Next Level Communicators and Public Tragedies
Next Level Communicators and Public Tragedies
Note: This post in no way is about my position on the death of Charlie Kirk. Instead, my remarks are meant to help us as communicators responsibly steward strategic moments for the good of our hearers. I only use Charlie Kirk’s death as a current example of a tragic moment.
On the evening of April 4th, 1968, Robert Kennedy received the news of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Kennedy was on a plane headed to Indianapolis, just a few weeks into his bid to seize the Democratic nomination for President, and a few months from his own tragic death. Shaken by the news, Bobby scribbled some notes, and listened to his advisors caution him about security and political concerns. A few moments later he was standing on the back of a flatbed truck where- and this is hard to grasp in our social media age where everyone gets news instantaneously- he delivered the news of King’s killing to a shocked crowd. After a few moments, Kennedy said, “You can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge…tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act against all white people. I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. It’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization…filled with hatred toward one another. What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.” And then, drawing on his own brother’s death, and the inauguration of 1960 which inspired so much hope among many in our nation, Bobby Kennedy finished, “When I think of all the things that have happened since that snowy inauguration day in January [1960], I like to think our role has been the one that is suggested in an old Greek saying: ‘To tame the savageness of man, make gentle the life of the world.’”
Like Bobby Kennedy, next level communicators will find themselves in the unenviable position of putting words to very tragic moments- like the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination- in a way that comforts and points people forward. We won’t need to seek these events out; they have a way of finding us. So how do we as communicators steward these moments? I have found the following to be helpful:
1. Don’t craft in isolation. Bobby Kennedy found himself surrounded by advisors, and solicited their thoughts when MLK died, and in the same way we need to include trusted advisors around us as we are thinking through what to say. Proverbs 11:14 says, “…in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” I would specifically suggest gathering together a group of mature and diverse advisors who represent the different ways people will tend to hear what’s being said. The diversity should include class, gender and race.
2. Don’t shoot from the hip. I don’t care how experienced you are as a communicator, if ever there was a case for writing out and internalizing your careful words, it’s in these kinds of moments. You should be emotional, and your audience should feel this from you. But an abundance of emotions paired with a deficit of pre-planned words will almost always result in carelessness, offense and confusion. Think it through. Write it down. Commit to memory.
3. Be careful, not emotionless. Yes, I want you to be very careful and clear with your words, but not to the point where you come across as stoic. Tragedy should move us.
4. Lectures are for classes, not funerals. Remember the communication pyramid I’ve made mention of? Level 2 is facts, and level four is feeling. It’s never good to immediately meet people’s grief with an appeal to the facts. Standing on the back of the truck, Bobby Kennedy did not tell people to pause their judgments because they didn’t know the who or the why of the killer. No, his tone and demeanor was one which matched their grief.
5. Leverage silence. Next level communicators don’t fill the air with words, but understand one of their greatest tools is silence. For some of you that means calling people to prayer. For others who are in environments where prayer is frowned on, inviting people to a moment of silence and reflection also creates a space for lament and grief. It’s always good to provide these moments.
6. Stay in your lane. Our role as communicators is to primarily comfort, and then to provide some clarity for our people. Unless you are a politician, police officer or other kind of public servant, you should stay out of the policy lane. What this means is while we should talk with great feeling about the school shooting, those moments are not helped by a rant on what we think about gun control. And for many, when we venture out of the communicating comfort lane, and into the policy lane, we will fail at both.
7. Be courageous. Can I encourage you with something? No matter how much you do the previous six, you will disappoint people who felt as if you should have talked about policy, or lectured one particular side and their perceived shortcomings, or not talked about the tragedy at all. You may even email me complaining about something I said or didn’t say in this post. This is not for the faint of heart. Give both yourself, and the people who complain grace.
What I am reading:
The Very Good Gospel, Lisa Sharon Harper.
Next level communicators know how to get to the heart.
Next level communicators know how to get to the heart.
When you stand to speak, you should be thinking of three specific places you want to reach in the anatomy of your audience- their head, their hearts and their feet- in that order. As communicators we want to give them great content, stir their affections with the ultimate goal of moving them in a specific direction.
Today I want to talk to you about how to reach people’s affections…their hearts.
One of the marks of a truly great talk is people stop taking notes at the end. We should be encouraged as communicators when we look out and notice they have put down their devices and pens, and are locked in on what we are saying. If the bulk of the audience is still documenting your words as you are wrapping things up, you’ve captured their heads, just not their hearts, which means you won’t get to their feet.
The great twentieth century preacher, D.M. Lloyd-Jones said that notes are for lectures, and believed that the role of the speaker was to make knowledge come alive. One of the most effective communicators of our time, Tim Keller, believed Lloyd-Jones to be true. Keller writes, “I would say that it’s fine if listeners are taking notes in the first part of the sermon, but if they are doing so at the end, you are probably not reaching their affections” (Tim Keller, Preaching, page 165).
And then there’s Jesus. In the most well known sermon in human history- the Sermon on the Mount- notice the crowds reaction at the end: “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes”- Matthew 7:28-29. The original language of these verses is Greek, and the Greek word for “astonished” is a deeply emotional word meaning to be so filled with amazement as to be overwhelmed. What’s being implied here is Jesus has not just filled their heads, he’s stirred their hearts. And this is what we should want as communicators every single time we speak.
So how do we move from lecturers to cardiologists as communicators? How do we make the leap from information to inspiration? I’ve found these principles to be helpful:
Moved people move people. Again, Keller is helpful: “If you want to preach to the heart, you need to preach from the heart. It’s got to be clear that your own heart has been reached by the truth of the text…What is required is that as you speak it becomes evident in all sorts of ways that you yourself have been humbled, wounded, healed, comforted, and exalted by the truths you are presenting, and that they have genuine power in your life” (Tim Keller, Preaching, page 166).
Use stories. We’ve talked plenty about the power of story, and the science behind why they connect so much with the human experience. In fact, right before Jesus’ audience expressed astonishment at his sermon on the mount, Jesus told a story of two people who had built homes on two different foundations. He used stories to move his audience. We should try to do the same.
Be authentic. The easy thing to do is to take this post and try to manufacture stirring people’s affections. This is the worst thing you can do because it will come across as manipulative and inauthentic. Instead, you need to be your authentic self. Remember, speaking is essentially connecting with your audience, and in order to maximize connection and authenticity you need to know your material so well you are able to unleash your true self, with your true emotions in ways which reach down from the head to the heart and into the feet.
Watch your pace. Pace is the rate at which we speak. Think of pace as the soundtrack to a movie, and when movies are scored, the pace is intentionally varied in ways which move us emotionally. Action scenes have fast paced music, while romantic scenes the music is slowed down, and sometimes there’s no music at all. When we are trying to authentically reach the hearts of our hearers, pace is critical. We may want to speed up, or slow down, but our pace for inspiration should be different from our pace for information.
Thanks again for your support of my new book, Grace to Overcome. The feedback has been overwhelming. Can you help me get the word out by leaving a kind review on Amazon today? Thanks so much.
Next level communicators always tie their “shoe laces”.
Next level communicators always tie their “shoe laces”.
Every year a few people are born without certain ligaments in their bodies (2 out of 100,000). This is a condition known as agenesis, and is mainly seen in people who are missing knee ligaments. While not threatening, if untreated it will prevent a person from being able to sit or even walk. When it comes to the body, while our bones provide our structure, our ligaments are essential to us being able to function.
Today I want to talk to you about transitions. Think of them as the ligaments to our messages.
Most communicators focus their energy on the outline, or the skeletal system to their presentation. What so many neglect is to give careful thought to the ligaments or transitions to their messages. Structure without transitions will come across as awkward, out of place and robbing our presentations of clarity.
Think of it this way: A shoe without shoe laces. The shoe is the basic structure, while the shoe laces pull the structure together into one tight cohesive unit, allowing a person to walk and run in comfort. Without the shoe laces, the shoe is pretty much useless.
We’ve talked before about a basic structure to a message. In case you have forgotten, here’s the skeletal system I use for every talk I give:
Introduction
Felt Need
Body of the message:
Explanation
Illustration
Application
Conclusion
When I move from major point to major point, I always, and I mean always, use the shoe laces of transition to reach back to my previous point to tie into the next point. That’s what transitions do, they take what was just said and connect to what you are about to say. And the secret sauce of transitions- the reason why they are so effective- is when they are done well, they make the message feel more like a seamless narrative, instead of a didactic, point by point presentation.
Maybe this example will help. Recently, I was preaching on the Holy Spirit, and Paul’s command to the Ephesians to be “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). My point was that the filling of the Spirit means to allow Him to control you. Key word is control. “When you think of control,” I said, “Think of a person who brings a designated driver with them to the bar or a party. At some point the person will become drunk, and the designated driver will hold out their hands, and in so many words will say, ‘Give me the keys.’ In essence, what they are saying is, ‘Give me control’. And they are not doing this to hurt or harm or manipulate you, just the opposite, they are doing it for your good. In the same way,” I said, “The Holy Spirit is saying to each one of us, ‘Give me the keys. Give me control of your tongue. Give me control of your attitude. Give me control of your finances. Give me control of your marriage. What is in your life that you have yet to give Him control?” Notice how I moved from illustration to application seamlessly, by using the transition, “In the same way the Holy Spirit is saying to each one of us.” There was no abrupt leap from illustration to application, just a smooth shift, through the use of transitions.
Here’s a few things I’ve found helpful when thinking through transitions:
Skeletons before ligaments. Build your outline first, and then think through transitions.
Study Comedians. Comedians are masters at transitions. I watch them all the time not just for a good laugh, but to see how they use their “shoe laces”. I would actually encourage you to watch a few of them solely from the vantage point of how they use transitions. Everything they do is geared around setting the audience up for the punchline.
Think 2 + 2. After I have my outline, I then write my message out, and what I always do is I think 2 + 2. What this means is that I will always use the last two sentences of my current point to serve as a bridge or transition into the first two sentences of my next point. In other words, as I’m writing the last two lines of explanation for a point, I’m thinking of the first two lines of my next paragraph which is the illustration. These “shoe laces” help me to tighten things between one point to the next in an intentional way.
What I’m Reading:
As always, please feel free to share these posts with others, and encourage them to sign up at my website, bryanloritts.com. And if you haven’t done so already, consider ordering my new book, Grace to Overcome, and leave a kind review on Amazon. Thanks!
Next level communicators always get to 5.
Next level communicators always get to 5.
Communication theorists tell us there are five levels of communication. Going from the most superficial to the most intimate they are:
Cliche
Facts
Opinions
Emotive
Transparency
When we say to someone, “Good morning,” or ask, “How are you doing,” that is cliche communication. It doesn’t mean it’s fake, but it’s more in the category of asking to be nice, or making a statement as a way of greeting. Facts are when we ask how many points a certain athlete scored, or what the weather will be today? Opinions are really popular in the GOAT debate between Michael Jordan and Lebron James, though I think that’s more in the category of fact! How in the world can anyone think Jordan isn’t the GOAT? I digress. The deepest levels of communication are emotive and transparency. Emotive is sharing how I feel, and transparency is sharing who I am.
Next level communicators always get to level five in their messages.
The difference between a good message and a great message all hinges on the question of transparency. Remember, our aim as communicators is to persuade…to move our audience in a certain direction, and if we try to do this without being authentic, genuine and transparent then we will come across as manipulative. The best way to persuade, the most potent weapon we have is transparency.
Before I give you some helpful tips about transparency, it’s important to understand that in a typical message you should hit all five levels of communication (or the “communication pyramid” as it's called). Think of a conversation you have with one of your closest friends, or your spouse after you’ve come back from a trip. You’ll begin with some greeting (cliche), move to what happened, what you liked or didn’t like or thought about the trip (facts and opinions). And since this is someone you feel safe with, you will express how you feel (emotive) and have moments of transparency. The communication pyramid is a significant indicator of the health of our relationships. Our most intimate friendships are those we get to levels four and five with. And our most effective talks are those where we get to levels four and five. We have to figure out a way to get to five, every time. So how do we do this?
I have found the following to be helpful in conveying a sense of authenticity to the audience:
Rehearse the message with loved ones. Newer communicators tend to struggle with being comfortable, and this is more than understandable. The problem is nerves can mask who we really are, and pose a barrier between the audience and our transparency. To get past this, go over your message with people you feel safe with. This will help bring out your authentic, transparent self.
Throw yourself under the bus, not your loved ones. Stages and microphones position us as experts, and tend to rob us of our humanity in the eyes of many in the audience. They give us superhero status, and it's easy for us to play the part, and this is a real problem when it comes to transparency. The way to work around this is to find strategic moments in the message where you say things like, “I struggle with this,” or, “I failed at this.” When we knock ourselves off the pedestal we lower the stage to ground level and communicate through our transparency that we are at one with our audience. But we’ve got to be careful to not do too much of this, or else we will rob ourselves of our influence. Remember, the audience is looking to us for answers.
Befriend the “ing”. Closely related to my previous point is this idea of befriending what I call the “ing”. Instead of saying things like, “I learned,” say, “I’m learning”. This communicates you are in process like everyone else, and helps to bring the audience along with you through your transparency.
Find your own voice. I know, I know. This is not something that happens overnight, but takes a while. All of us have been influenced by communicators we admire, and without even thinking about it we mimic their mannerisms. The sooner we can get out of this, the more we will be on the road to transparency. One of the most helpful things I can suggest to those of you who are in this phase is to stop watching and listening to this communicator. Listen to a lot of others, and over time you will find your voice, and become better positioned for transparency.
I need your help. If you’ve purchased my new book, Grace to Overcome, and have been encouraged by it, can you go to Amazon and write a favorable review? Thanks.
Even in their shortest messages, next level communicators don’t talk too much
Even in their shortest messages, next level communicators don’t talk too much.
One of the mistakes new communicators make is they feel as if they have to fill every second of their messages with words, thus diluting the power of their presentation. The most effective speakers have learned to befriend silence, placing pauses at strategic moments to make their points stick.
And that’s what I want us to talk briefly about today- the importance of the well placed pause.
In 2019, Tiger Woods won the Masters. Hardly anyone thought he stood a chance when he stepped on the first tee at Augusta National. Tiger was coming off of years of debilitating injuries, along with the psychological toll of a much talked about scandal. For many, just making the cut at the year’s first major would be enough. But to win? No way. Well, he did. And when Tiger Woods sank his final putt, Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo, the broadcasters for the event, sat in silence for well over a minute, letting us viewers take it all in. And it was in this moment of pause, where many of us seated on our sofas (or standing and going crazy), wiped a tear from our eyes as Tiger embraced his mother and children, and walked off to the scorers tent as the crowd went nuts. Nantz and Faldo understood the power of the moment, and receded to the background behind a wall of silence. They knew we were witnessing history. As the saying goes, they understood there are times when, “silence is golden”.
The best broadcasters intuitively know there are moments when they have to let the moment do the talking, and not them.
And the best communicators intuitively know there are moments when they have to let the moment do the talking, and not them.
Even in their shortest messages, next level communicators don’t talk too much.
So as you prepare your messages, I want you to remember the following when it comes to pauses:
Be strategic. Pauses should never be random. That can be awkward. Instead, think of your most strategic points, make the point, and then underscore the point with a pause.
Pauses should be brief. I’ve chosen to use the word “pause,” and not “stop,” to communicate that our silence should not be more than 2-3 seconds. Any longer than that and we are back to awkward territory.
Be economical. Too many pauses, and you guessed it, we are back to being awkward. Every message should have at least one pause, and every message should have no more than three. Like money, spend your pauses wisely- on your most important point or points. You can also make a pause right before you give the punchline to a point or a joke or an illustration.
What I’m Reading:
The Cost of Ambition, Miroslav Volf.
Well, today’s the day. My book, Grace to Overcome is out! If you haven’t already, pick it up. It’s filled with stories and illustrations to help you communicate better.
Next level communicators know what you don’t say is just as important as what you do say.
Next level communicators know what you don’t say is just as important as what you do say.
The difference between a good message and a great message is what you leave out. Remember, simplicity is one of your best friends as you grow as a communicator. Be simple, not shallow. Less is always more. Why does this matter? Because the number one trait of an effective communicator is clarity. I know, I know. We want to persuade people. And you’re right. But we can’t persuade confused people. Clarity sets the table for persuasion.
So how do we get there?
When you put a talk together ask yourself, “What is the one thing I want the people to leave with?” Once you figure that out, then it needs to be framed in no more than ten words in a way that is memorable. I did this just the other day when I was giving a message on Revelation chapters 6-7. I don’t know how familiar you are with the bible, but this particular book is the most confusing, so I really felt the need to be clear if my message was going to stick. Here’s my one thing for this message:
Life will get hard. Jesus has conquered. Be faithful.
Nine words. Three truths. Simple. Not shallow. And these three phrases became my three points.
Once you have framed the one thing you want people to take from your message, you now have your north star, your guiding light for the talk. And the question you need to consistently ask as you build the talk is, “Does this ________ (analogy, point, explanation, illustration, etc) tie directly into the main idea of my talk?” If it doesn’t, it has to go. No questions asked. I know it’s a killer illustration, or a great point, or an awesome joke, you may be seen as funny or wise, but you will muddy the waters of your message and introduce a bunch of confusion, diluting the power of your presentation.
Remember:
What’s the one thing you want people to leave with, and frame it in a way that’s memorable using no more than ten words. Repeat this statement often during your talk.
Be disciplined. The rest of your presentation has to point directly to your one thing. If it doesn’t tie directly into it, leave it out.
Never forget the saying, “A mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew,” meaning if there’s the slightest bit of doubt in our heads as communicators, there will be great confusion with our audience.
Front end feedback. I’m big on this. Don’t wait until after your talk to get feedback, get it on the front end. Write your talk out, give it to some people and ask if it’s clear.
What’s Next:
I’ve started writing content for a masterclass I’ll be shooting this fall to help you get better as a communicator, so stay tuned. And as always, Grace to Overcome, my new book, comes out 8/19.
Next level communicators work with words like carpenters work with wood.
Next level communicators work with words like carpenters work with wood.
I’ve been reading Ron Chernow’s biography on the life of Mark Twain, and while we are all familiar with his writings, I did not know how prolific of an oral communicator he was. Twain spent well over a decade traveling the world speaking to sold out auditoriums packed with people who hung on his every word. And why wouldn’t they? Mark Twain was a next level communicator who not only used humor masterfully (He was billed as a “humorist”), but crafted words and phrases like none other. It would not be an overstatement to say he was the greatest craftsman of words in his time, and easily in the top ten of all time.
Here’s a sampling of some of Mark Twain’s famous quotes:
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
Travel is fatal to prejudice.
Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.
Be good and you will be lonesome.
Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.
Whether or not you agree with his aphorisms is beside the point. These statements (and so many more) grab us by the collar, focus our attention and resonate deeply with our experiences. What made Twain a next level communicator was his ability to identify with the human predicament and construct the perfect phrases to articulate what we are feeling.
It’s been said the reason why music speaks to us more powerfully than words is because music is more precise than words. Mark Twain’s use of the human language is the closest anyone has ever come to turning words into musical chords.
Want to be a next level communicator? Exhaust yourself in coming up with the right phrases.
This is advice I wish I would have known in my early days of communication as I was more committed to understanding content and outlining and manuscripting messages. Over the years I’ve slowly come to see a common denominator to the compliments I’ve received from people who have heard me- what grabbed them was a particular truth, a turn of the phrase, that resonated with their experience and was framed in just the precise way that made them pause.
Here’s a few examples of phrases that I’ve used to grab people, and please forgive me because they don’t rise to the level of Twain:
You know you are in a crisis when you have way more questions than answers.
Disappointment happens when your experiences fall short of your expectations.
The way you know you are a Christian is not that you don’t sin- we all sin- but you know you are a Christian when you struggle to sin.
Feelings make wonderful passengers and horrible drivers.
Integrity is the alignment of words with deeds.
Here are a few things to remember when you do the important work of word-smithing:
This should be done after you have put your message together.
Avoid coming up with more than 2-3 of these sticky statements. In our attempt to make our messages memorable, we try to make the whole thing memorable, then we will probably fail to make hardly anything memorable. Make sense?
Pick 2-3 of your most important points and then word smith around them. Ask yourself the question, “What do I want the audience to leave with? What’s the most important thing or things,” and work from there.
Be sure to repeat the sticky statements and pause for effect when you give them.
Two things as we wrap up:
Plans are in place for me to offer a masterclass on communication, along with some personalized coaching. Stay tuned for more details.
If you haven’t already, preorder my new book, Grace to Overcome, which is not only a devotional but one filled with stories to help you grow as a communicator. Drops August 19th.
Next Level communicators always use a road map when putting their messages together.
Next Level communicators always use a road map when putting their messages together.
Recently, one of my sons just gave his first talk to a group of middle school students, and he asked me to give him some tips on how to put a message together (I have a few thoughts!). So we sat out on our back porch, and talked shop for about a half hour. You may be wondering what do I say to a new communicator who is trying to get their bearings? One of the first things I do is to give them a basic road map or guide in putting their message together.
Every message I give covers four things in this order, and only four:
An attention grabbing introduction (Am I going to listen?)
A connection to the heart (Why should I listen?)
Inspirational information (What do you want me to know?)
A persuasive call to action (What do I need to do?)
That’s it.
Now I’m going to keep this short, but stay tuned, because I’m going to offer a class in the coming months for us to get time together to unpack this road map, but for now, here’s the basics:
Introductions:
The opening ninety seconds of your talk is the most important part of your message. I know. I know. You’re thinking it’s not. What you will say in the body or the end of the presentation is the most important. It’s not. Communications experts say our audience gives us about ninety seconds to two and a half minutes before they decide whether they will engage you or their phones, or some other distraction. So if we don’t grab them right away, they won’t pay enough attention to the big ask we are going to make later on.
Felt Need:
While introductions should answer the question, “Am I going to listen,” the next question we have to immediately answer is, “Why should I listen?”. This is where we have to move quickly from their hears to their hearts, showing how what we are going to talk about addresses their felt needs.
Inspirational Information:
Here we are getting to the body, the guts of your presentation, where you are supplying information to the audience in ways that inspire them. Each of your points should move from explanation (make the point) to illustration (show the point) to application (show the person in the point).
Conclusions:
Finally, everything should build to the big ask. What exactly do you want your audience to do with the information you are giving them? Bring them to a point of decision. Don’t be shy. Create a moment where they respond. Don’t look for applause, look to move them in a given direction.
What I’m Reading:
Mark Twain, by Ron Chernow. But buy at your own risk…it’s well north of a thousand pages!
We are getting close! If you haven’t preordered my new book, Grace to Overcome, hurry up. It comes out August 19th, and it’s filled with stories which will help you grow as a communicator.
Next level communicators don’t cheat the game.
Next level communicators don’t cheat the game.
Humanly speaking, the most important thing about us is our habits. If you’re a Christian we would call these things spiritual disciplines, or practices, like bible reading, prayer, generosity and fasting (to name a few). Athletes talk about training, spending their careers running, lifting and paying meticulous attention to what they put in their bodies. Cut corners on nutrition, workouts or film study and it could make the difference between a good career or a great career.
I was reminded of this several years ago when I spent time with an NFL athlete, who not long after we hung out ended up in the hall of fame. This particular player had spent a few years playing with one of my favorite quarterbacks, so I could not help but to fan boy a little over how awesome it must be to share a locker room with this all world quarterback. “He’s had a few good years,” the player non-chalantly responded, “but it won’t last. He doesn’t study film.” I was shocked by his response, but boy did his words ring true. A few years later this uber talented quarterback, who had an amazing few year stretch of ball, was out of the league. And if what his teammate said is true, what did him in was he cheated the game.
I’m not here to talk to you about how long you should prepare for your messages, or challenge you on how to think about your study time. People are so different, with various levels of intelligence and capacity, along with different learning styles, attention spans and so on. But one thing is consistent with great communicators: They develop and maintain habits to keep them at peak preparation and performance. They don’t cut corners, and never cheat the game.
One of the great things about our field as communicators, is we can do this well past the age when most people retire. However, I’m in my fourth decade as a communicator and I’ve seen a scary trend- some of the world’s best communicators tend to decline and fall from peak performance during my season of life (I’m 52). Why is that? There’s many possible reasons like being satisfied with past success, the busy-ness of life and battling the growing reality of less energy each year. All of these issues and more can serve as huge obstacles to thoughtful preparation.
The temptation to cheat the game is not just something great communicators face, it’s a reality every communicator faces. What helps me stay on the path of diligence is keeping these four truths constantly before me:
People’s time is a privilege, not a right. Your audience does not have to show up. Like you they deal with so many distractions for their time, along with crises like a bad marriage, financial difficulties and unemployment to name a few. Every time I stand, especially on a Sunday morning at church, I look out on the audience and wonder how many are there who have a real good excuse not to be there. I’m not the only one sacrificing when I sit down to prepare, so are many of the people I’m speaking to. If they did their best to show up, then I should honor their time by being thoroughly prepared.
No one has a more important job than me, so take it seriously. As a preacher, I speak to the souls of people. Now tell me, who has a more important job than me? I believe in the dignity of all work, but I want you to think with me about what I’m saying and how it should lead to consistent, deep preparation. Doctors deal with bodies. And every time I go to the doctor I always look at the wall of their office because I want to know are they prepared? What schools did they go to? I read reviews on them because I want to know what other people are saying about them. Are they top tier, top quality? No way will I let a doctor work on me who cuts corners in their preparation. Now, don’t hear me as saying that all communicators should have a certain degree of education. I am not saying that (though I believe in education). I want you to hear “preparation”. If you are a preacher or minister of the gospel, you speak to souls, and no one, I mean no one, should be more prepared for their role when they get up to speak than us.
Be grateful not entitled. Speaking is pretty heady stuff. We are always getting complimented, sought out for advice and many times people stand in line waiting to take pictures with us. If we are not watchful we can find ourselves entitled, thinking we deserve certain things, and often the first step downward begins here. The opposite of entitlement is gratitude. Thanking the hosts publicly before I begin my message, writing thank you notes to the people who invited me to the event are huge steps away from entitlement and into gratitude. But I’ve also found that going out of my way to express genuine curiosity to the people sitting around me in the audience, or the production people in the booth, or the intern who picked me up from the airport as I probe them about their lives keeps me away from entitlement. Never forgetting from “whence we came,” will keep us from cheating the game. Hey that rhymed!
Remember, climbing is better for me than declining. I was with a group of people once when the subject of hiking came up. In our group was a doctor who observed that most hiking injuries occur on the descent, and not the ascent. In essence, he was saying going up is way better for our health than going down. When I have done the work of “going up” by forcing myself to “sweat” in my study, the residual impact on my life is comprehensive, as my character, intellectual development and quality of messages are all enhanced (among others).
As a subscriber to my email list I want to thank you by giving you a free excerpt to my book, Grace to Overcome, which comes out next month. Click here to access it. And go over to Amazon to preorder.
Next level communicators are multisensory communicators.
Next level communicators are multisensory communicators.
Let’s chat about why it’s important you use some sort of presentation platform like PowerPoint when you speak (To keep things simple, I’ll use PowerPoint as a general reference to any kind of visual aid like Keynote or Google Slides.). If you want your messages to stick, then PowerPoint is a must, and the science backs it up.
Dr. Richard Mayer is a professor at UC Santa Barbara and the main proponent of multimedia learning. He’s experimented with students who were taught by professors who used visual aids in their talks, compared with those who only heard the lecture. His research concludes every single time the students who learned both by lecture and visual aid had much more accurate recall of the information than those students who only heard the information. Every single time. This has led Mayer to conclude that when the brain is engaged verbally and visually, the mental connection is more than a little stronger, it’s a lot stronger.
Nothing really new here, right? I’m going to go out on a limb that the overwhelming majority of those who subscribe to my weekly emails use some sort of visual program like PowerPoint. I’m also going to guess that most of us who use these programs use them the wrong way, so much so that they take away from our presentations instead of enhancing them.
Text driven slides dilute the power of our messages. Picture dominated slides exponentially increase the probability that our audience will retain what we want to convey.
The average PowerPoint slide contains 40 words, and words on top of the words the communicator is speaking only clutters the message. This is why the old maxim is true: Too much PowerPoint dilutes the power of the point. The human brain cannot pay equal attention to hearing a message and reading a point in the message on the slide at the same time. But, if what’s on the slide is a picture, this will not only allow the brain to process visually and verbally at once, it will, again, increase the likelihood of the point being retained. Communication expert, Carmine Gallo puts it like this, “Put simply, visuals matter- a lot. If you hear information, you are likely to remember about 10 percent of that information three days later. Add a picture, however, and your recall rate will soar to 65 percent. To put that into context, a picture will help you remember six times more information than listening to the words alone” (Talk Like Ted, page 213).
The way I see it, we as communicators have three options:
1, Talk with no visual aids, and the result will be 10% of what we say being retained.
2. Talk with text driven visual aids and dilute the message.
3. Talk with visual aids that are picture driven and enhance your retention rate by six times.
I know which one I’m going for, and something tells me I know your choice too.
When I use PowerPoint in my messages, these things help me:
Remember, PowerPoint is the seasoning and not the meat of your presentation. Too much PowerPoint, even if it’s visually enhanced, can have two adverse effects. First, it can restrict you as a communicator, where you’re just moving from slide to slide, when instead you need to be free to speak from your heart as well as your head. But too much PowerPoint can divert the audience's attention away from you for an inordinate period of time.
Don’t use pictures just for the sake of pictures. If it’s not a homerun…if it doesn’t bring clarity to what you’re saying, then don’t use it.
Timing is key. You can have the perfect picture, but if, for example, it comes up too early in your talk, it can actually spoil the point. Also, take your time with the visuals. Nervous communicators can rush past the slide. Let it sit for a moment, and have your audience take it in. Rushing past the visual renders it useless.
Clarity. Make sure your communication with the production team is really clear as to when you want the slides to appear in your talk. The way I accomplish clarity is I send the team the manuscript for my message, with the parts I want included in the presentation highlighted in yellow. I will then meet with them in the production meeting and tell them their cue for putting the slide I want up on the screen is when they hear me say to the audience, “Look at the screen with me.”
For goodness sake, have a backup plan. If there’s one thing I learned early on about technology is expect it not to work. So I always have my notes with me on my iPad, and if for some reason it doesn’t work, I’m not thrown but can keep it moving. If the slide had a quote on it, then I can simply read it to the audience. If the slide was a picture, I’m prepared to verbally paint the visual image I was going to show. Always have a backup plan.
We are getting close! My book, Grace to Overcome, which is full of stories that will help you communicate better, comes out August 19th. Preorder today.