A few years back on this blog I asked myself the question, why is so much public speaking – especially in the business world – so awful? And I went on to ask, how can we raise the bar, which is set distressingly low? I no longer agree with my reasoning back then, and so I thought it was time for an update. Here’s my thinking now. And here’s a link to the post from a few years ago, in case you’re curious.
First, I think most speakers still don’t know how to organize a speech for the benefit of the audience. I’ve written about how to organize a speech for over 20 years, and many others have too, but new speakers come along all the time and make the same mistakes over and over again. What are those mistakes?
They tell personal stories chronologically. That, of course, is the way that experience happens, so it makes sense to the person telling the story to say, first this happened and then this and then this. And on and on. But that’s never the most interesting or compelling way to tell the story. Instead, begin your story as close to the end as possible, at the most exciting point possible. Back fill with crucial information if you must, but if you want to grab your audiences, begin as close to the climax as you can. Don’t start with the planning for your trip to Mount Everest. Start us on the mountain. Better yet, start us near the top, when the wind is blowing, the temperature dropping, and your fellow hiker in trouble. Now, you’ve got me!
They overload the talk with far too much information. We all love a little insider gossip, but only a little. We don’t want to know how many miles of Interstate highway there are, even if you know that fascinating fact. We do want to know how your suggested changes to driving practices and management could make my rush hour a breeze.
Of course, because public speaking is a self-conscious activity, speakers naturally focus on themselves. That’s human nature. Often from the best of intentions, speakers try to tell the audience everything they know on their subject. They’ve prepared exhaustively, thinking that they have to know everything and are not allowed to say, “I don’t know,” in response to an audience question.
They don’t take the imaginative leap to make the speech about the audience. The question the audience is asking, as you take the podium, is “what’s in it for me?” Unless your talk is organized around that insight, you won’t engage that audience fully.
Second, I believe most speakers are afraid to say what they really think. Naturally enough, caution takes over when you have to voice your opinion on something out loud to several hundred or several thousand people. But – and this is even more true than a few years ago – we in the audience have become impatient with the standard answer, the safe answer, the comfortable truth. Our sense of the world today is that unless you tell me something deeply authentic, probably shocking, and most certainly unique, it isn’t worth my while. I’ve probably already read a good deal of similar advice summarized on Facebook, or LinkedIn, or a web site, so give me something I can’t get in a few bullet points there. Make our time together count.
Third, I think we’ve become a world of skimmers, and speakers have to give us a truly inescapable reason to go deep. We’re all so awash in information that, unless, you’ve got something that is going to change my life for the better, or teach me something I don’t know that will surprise or delight me – or at least give me an interesting story to pass on – we don’t have time to stop and listen. This problem is acute and it’s only going to get worse. Listening skills are on the decline not because we’re all trivial people but because we have to take in heroic amounts of information on an hour-by-hour basis and we have to move fast.
If that’s the problem today, what’s the solution? Organize your speeches for the benefit of the audience hearing them. Tell powerful stories that stop us in our tracks and want to hear more. Cut to the information chase and only include the essential stuff I simply must know. And give me a powerful reason to hear you out – change my life with your speech. That’s one thing that I think hasn’t changed. The only reason to give a speech then was to change the world. And that’s still the only reason now.
Good afternoon Nick
A factor that is true here in Ireland is that individuals are not trained, in schools or colleges. A point you have made many times, public speaking is a skill and like all skills has to be learned and mastered. Just because we can speak there is the expectation that we can stand and speak. Chalk and cheese.
Toastmasters was my first school of learning, many books and excellent blogs like yours keeps the saw sharp. Finding the right coach is also a great asset in developing these essential skills.
Kindest regards
John
Thanks, John — the same problem exists in schools and universities here that don’t have a communications department. Public speaking was often housed (in Ivy League schools and other elite institutions) in the English department before World War II. About that time, the English departments at several of these schools decided to eliminate public speaking because they wanted to focus only on “intellectual” and not “practical” offerings. They were competing with the sciences in trying to appear to have a real discipline and body of work. As a result, Princeton, my alma mater, eliminated its formerly required public speaking course sometime before WWII, and had not offered it again until I volunteered to teach it in the 1990s. I did so for a decade, and when I left, it was once again taken out of the formal, regular curriculum, and to my knowledge is not regularly offered even today.
In this context, Toastmasters becomes an even more precious resource, because people desperately need a safe place to practice these difficult-to-master skills.
Great summary. You captured so much in s few words- demonstrating your point.
Thanks, Steve.
These are all very good thoughts and ideas, Nick Morgan; thanks for this summary. I, along with one previous person who commented, do see the value offered by Toastmasters as a communication solution.
Agree, Brian — I’m a big fan of Toastmasters and have blogged about them many times over the years.
Great tips!