Episode #28: Presentation Advice for Japanese Politicians

Vince Staples, American Hip Hop Rapper, was recently quoted in a Financial Times interview, “You have to paint the picture because everyone doesn’t come from the same background”. Even a humble Long Beach rapper gets the point of engaging our audience with stories when we are the speaker. Japanese politicians have to do a lot of public speaking, but they are rarely engaging. They are generally speaking at their audiences rather than to them. I previously attended the Japan Summit at the Okura Hotel Ball Room run by the Economist. Sitting there listening to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, then Minister for National Strategic Zones Shigeru Ishiba and then Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Akira Amari, I was struck by the lack of picture painting and storytelling in their presentations.

By the way, if you have seen Prime Minister Abe of late, he has improved quite a bit. Whether it was some coaching before the Olympic bid or thereafter, the man is much better. More animated, using bigger gestures, more eye contact, using those see through teleprompters to help engage the audience rather than looking down at a page of notes. He had humour, pauses for clarity and some voice modulation. Hey Japan, take note, it is possible to become better at public speaking!

I can’t give a similar praiseworthy account for his other colleagues. They are generally a dull bunch. I flash back to Abe’s arch rival Shigeru Ishiba, who also spoke that day at the Summit. Sprawled in his seat, eyes looking up and away in the distance at some obscure spot of the upper reaches of the Grand Ballroom wall, he spoke in a voice dripping in disinterest, leavened with lethargy and boredom. He absolutely proved Professor Albert Mehrabian’s rule that when what you say (content) is incongruent with the way you say it (delivery), then 93% of the message is missed.

Here is the scary part. I closed my eyes and tried to just concentrate on the words and actually the content was pretty good and well considered. If we took the transcript and showed it to people, I am sure they would be impressed with how he was analyzing the situtaion. But he totally murdered his message.

I doubt anyone in the room got many of the points he was making. Why was that? He could have made a few adjustments and the message worth and delivery could have coincided to be very powerful and build his brand with his audience. This mediocre effort is typical of the political and business worlds in Japan. They are simply not making enough effort to become effective communicators. Sometimes you feel you are stuck in time and we are back in the 1950s here.

Minister Amari was polite, nice, but boring. He was boring because like Abe and Ishiba, he was dancing the two step data dump of information. This is a problem in corporates as well, as the leader gets up and drills the audience with detail, detail and more detail. The idea that the purity or the quality of my information is superior and sufficient, is so grossly outdated and incorrect, you wonder how it could survive in this 24/7, totally connected, information overloaded world.

CFOs and other technical types, please take note – don’t bore us with your data.

Tell us a story, pleeease! Bring the points being made to life by connecting them to some people and events you have encountered. Our minds are well trained to absorb stories, because they are the first educational structure we encounter as young children. The story should start with taking us to the place of the story, the location, the room, nominate the day, month or the season and introduce the people there, preferably people we already know, to make it real for us.

By getting straight into the story we can draw our audience in. We can now intertwine the context behind the point we want our audience to agree with. By providing the background logic, cloaked in a story which is vivid, we can see it in our mind’s eye. We will have more success convincing others to follow us. Having set the scene, we finish by outlining our proposition or proposal and tie the ribbon on top, by pin pointing the major benefit of doing what we suggest. This is elegant and powerful.

Storytelling does suffer from misuse. American politicians lead the world in this regard. Like many things in America there is gross exaggeration. If a story is good, then ten stories must be better. That is why we hear politicians referencing various Joe Public individuals in their speeches, trying to connect with their audience. Usually it comes across as fake, duplicitous, over cooked and shady.

In business, we don’t want any of that inference, so we should use storytelling sparingly yet powerfully. Less is more, but none is bad. Unite our disparate audience from multiple backgrounds by wrapping our key message in a story and if you do, what you say will be remembered, unlike almost all Japanese politicians. Let the story create your context, evidence and sizzle for your key message

Action Steps:

1. Stop believing the quality or quantity of your information is enough
2. Don’t try and pack too many stories into your presentation
3. Start the story by creating a vivid mind picture of the scene

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "The Presentations Japan Series" and "The Sales Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.