Matt Eventoff

What do Lincoln, Kennedy and Churchill  have to do with communicating in 2012?  Everything!

We are a little over three weeks into 2012, with myriad communication disasters, from major crisis communication errors to communication errors that have directly resulted in a crisis. 

Why?

Failure to remember the ABC’s of effective communication.

I am excited to announce that I have written a manifesto, published today by ChangeThis,  entitled “It Really Is As Simple As ABC: What Leaders Can Learn From Masterful Orators of The Past.” 

Change This, owned and operated by business book giant 800-CEO-Read and led by Dylan Schleicher, is changing the way business ideas are exchanged, and I am excited to join authors and thought leaders such as Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Tom Peters,  Seth Godin , Guy Kawasaki, and many others on this platform.

The manifesto is available for free, can be dowloaded here,  and is a quick read with implementable communication lessons for everyone.  It contains fundamental communication principles that can benefit anyone, whether a CEO commenting publicly or a call center employee answering a customer. 

If you have trouble accessing the document, please let me know and I will forward it to you.  Please forward it on to anyone who may benefit from it, and I would appreciate any feedback or commentary.  Thank you.

Whether taking a company public, introducing a new product to market, delivering a new lecture or simply leading a team meeting, the conclusion is crucial to the success of any presentation.  It is the final impression to you will leave your audience with.  Last week we went over three ways to effectively end a speech. So what are other effective ways to close a speech or presentation?  Here are three more  of my favorites:

1. Vision - Illustrate a vision of what your call to action will result in.  Dr. Martin Luther King illustrated this with the final words of his epic “I Have a Dream” speech:

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

2. (Very) Short Story/Anecdote - Based on the principle of show, don’t tell:  Use a very brief story or anecdote to drive a message.  I had a Major League Baseball player as a client, and he very effectively told the following (abridged) story to end a presentation about teamwork: 

So Coach entered the locker-room after a pretty tough game where a number of us had standout performances and the result was….a big loss.  One of our players went four for four – Coach called him by his last name, Smith, asked him to come up front, and then asked him to stand with the back of his uniform facing the rest of the players.  .  Then he asked a kid who had just been called up from the minors, Jones, to do the same thing.  He then said “Smith, Jones I want you to turn around.”  When they did, he pointed to the front of the uniform and reminded us all – “You play for the name on the front of the jersey (the team) not the name on the back (your own).”

3. Contrast – One of my favorites, and is even more effective when tied directly in to the call to action.  “We can have____, or we can have ______.  The choice is ours, and is based entirely on the decision we each individually make today.  _____.  Or _____. ( I know I’m choosing _____.)”

If you missed Part I., please find it here.

These are just a few examples – there are a number of effective endings (challenges,  and techniques to set up those endings that I will go over in future posts.  If you are working on a presentation and need help with an ending, contact me here.

The moment of truth has arrived.  You had them entranced at the open.  The audience was clearly focused, nodding as you delivered your message; eyes locked as you wove through a carefully crafted medley of stories, anecdotes and analogies, all supporting your message. There is no question that the majority of your audience probably agrees with what you are saying.   Empowered, the time has come to conclude, at which point you exclaim:

“In conclusion, I appreciate your time to hear about ________. Thank you.”

…and then nothing happens.  Everyone quietly claps, or just nods, and leaves the auditorium or conference room.

What can you do to prevent this from occurring?   Here are three effective techniques for closing a speech or presentation:

Whether taking a company public, introducing a new product to market, delivering a new lecture or simply leading a team meeting, the conclusion is crucial to the success of any address  It is the final impression to you will leave your audience with.  So what are other effective ways to close?  Here are three of my favorites:

1. Direct Call to Action – I am a believer that a speech or presentation without a clear call to some type of action is a speech or presentation that probably is not worth giving. 

While not appropriate for every address, there is no clearer call to action than a direct call to action.  ex.  ”In order to guarantee that we save ______ tomorrow, we need to _____ today!”  “If every person in this room leaves and immediately _____, I can guarantee that will result in ______ next year?

2. Quote - Short, appropriate, powerful quotes are effective as openers, and short, appropriate, powerful quotes are effective for closing.  With a plethora of resources available to get quotes in an instant,  it is now possible to come up with a quality opening, or ending anywhere.

3.  Call-to-Question – Ending with a rhetorical question that captures the message and leaves the audience thinking, especially one that ties a call to action directly in is often very effective.  ex.  What choice will you make when you leave here today?  Will you ____, or will you go about your normal routine?

Stay tuned next week for Closing a Speech or Presentation, Pt. II.  For ideas on how to effectively open a speech or presentation, please click here and here.

“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression” – Will Rogers

This quote certainly holds true for speeches, presentations, group meetings and any other public speaking opportunity that exists.   Your opening often determines just how much of your presentation the audience is going to “tune in” for.   If the first impression the audience has is “B-O-R-I-N-G’ there is little chance of the presentation effectively reaching that audience.

I went over four of my favorites – Q-W-I-Q — in a previous post:   Quote, ”What if” scenario, “Imagine” scenario or using a Question.   These are by no means the only effective ways to open.  Here are a few more favorites:

1) Silence - Yes, silence. A pause, whether two seconds or twenty seconds, allows your audience to sit and quiet down.  Most audiences expect a speaker to begin immediately – an extra pause brings all attention right where you should want it – on you.

2) A Statistic- Not a boring statistic.  A surprising statistic; a powerful statistic; a personalized statistic.   

“Look to your left. Now look to your right.  One of your seatmates will ___________.”  

“In this room,   over 90% of us are going to _________.”

3) A  Statement – A powerful statement, left to hang with a pause after, is very, very effective.  Inspirational locker room speeches often start this way, as do inspirational political speeches (when they occur)

“We cannot win.  We can’t win.”

(Pause)

That’s what every newspaper in the country is saying…..

4) A Word (or Phrase) — again, the emphasis is on the word or phrase being compelling.

Conflict (long pause)

Never again (long pause)

Again, these are simply suggestions of other effective techniques to use to open a speech or presentation.  Please stay tuned for more tips and techniques, as well as a new feature, the “Messaging Minute”….

The audience is seated.  The lights dim and the room quiets.  All eyes are on the dais.   All too often, this is what is heard to open the speech or presentation:

“Hi, thank you for having me.  It is an honor to be here with you today.   My name is ____ _______, and I am going to be speaking to you today about_______.”

Looking around, here is what I tend to see:

1) People reviewing a physical copy of the program, their notes, even the labeling on the sugar on the table;

2) T-U-T/T-O-T – Typing under table/typing on table. The smartphones are out in force; it is not unusual to see laptops, netbooks or tablets out and being utilized as well;

3) Eyes looking up.  Eyes looking down;

4) Eyes looking everywhere but at the speaker.

So how do you effectively open a speech or presentation? 

There are a number of effective ways to open a speech or presentation.  Here are four:

1) A Quote – Name a topic, and more often than not there is a great quote or saying that suits your subject matter perfectly. An example - one that I often use to open a presentaiton dealing with public speaking:

 ”It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” – Mark Twain

2) A “What If” Scenario – Drawing your audience into your presentation is important and doing it immediately works wonders.  Getting your audience thinking right away by painting a scenario is very effective. 

3) An “Imagine” Scenario – Same thought process.  Putting your audience members directly into the presentation by allowing each member to visualize a scenario is a great tool

4) A Question – Rhetorical or literal; When someone is posed with a question, whether an answer is called for or not, that person intuitively answers, even if just in his or her mind, and now that person is involved. 

I will be periodically adding more opening tips. Stay tuned…