9 Proven Ways to Spread Your Ideas – Toastmaster Magazine Article

Transcript of the Gallo Getting ideas to spread (1).

PRESENTATION TIPS

Delivering a jaw-dropping moment in a presentation is certain to grab your audience’s attention. At TED2009, Bill Gates released mosquitos during his talk about reducing deaths caused by malaria.

9 Proven Ways to Spread Your Ideas

What the most popular TED talks have in common.

BY CARMINE GALLO

One of the highest compliments some¬one can pay a speaker these days is to say, “You really ought to give that presentation as a TED talk.” There’s good and bad news in that observation. The good news is TED presentations (including the TED Conference, TEDGlobal and TEDx) have a reputation for being very good. The bad news is if you give a TED presentation, the expectations will be very high. TED is a nonprofit organization hosting annual conferences devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” and its website shares videos of speakers from its various events. As of November 2012, TED talks have been viewed collectively more than one billion times. You will need to step up your game if you hope to keep your audience’s attention and make your message go viral.

For my new book, Talk Like TED, I viewed more than 150 hours of TED talks, interviewed some of the most popular TED speakers, and studied the latest research in the area of cognitive science and persuasion. In the last 10 years we’ve learned more about how the brain processes information than we’ve learned throughout all of civili¬zation to date. That means we know what moves people—and we can prove it!

In order for your presentation to become a successful TED talk, you must obey the following nine rules of public speaking. The most popular TED talks all share these elements:

1. Unleash the master within. Dig deep to identify your unique and meaningful connection to your presentation topic. Passion leads to mastery, and passion lays the foundation of an extraordinary presentation. University of Waterloo economics professor Larry Smith gave a popular TED talk titled, “Why You Will Fail to Have a Great Career.” He said the formula for success is simple—follow your passion and you’ll have a great career; don’t follow it and you won’t. Smith’s presentation is notable for the fact that he doesn’t use any slides. He commands the attention of his audience through the passionate expression he brings to the topic. You cannot inspire others unless you are inspired yourself. You stand a much greater chance of persuading and inspiring your listeners if you express your ideas enthusiastically and passionately to make meaningful connections with your audience.
2. Tell a story. Tell stories to reach people’s hearts and minds. Bryan Stevenson, the speaker who earned one of the longest standing ovations in TED history with his 2012 presentation, “We Need to Talk About an Injustice,” spent 65 percent of his presentation telling stories. Brain scans reveal that stories stimulate and engage the human brain, helping the speaker connect with the audience and making it much more likely that the audience will agree with the speaker’s point of view. Facts and data are must-have elements in a presentation that is intended to inspire action, but remember that you cannot reach a person’s head until you touch his or her heart. Stories connect us.
3. Teach your audience something new. The human brain loves novelty. An unfamiliar, unusual or unexpected element in a presentation jolts listeners out of their preconceived notions, and quickly gives them a new way of looking at the world. Reveal information that is either completely new to your audience, packaged differently, or fresh and novel in how it solves an old problem. Robert Ballard, the explorer who discovered the sunken Titanic, told me, “Your mission in any presentation is to inform, educate and inspire. You can only inspire when you give people a new way of looking at the world in which they live.”
4. Deliver jaw-dropping moments.The jaw-dropping moment in a presentation is when the presenter delivers a shocking, impressive or surprising moment that is so moving and memorable that it grabs the listener’s attention and is remembered long after the presentation is over. Jaw-dropping moments create what neuroscientists call an emotionally charged event, a heightened state of emotion that makes it more likely your audience will remember your message—and act on it. When Bill Gates released mosquitoes at TED2009 in his talk about reducing childhood deaths caused by malaria, it made such an impact that the presentation was even covered on NBC Nightly News. I’m not suggesting that you release insects in your next presentation, but you might want to think about revealing a demonstration, story or video that will leave a lasting impression.
5. Use humor—even if you can’t tell a joke. The brain loves humor. Give your audience something to smile about. Humor lowers defenses, making your audience more receptive to your message. It also makes you seem more likable, and people are more willing to do business with or support someone they like. The funny thing about humor is that you don’t need to tell a joke to get a laugh.

   Educator Sir Ken Robinson brought the house down at the annual TED conference in 2006. His presentation, “How Schools Kill Creativity,” has been viewed more than 20 million times. Robinson makes humorous, often self-deprecating, observations about his chosen field: education.

   “If you’re at a dinner party and you say you work in education—actually, you’re not often at dinner parties, frankly, if you work in education.” Robinson makes very strong, provocative observations about nurturing creativity in children, and he packages the material around humorous anecdotes and asides that endear him to the audience. Lighten up. Don’t take yourself (or your topic) too seriously.

6. Reduce cognitive overload. A TED presentation can be no longer than 18 minutes. Eighteen minutes is the ideal length for a presentation. Researchers have discovered that “cognitive backlog,” or too much information, prevents the successful transmission of ideas.
   TED curator Chris Anderson explained it best:

   It [18 minutes] is long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention. It turns out that this length also works incredibly well online. It’s the length of a coffee break. So, you watch a great talk, and forward the link to two or three people. It can go viral very easily. The 18-minute length also works much like the way Twitter forces people to be disciplined in what they write. By forcing speakers who are used to going on for 45 minutes bring it down to 18, you get them to really think about what they want to say. What is the key point they want to communicate? It has a clarifying effect. It brings discipline.
   Clarify your key points. Keep it short.

7. Build visual and multisensory experiences. The brain does not pay attention to boring things. Deliver presentations with components that touch more than one of the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. It’s nearly impossible to be bored if you’re exposed to mesmerizing images, captivating videos, intriguing props, beautiful words, and more than one voice, which will bring the story to life. Nobody is going to ask you to build multisensory elements into your presentation, but once audience members experience it, they’ll love every minute of it.
   Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes was a “multisensory” experience. Musician Amanda Palmer started her TED2013 presentation by standing on a milk crate as she spoke about her first job as a “human statue” on street corners. Incorporating a video into your presentation is also “multisensory.” Don’t make it complicated, but remember to go beyond the slides every once in awhile to keep your audience engaged.
8. Practice verbal delivery and body language. Practice relentlessly and internalize your content so that you can deliver the presentation as comfortably as if you were having a conversation with a close friend. True persuasion occurs only after you have built an emotional rapport with your listeners and have gained their trust. If your voice, gestures and body language are incongruent with your words, your listeners will distrust your message. It’s the equivalent of having a Ferrari (a magnificent story) without knowing how to drive (delivery).
   Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor practiced her now famous 2006 presentation, “My Stroke of Insight,” 200 times before she delivered it live. Put in the practice time.
9. Be authentic, open and transparent.Most people can spot a phony. If you try to be something or someone you’re not, you will fail to gain the trust of your audience. When Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg took to the TED stage in 2010, she told the audience that she was conflicted about leaving her kids to travel to the conference. She had decided just that morning to open her presentation with that remark. Sandberg, who admitted she felt “guilty” when her daughter didn’t want to her get on the plane, came across as vulnerable, transparent and authentic. Her presentation, “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders,” has been viewed more than 3 million times, and it set the stage for her bestselling book, Lean In.

Make no mistake. Your ability to persuasively sell yourself and your ideas is the single greatest skill that will help you achieve your dreams. Follow these nine rules and you’ll astonish, electrify and inspire your audiences, and your message will spread.

 
 
 
 
Carmine Gallo is an independent, objective communication expert not affiliated with TED Conferences, LLC