about three chunks of information in the
short-term, or working, memory. As you add more items to the list, the average
person retains less and less of your information. If you have as many as eight
points of information, the majority of your audience will forget the entire
sequence. Gallo suggests creating an outline for your presentation using three
stories, much like Major Carter did in her TED talk, "Greening
the Ghetto."
Tie your stories together in a central theme using three examples and three
lessons that reinforce the theme, just as Carter did in her popular talk.
Gallo
suggests creating what he calls a "message map" to help you pitch
anything in as little as 15 seconds or to shape the framework for your
18-minute presentation. Your visual map will include a powerful headline, three
key messages, and three bullet points highlighting the stories or facts that
will support each message.
Paint a mental picture with multi-sensory
experiences.
Remember,
the brain won't pay attention to the boring stuff. Add components to your
presentation that touch a number of the senses. Gallo suggests exposing your
audience to mesmerizing images, captivating videos, intriguing props, beautiful
words, and more than one voice to bring your story to life. He also warns to
steer clear of the traditional PowerPoint display, chock full of words. He
cites Brené Brown's presentation, "The Power of Vulnerability," as a powerful example of
using imagery to replace words. But your words need to paint a picture as well;
don't rely on visuals alone.
Lighten up.
Gallo
uses the most popular TED talk ever to demonstrate the power of humor and
novelty, both of which the brain loves. While creativity expert Sir Ken
Robinson spoke about how schools kill creativity, a topic unlikely to
attract more than 25 million views, he succeeded by lowering the audience's
defenses with his novel approach to the controversial topic of education
reform.
To
lighten it up, relate anecdotal information about yourself or someone you know,
light-hearted observations about your work or industry, or personal stories to
elicit laughs from your audience. Analogies and metaphors will not only
help to explain complex topics and ideas but can bring a smile to your
listener's face as well. Even a silly, yet relevant, YouTube video is an
effective way to bring humor into a presentation, and will take the pressure
off of you to be funny.
BY Marla Tabaka
http://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/how-to-give-the-speech-of-a-lifetime-in-18-minutes-or-less.html?cid=em01016week10e
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