Create Your Communications Experience

Eloquence In His Brevity

Sully Sullenberger spoke publicly for the first time after his "Miracle on the Hudson." He spoke for exactly 21 seconds - three sentences. There was eloquence in his brevity.

We of course wanted more - we were yearning to have him tell us how he did it, of the heroic efforts, and the drama. But Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger would have none of it at this celebration of the hometown hero in Danville, CA (my former hometown BTW.) All indications in the press to date show him to be a humble, highly competent man of integrity. And his 'speech' reflected nothing less.

Now I hope we hear more. We need heroes to emulate and to learn from. He is certainly a hero, and I hope he allows us to get to know him in book and person. I think he has a lot to teach us. About preparation and leadership, and teamwork.



This was like that first potato chip - tasted great, but leaves us thirsty, yearning for another, and another.

There was eloquence in his brevity, and now I want more. How about you?

Don't Communicate Well - and You're Out...

"Caroline Kennedy Flubs Her Coronation" was one of many headlines.

It was bound to happen. If not by her own accord “for personal reasons,” Caroline Kennedy would have no doubt eventually been ousted from consideration to replace Hilary Clinton as New York Senator.

There were great expectations to be sure. She has a remarkable legacy. She has class and integrity. She is intelligent. And indeed she is passionate about her causes, including recent support of newly elected President Obama. But, when it comes to thinking on her feet and being articulate under pressure, she fails miserably. As a result, it leaves her constituents doubting her and her ability to take on the office.

Another great case for the power of communications. More than ever before, today’s leaders – whether politics, business, sports, or philanthropy – must have it. Many people think that with the right title, the right credentials, and/or the right subject matter expertise – that communications becomes secondary, something that doesn’t require attention and focus. But they must – we must – understand how we come across, conquer our weaknesses and enhance our strengths.

Think of Caroline Kennedy and you can see how poor communications can be devasting. On the other hand, think of what being an outstanding communicator can do for you! President Barack Obama for example...

The Inauguration Speech - Pro and, yes, Con

President Barack Obama gave a great Inaugural speech today. Yet it was not legendary. Here's why - on both counts:

Pro

• Content. It was well written, struck the right note of hope and opportunity in the midst of very serious and difficult times.
• Rule of Three. If this was going to be a long post, I could take a page or two listing the oratorical devices he used effectively. Particularly the Rule of Three.
• His delivery was strong of voice and cadence. He is a master of cadence and oratory.

That said, expectation was his enemy. The great majority loved his speech, yet so many expected so much from the great orator that some were disappointed.

Con

• There was no memorable phrase that will stick with us. This man, this time and this occasion cried out for an elevated, singular moment like:

               "Ask not what your country can do for you..."
               "We have nothing to fear but fear itself..."
               "I have a dream..."

• For a master of rhythm and cadence, I felt President Obama did not use his pauses and applause moments with his usual skill. He didn't "work the crowd" in crass language, although I admit it's not easy to work a crowd of a couple of million people. And yet, such a crowd and an event as this can be combined to generate an unusually feverish pitch. The crowd was satisfied, but not elevated.
• Teleprompters. Obama could use the teleprompters more skillfully - and not just look side to side. If he varied his 'reading' rhythm he would be able to vary both his eye contact, his facial expression (not one smile) and his voice.

President Obama's greatest speech has yet to come.

Tonight I'm going to post some additional clips (in a new service and internet capability!) and show :

• The Most Momentous Moment
• The Most Singular Moment
• The Most Memorable Moment

Master Speakers King and Obama

Martin Luther King's Speaking Style, and Barack Obama

As we celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday, we are reminded what a great man he was, and what a great communicator. I have posted before on his speaking style and the use of the great rhetorical and oratorical devices like alliteration, repetition, the 'rule of three' and 'set 'em up and knock 'em down.' His birthday is a great day to take the time and see his entire 17 minute speech here, or at least the short clip of his famous "I have a dream" ending here.

One of the best articles written on Dr. King and his speaking impact and style was by Mark Oppenheimer in the Wall Street Journal. But what I want to post on today is the 'communication experience' that Dr. King created whenever he spoke, and was epitomized with his "I have a dream..." speech at the Lincoln Mall in 1963. We can learn a lot from it, and from some comparisons - particularly to Barack Obama.

Many people think Dr. King read his speech, but he did not. He DID have a written text, and he referred to it a few times during the first 11 minutes, but he NEVER read his speech. And as Mark Oppenheimer says, "...he speaks brilliantly without notes for the remainder of the speech. It's like a streetball alley-oop, showing what he can do without even trying." Although that perhaps diminishes the import of Dr. King's historic moment, Mark also mentions how "...he had used elements of the speech in hundreds of sermons (and speeches) over nearly 20 years."

I think Martin Luther King was in a zone. He knew the importance of the event, and while very conscious of what he was doing, he KNEW that he was truly creating an experience not only for the masses at the mall, of which they were an active part of that experience, but for the millions for the ages.

Now, could you imagine what would have happened if he actually DID read his speech. Or used teleprompters. What would the experience have been...

Barack Obama

When he won the Iowa primary, Barack Obama gave a great speech. Some said it was his greatest, that it was historic, and a classic speech. But he used teleprompters.

Now I listed Barack Obama as the #1 Best Communicator of 2006, because it was his communicating that got him into the Presidential race in the first place. And his later New Hampshire acceptance speech was a great speech, and I said so at the time, but only gave it a 9 out of 10 because he truly was reading a speech. Look at his eyes as he looks from left to right to left, at the two teleprompter paddles and not at the audience. (In teleprompter speaking you want several focal points which include the audience.) Although very few viewers perceive at the conscious level that he is actually using teleprompters, at the unconscious level it makes a difference in how they feel. They do not get wrapped up in the experience of Obama like they do with Dr. King. Although Obama very successfully uses many of the oratorical devices of Dr. King, he is not LIVING his speech like King was - you can't live it when you read it.

However, that is changing. Barack Obama is gaining experience fast, and in the terms of Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers" - Obama is very quickly surpassing the 10,000 hours and/or 10 years to mastery. He gave a masterful Presidential acceptance speech, was #1 on my Top Ten Communicators of 2008 list, and the headline in this morning's paper "Speech Of A Lifetime" illustrates the extraordinary anticipation for his inauguration speech.

The Age of Oratory

Although the age of oratory may seem irrelevant to today's business communicators, we can learn a lot from the best, Dr. Martin Luther King. We can learn how to have a script, and not abuse it. We can learn how to be prepared, yet have a message that comes from the heart. And we can learn by watching a master create a communication experience that changed the course of a nation.

Happy Birthday Dr. King!

Farewell President Bush...

President George Bush gave his last speech as President. It was good - here's why:

George Bush is not a man of great communication, but he is a man of great character. Whether you agree with his faith or his decisions, you have to respect, and hopefully admire, his consistency and his integrity.

That is what was on display tonight. And it WAS President Bush at his best. Readers of this blog know that I have said that he lacked basic communication skills - and this is tragic for a person at that level of leadership. The Bully Pulpit is powerful, and should be used.

So in tonight's speech he was at his communicating best. He's not an orator, and he did not have to push or advocate or persuade. He could just be himself. Authentic. And that is what true communication is all about.

PowerPoint Revolution in 2009

Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte are New Communicators who have revolutionized the design of PowerPoints in 2008 with their ideas and books Presentation Zen and slide:ology. Read their books, and if you then do just two additional things you might just revolutionize your use of PowerPoints in 2009:

              1. Create your PowerPoints last
              2. Use Black Slides

What would you like to see in PowerPoint slide design in 2009?

was the request of Olivia Mitchell's 'group post' to several presentation experts and others, and when she posts it in the next few days on her excellent blog "Speaking About Presenting" I hunch you will see a lot of good and complimentary ideas on the design of PowerPoints. So I'm going to emphasize only TWO ITEMS here, which I find extremely important and most people miss in considering the powerful use of PowerPoints:

1. Create your PowerPoints last

There is too much emphasis on PowerPoints - they are NOT the presentation. PowerPoints ARE the presentation if you are giving out a PP deck as a written report (I'm going to use PP as the PowerPoint abbreviation here, and that includes Keynote in the Mac world as well), or you are sending your PPs to SlideShare, or in any similar instance where a PP stands alone and carries the message to a reader - then they ARE the presentation.

But here we are focusing on  'in person presentations', where the person is the center of the presentation (or should be), and the

• behavior
• content and
• design support

are three parts that combine together to form the communication experience. The medium IS the message, and that medium is not the PPs, but the entire gestalt of behavior, content and design taken as a whole.

Over the PP era of the last 20 years I've seen thousands of presentations, and although most are business presentations (large audience, conferences and smaller meetings) I would estimate 90% of all types of presentations are created by people who go to their computers and start the process by using the PP outliner or going right to writing text and bullets on the slides themselves. So the end result is totally PP driven, and we have information without influence and data without emotion. Remember, Barack Obama did not get to be President by using PowerPoints.

First, figure out what your message is - what is your Point Of View, what Action do you want people to take and what are the Benefits (for them - not you.) We teach people The Decker Grid but there are many systems out there that start with the message first. Once you have your message developed - with three key points, THEN you can figure out how you are going to frame the experience to influence people to buy into your message. And THEN you go to the PPs, and create using Nancy's and Garr's ideas. (And all the other good ideas from the other posts noted above.) And in addition to PPs you have stories, humor, analogies and metaphors, quotes, video clips, etc. etc. You then have an experience.

2. Use Black Slides

This is a simple concept, and yet it is profound when you use it all the time. It's a game changer!

A black slide is simply a PP slide with a black background. You create a black screen. A nothing. (Not a logo.) So whenever you are not using a PP slide to support a point or visualize a concept, your screen is black. (More on Black Slides here.)

This way your presentation becomes you speaking - your energy and drive and enthusiasm - and then you can hit the clicker and draw on your PPs, hit the clicker again and go to a Black Slide as you amplify, or use props, or stories, or exercises, or word pictures, or whatever you choose. You have notes (we recommend using the Grid and Post-its) so you can pause and refer to your notes the few times necessary. But you are freed up from being tied to the PPs. And using the PPs as notes. Or reading from the PPs. Or putting people to sleep. You become a speaker!

I would say that less than 5% of presentations and speeches use the Black Slide concept. Too bad, because it is so powerful - the feedback we get from our clients is dramatic. And it has two other great benefits:

1. Black Slides clear the screen.
Too many leave old ideas on the screen as their speech moves on - you need to clear the screen of any distractions, and a Black Slide does that handily. (Don't use the 'B' button to clear the screen, because when you then use the 'B' button to go back to your PPs you take your audience back to your past idea, and it halts their thinking and your flow.)

2. Black Slides allow you to walk in front of the screen.
Most conference and meeting rooms are erroneously set up with the screen in the middle rather than off to the side. This continues the myth that PPs are the center of the presentation, rather than the presenter and his/her message as the centerpiece of influence. With black slides you can walk in front of the screen without the PP unskillfully reflecting on you. You can move around, and 'own the entire room' rather than being stuck on one side or the other.

Final note: Read all the blogs on PP and presentations from Olivia Mitchell's blog, and from Speaking on Alltop. There are a lot of good ideas and ways to design PPs, and tips and techniques. (BTW, the 2009 version of Keynote for you Mac users is sensational.) All these things are good.

But nothing will ever take away from the personal experience of the presenter with the audience - whether in business (think Steve Jobs) or politics (Barack Obama) or leadership (Winston Churchill.) And many other examples of great men and women of influence who didn't use PowerPoints as a crutch. Make yourself one of them in 2009 - don't RELY on PPs - just use them well.