book focuses on three areas for improving your speeches and presentations — content, delivery, and slides. You’ll learn about “boosters” and “brakes” in all three areas.
“Boosters” are PLUSPLUS patterns that will improve the quality of your communication if you use them more often.
“Brakes” are also PLUSPLUS patterns, but it will improve the quality of your communication if you avoid them.
Here are a few examples:
| BOOSTERS | BRAKES | |
| CONTENT | Rhetorical Devices | Message Reducers |
| DELIVERY | Holograms | The Giggle |
| SLIDES | Speak and Click | Bullets |
CONTENT BOOSTERS
PLUSPLUS PATTERNS THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR SPEECHES AND PRESENTATIONS EVERY TIME YOU APPLY THEM
THE ACTION STARTS WITH AN ACTION
Once I attended an MBA class given by my friend Professor Conor Neill from the renowned IESE Business School in Barcelona. With gravity in his voice he addressed his class:
Ladies and gentlemen, please pay good attention. You will now hear the eight words that are most important to any public speaker.
The serious tone of Conor’s voice immediately had the students grabbing their pens. Conor continued:
The eight most important words, for any public speaker, are: After listening to my speech, the audience will ___________!
Will what? What will they do? What action will they take? What action, real or symbolic, will people perform after they’ve listened to me?
Conor calls it “Point X”, that one symbolic action that turns a passive listener into a committed follower.
Knowing more about my topic is not an action. Feeling more passionate about my cause is not an action. Signing my petition to save the orangutans in Borneo — that is an action.
I was sitting in a street café in Barcelona one afternoon, when suddenly a kindly looking lady in her late 50s approached me with a petition to save the famous orangutans of Borneo. Frankly, I’m not the number one petition-signer in the world, but this particular cause meant something to me. Rose, my beloved, my special rose, comes from Sabah, in Borneo, home of the orangutan. So I signed.
Two weeks later I received a phone call:
Mr. Mueck, you have signed a petition here to help save the orangutan....
Now — what were the chances that I’d have just put the phone down? Normally, they’re about 99½%, like when a telephone solicitor calls me to sell me a better wireless connection.
But I couldn’t do that, because I’d already committed myself. That tiny little symbolic action of signing that petition had an amazing amount of persuasive power. It made me feel a sense of personal obligation.
Most of the speakers I’ve ever heard haven’t included a concrete call to action. There hasn’t been a “Point X” — which means that significant opportunities have been missed!
The first content-boosting action to take in the future is to write down these eight words, then to come up with a concrete action for your audience to take once they’ve listened to your speech or presentation.
It’s the very first step. Once you’ve defined your Point X, you’re ready to move on.
Boost your content even more by demanding a symbolic action from your audience.
ONE SPEECH, ONE THEME
Our company is a great adventure.
A speech that starts with such a metaphorical theme can only be good. It’s always great to use a theme throughout your speech. Good themes are those that everyone in the audience can easily relate to: a journey, a rollercoaster ride, marriage, a building, a thunderstorm, the gym, football, a marathon.
A metaphorical theme is more memorable than an abstract concept. Staying with the example above — what makes an adventure an adventure?
In an adventure you have heroes: the sales guys in the company, the management, the IT team.
In an adventure you encounter obstacles: competition, regulation, recession.
In an adventure you take risks: a new product launch, a new market entry, a joint venture.
Your audience will appreciate such a theme. They can identify with it; they can visualize it; they can feel it.
Make sure you don’t mix themes in a speech. Mixed metaphors are too confusing for your audience. Stick to one theme.
Boost your content even more by using a single metaphorical theme throughout your speech.
A GREEK TEMPLE WITH THREE PILLARS
Imagine you’re sitting in an audience listening to a speech. Why would it be important for you that the speech have a good structure?
Now — imagine you are giving a speech in front of an audience. Why would it be important for you as a speaker to have a good structure?
Good structure is crucial for both the speaker and the audience. The speaker wants to stay on track, avoid forgetting important parts, keep the logical flow moving. The listener wants to follow the speaker’s points — and the easier that is, the better.
Good structure boosts the quality of your content.
A simple and powerful model for structuring your speeches is the Speech Structure Building™ model, as I explained in The Seven Minute Star.
The Speech Structure Building™ is a model of a Greek temple: it has a foundation (the speech’s opening), three pillars (the body: points A, B, C), and a rooftop (the closing). What makes this model special is the “drainpipe” which connects the roof with the foundation.
Example: a speech about “The future of Europe”
It was the best year of my life. One year of freedom, one year of friendship, one year of Europe - it was my Erasmus exchange year in Barcelona, 1997-98. Ever since then, I’ve been a passionate European, and I’ll give you three powerful reasons why Europe has a great future ahead.
First, our infrastructure. Look at the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg, Barcelona. Look at the airports of Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid. Look at the highways in Poland or Hungary. We have top-notch infrastructure
