Speeches and Presenting - Tips and Techniques

This article from Denise Winterman from the BBC caught our eye recently, and we thought we'd share it with you...

A brilliant speech can go down in history. But most of us write words the world will never listen to. Can speech-writing teach us skills for dealing with tricky situations in everyday life?

Pants. Just one of the reasons the US Embassy in Britain is currently advertising for a speech-writer. It says knowledge of the nuances between the Queen's English and American English is vital, for obvious reasons.

However speech-writing is about much more than trying to avoid red faces. As far back as the ancient Greeks, the power of carefully crafted words has been fully understood and expertly exploited.

But rather than being all about creative flair a good speech-writer uses a number of techniques to get a point across. And these verbal tools are not only useful at the lectern, anyone can use them in everyday situations, from handling a boisterous child to reasoning with a traffic warden.
This is because speech-writing is the language of persuasion. And the average day largely consists of trying to persuade people, says Dr Max Atkinson, a communications consultant and author of Speech-Making and Presentation Made Easy.

"The way words are put together makes all the difference," he says. "It's often thought that great speakers are blessed with a gift, but they all use the same techniques. What makes people stand out is how often they use them.

"These techniques are the building blocks of effective speech-writing and can be used in other areas of life. Some people use them without even knowing. They are usually the best speakers and the most persuasive people, but anyone can learn them."

Mantra

Study great speeches and you will soon see a formula, agrees Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College London. While some are more complex, others are relatively simple.

What makes the techniques adaptable to everyday life is the fact that language is governed by rules - rules we all learn from the time we begin to peak.

"Even the smallest child is learning the rules of language, and language acquisition and so these techniques can be applied to them," says Dr Atkinson.

"Research has shown that you can get a different reaction from a child depending on how you speak to them. Like everyone else, they respond to the way something is said."

In a nutshell, a great speech is communication at its most effective, and we all want to communicate effectively in whatever situation we find ourselves in, says professional speech-writer Lawrence Bernstein.

"The rules and techniques of good communication work on all levels - if you're on a stage speaking to thousands of people, asking your boss for a pay rise, trying to buy a new house, or teaching a class of 10 year olds."

So what are the best techniques?

CONTRASTS

A tactic used by John F Kennedy and by Margaret Thatcher.

People are still quoting JFK's line: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." And Baroness Thatcher was at her most formidable when she famously told the 1980 Tory party conference: "You turn if you want to, the lady's not for turning."

"Using contrasts is a real winner," says Dr Atkinson. "Research shows 33% of the applause a good speech gets is when a contrast is used.

"This is because you are often using a negative and then a positive and that has impact. It makes your point bigger and better."

It's a technique that translates into everyday life, especially with children. While explaining they can't have one thing, it's good to point out what they can have instead. "No, you can't have a skateboard of your own, but you can have a go on your brother's."

THREE-PART LISTS

Three really is the magic number. "Education, education, education" - Tony Blair's 1997 election-winning mantra. Or it can be a list as simple as "here, there and everywhere".

It's a technique used by US President Barack Obama - he used 29 three-part lists in roughly 10 minutes during his victory speech on election night, says Dr Atkinson.

The theory behind the technique is that three is the first and earliest point at which a possible list of similar words can become unequivocal. No other word needs to be added to make it a list.

"It's about completeness. A third word can give confirmation and completes a point," says Dr Atkinson. "It applies in all walks of life. Church services and prayer books are full of three-part lists. Research has shown that people know a prayer is finished when it ends with them praying for three things. They know to say 'Amen' and don't have to be prompted."

Also, it is economical - a third word is the earliest point at which a possible connection, implied by the first two, is confirmed. If you carry on listing items, say speech-writing experts, you risk being criticised for "going on and on". It can be the same in life in general.

IMAGERY AND ANECDOTES

Be it "opening doors" or "breaking down barriers", paint a carefully constructed picture with your words.

"It's about taking people on a journey and making it memorable," says Prof Furnham. "Imagery and anecdotes are some of the best ways to do this and they can personalise things."
Again, it's President Obama who experts say is a master of this technique.

"He knows how to use imagery both to increase impact and to make his points. He paints an image but also evokes associations with great communicators of the past like Lincoln and King," says Dr Atkinson.

This technique works whether addressing a nation, or guests at a wedding, say experts.

BREAK THE RULES

A good speech-writer knows the rules to follow, and also how to break these to maximum effect. There is always room for the unexpected in a great speech, and in life, says Phil Collins, former speech-writer for Tony Blair.

If done well it can grab people's attention - and he should know. Mr Collins penned Mr Blair's joke about there being no danger of his wife "running off with the bloke next door".

It was one of the former prime minister's most unexpected and memorable lines, delivered in his last speech to a Labour conference in 2006. It was deftly done and showed a real understanding of Blair and Gordon Brown's prickly relationship.

"No one was expecting it, which is what made it so good and so memorable," he says. "Pitched right and delivered well, something unexpected will make people sit up and listen."

Great Leadership Skills - Delegation

The great leader realises that they cannot have hands-on control of every aspect of their work. In order to effectively deliver on the demands placed on them, they should rely on relevant members of their team for support. The leader that can successfully delegate will enjoy a greater level of achievement.

The Benefits of effective delegation are:

Top performers will be attracted by your approach and want to join your team, poor performers won’t!

You will have more time to focus on strategy and forward looking tasks

Team members will be motivated by the responsibility

Team members will be given the opportunity to ‘shine’

Your team will be more efficient

When carried out effectively, delegation can be a huge motivating factor for a team. Conversely, the team can be deeply de-motivated when a leader abdicates responsibility for tasks, palms off work that they do not like or delegates the task, but not the responsibility to complete it.

With this in mind, we must ensure that we are delegating work for the right reasons, at the right times and in the right way. First we must establish what it is we should, and should not, be delegating.

Do not delegate work that you can remove completely. If it is something that really does not have to be done, remove it.

Delegate routine activities that you may use to procrastinate. Things like filing, photocopying, data entry, collecting data – If it takes up a lot of time and someone else is better placed to do it, pass it on.

Things that you are not the expert at. If another member of the team will do a better job of it, let them.

Small projects – if a project can be completed by one of your team and you know it will develop their skills, discuss it with them and see if they want to take up the challenge.
Do not delegate something just because you don’t like doing it. This isn’t fair and will lose you respect.

Do not delegate jobs that require your level of authority or tasks that have a high level of responsibility and accountability i.e. job interviews, disciplinary meetings etc. (unless of course this is part of the role your team deal with).

The key is to be practical about delegation. Think about your motives behind why you are delegating. If you are honest with yourself, it is likely that you will choose the right reasons to delegate.

It is also important to delegate the authority and responsibility with the task. There is nothing worse than a leader who delegates the task, but then restricts the team member’s ability to complete it because they somehow feel they must retain control. If you are happy for that person to take on the task, you should be comfortable that they have the ability to get results.

Having said this, you should delegate the task, not abdicate it. The individual should not be left feeling that a task has been dumped on them with no more involvement from you. Schedule regular updates, ask casually how the person is progressing, give and ask for feedback and allow them to find their own way with guidance from you if required.

For positive results, you can follow this simple process...

1. Define Your Desired Results
   
2. Select an Appropriate Team Member
   
3. Clarify Expectations and Set Clear Parameters
   
4. Give Authority and Responsibility to Agreed Level
   
5. Provide Background Information
   
6. Establish a Clear Feedback Process

By following this simple process you will ensure that the person you delegate to feels that they have your full support throughout the process. Where they feel that the challenge is too demanding, they should have every opportunity to let you know.

One final thought to consider is that once the team member completes the task, you should ensure they receive the credit and your thanks. By celebrating their success you not only build a motivated workforce, you also ensure that your team are willing to work on further tasks for you.

This article is an excerpt from the Trainer Bubble training materials, 'Great Leadership', which you can purchase from our website at http://www.trainerbubble.com

Where the money goes...

Did you know that in a UK class of 30 at least two of the children will have a parent that is employed by the NHS? The NHS is the fourth largest employer in the world.

In 1987-88 our government total expenditure was £339.9bn compared to £541.8bn in 2007-08. The signs are that this is going to increase dramatically moving on.

The FT Today has an interesting collection of stats regarding the UK expenditure now and in the past. You need to register, but it is free.

These stats are extremely useful when providing training and can be used to demonstrate growth, development, expenditure and excess! We suggest you take a look to find out more.

Client Relationships

Anyone who works as a training consultant and bills customers for work is likely to see the humour in this great video clip that we came across recently. Well, it made us laugh!

Great Leadership Skills - Being Inclusive

A great leader realises that in order to ensure they achieve the best results, they must include the expertise and knowledge of their team in the decision making process. This approach means that leaders get the best from their people through empowerment, encouraging contributions and nurturing talent - rather than simply rewarding good work.

Far from just developing their own skills and knowledge, the great leader is determined to develop those around them by including them in key decisions, identifying and recognising the talents of people within the team and generally creating an environment where everyone not only feels they can contribute, but is positively encouraged to do so.

A great leader will also recognise that there may well be other leaders in their team and just because they have the title of leader, does not mean that the contributions from others should be ignored. There are times when everyone needs to display leadership skills within an organisation and a ‘titled’ leader ignores this at their peril.

Most people will agree that they are most willing to change and adapt when they have been included in the decision making process. If you think of your own experiences I’m sure you will be able to recall times when you have been reluctant to follow a leader because you felt that you had no say in the process. By being inclusive and valuing the opinion of our team, we develop a strong sense of belonging and create an attitude that the team can overcome any challenge. The importance of this to the success of a department and ultimately the organisation is huge.

This is a short excerpt from the training materials, 'Great Leadership', which you can purchase at the Trainer Bubble website.

HSE gets tough on Stress Management

Employers are being urged to improve their management of stress at work issues after it emerged that the Health and Safety Executive issued an improvement notice for stress against the Lincolnshire NHS Trust.

This latest improvement notice shows that the HSE will not shy away from taking action when employers fail to meet their stress management obligations under the health & safety laws.

You should always take the health of your staff seriously and stress is often an area that is overlooked as the symptoms are not always physically displayed. Of course, this does not make stress any less important and we have an obligation to ensure that staff who become subject to stress issues are treated with the respect and care they deserve.

Recent statistics confirm that work-related stress is widespread in the UK working population and is not confined to particular sectors or high risk jobs or industries.

An annual absence survey carried out last year by CBI/AXA, found that non work-related stress, anxiety and depression was the most common cause of long-term absence. Government guidelines on how to manage it and a growing pile of evidence on tackling stress have not solved the problem.

Another report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists adds that sickness absences due to mental health problems such as stress are likely to be longer than those caused by physical health problems, accounting for 47% of long-term absence.

It is important that all businesses take the subject of stress management seriously. Ensuring staff are aware of stress issues and how to cope goes some way to ensuring they are better prepared to cope with stressful situations. Add to this a clear policy on stress and a structured method of working and levels of workplace stress can be reduced.

Make your staff aware of Stress Management and methods of coping with stress by delivering the Trainer Bubble training course materials on Stress Management.

Embed a key learning point through humorous movies!

Always on the look out for novel ways to get a message across during training courses, I was excited when I found a collection of websites that allow you to subtitle your own words over different movie clips. These movies allow you to create your own input and develop a memorable clip related to any topic you want to present to your participants.

The possibilities are endless and you can play around with the idea as much as you want until you feel it is right. The method of delivery is both fun and memorable as the following clip on this link will show...

http://www.grapheine.com/classiktv/index.php?module=see&lang=uk&code=0a8dcc77381389d614bd8ff2f89e3be3

Give it a go yourself. You might want to use it to get across a message about a new product or to embed learning from a training issue that you are discussing. Here's another one I put together in about 2 minutes...

http://www.grapheine.com/classiktv/index.php?module=see&lang=fr&code=053a194bd64ba3387025223f43b202e6

Here's a few links of sites that provide this free service...

http://www.grapheine.com/classiktv/index.php

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/v2/

http://www.grapheine.com/futeboltv/

Have fun!

Ridiculous Customer Complaints - A fun activity

I recently came across 20 ridiculous customer complaints. A list made up from research by Thomas Cook and ABTA.

Having looked at the complaints and laughing a lot, it occurred to me that this might make a fun activity to carry out during a customer care or complaint handling training session. You simply provide the participants with the list of ridiculous complaints and ask them to come up with the best response possible by way of feedback. This will test their ability to respond to customer demands as well as providing a bit of fun to the training session.

Here's the list...

1. A tourist at a top African game lodge overlooking a waterhole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel "inadequate".
   
2. A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she’d been locked in by staff. When in fact, she had mistaken the “do not disturb” sign on the back of the door as a warning to remain in the room
   
3. "The beach was too sandy."
   
4. A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.
   
5. "Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."
   
6. "We bought 'Ray-Ban' sunglasses for five euros (£3.50) from a street trader, only to find out they were fake."
   
7. "No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."
   
8. "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England it only took the Americans three hours to get home."
   
9. "My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."
   
10. "I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends' three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller."
    
11. "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation'. We're trainee hairdressers - will we be OK staying here?"
    
12. "There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners."
    
13. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."
    
14. "We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."
    
15. "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."
    
16. "I was bitten by a mosquito - no-one said they could bite."
    
17. "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."
    
18. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - this should be banned."
    
19. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."
    
20. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."

This training game and many other training resources and course materials can be found at Trainer Bubble.

Self-Study Workbooks

We've been working hard to add Self Study Workbooks to our growing portfolio. In the fast paced work environments we encounter today, these workbooks provide the perfect opportunity to develop and build on skills that might otherwise be neglected.

The workbooks provide clarity and insight to the specific topic, whilst including activities, questions and practical tasks. So far we've added four of these workbooks to the Trainer Bubble website (Business E-mails, Leadership, Report Writing, Time Management) and we are working on providing a complete range. So visit Trainer Bubble to find out more.

...and more on airline service

Following on from the Ryanair post last week. Here's an interesting new promotional clip I've spotted...