Sometimes New Year’s resolutions have unintended consequences. I started a new exercise program – with the usual results, which is to say, nothing much yet – and needed something to while away all those hours on the treadmill. So I began watching all the James Bond movies in order, from the early, cool days of Sean Connery, to the sentimental Roger Moore, through that other guy, then Pierce Brosnan, and finally Daniel Craig. More than a half-century and twenty-three official films.
It’s a lot of mayhem. A prodigious tally of explosions, an innumerable body count, and a huge, huge pile of wrecked machinery, including an astonishing number of expensive BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, and of course Aston Martins.
All good fun. But what did I learn about public speaking, if anything, while saving the world, righting those wrongs, and finishing off so many mad evil geniuses?
Three things that speakers can put to work immediately, upping their game, perhaps even lifting it to Bondian levels.
First, skip the preamble. I’ve said it before, but all those Bond movies make it very, very clear. What was fresh about the franchise was that, rather than beginning the movie with a set of credits, Bond plunged us right into the action. We start with a murder, at the very least. Usually, a chase involving some of those expensive cars. Often, lots of big things are blown up in the process.
Bond starts with a bang, and you should too. Don’t begin with an introduction. Preferably, someone else does that for you, but if not, resist the temptation to say, “Let me tell you a little about myself (or my company).” Nothing is more tedious for an audience. They care about what’s in it for them, not you.
Sorry. But that’s the way it is.
If you must introduce yourself, do it after you start your talk proper. Do the chase scene, then run the credits, just like Bond. If you hook your audience first, it will tolerate those credits.
Also, don’t start with an agenda. Can you imagine Daniel Craig beginning a Bond movie with an agenda?
Right.
Second, there’s eternal appeal in setting wrongs right and restoring order. Bond is all about maintaining the status quo, but first a whole lot of mayhem needs to ensue. It’s that flow of starting with a wrong and finding your way to the right that is so appealing to most people. So frame your speech accordingly.
What is the problem, need, or wrong that you want to solve, ease, or correct? Begin with that, and then move on to your solution. It’s also the Ancient Greek insight into speech construction. So you might think you’re smart enough to outthink Bond. But Bond and the Ancient Greeks? I’d say don’t even try.
Finally, don’t surprise us. Fulfill our expectations. One of the diseases of modern script and speech writing is that writers and speakers think they need to astonish us with a twist we didn’t see coming. That sort of surprise is highly overrated.
What the neuroscience shows is that people actually love the way traditional stories fulfill our expectations. It’s not the surprise we want, it’s the familiar pattern that gives us a sense of control and allows us to say, “I knew that’s where it was headed.”
We love Bond, not because he astonishes us with something new each outing, but because he doesn’t. We can count on him to restore order every time, and in our chaotic modern world, isn’t that much, much more satisfying than whacking us over the head with something we never anticipated? That’s just another day at work – who needs it in our storytelling and speeches?
Bond endures because he is a predictable force for order in a chaotic world. Speakers, you have the opportunity to do the same. Help your audiences feel more competent rather than less. Show them how something is done. Tell them a secret to the way the world works. Help them with some tips for better coping with the modern world. They’ll respond by rating you as “cool.”
And there’s nothing better than that.
(Just for the record, the best Bond line of all was uttered by Pierce Brosnan in The World Is Not Enough, when his co-star says, “I would have given you the world!” His reply: “The world is not enough.” Of course.
Ah, the insatiable James Bond. And Brosnan gets credit too for the best chase scene, through the crowded streets of Saigon on a motorcycle (with a Chinese agent riding along and occasionally steering) being chased by a helicopter with a giant buzz saw attached to the front in Tomorrow Never Dies.
Alas, Brosnan’s Die Another Day has to go down as the most ridiculous plot and silly ending, when Bond surfs a melting iceberg in the Arctic to catch up with the villain who is somehow simultaneously a North Korean agent and an Icelandic billionaire.)
Funny, I’ve watched every Bond film 100 times yet I never deconstructed them the way you did. You are spot on.
It gets me thinking that even with #1, do we NEED an introduction at all before we take the stage. Or is it better to find a creative way to weave in our story so that they know our background without slapping them in the face with it? I’ve been using an intro video that starts with some funny clips of me on TV (this works REALLY well as it is silly). And then the second half of the video is the more traditional – “hey, look how great I am with all of my credentials.” I never felt that the 2nd half worked as well and I’ve debated cutting it from the video.
And #3 (fulfill rather than surprise) is, well, surprising. I’d never thought of it that way before. But it makes perfect sense. Sometimes I try to get too clever to “shock” people as a means of learning something (i.e., have them convinced one thing is true, then in the end I reveal that something completely different is true – pulling the carpet from underneath them). But many of the best moments in my speeches are when the audience figures out the punchline before I tell it to them. They feel super smart. And they laugh.
Thanks for this one!
Thanks, Stephen — to your point about an intro, I agree that you need one. I just don’t think that YOU should tell it at the opening of your talk. Much better to get someone else to do it — it is both a courtesy to you and to the audience. The introducer tells them why you, why now, why the talk is important. The introducer brags about you so you don’t have to. It sounds much better coming from a third party than your own mouth.
We also help our clients create video intros because the experience of getting introduced is not always as good as it should be. The live human mispronounces your name or forgets to mention some key facts. With a video you can control for quality.
Exactly when I went to a video. The clients were doing a terrible job of introducing me. A low energy introduction is hard place to start. Of course I would never do the introduction. The nice thing about the video is I can have the client say a few words about why they are working with me and why innovation is important to the organization. Then we run the video and all is good. Thanks!
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Brilliant! ‘Nuff said!
:-)