Nick Morgan, Public Words

The Wonderful Exception to the Power Point Rule

I've finally found the exception to the rule that Power Point is a bad tool for preparing speeches, delivering speeches, and reading them afterwards.  Most speakers misuse PP as speaker notes, to the detriment of their speaking style, and to the horror of the audience.  But Garr Reynolds proves that PP (or its equivalent) can be used by an artist to create something very special:  http://www.publicspeakingforgeeks.com/2008/07/18/the-brain-rules-for-presentations/. 

Amazingly, this presentation is 131 slides and yet I guarantee that you'll tear through them all right to the end.  All hail Garr!

Reynolds presents a very engaging, witty slide show on John Medina's new book, Brain Rules.  The book consists of 12 rules your brain runs by, and it's stuff you need to know, especially if you're a student of the craft of presenting. 

Of course, Garr focuses on one rule primarily, the one that says that your brain learns best visually, so indulge it.  But another one that caught my eye is equally important for speakers and their audiences.  Medina says that audiences don't like to be passive -- they find it boring. 

Amen, brother.  So, what do you do?  How do you engage your audience? 

Following are 7 ways to engage audiences that I have found gets them active and using their own energy to take what you say and make it their own.

1.  Get them to tell stories about who they are (in relation to your topic). 

2.  Ask them to brainstorm a problem or a solution.

3.  Get them to play games (and award prizes).

4.  Ask them to report to the group (on something you've asked them to think about, or discover, or learn).

5.  Ask them to teach others (the fastest way to ensure that an audience learns something well).

6.  Get them to design responses (to some challenge or problem you've set for them).

7.  Ask them to design a path forward (imagine what you'd want them to be doing back at their offices once the speech is over, and get them to start that activity now). 

If you're not already doing any of these things in your speeches, you're not allowing the audience to be anything but passive.  That's bad.  Turn them loose!  Get active with your audience.  The burst of energy will at first alarm you, then thrill you once you learn how to channel it successfully.  And your audiences will reward you with a vastly better reception. 

John McCain's hand, redux....

I've had a number of comments on my recent posts on commencement speeches and John McCain's wandering hand.  So I'd thought I'd continue the discussion here. 

People have sent me some great commencement speeches, analyses of them, and links to video.  It prompts a comment right from the start:  being a member of the audience and reading a speech are two very different things.  An audience member is part of the performance art that is a speech.  Readers come after the sparks have flown; they're late to the discussion. 

The reason is, of course, that delivery is just as important to speechmaking as content.  The non-verbal conversation, as I've talked about before, is just as crucial to comprehension and success as the verbal.  You have to get both right.

And the non-verbal conversation is what everyone was bloviating about when John McCain's hand went wandering.  What did he mean?  Why did he pause so long?  What was up with that hand?

The crucial point here is that it's a mistake to try to read specific meanings into hand gestures, or body language in general, as if it were a secret code.  We are all unconscious experts in understanding body language at the emotional level, but most of us are poor at consciously decoding non-verbal communication.

Hence, I labeled my analysis of what John meant as speculation.  Only someone very close to John, and used to his gestures, would be a good analyst of what he meant.  Perhaps his wife understood immediately, but the rest of us are much better off just reading the emotion he was conveying, not intellectually trying to decode something more specific.  Let your gut tell you what the other person is feeling, and don't try to analyze gesture too consciously, and you'll be more accurate more of the time.  McCain was flummoxed, clearly, but more than that is difficult to be precise about.

We are already expert readers of body language, as long as we let that part of the brain that's good at it do its work.  It's when we try to consciously decode gesture as if it were a system of precise signals that we get into trouble.

 

John McCain's Hand

You take your eyes off the political scene and go on vacation and what happens?  John McCain's hand becomes news -- a gift to those who study non-verbal communications, and a lesson in the limits of body language 'reading'. 

What was the fuss about?  McCain was asked an embarrassing question about why many health insurance policies cover Viagra and not contraceptives.  He hesitated for 8 seconds before giving a fumbling answer.  While he was hesitating, his hand shot up to his mouth and covered it.

What did the hand signify?  Not, as the commentary has suggested, that he was trying to keep himself from lying.  Children do that, not adults, and especially not adults as comfortable with evasion as seasoned politicians.  And that's the wrong way to think about hand gestures.  They usually don't convey specific meanings like that; rather, they spring from emotion. 

What happened in that moment was that John McCain had a strong emotional reaction to the question.  We put our hands to our faces when we are thinking, and to cover our mouths when we're shocked or appalled.  John was shocked or appalled by the question, and then he started thinking.  The whole process took 8 seconds, which suggests he was quite flummoxed. 

Why was he appalled?  That's where it gets interesting, and body language along can't tell us.  We need to know something about the man.  Was he appalled because he's a prude?  Unlikely; he's a former Marine.  Was he shocked because he was afraid his use of Viagra was going to become news?  Possible, but that's sheer speculation.  Was he appalled because it was a 'gotcha' question and there was no good answer immediately in sight?  Most likely. 

All body language can tell us is that McCain had an emotional reaction strong enough to last 8 seconds.  That's significant, because 6 seconds is the average length of time people in conversation or discussion will let a silence lapse (try it yourself).  That means that his emotions were stronger than average.  Or perhaps that he was just tired and slow on the draw.  It's a great lesson in the insights and limitations of reading body language.   

Commencement Speeches

Tis the season to be wary -- of commencement speeches.  We're almost through the danger period for another year, but it doesn't pay to relax your guard too early.

I had to write a dozen (that's 12) commencement speeches -- on different topics -- over 2 summers for the Governor of Virginia when I started my career as a speechwriter 20 years ago.  That experience left me wary of the genre and easily spooked by the thought of hearing another one delivered. 

It almost goes without saying that the majority of commencement speeches are terrible -- vacuous, platitudinous, and ponderous.  And too long. 

I heard a contemporary example recently at Columbia University.  It was a proud day for me; my daughter was getting a degree.  Like so many others in the audience, I was thrilled to be there, and disposed to be charitable to all and sundry.  In fact, there was a great vibe in the crowd -- lots of joshing of neighbors and jolly comments about the day, the giant TV screens we were watching (because the crowd was so vast) and how proud we all were.

Then the President of Columbia stood up to speak.  It's always a danger sign when the head of an organization gives his/her own speech.  Ego, arrogance, stinginess -- I found myself wondering -- which was it gonna be?  Those are the only 3 reasons not to hire someone from the outside. 

I don't know about the stinginess, but ego and arrogance were certainly on display as the President droned on for far too long about far too little.  This was the guy who had brought the President of Iran to campus only to browbeat him like a naughty student in a public exchange, leading many to question his political savvy and his general acumen.  I mean, why bother if you're just going to insult the guy?  You can do that from a distance and save the air fare. 

I guess that's why the Prez went on so long about freedom of speech.  But it wasn't convincing, the prose was pompous and in love with itself, and the speech was only too typical of the sickly genre.

Contrast that one with the one J. K. Rowling delivered to the Harvard graduation.  (I didn't attend, just read it on line.)  I don't know how it sounded, but it read beautifully.  It was a moving tribute to Amnesty International and the power of the human imagination.  Timely, important, and worthy of her enormous talent.  I hope she got a standing ovation.  The good commencement speeches are rare, and deserve accolades.

So if you're going to give a commencement speech, please remember three things.  One, keep it short.  Twenty-two minutes is the absolute top, since that's the average attention span of an adult who doesn't have ADD.  Twelve minutes is better.  Two, make it about something you care about.  You're there on the dais because of who you are.  Speak from your passion.  And three, don't give advice.  Ever.  That's taking advantage of a captive audience and (usually) a beautiful day.   

How to give a short speech

I often get asked about short speeches, and off-the-cuff remarks.  How do you do them well?  What are the pitfalls to avoid?  It can be surprisingly hard to say something interesting in a very short time, and to avoid running on at the mouth and saying too much.  What's the happy medium, and how do you think about it?

First, I would distinguish between responding to a question, or making a statement of less than a minute or two, and making a short speech of, say, 5 to 7 minutes.  Time constraints necessarily make them two different genres.

The minute speech is best handled as follows.  Decide what you're going to say, take a deep breath, and then give the headline.  "I don't think that mice should be allowed in the Vatican."  Then go on to give up to 3 supporting reasons, depending on your thinking and the time allowed.  Hygiene, worry about the destruction of precious manuscripts, and the eek factor during prayers.  Finally, finish off with a repetition of the headline:  "So that's why I think that mice should be banned from the Vatican."

When you've got more than 3 but less than 7 minutes, think in terms of problem-solution.  If you have a great story to begin the problem section, then do so, but don't allow it to take over the problem section entirely.  You need to spend half of your allotted time discussing the problem in as much detail as you can (which is not much).  Heretical mice are running amok throughout the Vatican.  This deplorable plague has led to illness, destruction of some of the Vatican's most precious artifacts, and the discomfort of many visitors and residents....About half way through your total time, switch to the solution and buttress that with as much logic and passion as you can muster.  I recommend beginning with an excommunication, followed by mice traps, poison, and the playing of Barry Manilow recordings in the basement.... 

That's really all there is to it.  Keep it simple.  If you want to conclude by describing the benefits of your solution, then go ahead, in a sentence or two. 

Repetition and simplicity will help you keep your remarks organized and under control, and will help your listeners follow you. 

How to write a great speech -- 8

By now you have written a persuasive speech, with a structure that respects the audience's need to hear your message in a certain order that makes sense to them.  All you have to do is hit the print key, grab the pages, and you're off to the podium, right?

Not quite yet.  First of all, never hide behind the podium, but that's another blog for another day. 

Second, there are a couple more things that it would behoove you to think about. 

I like to apply Maslow's hierarchy of needs to a talk to see how viscerally it's going to grab the audience.  Start by turning the hierarchy upside down.  Maslow's whole point was that people work their way up the pyramid by satisfying their needs in the order that he describes.  So, if you're worried about food and shelter -- basic physiological needs -- you're not going to be thinking about whether or not you've got the esteem of the local flower club.  That comes later, after a good meal and the prospect of more to come.

Turned upside down, Maslow's hierarchy becomes a way to gauge whether or not someone will pay attention to your talk.  Most people don't start attending closely until their personal safety or the safety of their business is at stake.  So try to find a way to express your message in safety terms.

Don't make it up or distort things to accomplish this feat.  Make it real.  But do your best, because your audience is probably going to be thinking about the critical issues nagging at them, and to cut through that clutter, you have to be at least as low on the hierarchy as they are. 

The other way I like to think about speeches overall is to apply one of the great stories of our culture to them.  There are only five basic stories -- the quest, rags to riches, the love story, stranger in a strange land, and revenge.  These are powerful stories that we learn from the cradle, and we know them deeply and respond to them powerfully.  So if you can fit your message into a quest for profits, say, or a chance to beat the competition at a new product launch, or a merger that is a love story, then your audience will 'get' what you're saying more powerfully than otherwise.

Don't be obvious about it.  Don't say, "Let's go on a quest."  Instead, say, "Today, I'd like to ask you to begin a journey with me.  We've got difficult terrain ahead, and there will be many obstacles to overcome.  But at the end of the journey, we will achieve something that very few other companies ever get to achieve, a ....."  In other words, tell the story, don't announce it.

I say a lot more about these stories and how to use them in my first book.  Next time I'll conclude this series of blogs on writing a great speech with some thoughts about Power Point and other visual aids. 

How to write a great speech -- 7

Your audience is chattering away amongst themselves because you've given them permission to become active, in some step that is designed to help cement your message into their minds.  It's chaotic, but the audience is happy, and cementing, and those are good things.  You're tempted to leave now, but you know you have to finish the speech off in some style.  And anyway, you're the one they came to see.   

Here's where you need to expend some energy to get them back.  They will come back, but you have to insist, politely and firmly, that they do.  You're asking them to sit down and become passive again, and that's asking a lot, so don't hold them for long and don't try to do much.

Your goal at this point is to remind the audience, in a stirring and powerful way, of the central theme of the talk.  Great closes are inspirational, and aspirational.  Remind the audience of the big reason they're all there, or point the way up the path to greatness, or quote some great words by some other orator if none will come to you. 

Keep it short (under 3 minutes, closer to 1 minute is better), keep it inspirational, and then NEVER FORGET to say 'thank you'.  That's the universally understood signal that a speech is done and the audience should applaud.  If you've done well, they'll leap to their feet. 

By the way, if you're going to take questions, then save this ending segment until the very end.  If you end with Q and A, then you're at the mercy of the last question.  Often, the last question is not the best one, and it may even be asked by a crank who has been waiting, and fuming, for some time.  So deal with the questions, but then close with your own statement.  Audiences tend to remember best the last thing they hear, so make it yours.

Next time I'll talk about thematic ways to think about the whole speech. 

How to write a great speech -- 5

You’ve reached that point in creating your speech where you’ve worked with the audience to understand the problem, and you’ve offered a solution.  Now, you need to take a couple of steps to seal the deal. 

Remember what you’re doing:  you’re trying to persuade the audience of something.  Now put yourself in the audience’s shoes.  It has just been presented with a compelling problem and a solution.  Where is it likely to be?  Fully or nearly persuaded.  It needs just a little more help to push it into the comfort zone.

So now you’re going to spend a few minutes helping them along with a great example of the wonders of your solution.  If you’re a consultant, for example, touting the benefits of a new way of managing customer service, it’s time to present a case study of a company that adopted your approach and succeeded magnificently.

Think of this section of the speech like the counterpart to the opening hook.  If you used a 3-minute story there showing what happens when customer service goes horribly wrong, then this is your chance to close the circle logically and emotionally by telling a 3-minute story (or case study) where it goes right. 

This section doesn’t have to be long, and in fact it shouldn’t be.  Three to five minutes is optimal.  The point is to give a concrete example of something that shows the benefits of your solution.  Audiences aren’t very good at imaging new states, so help them. 

If you’re discussing ways to stop global warming, this is the point in the speech where you tell a success story, or draw a picture of a world turning the global warming problem around.  What would that look like?  How would people feel, and what would the benefits to them be?  Use specifics and concrete imagery as much as possible. 

After this step, you’ve only got one more to go before you’re done and ready for a celebration at the bar.  I’ll talk about how to close a great speech next time.

How to write a great speech -- 3

So you’ve captured the audience’s fleeting attention, with a great story, a statistic, or a compelling question.  Congratulations; you’ve survived the first few minutes of a speech better than most.  But what do you do now?

How do you keep the audience’s attention for the next 15 minutes or so?

There’s only one way that works reliably, and that involves asking yourself one simple question:  What’s the problem the audience has for which the information I’m ready to talk about is the answer? 

So for example, let’s say you’re a world-class expert on bees and their diseases.  You’re ready to go crazy on the subject.  All you need is a problem. 

Fortunately for you (and unfortunately for the bees) they’re dying of some mysterious disease that some say has to do with global warming, and some say has to do with viruses, maybe from Israel, and still others say has to do with a combination of the two. 

That’s what you should spend the next fifteen minutes (of a 45 minute speech) talking about.  The only prerequisite is an audience of people who care about bees. 

Or at least, an audience that cares about what the bees can do.  If it’s a general audience, in other words, the problem becomes, what are you going to do in a world without bees, where crops don’t grow, flowers don’t bloom in spring, and honey is gone forever?  Different audience, different problem. 

The point is to shape your talk to the audience’s problem.  Talk about that, because that’s the only topic that answers the question the audience has – what’s in it for me? – with sufficient punch to hold their attention for the next while. 

Go crazy, because audiences love a speaker that understands and talks about their problems. 

Next time I’ll talk about what to say after you’ve exhausted the problem, but not the audience’s patience. 

How to Write a Great Speech -- 2

So you want to write a great speech, and you’ve thought about the audience, and the occasion.  You understand what makes the audience tick, and what’s happening on the day, and the days leading up to it. 

 

The next thing to think about is how am I going to get that audience’s attention?  You need a great hook.  The idea is to frame the talk in the first 1 – 3 minutes, in a way that draws the audience in, but doesn’t simply give them an agenda.  That’s boring.  No one pays attention during the presentation of the agenda slide, so don’t do it.

 

Instead, tell a compelling story, one that shows (rather than tells) the topic you’re going to be discussing.  If you’re giving a speech on trends in customer satisfaction with your premier line of products, and the trends are down, then tell a quick story about a particular customer and how she was unhappy with the product.  That gets the audience’s attention, lays out the problem (without suggesting the solution, yet) and suggests the agenda for your talk rather than spelling it out. 

 

Another way to start is to ask a question, either rhetorical or real.  I started a recent talk to a group about authenticity and branding by asking them what the following famous brands had in common:  K-Mart, Sears, Old Navy, AOL, Circuit City, and Dodge. 

 

I let the audience guess the answer, and they did, without too much trouble.  Each of those brands is in trouble, and will probably be gone within a year or two. 

 

That was enough to hook the audience, and suggest that the topic of the morning was to be something about how strong brands go wrong. 

 

A strong statistic can also get things going, providing that it is startling enough.  Big numbers don’t hook us as much as numbers that we can process in human terms.  “Look around you.  You are seated in rows of ten.  One of you in each row will be diagnosed with cancer before the year is out.”  Or something like that. 

 

You need to find a way to encapsulate your talk vividly and quickly, so that you get the audience’s attention, and hold it long enough to get started, in an era when attention is famously a scarce commodity.  Think of it like the way filmmakers start movies these days.  In an action movie, there’s at least one big explosion before the opening credits are done.  Or, in a murder mystery, at least one body turns up.  We may even start with a murder.  Gone are the days when a movie would start with credits that went on, over cheery music, for 3 minutes or more, without any plot at all. 

 

Next time I’ll talk about what to do once you’ve got the audience’s attention. 

I'm Giving a Speech Tomorrow

I'm in the unusual position of having to take my own advice -- I'm giving a new speech tomorrow.  I usually talk on individual communications, but this time the topic is communicating brands.  That's a subject I've worked on with companies over the years, but I don't usually lecture on the subject.

I rehearsed on Friday, and it did not go very well.  I realized that I need to take my own advice, and quickly.  So here are my three most essential rules for fixing a speech and getting it ready to go, when you're facing a deadline.

First, focus on one message and one message only.  I realized during rehearsal that I was trying to do too many things.  I need to whittle the speech down to one clear message:  Why each employee must become a passionate storyteller on behalf of the company brand in today's marketplace.  I'm going back to the draft to eliminate everything that doesn't support that one point.  Focus is essential for successful public speaking. 

Second, find a good hook that frames the message of the speech so that your audience is intrigued and brought into the discussion.  I've been trying out several openings, one a story, one a question, and a few others.  I've got to pick the one that best answers the question, why are we here?, for the audience. 

Third, deliver the speech in the problem-solution format.  The rehearsal made clear that I was trying to be too clever with my structure.  The only one that makes sense, when you're trying to persuade the audience of something, is problem-solution.  That's because our minds are structured to solve problems, and when we hear one presented to us, we automatically begin to think about how to solve it.  The structure follows our natural thinking processes, so we're happy. 

So I've got some work to do, to repair the speech, simplify it, and focus it on the audience.  Then, I'll be ready for another rehearsal.  The deadline approaches!

Understanding your audience

At the heart of great public speaking is understanding your audience.  If you don't know who you're talking to, you're not ready to talk to them. 

What does that mean in practice?  It means that you need to research your audience well in advance of your presentation, in order to make sure that you're solving problems they actually have, rather than just preaching your particular expertise at them.

This research should go well beyond the standard questions of how many, their demographics, and the time of day.  Of course, you do want to know whether they've been fed recently, or whether they're looking forward to a meal.  You want to know if you're after-dinner entertainment or a keynoter first thing in the morning.  And you want to know if there are going to be 100 people or a thousand.  You need to know all the practical issues associated with the audience, the venue, and the occasion.   

But the most important questions to ask are, what do they want -- what are their hopes and dreams -- and what are they afraid of.  Your speech should be about helping them realize their dreams and triumph over their fears. 

The kinesthetic connection a speaker has with her audience is profound and emotional, when it works.  When it doesn't, everyone's time has been wasted. 

Understanding your audience means being able to go on a significant emotional journey with them.  That's the only journey worth taking in public speaking.

The Speaker’s Focus Should be on the Audience; the Audience’s Focus on the Content

Consider the standard, garden-variety, dull-as-ditchwater business presentation.  A business person shambles to the front of the room.  People look up briefly from their Blackberries, and seeing nothing of extraordinary interest, return to their email and to-do lists.  After fumbling apologetically for a while with the technology, head down, fingers flying, the presenter finally achieves Power Point, and starts by saying, “What I’m going to talk to you today about is…..” 

The speaker still hasn’t gotten the attention of the audience.  Why should they pay attention?  Five minutes has gone by and all that’s happened is prologue, all of which the audience could derive from the first slide or even the circulated agenda. 

The speaker has calamitously wasted a lot of energy and audience goodwill on technology,  and the audience has divided its attention between the first Power Point slide (briefly) and their own affairs. 

This is not effective communication.  Everyone’s time is being wasted.  Why do it?

Instead, imagine the speaker striding briskly to the front of the room, launching into a story about the perils facing the industry, a story which has the audience nodding in agreement and eager to hear more.  The speaker asks a couple of key questions of the audience to involve them and ensure that the presentation remains relevant and focused on the audience’s needs.

The difference between these two scenarios is focus.  The speaker should always be focused on the audience, while creating the speech, rehearsing it, and delivering it.  If the speaker has done her job well, the audience will focus where it should:  on the content. 

Rehearsal is key in this regard, because no speaker can focus effectively on the audience if she is still learning the content. 

To be sure, every speech has an element of entertainment, as well as usefulness.  The speaker does need to focus on her needs during rehearsal so that delivery issues will not get in the way of a successful performance.  But when it comes time to speak, the focus of the speaker should be squarely on the audience, and the audience on the content. 

That’s effective communication. 

The Active Audience

Think about your audience for a moment.  What kind of folks are they?  If it's a business audience, then it's a bunch of active people whom you're asking to sit still and listen for an hour or so. 

That's tough for them.  So make it easier by giving them permission to become active.  You'll be surprised at the burst of energy that explodes in the room when an audience gets active.  It's fun to watch.  It's a little chaotic.  And it's hard to get back under control.

But it's worth it.  Audiences retain much more when they get a chance to make the messages you're sending out their own. 

What can you get audiences to do?  Audiences love competition, so break them up into groups and set them to it.  Just make sure the prizes you offer are significant enough, but not too significant.  A gift certificate to the hotel spa at which you're meeting, for example, is prize enough.  If you offer too expensive a gift, you'll create resentment in the rest of the audience.

Audiences love to tell their own stories, so get them testifying to each other, to you, in small groups, in large groups -- you get the idea.  The important thing here is to validate in the whole group what individuals and small groups do.  Otherwise it won't seem 'real' to them. 

Audiences love to solve problems, designing solutions, so let them loose in small groups and get them started on the problem of the day. 

Three things to remember:  whenever you ask an audience to respond to something, you must ask for its input with complete confidence that it will respond.  If you have doubts in your mind, you will ask tentatively, and send out a message to the audience that you don't believe it will work.  That's fatal.  Be confident, and ask energetically. 

Second, you must also wait, at the moment that you ask your question of the audience, until it responds.  A classic mistake speakers make is to ask a question, wait a nanosecond, assume no one will respond, and nervously answer the question themselves.  That sends the speaker and the speech on a downward spiral to audience apathy.  You must be prepared to wait.  There's a good little study that showed that it takes an audience no more than 6 seconds to respond, so count to yourself.  If, after 6 seconds, no one has said anything, then you may panic.  But they will, so you won't.    

Third, whatever response the audience does give you -- it's fabulous.  Don't ever trash an audience member's contribution.  Your job as speaker is to find some way to praise, include, or work with the idea.  Not always easy, but that's why you're the star, right? 

It's a true audience killer to criticize a response.  Don't do it.

Let the audience in on the fun -- let them become active.  Their energy and enthusiasm will be your reward.      

When Speaking in Public, Listen More Than You Speak

The secret of public speaking is. . . listening. 

Wait a minute, you say, how can I listen?  Surely the act of public speaking creates an expectation that I'll be doing most of the talking? 

Well, sure.  But you should know your speech so well that you can devote a chunk of your brain to listening to the audience -- even if it's not speaking.

Because, even if it's not speaking, it is emoting back, it is squirming in its chairs, or nodding off, or leaning forward attentively, or whispering to its neighbors, or one of a thousand kinds of non-verbal communication that you need to listen to.

Why? 

Two reasons.  First of all, the only reason to give a speech is to change the world, and that means the audience in front of you, and you can't change the audience in front of you without listening to them -- without understanding them better than they understand themselves.  You've got to know where they are in the journey of the speech you're taking them on.  You've got to know when they're not getting it, and you have to slow down, or when they're ready for the payoff.  And so on.   

Second, it will make you more charismatic.  Charisma is emotional expressiveness, and attentiveness.  If the audience thinks you're paying attention to it, that's flattering...and charismatic.

So, listen to your audience.  It's even more important than speaking.

Event Planners and Speakers Should Get to Know One Another

I've seen it too many times:  the delegates file into the hotel ballroom, set up with a stage at one end.  After a suitable period for coffee, chit-chat and getting comfortable, the lights go down.  An expectant hush silences the crowd.  Cue to:  music.  And finally, in a burst of applause, the speaker moves to the podium with a brisk, energetic step.

She begins to speak.   And the audience begins to nod off. 

Why?  Because all of the cues that audience has just been given indicate that nothing personal will happen.  It's a show -- maybe even a good one -- but the speaker remains isolated from the audience.  The darkened room, the distant stage, the giant TV screens -- all of it suggests a show, and passivity on the part of the audience.   

Now, imagine a different scenario.  The house lights stay up.  The speaker works her way from the back of the hall to the front, chatting with audience members, connecting, building excitement.  By the time she gets to the front of the room, the whole audience is ready to get involved.  Instead of hiding behind the podium, the speaker works the crowd, staying interactive, bringing them in, getting them on their feet from time to time, and getting their responses to questions, and activities, throughout the speech. 

By the end, everyone in that room has something to take away, something to do once they're back at the office, and something to remember.

But you won't see that second scenario very often.  Why not?  Event planners will resist the speaker's efforts to keep the house lights up, move around the room, make the podium irrelevant.  Why?  Because they've paid a ton of money for the cameras at the back of the room to broadcast the speech on those 2 giant screens at either end of the stage.  And because they've always done it that way.

If you want to go to a movie, go to a movie.  Be passive.  Eat your popcorn.  But a conference should involve conferring -- the audience should get involved.  Everyone will get much more out of the experience, and it will be worth those fabulous sums of money spent on bagels, coffee, hotel ballrooms, TV teams, travel, and so on. 

Event planners should get to know speakers, and what they really need.  And both should get to know their audiences. 

How to deal with angry audiences

What do you do if your audience is hostile?  How do you handle the emotions, the disagreements, the fear involved in standing before a sea of upturned, angry faces?

The first thing to think about is that you've got a real, if perilous, opportunity.  The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.  Well, you've got the chance to change that audience from furious to happy, and only you can do it. 

The second thing to get clear on is that you have to deal with the obvious.  You can't ignore your audience's feelings.  That's so important, I'll say it again:  you can't ignore your audience's feelings.  In fact, only by acknowledging your audience's feelings and doing it right away can you begin to bridge the gap between you and them.

So, you say, 'You're angry.  And you have a right to be.  We missed our targets.  But we're sorry and we're angry too and we're not going to miss them again.  Here's what we plan to do differently starting right now....'

That's what you have to do:  acknowledge and validate the audience's feelings and face head on the problem that caused them.  This is what President Bush failed to do again and again, with the Iraq War, with the scandals, with the legislative impasses, apparently because he couldn't bear to admit he made a mistake.  Now the pundits regularly refer to his as a 'failed presidency'. 

Keep that in mind when you're tempted to do what most bureaucracies (and all the lawyers) want to do when something goes wrong:  stonewall.  And yet the studies show that doctors, for example, who commununicate their intentions, hopes, and failures to patients are far less likely to get sued than those who stonewall.  Funny thing about that:  if the lawyers were giving good advice, they would tell their clients not to stonewall.  But the human urge to deny mistakes and problems is very powerful. 

If you're going to win over an angry audience, that's the urge you have to fight.  You've got to come clean.

 

Who is the hero of a speech?

Most of us are accustomed, whether we acknowledge it or not, to cast ourselves in the role of hero of our own life.  Apologies to Dickens and David Copperfield, but for most of us, it's a foregone conclusion. 

What happens when we give a speech?  The temptation becomes irresistable.  After all, you are the one who is standing up in front of everyone else, talking, laying bare your feelings, moving the audience to action.  If ever there were a heroic moment, that's it, right?

Wrong.  Think instead of casting the audience members in the role of the hero.  They are the ones going on the journey -- if the speech is to be successful.  They are the ones who will learn something, change their minds, decide to act, become inspired.  They are the ones in whom the speech will live, if it does.

So make the smartest move of your public speaking life and allow the audience to shine.  Allow that sea of faces out there to become the hero.  It will change how you think about public speaking, for the better.

How does it work in practice?  Spend your time developing the speech with the audience in mind.  Ask yourself, where are they at the beginning of the speech, before the journey?  How can I persuade them to pay attention, realize that something has to change, begin the journey with me?  What shall I say for their ears, not for my ego?

When you're giving the speech, focus on the audience.  Make it about them.  Ask them how they're doing.  Interact with them.  Challenge them at appropriate moments of your presentation. 

And after the speech is done, follow up.  What did they get out of the experience?  What feedback do they have for you?  How can you make the journey more compelling the next time?

The audience is the true hero.  Pay attention to its story. 

What should we expect of audiences?

Those of us in the public speaking world spend a lot of time advising the speakers, in order to help everyone get the most out of the presentation experience.  But what of the audiences?  Do we have the right to expect anything of them?

Three pernicious trends that audiences have fallen victim to lately are worth considering in this light.

Just Give Me the Highlights.  I've all too often seen executives ask hapless presenters, "We're running out of time; can you just give us the highlights?"  The busy executives use this as a deliberate technique to save them time and see how the presenters respond under pressure.  But this technique pushes the presenters into sloppy speaking as they rush to get as much as possible in the time left.  Besides that, it's rude.  The result is imprecision, confusion, omissions, bad feeling and more time wasted in the long run.  It will take 30 emails at least to straighten out the confusion created by one rushed presentation, you can be sure. 

I'll Multitask While You Talk.  If we're going to go to all the trouble, expense, and time to get together, you should give the speakers your undivided attention.  Multitasking is for low-involvement, relatively unimportant tasks.  All the studies show that you the more tasks you undertake simultaneously, the slower and more inattentively you do them.  Put away that Blackberry!  Pay attention if you've decided to be there in the first place. 

I'll Come Early and Leave Late.  Both speakers and audiences owe each other the courtesy of showing up on time, starting on time, and ending on time.  Anything less is rude and disrespectful to those who do have watches.  That said, the speakers and conference designers must create moments, speeches, and conferences worth attending all the way through.  All too often, conference planners just fill in the time slots in the way they always have.  A conference should tell a coherent story, without filler, from start to finish.  It's not a series of time slots. You owe it to the audience to create something memorable.  And the audience owes it to you to show up on time and stay to the end. 

Practice good time management.  End these pernicious trends now.   

The bar is set too low.

The public speaking bar is set too low.  I used to think it was only in the business world.  But now it's clear that the bar is set low in the political world as well.  I'd just forgotten how low it is.  There are both long-term and short-term reasons for this.  Watching the primary season speech coverage lately has made me aware of the problem all over again. 

The long-term reason has to do with message.  The Republicans have been 'on message' since forever; it's how they took over the political world in the last 25 years to begin with.  Lately, the Democrats, tired of losing, have gone on message too.  What does this mean in practice?

It means that everyone sings from the same song sheet, repeating the same messages over and over.  On the Republican side, they even use the same words.  The same 7 words, they boast. 

That has enormous virtue in a media-and-information-saturated age.  Nobody pays attention for long, so hit low and hard with simple stuff, and maybe it'll stick. 

The downside is that this doesn't respect the audience.  Speeches, communications, sound bites -- none of this barrage of information from both sides respects the audience's need to be engaged. 

A good speech is as much about the audience as it is the speaker, and the 2 parties have forgotten this in their need to stay on message.

The short-term reason is exahaustion and the need to reach so many people in such a huge country in such a short time.  The candidates are getting 30 minutes sleep some nights.  All they can do is repeat the stump speech over and over.  On message. 

For a clue as to why Senator Obama is so charging up his crowds, take a look at one of his speeches on the hustings.  His opening is all about the audience.  To be sure, he does get around to giving his message on change, but it's always couched in terms of the audience.  Most of the other candidates -- on both sides -- talk about themselves incessantly.  Here's what I would do, here's what I have done, and so on.  And Obama could be even better with more focus on the audience!  The bar is set so low by Bush, Kerry, Gore, and all the others, that he shines in comparison.   

It's time to raise the bar.  When you're giving a speech, make it about the audience.  That takes a lot of work -- you have to think about them and their problems more than yourself -- but the payoff is potentially huge.  Think Obama. 

Change the world this year

I began my book on public speaking with a story about how an old friend of mine, a speechwriter and former AP reporter in WW II, had challenged me by saying, "the only reason to give a speech is to change the world."  I've seen it reported elsewhere that President Kennedy first said these words, but I have been unable to confirm that in any collection of Kennedy's speeches, sayings, utterances, or thoughts.  And I've looked.   

Regardless of the source, the words have caught on, and people really get the point.  In my workshops and seminars, and in others' speeches, workshops and seminars, the words have been quoted, discussed, and used to inspire people to give better speeches everywhere.

The brilliant speaker and author Tim Sanders (www.timsanders.com) often quotes them at the beginning of his speeches as a way of saying, "let's make this time together worthwhile."

Why did those words hit me with such force, and why have they resonated with so many others?  Because they recognize that public speaking is a high-stakes gamble.  It takes courage to address your fellow human beings from the stage, and if you're going to go to that trouble, you might as well make it worthwhile.  And not waste everyone else's time.

To change the world with a speech, you have to change the minds of that particular audience at that particular time with your particular message.  Too many speakers lavish all their pre-speech attention on the third item in that list, at the expense of the other two.  But all three are equally important.

You have to understand the particular audience you're speaking to better than they know themselves.  You have to have thought about the moment in time that you're commanding, and why it is important -- indeed, unique.  And you have to think about your message, of course.  But a great speech synthesizes all three, which is why speeches often don't read well after the fact. 

Make that your New Year's public speaking resolution, please.  Change the world, by matching the moment, the audience, and the message to your unique skills and personality.  That's the only reason to give a speech. 

What's the most important thing in Public Speaking?

I'm often asked what is the single most essential thing to remember in order to give a good speech.  My first instinct is to respond, "it's a complex process, an art form, and it involves lots of moving parts.  So there's no one single thing."  But if I'm pressed for one rule only, it would be this:  have fun. 

That's right -- have fun. 

Could it possibly be that simple? 

Audiences have provisionally given up their authority and bestowed it on the speaker.  They want the speaker to succeed.  Otherwise, they've wasted their time, and who can afford to do that these days?  The best thing the speaker can do is to signal to the audience that he or she is having a good time.  It will let the audience know that it is in good hands.  It can relax and enjoy the experience. 

That creates a virtuous circle -- happy audience, happy speaker -- and those good vibes go a long way toward creating a good experience for all. 

Of course, the hard part about having fun is that most people are nervous when they speak, at least at the start.  So how do you relax and have fun when your heart is hammering away, your palms are clammy, and you're thinking to yourself, I will never, never agree to do this again?

Focus on the audience.  If you can stop thinking about yourself, and start thinking about the audience, you've got a chance to begin to enjoy yourself.  Remember, a speech is not primarily about you, the speaker.  It's about whether or not the audience is moved to action. 

So relax, forget about you, and have fun.   

Get your audience to do something

A speaker asks a lot of an audience.  Understanding, enthusiasm, support -- and inactivity.  Audiences are expected to be passive by most speakers most of the time.  That's after all what speakers are paid for -- to inform and entertain the audience.  Not the other way around.  And the higher the price, the more entertaining the speaker better be.  But that means that most speakers figure that they should be doing the majority of the work. 

That's unfortunate, because if a speaker does a good job, pouring out lots of energy into an appreciative crowd, the audience is soon ready to give that energy back.  And it wants to give that energy back in the form of -- action.

Happy audiences want to do something, to show their involvement, their appreciation, their connection to the speaker.  (Unhappy audiences want to do something else:  leave.)  A wise speaker gives the audience an opportunity to express that collective energy in the form of action. 

So think of something that you can get audiences to do, and they will thank you with higher ratings, better response, and more lasting connection with you.  Look for some sort of action step for the audience to take that is relevant to your talk and closes your speech with dynamism. 

I'll give you one example.  We helped a speaker design a talk to a large audience on a religious and charitable theme.  For the action step at the end, we had the speaker ask everyone in the audience to reach into their pockets and purses, grab all the loose change they could, and, on the count of 3, throw it on the floor of the meeting hall. 

We then sent 'runners' around to pick it all up.  The speech raised $12,000 for AIDS relief in 5 minutes.  That's an action step. 

How to answer questions

So you're giving your speech, and somebody in the 3rd row raises a hand and asks a question that, if you answer it, will take you a little off subject and put finishing on time in jeopardy.  What do you do?

Start by remembering why you're there to give a speech.  Not to hear yourself talk.  You could give a speech in the privacy of your own bathroom for that.  The point of public speaking is to communicate with a group of people.  So you haven't succeeded in that endeavor unless someone has heard and understood you.

The audience is thus all-important.  And when you think of it like that, why wouldn't you take the time to answer the question? 

So don't worry so much about your agenda.  Do worry about how the speech is coming across, and what the audience is getting out of it.  If someone asks a question, answer it.  Insisting on holding questions until the end is just ego, pure and simple.  Or a lack of preparation.  You should know your speech and your content so thoroughly that you can easily adjust on the fly to take into account your audience's feedback.

That said, you do have the right to sort through the questions and pass on the rude, the irrelevant, and the idiotic.  But never let on that you think a question is idiotic.  Just deal with it quickly and painlessly and move on. 

Back in my teaching days at Princeton University, I was showing a videotape of Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech as an example of great rhetoric, brilliantly delivered.  The discussion moved on to Patrick Henry's Give me liberty or give me death speech.  A student raised his hand and asked, "Do you have any videotape of Patrick Henry?" 

For a split second, I honestly didn't know what to say.  The guffaws of fellow students quickly tipped the hapless junior off, and he blushed bright red as he realized his error.  We moved on.  That student probably got a lifetime's education in a couple of seconds right then and there. 

There are stupid questions, and you don't have to answer them all.  But you are there for the audience, and mostly it's your job to respect their reactions to your talk and respond accordingly.

So, what do you say?

You've been asked to give a speech.  Maybe you're expert in some topic, or you've headed up some organization, or you've done something wonderful recently.  You've got an occasion, an audience, and a duty. 

What do you say?

Here's where it gets ironic.  You've been called upon because of something you possess, but what the audience really wants to hear about is -- wait for it -- themselves. 

If you don't spend a third to a half of the speech talking about the audience's problems, your best efforts will fall flat.

So, here's the way to think about it.  What is the problem the audience has for which your information or experience or wisdom is the solution? 

Once you've got that figured out, you're practically home free.  Spend the first part of the speech talking about the problem, and the second part talking about your now relevant solution, and you'll be a hit every time. 

The reason is that audiences show up to a presentation wondering why -- why is this important, why should I listen, why is this relevant to me?  If you answer that question successfully, they'll start wondering how -- how do I apply your insights, how do I act upon what you're saying, how do I take this experience and make it my own?

There are lots of subtleties, and they can be important, but that's the main idea.  Take your audience on a journey from why to how.  Both you and the audience will be much happier for it. 

How do you plan an event or a conference?

Let's begin by admitting that running an event or a conference is tough sledding.  Few notice when it goes well; everyone complains when something goes wrong.  Lots of downside risk and not much upside potential, as a wise conference planner once told me. 

That said, there are ways to get the most out of the planning -- and the conference itself. 

First, a theme is not an excuse for a cartoon or a superhero.  Too many conference-planning teams begin by setting a theme -- and then forgetting it.  So they'll pick 'the superhero', say, and use that to inspire the designers, and perhaps hire a few actors to wear painfully hot costumes at one of the dinners, and that's about it.  The theme is forgotten when the actual programming is under consideration.  That's just a matter of hiring a few big names, booking your CEO, and getting a few stalwarts from Marketing to help with the rest, right?

Wrong.  You should pick the one big idea you want to get across to your audience, and then everything at the conference should support that idea.  A conference should tell a coherent story, from the opening gun to the last speaker's "in conclusion...."  Anything less is not doing your job.  Stories have beginnings, middles, and ends, and your conference should too.  That helps the audience retain more than a smattering of the incredibly expensive event you're going to put on. 

Second, the audience is more than just a sea of faces.  How can you get the audience involved?  Can they help structure the event, drive the programming, lead a discussion session, even speak at a breakout session?  Audience participation should be more than just occasional raising of hands.  The best events are audience-driven, not merely entertainment pushed at the masses.  Mix it up!   

Third, give your MC a real job to do.  Hire an MC (either one of your own or a professional) who can do more than indicate the exits and the bathrooms.  An MC is the audience's representative.  It's her job to take up the issues that have been raised, test them, integrate them when possible, and help the audience with takeaways.  A lot of information comes at an audience during the course of a conference.  The MC can help to make sure that the audience gets as much as possible out of the time invested. 

When we're hired to help design and plan conferences, we often annoy traditional planners who think in tidy concepts of venue, speakers, dinners, and so on.  We see an evnt as an (expensive) opportunity to bring a group of people together in an unusual setting in order to jolt them with some new ideas and new experiences.  Anything less is just filling in the blanks. 

How to handle Q n A

Many executives believe, incorrectly, that even though they may not give the most brilliant of speeches, they come to life in the Q 'n' A.  They prefer the off-the-cuff because, well, it requires less preparation and they're busy people.  But they'll tell you something along the lines of "spontaneity is good for me" in justification.   

That's the wrong way to think about it.  The problems with Q n A are several.  First, when an executive is unscripted, he may say things he shouldn't.  If the press is present, he can make news unnecessarily and unfortunately.  Second, you can't fully control the questions that are asked.  The whole presentation may end on a down note despite the best efforts of everyone involved if the last question is something like, "So, tell us about that corruption scandal!"  Third, even when the questions are positive and the executive is on message, spontaneous answers tend to be sloppy.  It's rare the executive who doesn't ramble a bit when asked a question she likes on a subject with which she's familiar.  Executives, like just about everyone else, enjoy displaying expertise. 

So how to control this unfortunate fondness for Q n A -- and control the damage? 

Prepare your executive.  Give her a mock interview, asking the most difficult questions you can work up.  Grill her relentlessly, and the actual event will seem easy by comparison.

Train him in spontaneous speaking.  The way to give a coherent answer off the cuff is to think for a moment, get a headline response, state it, then give a few details or supporting arguments, then repeat the headline.  If you train executives to speak in this way, they are less likely to go off message, lost in the thickets of their own rhetorical mysteries and excesses.  Remember:  headline -- supporting points -- headline.  That's all. 

Videotape her to help with body language.  The biggest giveaway is often not a word, but a defensive gesture.  When an executive is talking on difficult subjects, she needs to be schooled in open, clear, frank non-verbal behavior.  I've seen many an executive ruin a good answer with suddenly crossed arms or a scowl at the wrong moment. 

Save a brief statement as a closer after the Q n A.  This way, you can at least control the last thing everyone hears.  It helps keep things up beat. 

Q n A, in spite of widespread executive fondness for it, is dangerous territory.  Proceed with caution.  Prepare well.  And be prepared to turn off the lights if it all goes pear-shaped despite your preparations.