The Art of Public Speaking, Part 1

“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.” -Anne Morrow Lindbergh A plethora of communications channels, such as the Internet, niche cable channels, and cell phones, now play an increasingly dominant role in work and social life. In such a world, speaking skills will distinguish the winners from the losers. Successful communicators will be able to use these channels to motivate people and marshal resources while those unable to articulate their ideas, no matter how worthwhile, will get lost in the din. However, successful public speakers and other proficient communicators have long known and used certain techniques that can benefit even mediocre speakers. These techniques can help you in virtually any communication challenge, from a job interview to a public presentation to asking for a date. I’ve arranged them here in a format I call POWER.nnPOWER Preparatio Organizatio Words Ears RatennnPREPARATION Preparation is pretty self-explanatory. Know your audience. If it’s a job interview, find out as much as possible about the position and the people with whom you will be speaking. If a person is a manager, they’re going to be more impressed by how, at your previous job, you saved your company a great deal of money. If the person is in operations, they’re probably going to be focused on your technical skills. After preparation we must think about organizing your ideas.nnnORGANIZATION Paying attention to how you organize your ideas and how you use words is crucial. The average person retains less than 25% of what they hear. But by organizing your ideas and focusing on what words to use, you can skew those odds in your favor. Ideas that are pre-organized to match the mind’s filing system are much more easily remembered.nnTell them a story Organize what you have to say using models such as time, space, cause and effect, logical parts, or even a metaphor. A former manager, using cause and effect, might talk about how his prior company faced increasing competition and thinner profit margins. It became necessary for him to figure how to save money. Or a District Atto ey, using logical parts, might describe his job as the four “Eights.” Educate, Investigate, Litigate, Legislate. Having organized your ideas, you must think about which wordsnwill express those ideas most effectively.nnnWORDS To ensure that your message is understood and remembered, you want to follow certain guidelines.nnSpend more words and time on your most important points Remember, the ear is smaller than the mouth. People need a certain amount to absorb new ideas. Give your listener that time.nnUse Short Sentences Long meandering sentences are tough for a listener to follow. By the time the speaker has gotten to the end, the listener can’t remember the beginning.nnSpeak from the Known to the Unknown Your might say, "Every time you use an ATM card, your using 3rd order authentication." Or, “Do you hear those ringing phones? We had them to. The automated customer service system that I developed cut that in half.”nnBe Specific, Definite and Concrete Listeners absorb information in direct proportion to its vividness. You might describe how you handled an emergency at your prior job. “It was 3:00 in the morning. I got a call. My boss sounded like he was going to have a coronary. A shipment of refined solvent we needed had been held up by customs.” Using these techniques: more words on your most important points, short sentences, going from the known to the unknown, and being vivid should increase the likelihood that your listener understands you and remembers you.