Episode #204: Being Clear And Being Hopeful

Speaking is easy, so being clear should be easy too. Well that sounds good in theory, but there is more hope in play here, than actual technique going on. Imagining that your usual conversation style is sufficient for presentations is another exercise in hopeful thinking. Wait a minute, people say that we should speak in a conversational style, so isn’t this confusing or contradictory? What is meant by “conversational” is that the feeling should be relaxed, familiar and inclusive rather than aloof, stiff and hierarchical. Being clear when speaking to audiences is no accident. Careful planning is needed and so is a pair of pruning shears to trim the excess from your discourse.

We have a common tendency in casual speech, to spend a lot of time saying something which can be communicated much more economically. Often, we begin by making a reasonably clear statement and we are doing well in the speaking clearly stakes. Then we spoil it, by adding a lot more content to the same point. In one of our speaking exercises called the Magic Formula, the action step the speaker is recommending and the benefit of that action, both have to be communicated in five seconds each. How hard can that be, you might be thinking?

In our training classes, I hear the participant punch out the key point clearly and in time, but then they just keep adding and pilling on the words. They begin to waffle. This is a habit we need to kill, when making more formal presentations. Today’s audience of thrusting multi taskers have no patience with dross. In fact, they have no patience period. They lurch for their mobile phones and seek refuge in the internet, to escape that white noise in the background. That white noise is you by the way, taking too long to get to the point.

Being clear revolves around having a crystal central message, which has been constantly worked on until you can write in on a grain of rice. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but the point is to get it down to as few words as possible. This requires massive effort to get clarity of the message you want to convey. Once you have sieved the nuggets of your speech, then you start looking for the framework to hang the speech on. You need a structure that arranges the point being conveyed wrapped, bound tightly by evidence. A great example of evidence is to tell the background as a story, involving events, people, places, seasons and times. Evidence can also be statistics, examples, data – anything that will satisfy the logical types in your audience, who only believe in facts.

This main body of the speech is where the key arguments are made and it has to be tight, tight, tight. We arrange the argument, point then evidence, point then evidence, all through the main points. We do so while employing brutal brevity. Get out those razor sharp pruning shears. If the content isn’t strongly supporting your key points with muscular evidence, then tighten it up or cut it out. Getting each key point down in size, gives you greater scope to add more salient points. Usually, in a thirty minute talk, you will get through around three to four main points. Three main sections of the speech packed to the gunnels with waffle and fat with fluff, destroys your credibility. Instead compare that to five major points supporting the argument, all lean like a racing greyhound. We should be keen to glean the dynamite points from all the material available and make room for as many of those power points as we can manage.

The flow between the points should be silky smooth, with the end sentence of one setting up the start of the next section of the points and proof you are putting forward. We need a bridge between the sections rather than lurching abruptly from one point to a different point. Doing it this way will be baffling our audience. Often this is what happens though. The speaker wanders all over the place, frothing up three or four main arguments and leaving a trail of confused punters in their wake. Waffling on is the mantra of the graduates of the Hopeful School of Public Speaking. We don’t want hope, we are going for clarity and surety.

Speaking speed is a tricky balance. We don’t want to kill our audience by bludgeoning them with a monotone, lifeless delivery. We want to speak with a lot of energy and naturally we tend to speed up in the process. The more passionate and engaged we become, often the faster we go. We need to maintain the passion, but adjust the torrent flow. More pauses, shorter sentences and a good cadence are best. If you notice you are speeding up, then stop speaking and create a small pause, so that you can regroup and continue at a better pace. Concentrate your passion and energy on key words which you want to emphasise. Doing this will mean they stand out in the mind of the audience. All words are not equal. We choose which ones to give more power to, making them stronger.

Speaking powerfully, clearly and with passion is a brilliant combination. This is the result of planning not hope. The other key success ingredient is to practice. Getting the cadence right only comes through practice. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech wasn’t the first time he had delivered it. He had given it many times refining it and practicing it, until he had a sufficiently large enough stage to make it a beacon for racial equality.