More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
If you commit to being the authentic you, I am certain that you will be capable of tapping into the ancient art that is wired inside us. You simply have to pluck up the courage to try.
Sophie Scott stepped onto the TED stage,
Your number-one mission as a speaker is to take something that matters deeply to you and to rebuild it inside the minds of your listeners.
What are the riddles that people don’t yet have good answers for?
Use dress code story. If the first thing you do when you get homd is change clothes, then...
Everything changes, though, when you focus on the nature of the work that you’re doing, and the power of the ideas that infuse it, not on the org itself or its products.
Compare that statement to this one: “Back in 2005 we discovered something surprising. It turns out that it’s possible for an average office to slash its energy costs by 60 percent without any noticeable loss of productivity. Let me share with you how . . .”
Here are the throughlines of some popular TED Talks. Notice that there’s an unexpectedness incorporated into each of them.
To say something interesting you have to take the time to do at least two things:
To provide an effective talk, you must slash back the range of topics you will cover to a single, connected thread—a throughline that can be properly developed.
And here’s version 2: I want you to come with me to a student’s room at Oxford University in 1977. You open the door, and at first it seems like there’s nobody there. But wait. Over in the
A talk might begin with an introduction to the problem the speaker is tackling and give an anecdote that illustrates that problem. It might then move to some historical attempts to solve the problem and give two examples that ultimately failed. It could continue to the speaker’s proposed solution, including one dramatic new piece of evidence that supports the idea. Then it might close with three implications for the future.
It’s much easier to pull in an audience by framing the talk as an attempt to solve an intriguing riddle rather than as a plea for them to care. The first feels like a gift being offered. The second feels like an ask.
Speaking coach Abigail Tenembaum recommends testing your throughline on someone who could be a typical audience member, and to do so not in writing but verbally. “Saying it out loud often crystallizes for the speaker what is clear, what is missing, and how to sharpen it.”
Just choose your one ideal listener, and then do your best to create a talk that would blow their mind, or move them, or fascinate them, or delight them.”
Brené Brown
When you can pull together humor, self-deprecation, and insight into a single story, you have yourself a winning start.
Every word you speak that someone has already seen on a slide is a word that carries zero punch. It’s not news anymore.
You should often aim to tease the arrival of a slide before revealing it. And that brings us to the future of cities [click], is much more powerful than [click] Ah, yes. Next I want to talk about the future of cities.
You can think of a talk opening the same way, except with different timings. First there is the 10-second war: can you do something in your first moments on stage to ensure people’s eager attention while you set up your talk topic? Second is the 1-minute war: can you then use that first minute to ensure that they’re committed to coming on the full talk journey with you?
“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?)
Personal commitment It’s one thing to call on the audience to act, but sometimes speakers score by making a giant commitment of their own. The most dramatic example of this at TED was when Bill Stone spoke of the possibilities of humans returning to the moon, and his conviction that an expedition could create a massive new industry and open up space exploration for a new generation. Then he said this: I would like to close here by putting a stake in the sand at TED. I intend to lead that expedition.
A personal commitment like that can be incredibly compelling. Remember the Elon Musk example from chapter 1? “For my part, I will never give up and I mean never.” That was the key to reenergizing his SpaceX team.
Teaching and learning should bring joy. How powerful would our world be if we had kids who were not afraid to take risks, who were not afraid to think, and who had a champion? Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be. Is this job tough? You betcha. Oh God, you betcha. But it is not impossible. We can do this. We’re educators. We’re born to make a difference. Thank you so much.
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.
If you want to dig into these a little more, I thoroughly recommend a TED Talk by Julian Treasure called, “How to speak so that people want to listen.” He not only explains what’s needed, he offers exercises that help you get your own voice ready.
If your talk is scripted, try this: Find the two or three words in each sentence that carry the most significance, and underline them. Then look for the one word in each paragraph that really matters and underline it twice more. Find the sentence that is lightest in tone in the whole script and run a light wavy pencil line under it. Look for every question mark and highlight them with a yellow highlighter. Find the biggest single aha moment of the talk and inject a great big black blob right before it is revealed. If there’s a funny anecdote somewhere, put little pink dots above it.
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.
And (this is important) they frequently stop to dwell on a point. It’s that rhythm that lets this method work. Constant pacing can be tiring to watch. Pacing punctuated by stillness can be powerful.
8. ADDED MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK
10. DUAL PRESENTERS
We’re strange creatures, we humans. At one level, we just want to eat, drink, play, and acquire more stuff. But life on the hedonic treadmill is ultimately dissatisfying. A beautiful remedy is to hop off it and instead begin pursuing an idea that’s bigger than you are.
The most amazing thing about a talk, for me, is its potential for impact. The short talk you’re about to give has the potential not only to reach hundreds of thousands of people, but to start many thousands of conversations. And so the central advice I would give is to push yourself as hard as possible to be bold and brave, to try to step outside the comfort zone of what you know for sure or what others have said already, and to give the world questions and inspirations that deserve a thousand conversations. It’s not about being right, or safe—it seems to me—so much as about having a
...more
That is why I deeply believe in Martin Luther King Jr.’s shining statement: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” There really is an arrow to history. There really is such a thing as moral progress. If we pull the camera back for a moment, away from whatever evil du jour is dominating the news, we can see that progress writ large in the history of the last few centuries, not least in the impact of MLK himself. And it has every chance of continuing. As humans continue to be brought closer, not just by technology but by an ever deeper understanding of each other,
...more
