If you want to do your best possible work on an important presentation, start early. Don’t wait until the last minute and then cram; cram early then refine.
Imagine how much better your presentations would be if you had your own staff of brilliant but undisciplined and overly enthusiastic speechwriters to help you. You convene a meeting and lay out your overall message and an outline of your key points, then leave them to keep working on it while you do other things. While you’re doing something else, they continue working on it 24/7, dredging up long-forgotten information, making connections, and searching for new information. They may throw out dozens of ideas in rapid fire, most of which are bad or so-so, but occasionally one which is brilliant. The more time they have, the more ideas they come up with.
The catch is that whenever they come up with something they think is really good, they have to tell you immediately, even if you are in the middle of an important conversation, and more often than not they will actually walk in on you while you’re in the shower or wake you in the middle of a deep sleep.
That, in essence, describes the relationship between your conscious mind and your unconscious. Your conscious mind is the CEO of your thoughts, and the only part of them of which you’re aware. The vast majority of our “thinking” is taking place in our unconscious mind. Our unconscious mind is far busier than we know. By definition, we’re not conscious of its thoughts, but it’s always working even if we’re not aware of what it’s doing.
I’ve always understood this via my own practical experience, without having a clear grasp of the neuroscience behind it. It happens to me all the time. I outline my presentation or blog post, wrestle with the first draft, then set it aside. But then, I will get a flash of insight—a fully-formed thought that makes perfect sense, or maybe just another way of saying something, or a fresh angle on the problem. It happens most when I’m in the shower, driving, or sleeping. I can’t will it to happen, but it happens so regularly that there must be something going on.
There is, and John Bargh explains it very clearly in his book, Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do.
There’s a lot of fascinating material in the book, but the key point relative to presentations is that when your mind wanders it’s not aimless or random—it’s actually very goal-directed. It hates leaving things undone. What’s fascinating is that when you consciously think about a problem certain regions of your brain are activated. When you think you’ve stopped thinking about it, those same regions stay activated, indicating that your mind is still working on the problem. That means that while you can’t control your unconscious, you can direct it.
And your unconscious is so much more powerful than your conscious in several ways, all of which can improve your presentation if you give it time. It digs out stuff you forgot you knew; it makes unexpected connections; processes infinitely faster; and it tunes your attention to relevant information in your environment. (Like when you’re considering buying a certain car model, you suddenly notice so many more of them on the road.)
Here are a few suggestions for tapping the full potential of your unconscious:
- It works best when you have a clear goal. For a presentation, deciding on your theme is a great way to plant a flag to inspire it to action.
- Put in some good hard quality time up-front, thinking carefully about your points and supporting evidence.
- Don’t overdo the early cramming. Your unconscious works best when the job is incomplete.
- Write it down ASAP, or your unconscious will think you don’t care and forget about it. I’m old school, which is why I carry a Moleskine with me everywhere I go.
- Give your mind room to roam. Put down your phone once in a while and get comfortable with your own thoughts.
One of the best ways to add power and sparkle to your speech is to use an apt quotation.
As Brendan Behan said, “A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority.” That “borrowed” authority from more accomplished and better-known experts is an excellent way to add power to your argument.
Quotations can also add sparkle and even a certain literary flair through the clever way they’re phrased. As Montaigne said, “I quote others only the better to express myself.”
But like any strong medicine, quotations need to come with a warning label. The first is that if you overuse them you may be perceived as not having your own point of view. As Dorothy L. Sayers said, “A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.”[1] Second, just like any medicine used past its expiration date may be ineffective or even harmful, many quotations have become clichés and have outlived their usefulness. Almost anything attributed (correctly or incorrectly) to Twain or Einstein falls into this category. Finally, just as some medicines need to be taken with food, any quotation you use should be a supplement to your own original point of view, not a substitute.
Here are a few additional tips to use quotations effectively:
- Make sure you quote them correctly and assign proper credit. If Einstein had said half the things people attribute to him, he never would have had time to think about relativity. It’s so easy to check quotations that you look lazy if you don’t.
- In you’re unfamiliar with the person who said it, look them up[2]. This may prevent embarrassment, as I suffered once when I quoted Konrad Lorenz and then found out that he was tainted by association with the Nazi party.
- Quote someone especially meaningful to your particular audience, such as their own company’s CEO or someone respected in their industry. I’ve had good success with highly technical audiences, for example, by quoting Richard Feynman.
- Dig a little deeper to go beyond the ones everyone already knows. Everyone has heard some variation of: “Sorry for sending such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one,” but he also said: “NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS. CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS. NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES”.[3]
- When using them in a speech, keep them short, both so you don’t bore your audience and so you can memorize them and not have to read them off your screen. It’s OK to edit a long quotation as long as you don’t distort the original meaning.
[1] Normally I would not use so many quotations in one post, but it is about quotations…
[2] As I had to do for two of the quotes above. Brendan Behan was an Irish poet, and Dorothy Sayers an English crime writer and poet.
[3] In fairness, this one may be apocryphal.
It’s rare to score an interview with Mark Twain these days, mainly because he has been dead for over 100 years. But with the help of goodreads.com, I was able to get him to open up about his views on public speaking and persuasive communication in general.
Mr. Twain, thank you for agreeing to talk to me.
I love to hear myself talk, because I get so much instruction and moral upheaval out of it.
Why have you agreed to talk now?
From the first, second, third and fourth editions (of my autobiography) all sound and sane expressions of opinion must be left out. There may be a market for that kind of wares a century from now. There is no hurry. Wait and see.
What’s your view on persuasive communication?
There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory.
What’s the best way to convince an audience?
I know all about audiences, they believe everything you say, except when you are telling the truth.
There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition; there are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it.
Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.
Most people use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost; more for support than for illumination.
It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.
Facts contain a great deal of poetry, but you can’t use too many of them without damaging your literature.
Eloquence is the essential thing in a speech, not information.
So, does that mean you think emotion is more important than logic?
It is easier to manufacture seven facts than one emotion.
You’re not really that cynical, are you?
When in doubt, tell the truth.
Use what you stand for and what you oppose as a foundation to write great content that resonates with readers and creates a ripple effect.
How important is it to be concise?
If you have nothing to say, say nothing. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
Anybody can have ideas—the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.
Let’s talk for a bit about how to be clear.
Plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.
And to those who insist on using big pretentious words?
I never write metropolis for seven cents because I can get the same price for city. I never write policeman because I can get the same money for cop.
She never used large words, but she had a natural gift for making small ones do effective work.
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between the lightening and the lightening bug.
What’s the best way to tell a story?
I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told.
Begin at the beginning, go on until the end, then stop.
Do you think people should write out their speeches?
Written things are not for speech; their form is literary; they are stiff, inflexible, and will not lend themselves to happy and effective delivery with the tongue–where their purpose is to merely entertain, not instruct; they have to be limbered up, broken up, colloquialized and turned into common forms of premeditated talk–otherwise they will bore the house and not entertain it.
Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.
So you think impromptu speaking is better?
The best and most telling speech is not the actual impromptu one, but the counterfeit of it … that speech is most worth listening to which has been carefully prepared in private and tried on a plaster cast, or an empty chair, or any other appreciative object that will keep quiet, until the speaker has got his matter and his delivery limbered up so that they will seem impromptu to an audience.
As a humorist, what advice would you give speakers about using humor in a presentation?
Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.
One can be both entertained and educated and not know the difference.
Do you ever get nervous before a speech?
There are two kinds of speakers. Those who are nervous and those who are liars.
To succeed in life, you need two things; ignorance and confidence.
Finally, what is your take on motivational speakers?
To be good is noble. To tell other people how to be good is even nobler and much less trouble.
I’m not sure I agree with all your views.
Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
I just read an article on LinkedIn in which the author blamed the audience for their poor etiquette in talking or checking their devices during a speech, and I could not disagree more. Poor etiquette it may be, but it is also honest feedback and therefore an indispensable gift to the speaker.
That’s why I don’t like it when the person introducing me at a training event or speech asks the audience members to close their laptops and give me their undivided attention. Of course they mean well, because it can be disconcerting to a speaker when people aren’t paying attention or –even worse—are typing emails while you’re talking.
But look at what happens when they’re not explicitly asked to put away their distractors. As the class begins, maybe a bare majority of the participants close their laptops and sit up and face you. You begin with a strong opening, a few laptop lids come down; you give them the big SO WHAT for what they’re about to hear, a few more lids (laptops, not eyes) come down; maybe you challenge them or ask a tough question, move around the room a bit, use their names to engage them personally, and within minutes all eyes are industriously on you. A little later, you might notice fingers starting to twitch and eyes starting to glance at their phones, you know it’s time for a change of pace or maybe even a break.
But you only know all this because you are paying attention to their unintentional honest feedback. Their feedback allows you to modify and fine-tune and control the message to make sure you’re delivering the value they expect.
Don’t blame your audience for not paying attention. It’s like blaming your body for running a fever when it’s just a symptom of a real malady: you and/or your message is not compelling enough to make them want to close the laptop and sit up and listen for all they’re worth. If they’re not listening, they’re not buying, and they’re not buying because they don’t get the value. It’s your job to get them to see it.
However, it’s also possible to try too hard to own the entire audience. Audiences can be very diverse, and some people who are required to be there may not actually get value from what you’re saying. Or maybe someone really has a fire to put out somewhere and has to attend to it. If you work too hard to draw them in, you run the risk of losing the rest of the audience. Unless they’re distracting others, ignore them and focus on those who really care.
Blaming your audience for not listening is like blaming a customer for not buying. It may make you feel good, but it doesn’t help you improve your pitch or your product.
