TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

by Chris J. Anderson

A 12-minute talk can comfortably reveal more than 100 images. Perhaps some sequences are allowed just 2 seconds of screen time per slide. And they can be amplified in their power by a tool all too rarely used by speakers: silence.

Schwartzberg did something similar with his talk about his astonishing movie Mysteries of the Unseen World.

The structure Han and Pritchard used is good for most demos: An initial tease Necessary background, context, and/or the invention story The demo itself (the more visual and dramatic the better, so long as you’re not faking it) The implications of the technology Sometimes a demo is stunning enough that it allows an audience to imagine truly exciting applications and implications. And then the demo becomes not just a demo, but a vision of the future. That’s where we turn next.

There are two keys to sharing a dream effectively: Paint a bold picture of the alternative future you desire; Do so in such a way that others will also desire that future.

MIX AND MATCH Here’s the reality. Most talks do not fit neatly into just one of the categories we’ve discussed so far. Rather, they include elements from many of them.

Preparation Process

Visuals Those Slides Hurt!

And for every speaker, the following is true: Having no slides at all is better than bad slides.

Having said that, the majority of talks do benefit from great slides, and for some talks, the visuals are the absolute difference between success and failure.

So what are the key elements to strong visuals? They fall into three categories: Revelation Explanatory power Aesthetic appeal

Similarly, it doesn’t make sense to leave a slide onscreen once you’ve finished talking about it. Here’s Tom again. Just go to a blank, black slide and then the audience will get a vacation from images and pay more attention to your words. Then, when you go back to slides, they will be ready to go back to work.

Even when a text slide is simple, it may be indirectly stealing your thunder. Instead of a slide that reads: A black hole is an object so massive that no light can escape from it, you’d do better with one that reads: How black is a black hole? Then you’d give the information from that original slide in spoken form. That way, the slide teases the audience’s curiosity and makes your words more interesting, not less.

At TED, our favorite proponent of explanatory visuals is Hans Rosling. Back in 2006, he unveiled an animated graphic sequence that lasted just 48 seconds. But in those 48 seconds he transformed everyone’s mental model of the developing world. And here’s the thing: If you haven’t seen it, I can’t actually explain it to you. To try would take several paragraphs, and even then I wouldn’t be close.

So next time you’re near a computer, Google “Hans Rosling: The best stats you’ve ever seen.” Watch and marvel. (The 48-second clip starts at 4:05.)

We usually recommend medium-weight sans-serif fonts like Helvetica or Arial. (Medium weight is medium thickness; sans-serif means the type doesn’t have flourishes on the ends, e.g., Times.) Don’t use excessively thin fonts as they are hard to read, especially on a dark background. If in doubt, keep it simple.

Font size Tiny type causes the audience to struggle to read it. Use 24 points or larger in most cases. Use at most three sizes of your chosen typeface per presentation, and there should be a reason for each size. Large size is for titles/headlines; medium size is for your main ideas; small size is for supporting ideas.

Font color Here the operative words are simple and contrast. Black on white, a dark color on white, and white or yellow on black all look good because they have great contrast and are easy to read. Use only one color of font per presentation unless you want to show emphasis or surprise.

WHAT NOT TO DO Bullets belong in The Godfather. Avoid them at all costs. Dashes belong at the Olympics, not at the beginning of text. Resist underlining and italics—they’re too hard to read. Bold typefaces are OK. Drop shadows can occasionally be useful to improve legibility, especially for type on top of photos, but use the effect sparingly. Don’t use multiple type effects in the same line. It just looks terrible.

VIDEOS Videos can be amazing tools to demonstrate your work and ideas. However, you should rarely show clips longer than 30 seconds. And in an 18-minute talk, show no more than two to four clips unless your work absolutely depends on it.

TRANSITIONS Many presenters sink in the dreaded quicksand of excessive transitions. Rule of thumb: Avoid nearly all of them. Shimmer, sparkle, confetti, twirl, clothesline, swirl, cube, scale, swap, swoosh, fire explosions, and dropping and bouncing sound like 1970s dance moves, but are all real Keynote transitions. And I never use any of them, except for humor and irony.

There are many ways to prepare for and deliver a talk, and it’s important to find the one that’s right for you. Because when it comes to the exact moment, even if you’ve prepared something that is stunning, there is a long list of things that can go wrong, among them: Your tone of voice puts your audience to sleep. You sound like you’re reciting. You run out of time before you’ve completed half of what you wanted to say. You get flustered trying to remember how your slides fit with the words you prepared. Your videos fail to start, and your slide clicker doesn’t work properly. You fail to make eye contact with a single member of the audience. You feel uncomfortable on stage, not knowing whether you should walk around a little or stay rooted to one spot. So instead you compromise and shuffle awkwardly from leg to leg. The audience fails to laugh when they were supposed to. The audience laughs when they most definitely were not supposed to. The standing ovation you dreamed of is replaced by a smattering of polite applause. And—the one thing people dread most—you forget what you were going to say next, your mind goes blank, and you freeze.

One of the first key decisions you need to make—and ideally you’ll make it early on in your talk preparation—is whether you will: A. write out the talk in full as a complete script (to be read, memorized, or a combination of the two), or B. have a clearly worked-out structure and speak in the moment to each of your points. There are powerful arguments in favor of each strategy.

So if you go the script route, you have three main strategies open to you: Know the talk so well that it doesn’t for a moment sound scripted. (More on this shortly.) Refer to the script (either from a lectern—preferably not one that blocks out your whole body—or possibly from a screen or confidence monitor), but compensate by looking up during each sentence to make eye contact with the audience. Notice I didn’t say to read the script. You may have the entire thing there in front of you, but it’s important that you feel as if you’re in speaking mode, not reading mode. The audience can tell the difference. It’s all about giving meaning to the words as you speak as naturally and passionately as you can. It’s about audience eye contact and smiles or other facial expressions. It’s about being familiar enough with the script that you’re really just glancing down once every sentence or two. Yes, this takes work, but it’s worth it, and it’s still far less daunting than full memorization. Condense the script to bullet points and plan to express each point in your own language in the moment. This has its own set of challenges, covered below in Unscripted Talks.

And how should you memorize? TED speakers use lots of different methods. Pamela Meyer, who gave a hit talk on how to detect a liar, appeared to be speaking honestly with this advice: At Camp Seafarer in North Carolina, we had to tread water while singing camp songs. Then, to make it harder, we had to tread water while also wiggling our forefingers in complicated patterns to the beat of the song. You haven’t really memorized your talk thoroughly until you can do an entire other activity that requires mental energy while giving your talk. Can you give your talk while measuring out the ingredients to make brownies? Can you give your talk while filing all the messy papers on your desk into a file cabinet? If you can give your talk while the cognitive load is that high on your system, you can give it well while focused on stage.

UNSCRIPTED TALKS

You also need a strategy to avoid the obvious pitfalls of such an approach: That suddenly you can’t, in the moment, find the words to explain a key concept. Antidote: Practice out loud several versions of each step in your journey until you’re confident that you have complete mental clarity around each one. That you leave out something crucial. It may be worth working on a transition from each step to the next that makes the sequence come naturally. Perhaps you commit to remembering those transition phrases, or add them to your notes. That you overrun your time slot. This is upsetting to conference organizers, and to all the speakers who follow you. It can also stress out your audience. Don’t do it. The only antidotes are to A. Try out the talk several times to be sure it can indeed be done within the time limit. If not, you must cut material. B. Be disciplined about watching the clock and know how far you need to be when half of your time has gone by. C. Prepare a talk that is no more than 90 percent of your time limit.

Run-Throughs Wait, I Need to Rehearse?

Whichever mode of speaking you decide on, there’s a very simple, very obvious tool you can use to improve your talk, but it’s one that most speakers rarely undertake: Rehearse. Repeatedly.

Some things to ask your audience during or after these rehearsals: Did I get your attention from the get-go? Was I making eye contact? Did the talk succeed in building a new idea for you? Was each step of the journey satisfying? Were there enough examples to make everything clear? How was my tone of voice? Did it sound conversational (usually good) or as if I was preaching (usually bad)? Was there enough variety of tone and pacing? Did I sound as if I was reciting the talk? Were the attempts at humor natural or a little awkward? Was there enough humor? How were the visuals? Did they help or get in the way? Did you notice any annoying traits? Was I clicking my tongue? Swallowing too often? Shifting from side to side? Repeatedly using a phrase like “you know” or (worse) “like”? Were my body gestures natural? Did I finish on time? Were there moments you got a little bored? Was there something I could cut?

Let’s sum it up. For a high-stakes talk, it’s very important to rehearse multiple times, preferably in front of people you trust. Work on it until it’s comfortably under your allocated time limit and insist on honest feedback from your rehearsal audience. Your goal is to end up with a talk whose structure is second nature to you so that you can concentrate on meaning what you say.

Open and Close What Kind of Impression Would You Like to Make?

FOUR WAYS TO START STRONG

Here are four ways to stake your claim to the audience’s attention.

1. Deliver a dose of drama

2. Ignite curiosity

3. Show a compelling slide, video, or object

4. Tease, but don’t give it away

In short, if the ending isn’t memorable, the talk itself may not be. Here’s how not to end: “Well, that’s my time gone, so I’ll wrap up there.” (You mean, you had a lot more to say but can’t tell us because of bad planning?) “Finally, I just want to thank my awesome team, who are pictured here: David, Joanna, Gavin, Samantha, Lee, Abdul, and Hezekiah. Also, my university, and my sponsors.” (Lovely, but do you care about them more than your idea, and more than us, your audience?!) “So, given the importance of this issue, I hope we can start a new conversation about it together.” (A conversation?! Isn’t that a little lame? What should be the outcome of that conversation?) “The future is full of challenges and opportunities. Everyone here has it in their heart to make a difference. Let’s dream together. Let’s be the change we want to see in the world.” (Beautiful sentiment, but the clichés really don’t help anyone.) “I’ll close with this video which summarizes my points.” (No! Never end with a video. End with you!) “So that concludes my argument, now are there any questions?” (Or, how to preempt your own applause.) “I’m sorry I haven’t had time to discuss some of the major issues here, but hopefully this has at least given you a flavor of the topic.” (Don’t apologize! Plan more carefully! Your job was to give the best talk you could in the time available.) “In closing, I should just point out that my organization could probably solve this problem if we were adequately funded....

Here are seven better ways to end:

Camera pu...

Call to action

Personal commitment

Values and vision

Satisfying encapsulation

Narrative symmetry

Lyrical inspiration

Whichever way you end, make sure it’s planned. An elegant closing paragraph, followed by a simple “thank you,” offers the best shot at a satisfying end to your efforts. It’s worth figuring out.

Wardrobe What Should I Wear?

When Professor Barry Schwartz showed up at the TED stage in Oxford for his talk on the paradox of choice, it was a hot summer’s day, and he was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. He tells me if he’d known we were going to video him and put him online, he might have chosen something else. But it didn’t stop his talk notching up 9 million views.

Do what Kelly says. Make an early commitment to an outfit you’ll feel great in. Focus on your ideas, not your clothes!