Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, TheTipping Point,Outliers, What the Dog Saw and others, discusses the American quest to find the perfect spaghetti sauce in this 17-minute TED video, and relates this quest to a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.
In his introduction, the first thing that comes across is his very friendly, conversational speaking style. He sets up his credibility right from the start by mentioning the books that he’s written. He makes the audience laugh several times throughout the speech, but most importantly, the first laugh comes in the first minute of his speech. This allows for a quicker connection with the audience.
Standard protocols of speaking
Malcolm follows some of the ’standard protocols’ of speaking, and they work very well in moving his speech forward. Two of the main protocols he uses include: Read the rest of this entry »
Speaking at a London girl’s school, Michelle Obama makes a passionate, personal case for each student to take education seriously. As far as persuasive speeches go, this one is clear, concise and passionate.
In this 12-minute speech, she engages the audience and develops a mutual connection with them right from the start with stories of her family, her modest upbringing, hardships experienced and overcome by her parents and herself, and how she met her husband. It is these stories that add the most colour to her talk, and that I believe provide the greatest bond with the audience.
This is a very inspirational speech that does not waver from its goal. Every story and example gets the point across of how “regular” people all have the power to do remarkable things if they get educated, help each other, pursue their passions, and use their talents to help their communities grow. If I was in her audience, I would feel like she’s speaking directly to me.
What would a presentation skills coach say?
The speech content is inspirational and well-structured. Very tight, direct, and persuasive. Calls-to-action at the conclusion, coupled with a smile, a strong voice and eye contact send off the audience with drive and motivation. The only thing I would add to the content would be a little more detail on her first date with her husband. My guess is that she didn’t want stories that were not relevant to the overall theme of her speech to overshadow the points she wanted to make. But it certainly would have been interesting!
So it all comes down to her delivery.
Where could she improve?
— Microphone placement – Throughout most of the speech, she holds the microphone directly under her mouth, covering her chin and therefore obstructing part of her face. Holding the microphone two inches lower would have virtually no effect on the volume or clarity of her voice, and would allow her audience to see her whole face.
— Filler words and sounds – “Uh” and “tsk.” In this speech, I counted 28 “uh’s” and 12 “tsk’s.” For a 12-minute speech, that’s almost 2.4 “uh’s” and one “tsk” per minute, which is quite a lot for someone who has to speak so regularly. These filler words can get quite distracting if they occur too often in a speech. Fortunately, once someone is aware of this problem, it’s easier to start fixing it.
The Undecided Issue: What about reading her notes?
I have to admit, I’m a bit torn on this one. On the one hand, although she read from her notes at times, she made sure to look up and maintain eye contact with her audience at least 75% of the time. However, a persuasive speech can be even more powerful if the speaker maintains eye contact with the audience 100% of the time. Notice the difference when she reads her notes, and then at the 11-minute mark, where she looks up and speaks from the heart in her concluding statements. Her passion really comes through whenever she looks up and speaks directly to the audience; and this passion is slightly diluted when she looks down to read her notes.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ever use notes. However, you can reach much deeper into the hearts and minds of an audience if you speak directly to them, and not read from notes. What do you think?
My colleague Jane Atkinson, speaker coach and President of Speaker Launcher, recently launched a Best Speaker Video contest on her blog. For many speakers, a speaker video is the #1 form of marketing – if done right. So Jane, along with a panel of judges, looked at several submissions, and then came up with a winner, and 5 runners-up – and gave a brief explanation of why they came in at the top.
I was so impressed with these contestants, and wanted to share their videos with you. Some are very professionally done, with lots of bells and whistles – and some are no more complex than pressing “record” on a videocamera. But each speaker and video has its own unique style which makes it stand out.
These videos will give you an example of not just what works, but what works really well. Read the rest of this entry »
Well here’s a speaker you just want to sit down and have a drink with! Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the best-selling book and recent movie Eat, Pray, Love, shares her thoughts on creativity and the notion of “creative genius” in this 19-minute speech at TED - and in the process, shows her audience how very funny, thoughtful and well-spoken a writer – and a speaker – she is.
Elizabeth excels in many ways in this talk. And there are some small things that she might have ‘tweaked’ to make it even more powerful.
STRENGTHS IN DELIVERY:
1. She’s funny – and here’s why: There were a few instances of great use of language to get a point across. At around 1:45, she laments how some people ask her if she thinks that she’ll “die on a scrapheap of dreams with my mouth filled with the bitter ash of failure” because she’ll never be able to follow up the success of her best-selling book. This comment is quite lengthy, and she almost gets out of breath as she says it. This makes it go from a ‘witty remark’ to just a little outrageous, thereby pushing the audience from a potential chuckle to an outright laugh. Well done. If you can get your audience to laugh in the first 2 minutes, there’s a much better chance of having them sit up and listen to you for the rest of your speech. (I’d also like to give credit to her vivid metaphor of “It’s like asking someone to swallow the sun.” That’s a great visual!)
In this 19-minute speech, Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. Having had the pleasure of seeing him present in 2006 at a conference, I am now very excited to feature one of his talks in this newsletter. Discussion of this speech will focus on three things: His movements, what makes his content so compelling, and ways in which he links himself with the audience.
HIS MOVEMENTS — OR LACK THEREOF
Sir Ken does not move around when he speaks. In this video, you’ll see that the camera is focused on his upper body and face only, and he stays planted on his feet throughout his presentation. This is a stellar example of how it’s possible to engage an audience without moving around, gesturing, or “working the stage.” This is quite unique to Sir Ken, as most speakers feel more comfortable moving around…and there’s nothing wrong with that either.
COMPELLING CONTENT
Sir Ken uses so many core components of a persuasive speech that it’s no wonder his audiences are mesmerized. Let’s take a look at a five of them:
1. Clearly stated hypothesis, problem statement, and introduction. Within the first three minutes, he states his hypothesis (“My contention is all kids have tremendous talents and we squander them. Pretty ruthlessly. So I want to talk about education, and about how creativity is as important as literacy”). He gets to his point quickly and concisely. Read the rest of this entry »
