The Secret Structure of Great Talks
Mid-Winter 2023
Hello! I hope you’re all doing well, staying safe, learning, and enjoying the journey to your MAS.
This TED Talk might be helpful as some of you begin thinking about your next presentation.
Nancy Duarte: The secret structure of great talks
Here are some excerpts that resonate:
You have the power to change the world. I’m not saying that to be cliché, you really have the power to change the world. Deep inside of you, every single one of you has the most powerful device known to man. And that's an idea.
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But an idea is powerless if it stays inside of you. If you never pull that idea out for others to contend with, it will die with you. Now, maybe some of you guys have tried to convey your idea and it wasn't adopted, it was rejected, and some other mediocre or average idea was adopted. And the only difference between those two is in the way it was communicated. Because if you communicate an idea in a way that resonates, change will happen, and you can change the world.
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At the beginning of any presentation, you need to establish what is. You know, here's the status quo, here's what's going on. And then you need to compare that to what could be. You need to make that gap as big as possible, because there is this commonplace of the status quo, and you need to contrast that with the loftiness of your idea. So it's like, you know, here's the past, here's the present, but look at our future. Here's a problem, but look at that problem removed. Here's a roadblock, let's annihilate the roadblock. You need to really amplify that gap. This would be like the inciting incident in a movie. That's when suddenly the audience has to contend with what you just put out there: "Wow, do I want to agree with this and align with it or not?" And in the rest of your presentation should support that.
So the middle goes back and forth, it traverses between what is and what could be, what is and what could be. Because what you are trying to do is make the status quo and the normal unappealing, and you're wanting to draw them towards what could be in the future with your idea adopted.
Now, on your way to change the world, people are going to resist. They're not going to be excited, they may love the world the way it is. So you'll encounter resistance. That's why you have to move back and forth. It's similar to sailing. When you're sailing against the wind and there is wind resistance, you have to move your boat back and forth, and back and forth. That's so you can capture the wind. You have to actually capture the resistance coming against you when you're sailing. Now interesting, if you capture the wind just right and you set your sail just right, your ship will actually sail faster than the wind itself. It is a physics phenomenon. So by planting in there the way they're going to resist between what is and what can be, is actually going to draw them towards your idea quicker than should you not do that.
So after you've moved back and forth between what is and what could be, the last turning point is a call to action, which every presentation should have, but at the very end. You need to describe the world as a new bliss. "This is utopia with my idea adopted." "This is the way the world is going to look, when we join together and we solve this big problem." You need to use that as your ending, in a very poetic and dramatic way. So, interestingly, when I was done, I was like, "You know what? I could use this as an analysis tool."
How’s your journey? I look forward to speaking with you again. How about we meet up for a Zoom Happy Hour (or coffee break) later this month? Would you be interested in getting a group together to casually discuss scientific stickiness in an “ask me anything” format? Use the comment button below and let me know!