Episode #322: TED's Advice On Presenting

Chris Anderson is a curator for TED talks and so far there have been a billion views of TED talks since they started forty years ago. He wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review titled “How To Give A Killer Presentation” which was published back in June 2013 and it still stands up well today. I have given a TED talk myself and so have had some exposure to the process and the rules they have around giving presentations. Let’s look at the 5 key points from Chris’s article. I will add my take though, because the original article can easily be accessed for his advice in detail.

1. Frame your story - figure out where to start and where to end.
There are four basic presentations we have to choose from: inform, motivate, persuade or entertain. All of them will go much better if we have storytelling as a key component of the structure. In particular, potentially “dry” inform types of talks can be brought alive by adding a story which highlights the facts. Going behind the numbers to the drama involved is always more interesting. Heroic tales of how the revenues were won against the trials and tribulations of the market or despite the competitor’s dirty tricks, rather than just stating the numbers, is a lot more gripping for an audience.

The story requires a meeting of the audience, their mind’s eye and our tale. We want to get them to the spot where it happened, when it occurred, who was involved, what transpired and what was the result. We have to explain things in a way in which the audience can see the scene we are describing in their own mind. That makes it so much more real for them.

2. Plan your delivery - decide whether to memorize your speech word for word or develop bullet points and then rehearse it—over and over.
Chris Anderson does mention memorisation as one possibility but actually suggests it is better to have points to speak to and I totally agree. The memorisation path is strewn with trip wires, steel traps and squelchy bogs. Reading it to us is doom, be that off a piece of paper or from text on screen, so certainly email it to us, instead of that very bad delivery idea.

The key secret here is simple. Only you know what you are going to say, so if you mess up the order or leave a bit out, only you know that and please, do us all a favour and keep such a piece of intelligence to yourself. I had rehearsed a talk for a Convention audience as the closing speaker and despite all of that effort, I was suddenly and inexplicably going from my point three to my point five, while I was delivering it. It was like an out-of-body experience, observing myself departing from what I had rehearsed. Only I knew the order though, so I just plonked point four down after point five and carried on shamelessly, as if this was all part of the grand plan.

3. Work on stage presence - but remember that your story matters more than how you stand or whether you’re visibly nervous.
Chris makes the point that jiggling the body around when speaking is distracting for an audience. Quite true, but some speakers can’t help themselves. The adrenalin being pumped into the body by the brain which was sensing fear, is such a strong chemical reaction they cannot control themselves very easily.

The solution is stand on the one spot and don't move. Also do tons and tons of repetition in rehearsal, so that you are so confident in your material, that you can order all the butterflies zapping around in your tummy to fly in formation. Look at the people in the audience who are nodding their heads or smiling in approval of what you are saying and avoid all eye contact with those who look grumpy, adversarial or negative. This will boost your confidence and help you to control the nerves

4. Plan the multimedia - whatever you do, don’t read from PowerPoint slides.
Yes, please don’t read to us. Using photos is a bit of a favourite of mine, because the audience can understand the photo in 2 seconds and then I can add my spin to what this photo represents. When I did my own TED talk, this was the technique I used.

5. Put it together - play to your strengths and be authentic.
Being natural and conversational rather than pontificating, lecturing or sermonising is a good idea, as the audience can absorb the message more easily. None of us need a wannabe thespian or a baroque orator for our next speaker. Using pauses is a good idea too, because it is a natural phenomenon and it helps to direct your mind to what needs to come next. If the nerves are driving the speaking speed up too much, then a short pause gives you the break you need to redirect to the right speed.

When presenting some things work better than others. The good news is there are tons of resources to guide us on our quest. Using trial and error is an extremely bad idea because remember this is your personal and professional brand which you are exposing to the world every time you get up to talk.

When I was preparing for my TED talk, the thought that this talk of mine could potentially be accessed and assessed by millions of people, scared the hell out of me and made me rehearse like a demon on speed. I suggest we all do that for every talk, TED or otherwise and when we do, we will do a much better job of it.