As We Speak Read online

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  MASTER TIP : Don’t bury the lede. If you don’t hook them right up front, you’ve lost them forever. There are no second chances.

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  Here is a brief list of some powerful opening strategies for your ramp:

  1. OPEN WITH THE WORD “YOU. ” This gives you an immediate advantage; you’re talking about the audience’s favorite topic—themselves. Be direct and clear. Demonstrate that you know their situation, you appreciate what they’re feeling, and you care.

  2. USE A POWERFUL STATISTIC, or what we call a “sexy number.” A sexy number contains an element of surprise for the listener; it makes them sit up and take notice. If you’re in the telecom industry, you might open with: “Half the world’s population has never made a telephone call. Imagine the opportunity for us.” A few more examples of sexy numbers: “About 20 percent of all U.S. heads of household have never sent an e-mail.” “The market for smartphones is expected to be $400 million by 2012—quadruple what it was four years before that.” “Only 4 percent of Arab women use the Internet.” “In ten years, e-waste from old computers is set to increase by 400 percent in China and South Africa from 2007 levels, and by 500 percent in India.”

  3. ASK A QUESTION. “How many of you spend more than half your time in meetings?” “Does anybody know what the population of polar bears was in 1959? Anybody know what it is today?” “How many of you feel that your children’s school could be doing a better job?”

  4. SHOCK THEM. Governor Jerry Brown of California opened his State of the State address on January 31, 2011, this way: “California faces a crisis that is real and unprecedented. Each of us will have to struggle with our conscience and our constituencies as we hammer out a sensible plan to put our state on a sound fiscal footing, honestly balance our budget and position California to regain its historic momentum.”

  5. MAKE A CONFESSION. Be vulnerable. “I’ve always been afraid of spiders. And the other day, in the boardroom, the CEO asked me to get rid of a spider he saw in the corner. Well ...”

  6. USE THE WORD “IMAGINE.” “Imagine this. It’s three years from now, the new gymnasium has been built, and our kids have just won their first basketball championship ...” “Imagine” is an incredibly powerful word, because it makes the communication interactive. The listener moves from being passive to becoming an active participant in the process, co-creating an idea or vision.

  7. TELL A HISTORICAL ANECDOTE. “Once when General Dwight D. Eisenhower was under siege, he sent a sergeant out to do some reconnaissance. When he returned, General Eisenhower said, ‘Sergeant, give me a brief assessment of our position.’ The sergeant replied, ‘Sir, imagine a doughnut. We’re the hole.’ That’s a little what it feels like for us today ...”

  8. TELL A STORY. Find the human interest in your data, and lead with it. Put a human face on your material. “Luis is a client of mine. He called me up and told me that if we couldn’t find a solution to his problem within the next two weeks, he’d be out on the street.”

  For more examples of ramps, see Appendix Two.

  ROAD MAP

  Once you’ve hooked your audience’s attention with the ramp, you add the second element of your opening. We call this the road map. Imagine that you’re going on a road trip. To keep your passengers happy, you need to tell them where they’re going, what route you’re going to use, and how long it’s going to take to get there. Similarly, the road map for your talk should do three things:

  1. IT TELLS PEOPLE HOW LONG YOU’RE GOING TO BE SPEAKING. People need to know the duration of the commitment. So, tell them. “I’m going to be speaking for fifteen minutes. Then we have fifteen minutes for an open discussion, during which I can answer some of your questions. We will end promptly at three o’clock.” What a relief!

  2. IT GIVES THEM A PREVIEW OF YOUR STRUCTURE (and reassures them that you have one)! “We’re going to look at developing leadership in terms of where we are today, where we need to be five years from now, and what we need to do in order to get there.”

  3. IT SETS UP THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. People want to participate. Do you want them to ask questions as you go along, or would you prefer them to wait until the Q&A? If you say nothing, one of two things will happen: (1) you get nothing, or (2) you will be interrupted. It’s your speech; take control. It doesn’t guarantee that they won’t interrupt you, but you stand a much better chance of controlling the discussion if you say either “I’m going to be speaking for fifteen minutes, and then we’ll have fifteen minutes of Q&A, so please hold your questions until then,” or “I’d like this to be an open discussion, so please ask questions as we go along.”

  Traditionally, speakers make two mistakes with the road map. Either they (1) Avoid it altogether, or (2) Completely overwhelm the audience.

  Consider the following road map, noticing your reaction as you go: “Today I’ll be talking to you about seven new areas of product development. I’ll discuss how the new additions fit into our strategic focus, marketing for the new products, and sales strategies. We’ll also be looking at impacting organizational structure. I’ll be introducing four new members of the team, and then finally I’d like to talk to you about the new leadership legacy program developed by our new HR team. Okay, let’s get started.”

  Doesn’t it make your heart sink? We’re already exhausted! This speaker has just run a conveyor belt of information past us, and we have no desire to keep up. Keep the road map brief—no more than three items. Which three items? The three items you want in your road map will be your three Points of Discovery. To determine what they are, read on to learn about the section we call ...

  DISCOVERY

  So, you’ve captured the audience’s attention with the ramp, and told them where you’re taking them with the road map. You’ve completed your opening. Now it’s time to enter the middle of the speech. As we said earlier, the middle of your speech is there to provide knowledge. This knowledge may be new information that you are going to offer, or it may be knowledge they already have that needs to be reinforced. But it’s not just any old data on a slide that you happen to have downloaded, and it’s not just about whatever you want to say. It’s about what the audience needs to know, or discover, in order for you to achieve your outcome.

  We call this the discovery section. Why discovery? Because ideally, you are going to provide insights that stimulate your listener to make discoveries, rather than forcing information down his throat. Discovery can be as simple as someone realizing that he can finally make sense of a confusing topic. It’s an exciting activity for the brain—people enjoy the “Aha!” sensation of working things out for themselves.

  We organize the discovery section into three Points of Discovery—or PoDs, for short. And we ask you to be rigorously disciplined about narrowing it down to three, even if you’re sure that you have at least seventeen points to make.

  Why three? Three is a universal number. A triangle is the strongest structure in the world. And frankly, three items are about as many as most people want to deal with. Three things are easy to learn, and easy to remember. Research tells us that the brain doesn’t record data in an unbroken stream, like a videocassette recorder. Instead, it handles information by dividing it into meaningful chunks, or categories. Chunking your data into three categories means that you are offering the information already sliced up, in the way the listener’s brain wants to process it. No matter what you need to say, or how complex it is, create a structure of three. People simply cannot follow structures of seven or twelve in a short fifteen-minute talk. Creating a triad serves the listener as well as yourself. They know where you are, and so do you.

  Think how your heart would sink if you heard a speaker say, “I’m now going to discuss each of these sixteen developments in our company’s history. ” More coffee, please! Now imagine that the speaker says, “I’m going to walk you through three eras of leadership in this company: our past, our present, and our future.” See? Simple, easy, brings
a sense of relief. You know where you’re headed and it’s not too overwhelming. A leader doesn’t dumb things down; he takes complex things and makes them clear.

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a classic example of this in his first radio “Fireside Chat,” which he delivered to an anxious nation on Sunday, March 12, 1933, during the Great Depression:

  My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking—to talk with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks. I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, and why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be.

  Note his three-part road map: (1) What has been done in the last few days; (2) Why it was done; (3) What the next steps are going to be.

  Think of the PoDs as baskets that will help you organize your ideas. All of your content—data, information, stories, anecdotes, statistics, quotes, graphs, etc.—can be sorted into these three baskets. The three PoDs simply provide a structure.

  For example, if you’re about to roll out a new system to a group of salespeople, they probably need to know: (1) How it works, (2) Ways in which it can help them; and (3) What they’re going to need to do in order to use it. If you’re talking to a teenager about drinking and driving, she might need to know: (1) The dangers involved; (2) Your expectations of her; and (3) Your commitment to be available for rides.

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  MASTER TIP: No matter how many items you have to discuss, chunk them into no more than three categories, or Points of Discovery.

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  How do you know which three PoDs you should use? The good news is that you’ve already done the work necessary to figure it out. Remember back in the preparation process, when you identified the three things the audience needs to know in order for you to achieve your outcome? Well, those three things are your three PoDs. Simple! To see how the three “need-to-know” items are connected to your three PoD’s, glance back at the outline on page 46.

  Go back and insert your three PoDs into your road map. For example, “For the next fifteen minutes, we’ll be discussing the new system. I’ll walk you through how it works, the ways in which it can help you, and what you’re going to need to do in order to implement it.”

  Now you’ve got your three categories. You can design the middle of your presentation by fleshing out each PoD with stories, metaphors, active language, statistics, etc. For more information on these techniques, please see the Techniques section of the book.

  SUMMARIZE

  If you’ve been speaking for more than five minutes, after you have completed the discovery section, the listener needs a summary; he needs you to remind him of the big picture. Summarize succinctly, with an emphasis on how the related parts all fit together. Ideally you summarize just before the Q&A segment (explored in further detail below), because the summary will stimulate conversation by reminding people of what they wanted to ask about. The summary should be crisp, clear, and brief—but not rushed. If there is a request in your presentation, summarize and then make the request. This is a good place to make a request, because if you’ve done your job effectively, you’ve brought the listener to a high point.

  Today, we’ve examined the question of whether or not to put more money into the arts program in our schools. [There’s your point.] We’ve looked at the potential benefits, the investment costs, and we’ve explained our five-year plan to bring an integrated arts program into this district. [Those are your three PoDs.] Ladies and gentlemen, you have an important decision to make. I’d like to ensure that we have plenty of time to answer any questions that you might have, before you put this matter to a vote.

  NEVER END ON Q&A

  Most formal presentations include a Q&A period, and we think it’s a good idea. People want to engage with you as a speaker; they want to have a dialogue.

  However.

  Most people also get it wrong by putting the Q&A at the very end of the presentation. Bad idea! We say never end on Q&A—it’s too risky. Here’s why:

  You’ve worked hard to bring your listener to a high point at the end of your speech. You’ve done a good job. You finish triumphantly, then say, “Okay, we’ve got fifteen minutes left. Are there any questions?” There’s a dead silence. “Anyone? Not even one question?” Nothing. You’re looking around with increasing desperation. “Are you sure?” Everyone squirms, avoiding your eye. “Okay, then,” you mumble. “I guess I’ll just wrap it up, then. Um, thank you for your time. ” You look incredibly foolish and slink off after collecting your laptop, completely spoiling the effect of all your good work.

  Or even worse: Things have gone well in your speech. Now it’s time for Q&A—and you have an aggressive questioner. You remember him—he’s that well-dressed guy in the pinstriped suit, with the goatee and the red pen. He sat through your entire presentation, patiently waiting for the question period to start. In fact, he doesn’t have questions; he has an agenda. And his agenda is to demonstrate that he’s smarter than you by finding flaws in your work. He might ask you something like this: “Where did you get your numbers? You said that we’ve got a 12.6 increase in the third quarter. But I happen to know it’s only 11.9.” No matter how skillfully you deal with his questions, your credibility has been attacked. (For information on how to handle Q&A like a pro, please see Chapter Three: Techniques.) The audience is watching it all happen. And all the work that you’ve put in up to this point to move your audience emotionally has been compromised. If you were taking your listeners on an emotional journey, you’re losing altitude fast.

  Despite the risk, we recommend that you include Q&A whenever possible. It’s a great way to bond with the audience and build trust. But you must build in a way that ensures a strong finish afterward, because the ending pays disproportionate dividends. People remember what they heard and experienced last. In a movie, the ending needs to be terrific. In a book, the final chapter has to be the best. In a conversation or presentation, the last three minutes must tie it all together and leave your listener on a high note. You wouldn’t invite people over to your house, feed them a lovely salad, a delicate soup, and then shove them out the door right after the roast beef, would you? Of course not. You offer them a little crème brûlée or chocolate cake to round off the evening. It’s the same with your talk. After the Q&A is over, you wow them with the grand finale. We call this the ...

  DESSERT

  Dessert is the part where you take back control of the presentation, and ensure that you finish on a high note. No matter what heavy losses you may have sustained during the Q&A, the dessert is the ace up your sleeve that ensures your victory in the end.

  Remember when we said that each part of the presentation has a job to do? Well, the job of the ending, or dessert, is to create an emotion in the listener. You’re going to produce a feeling. The ending is not the place to give the audience any new information, or unload another thing that they need to know. The listener’s brain is packed up—they’re waiting for the train. This is not the time to force them to open up their bags so that you can shovel in one more piece of data. You’ve already given them all the facts. This is the time to address the emotions.

  Strong emotion makes things “sticky,” or memorable. If you do a good job with your dessert, your listeners will remember it forever, long after they’ve forgotten your data. The best dessert is a story, anecdote, metaphor, or image. It should touch the emotions of the listener in some way. This creates a feeling that they will associate with listening to you.

  You might introduce your dessert by saying something like, “Before we close, I’d like to leave you with this thought. ” Then give it to them. It might be an example of what your idea might look like in the real world. You could tell the story of someone else in a similar situation. You might look to the past, showing an example of your product or initiative as it was demonstrated suc
cessfully. Or you might try drawing a future picture for your listeners. “Imagine this ...”

  There are an infinite variety of possible desserts; it can be anything that leaves the audience with a powerful emotional sensation or image that reinforces your point.

  For example:

  Tim Tebow “The Promise” (after losing to Ole Miss, he went on to lead the Gators to a national championship victory):

  To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida has never done here.

  I promise you one thing, a lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season.

  You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless.

  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96vAbtpakLg )

  For more examples of desserts, please see Appendix Two.

  The very best desserts will circle back to echo something that you mentioned in the ramp. Using this full-circle technique gives a subtle elegance to your finish; returning to the original image creates a powerful sense of satisfaction and closure in the listener’s mind. The following are two examples of connected ramps and desserts:

  Mary Fisher, “1992 Republican National Convention Address”:

  Ramp: Less than three months ago at platform hearings in Salt Lake City, I asked the Republican Party to lift the shroud of silence which has been draped over the issue of HIV and AIDS. I have come tonight to bring our silence to an end. I bear a message of challenge, not self-congratulation. I want your attention, not your applause.