TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

by Chris J. Anderson

Mental Prep How Do I Control My Nerves?

Use your fear as motivation.

Let your body help you!

breathe. Breathe deeply, meditation style. The oxygen infusion brings calm with it.

Drink water. The worst aspect of nerves is when the adrenaline sucks the water from your mouth and you struggle to speak.

Avoid an empty stomach.

Remember the power of vulnerability. Audiences embrace speakers who are nervous, especially if the speaker can find a way to acknowledge it.

Find “friends” in the audience. Early on in the talk, look out for faces that seem sympathetic.

Have a backup plan.

Focus on what you’re talking about.

Setup Lectern, Confidence Monitor, Note Cards, or (Gulp) Nothing?

Voice and Presence Give Your Words the Life They Deserve

Here are some of the impacts that the added layer can bring: Connection: I trust this person. Engagement: Every sentence sounds so interesting! Curiosity: I hear it in your voice and see it in your face. Understanding: The emphasis on that word with that hand gesture—now I get it. Empathy: I can tell how much that hurt you. Excitement: Wow—that passion is infectious. Conviction: Such determination in those eyes! Action: I want to be on your team. Sign me up. In the aggregate, this is inspiration. Inspiration in its broadest sense. I think of it as the force that tells the brain what to do with a new idea. Many ideas just get filed away and probably soon forgotten. Inspiration, by contrast, grabs an idea and rushes it into our minds’ attention spotlight: General alert! Important new worldview incoming! Prepare to activate!

Voice coaches speak of at least six tools you can use: volume, pitch, pace, timbre, tone, and something called prosody, which is the singsong rise and fall that distinguishes, for example, a statement from a question.

Julian Treasure called, “How to speak so that people want to listen.”

For more great examples of the right use of voice, check out talks by Kelly McGonigal, Jon Ronson, Amy Cuddy, Hans Rosling, and the incomparable Sir Ken Robinson.

RECRUIT YOUR BODY

DO IT YOUR WAY

Format Innovation The Promise (and Peril) of Full-Spectrum Talks

Now, all of these need handling with extreme care. Done wrong, they can seem gimmicky. But done right, they can kick a talk up to a whole new level.

1. DRAMATIC PROPS

2. PANORAMIC SCREENS

3. MULTISENSE STIMULATION

4. LIVE PODCASTING

5. ILLUSTRATED INTERVIEW

6. SPOKEN WORD FUSION

7. VIDEOPOETRY EXPLORATION

8. ADDED MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK

9. THE LESSIG METHOD

10. DUAL PRESENTERS

11. NEW DEBATE FORMATS

(You can see this in action on the excellent website IntelligenceSquaredUS.org.)

12. SLIDE BLIZZARD

13. LIVE EXHIBITION

14. SURPRISE APPEARANCES

15. VIRTUAL PRESENTERS

16. NO LIVE AUDIENCE

Talk Renaissance The Interconnectedness of Knowledge

I wish to persuade you of something: That however much public speaking skills matter today, they’re going to matter even more in the future. Driven by our growing connectedness, one of humankind’s most ancient abilities is being reinvented for the modern era. I’ve become convinced that tomorrow, even more than today, learning to present your ideas live to other humans will prove to be an absolutely essential skill for: Any child who wants to build confidence. Anyone leaving school and looking to start a meaningful career. Anyone who wants to progress at work. Anyone who cares about an issue. Anyone who wants to build a reputation. Anyone who wants to connect with others around the world who share a passion. Anyone who wants to catalyze action to make an impact. Anyone who wants to leave a legacy. Anyone, period.

Almost no profession is untouched. I watched an IBM Watson demo seeking to diagnose a patient with six specific symptoms. While doctors scratched their heads and ordered a range of tests to get more data, Watson, in just a few seconds, read through 4,000 recent relevant research papers, applied probability algorithms to each symptom, and concluded with 80 percent certainty that the patient had a rare condition only one of the human doctors had even heard of.

Whether you’re a brilliant astrophysicist, a talented stonemason, or just a wise student of life, I don’t need to learn from you everything you know. Of course not. That would take years. What I need to know is how your work connects to everything else. Can you explain the essence of it in a way I can understand? Can you share your work process in layman’s terms? Can you explain why it matters? And why you are passionate about it?

Why This Matters The Interconnectedness of People

As of late 2016, TED Talks are viewed some 125 million times every month.

2. A KIDS’ PROGRAM FOR PRESENTATION LITERACY We launched a free program for schools called TED-Ed Clubs that allows any teacher to offer a group of kids a chance to give their own TED Talk. A session once a week for thirteen weeks encourages selection of an idea, tips on how to research it, and then the skills to prepare and deliver the talk. The boost to the confidence and self-esteem of kids who make it through to the delivered talk is inspiring to see. We think presentation literacy should be a core part of every school’s curriculum, on par with reading and math. It’s going to be an important life skill to have in the decades ahead.10

3. UPLOAD YOUR OWN TED TALK We have a program called OpenTED that allows anyone to upload their own TED-like talk to a special section on our site. We specifically encourage innovation, not just in content but in how the talk is given. We’re betting someone out there will hit on a beautiful new way to share ideas. Perhaps it will be you.11

Your Turn The Philosopher’s Secret

Talks Referenced within the Book These are available on a single playlist at: www.ted.com/tedtalksbook/playlist PAGE(S) SPEAKER TED TALK TITLE 4 Monica Lewinsky The price of shame 6–8 Chris Anderson TED’s nonprofit transition 11 Sophie Scott Why we laugh 33 Robin Murphy These robots come to the rescue after a disaster 49, 203 Kelly McGonigal How to make stress your friend 50–51, 174 Brené Brown The power of vulnerability 51–52 Sherwin Nuland How electroshock therapy changed me 53, 203 Ken Robinson Do schools kill creativity? 57–58 Dan Pink The puzzle of motivation 59–60 Ernesto Sirolli Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! 68–69 Eleanor Longden The voices in my head 69 Ben Saunders To the South Pole and back—the hardest 105 days of my life 69, 140 Andrew Solomon How the worst moments in our lives make us who we are 72–77 Dan Gilbert The surprising science of happiness 81 Deborah Gordon The emergent genius of ant colonies 83 Sandra Aamodt Why dieting doesn’t usually work 83, 203 Hans Rosling Let my dataset change your mindset 83 David Deutsch A new way to explain explanation 83 Nancy Kanwisher A neural portrait of the human mind 83 Steven Johnson Where good ideas come from 83 David Christian The history of our world in 18 minutes 83–85 Bonnie Bassler How bacteria “talk” 86–87 Steven Pinker The surprising decline in violence 88–89 Elizabeth Gilbert Your elusive creative genius 89 Barry Schwartz The paradox of choice 91–92, 95 Dan Pallotta The way we think about charity...