How To Speak, a one hour talk by now deceased Professor Patrick Winston (an American
computer scientist at MIT), has had 5
million + views on YouTube and would be a worthwhile and amusing use of your
time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc731iCUY
Here are some of Winston’s
points / suggestions:
You will need knowledge, practice
and talent (in that order of importance).
Don’t start with a joke. Start
with an empowerment promise: what will your talk do for them
Circle round the idea –
tell them three times cos 20% of them aren’t really listening at any one time
Build a fence around the
idea – distinguish it from other ideas.
Use verbal punctation –
give landmarks so that people can get back on the bus if they fall off.
Ask a carefully chosen
question (which is neither too easy nor too hard). You can wait seven seconds
for an answer even if that feels like an eternity to you.
Don’t put your hands in
your pockets or behind your back.
Watch speakers you admire
and think are effective.
Think about time and
place. Have it when people are awake and not too tired. Have the room well-lit.
You need the lights full up or people will go to sleep! Case the place before
you speak so there are no surprises. Get used to or deal with any weirdness /
challenges. Get the right size place so that it is reasonably populated – not packed
but more than half full.
A board / flip chart is
flexible and graphic and speedy. A board gives you a target to point at. (Think
about what you do with your hands).
Consider using props. They
are very memorable.
Chalk / props help with
empathetic mirroring – you can kind of feel it when the speaker does it in a
way you can’t with PowerPoint.
Could you critique my
PowerPoint slides? Yes! You have too many with too many words.
Do not read out your
slides. Your listeners can read and you reading the slides out will annoy them.
Stand near your slides.
Either the slides are condiments
to what you are saying or the other way around.
Get rid of the background
junk which is a distraction. Get rid of the words. Get rid of clutter. Simplify.
We only have one language
processor. We can only either read or listen.
40 point is probably the
minimum font size for slides or you will have too many words.
Don’t use a laser pointer.
You lose contact with your audience. Put a little arrow if you want to point
out something in your slide.
Allow space and air – don’t
make your slides too content / word heavy.
People are inspired by expression
of passion.
How to think: we are storytelling
animals. Provide the stories people need to know, questions to ask about them,
ways to put stories together.
Speaking of academic job
interview technical talks: you need to show people some kind of vision (a
problem that someone cares about and something new in your approach) and that you’ve
done something (talk about the steps that need to be done to solve the problem)
within 5 minutes. Show your contributions.
If your ideas are to be
memorable / recognised they must have:
Symbol
Slogan
Surprise
Salient idea – an idea
that sticks out (not just lots of good ideas)
Story
How to stop. End with a
slide that tells them what you have contributed – the distinctive thing you
have told them.
If you finish with a joke,
people might think they’ve had fun all the way through!
You could end by saluting
the audience (or finding some other conventional ending).
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