My business trip to DC was book-ended by visits to two of the areas many excellent, free, museums and galleries. On the morning of my first day I walked  past the White House and the Washington Monument to the Holocaust Museum. The last morning I took the Metro to the National Gallery. From the Sorrow and the Pity to looking at the sunlight on the water through the eyes of the Impressionists, I visited two superb locations. If you are in DC and can make time to visit either – do so.

The Holocaust Museum

Is simply one of the most remarkable buildings in the western hemisphere. It’s both a vital testament to man’s inhumanity to man – lest we forget- and an immersive experience in the darkest days of the last century.

The building fulfills the architects promise to "take you in its grip". The visitor experiences every aspect of the horror of the Nazi state’s final solution. I left the building a different person than when I entered. The very cells of my being absorbed more than I can comprehend or ever hope to articulate of  the unspeakable horror and scale of the Holocaust.  Words alone cannot do justice to the monstrosity Hitler visited on the world.  The museum impresses the truth of the events that lie beyond words, beyond rhetoric.

We see the propaganda posters and hear the radio speeches and marching songs that accompanied Hitler’s rise out of the hopelessness of Weimar Germany. The classroom textbooks on eugenics and all the scientific rationalism that explained theories of the Master Race to young and old. Some pen and ink graphs bore a chilling resemblance to the worst Power Point slides of today – bar-charts legitimizing the obsessive statistics of racial superiority or justifying calls for re-armament. It was apparent that the Nazi’s were, in their era, accomplished communicators. Goebbels gave away radios (can you hear me now?). Hitler did not have a speechwriter. The poison was all his. He was the world’s most successful  motivational speaker whose call to action killed millions.

We see the results of his speeches in the floors of the museum that show the move from straightforward bullying brutality and persecution to the full-scale machines of death built and operated at Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzek and Majdanek.

It forced me to face up to the horror of this era. It is beyond the banality of evil; beyond the room of slate grey shoes abandoned at the gas chamber doors; beyond the piles of toothbrushes, razors, spectacle frames, hair brushes; beyond the photographed mountains of human hair shorn from the victims; beyond the names of the disappeared villages etched on window and wall; beyond the gates to the ghetto; beyond the railroad car (where I broke down and cried); beyond the identity cards and the systems of classification by yellow, purple, black and pink triangles; beyond the efficient Hollerith data-processing machines stamped with the initials IBM; beyond the documented indifference to all of this by the American politicians of the 1940′s.

It is the creepy suspicion that all this could happen again, and again, and again, and again. It’s Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan, Darfur. It’s the pages of history waiting to be written with names we have not yet heard. Yet someone, someday, might start the ball rolling again with a few clever words spoken with passionate intensity to ignorant listeners desperate to believe:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

W. B. Yeats

The National Gallery of Art

After the darkness, light. A treasure trove of all that is good and great about mankind. Of all that survives the darkness and despair. I paid homage to Renoir, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Cezanne and Pollack:

I said hello to beauties from another era:

To Ellen, at the cafe table, lost in thought over her brandy-soaked plum:

To Victorine, by the Railway Bridge, heralding the modern era:

To the slaves to love:

To those lost in quiet domesticity:

Rain was turning to snow as I left Washington, to fly home to California, baking under a February sun.

Disclaimer: I work as a corporate speechwriter in a Silicon Valley high technology company. Most of the ‘speeches’ I write are a series of Power Point slides with speaking notes.

Given that perspective, here’s what I took away from the conference, and some suggestions on ways it might be improved in future.

Demographics: Baby boomer’s don’t retire, they just do freelance speechwriting

There were 250 registered attendees, and it looked like about 60% were male with a predominance of Boomer graybeards. More than one person commented that speechwriting was a ‘senior job’ and CEO’s want someone with experience they can trust. However, my colleague Russell had a conversation with the speechwriter for GM’s CEO who was a woman in her 20’s.

Question: what happens when this current generation of speechwriters retires?

Another question: what age are the speechwriters who support CEO’s like Sergey and Larry at Google? Do guys in their 20′s and 30′s running companies want someone writing their speeches who is old enough to be their father?

The attendees were overwhelmingly from North America. I met two women from The Netherlands and heard a couple of British accents but perhaps, like me, they live here.

Speechwriters: In love with the past, or looking to the future?

The graybeards love classical rhetoric. Many quoted Lincoln, FDR, JFK, MLK, Shakespeare, Robert Green Ingersoll and so on. It’s ironic that few of these masterful orators actually used the services of a speechwriter.

When the next generation of speechwriters comes along will they still look to the past for inspiration? Or will they look forward to messages that are crafted for an age of fragmented media?

Many of the “Greatsâ€? delivered speeches that were absorbed by an audience at one time (in Ingersoll’s case often two or more hours at one sitting). But who would listen to a two hour speech these days? How will messages be received in the future? Will we see more asynchronous communication via blogs, podcasts, streaming media archives? What will be the best way to achieve mind- and market-share with an audience that turns on, tunes in, tunes out, turns off? What do you write for an audience with one hand on the remote? When the keywords you meta-tag your transcripts with bring more web-surfers to the soundbites – what matters the rhetoric? (he asked rhetorically)

Ragan: The shoe-makers children?

Since much of the actual content of the presentations can be found in the many excellent books on the craft of speechwriting at your local Barnes & Nobel for $20, why pay $895 for a conference? And if you do pay that, do you have a right to expect a flawlessly run event? My minor quibbles include:

On the positive side:

But I did find it embarrassing that some of the presenters were unable to practice what they preached in terms of rhetoric and speech delivery.

Whither speechifying?

Unlike dramatic shifts in the worlds of the music, art and literature there seems to have been no sea-change in effective rhetoric since the nineteenth century. When a speaker from the 1880′s is held up as an example to study, and speeches form Shakespeare are quoted with relish, whither speechifying?

Modern writers must deal with the novel after Joyce and the poem after Ginsberg. Contemporary Artists must paint in a world turned upside down by Impressionism, Cubism and later movements. In the time Ingersoll was speaking, The Academy was refusing to exhibit Manet and since then the establishment has banned works ranging from Lady Chatterly to Howl.

What paradigm shifts have we seen in the world of the public speaker? Why are we still recommending that speakers “Tell ‘em what you’ll tell ‘em; tell ‘em and then tell ‘em what you told ‘em”. Is anyone listening any more?

I’d like a future Ragan conference to bring in the rap singers, greeting card sloganeer’s, comedy writers, Hollywood script-meister’s, advertising executives, graffiti taggers, punks and poets who know how to create messages with impact.

I’d like future conferences to feature presentations by people whose first language isn’t American English. Let’s hear from Japanese, Thai, Indian, European, Australian and Fijian speechwriters. Let’s especially hear from those British political speechwriters who cut their teeth on Prime Minister’s Question Time!

I’d like to hear presentations on what it’s like to write a speech for the generals in Iraq; a political speech in both the Red and Blue States; for NGO’s like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. I’d like to hear from a Toastmaster Champion and the best the National Speakers Association has to offer.

One great visionary who knows that communication ‘business as usual’ does not work anymore is the Wizard of Ads, Roy H. Williams. His Monday Morning Memo recently asked us to create speeches:

[Find and replace used to customize 'advertising' for 'speechwriting']

Monsoon Wedding Eulogy

Since much of what I prepare in my day job is delivered by senior executives who I enjoy close contact with, I feel safe from offshoring. At least, I did until I reached page 31 of The World is Flat on the plane ride home:

Friedman says that where most of the research can be gleaned off the web and summarized in a standard format then the speechwriter who only offers this amount of value to an organization is ripe for offshoring… (gulp!).

Let’s invite someone from Brickworks to the next conference – before they replace us all…

As with any conference, you don’t just go for the formal presentations — it’s the conversations with fellow delegates that make the trip worthwhile. Where else on the planet would I be in a room with 250 people who all, more or less, do the same job? I met some great folks.

Vinca runs an independent consulting operation in the DC area. She really did work in the West Wing – writing President Clinton’s foreign policy speeches. Traveling on Air Force One, heads down over her laptop, she wrote his November 1995 speeches given in Derry and Belfast, Northern Ireland. There’s still work for Democrats who write speeches in DC, just not in the West Wing at the moment.

Kathryn works for a Silicon Valley High Tech company where she’s the only writer supporting 13 executives. She also finds time to use her own speaking skills, developed as a member of the National Speakers Association, by offering presentation skills classes to the staff. She asks her students to consider the two key questions all audience members ask when a speaker starts a presentation:

1. Should I stick around? Not just literally, but if you don’t grab their attention in the first six minutes of a speech they will check out. Thoughts about the laundry, shopping or the cutie in accounting with the winsome smile will occupy their attention, not whatever it is you are saying.

2. So What? Meaning, what’s in it for me? If you don’t answer this question every time before moving onto a new topic (or a new PowerPoint slide) you will have lost some or all of the audience. A good few of the presenters at this conference omitted the ‘So What?’ in their presentations.

Colin has a web site that helps freelance speechwriters find work. He offers a free eZine and bonus marketing workbook. Maybe he’ll start a blog one day soon?

Damien is a lobbyist for the American Insurance Association. He writes for the ex-Governor of Wyoming who now runs the place. His main challenge is frosting the road apple of his subject matter. No matter which way you spin it, commercial insurance is plain old BORING.

I had conversations with a whole number of other people whose names I don’t remember. But the variety was impressive:

And last but not least:

All in all, the conference attracted writers with a love of the spoken word rather than speakers with an interest in the written word. Bookish intellectuals rather than the extrovert glad-hander’s at speaking conferences. People were willing to share the tools of their trade and had a contagious enthusiasm for their craft.

I’ll share more of my overall impressions of the conference in my next posting.

The third and final day of the Conference. As always at these events, my brain has reached overload by this point. Here’s my ‘class notes’ from the sessions I attended Friday. I’ll write up my subjective impressions and report on hallway conversations and networking on the flight home.

Breakfast Panel What’s going on in the speechwriting world?

Panelists:

David Murray, editor, Speechwriters Newsletter
Rich Greb, facilitator, Chicago Speechwriters Forum
Jan Cook, founder, Washington Speechwriters Roundtable
Dana Rubin, founder, New York Speechwriters Group

Warning! We’ve been outed! Thanks to Rob Lowe and the West Wing, people know about speechwriters – we’re more visible now than ever. But speeches are not going away and blogs will never replace speeches (according to David Murray). That said, here’s my blog on the main points I captured from the free flowing early morning panel discussion and audience Q&A:

Steve described the process whereby he leveraged transformations at UPS (such as district managers renewing their focus on customer service, or the move to the company being an enabler of the global supply chain) into effective messaging. His guiding objective is to

Position UPS executives as thought leaders and powerful brand ambassadors through public speeches, events, by-lined articles, Op-Eds, White Papers and other repackaging channels.

In other words: find the downstream potential in each and every speech – maximize every second of the executives time at a venue beyond what they say on the podium – turn ‘delivering a speech’ into an event rich with possibilities that gives the speech content extra bounce. Schedule meetings with press, key customers, analysts. Place senior managers closer to key stakeholders.

The strategy of Steve’s Exec Comm Department includes:

They sweat the details by:

A huge win for Steve was when Thomas Friedman was researching The World is Flat and happened to Google the phrase synchronized commerce. Friedman found dozens of references to past UPS speeches that had been repackaged by Steve’s team, as this example illustrates. Friedman dedicates a section of his book to UPS, identifying them as his #8 world-flattener in a section titled What Those Guys in the Funny Brown Shorts Are Really Doing. As Steve dryly observed, you can’t buy that kind of PR. And it all began with the simple process of making the transcripts of executive speeches available online and searchable outside the firewall. Does your company do this?

Steve produces an annual $1million event which brings world-class political leaders such as Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, President H.W. Bush, President Carter and Polish leader Vaclav Havlal together with academics and CEO’s from major customers. This is co-branded with the prestigious Harvard Business School Publishing. Very little on the Agenda overtly  ‘sells’ UPS. The goal is to stimulate dialog and debate around issues such as globalization. Funding future events is secured by the measurable $25 million incremental revenue which resulted from past events.

By positioning his team at the intersection of creativity and strategy Steve has earned a seat at the table when senior management  frames the future of the company.

Steve is to the average speechwriter what an army general is to an infantry grunt. He plans the campaign and grabs victories from the jaws of defeat. The rest of us dig foxholes and practice duck and cover when the corporate big guns fire. (Hey! I needed a coupla good military analogies being so close to the home of the Commander in Chief, n’ all)

Hal Gordon What speechwriters can learn from a great American orator – Robert Green Ingersoll

Hal is a freelance speechwriter who currently writes for Shell Oil in Houston and blogs for Ragan Communications. He’s written for both the Walt Disney World and top advisors to President Ronald Reagan (from Mickey Mouse to Ed Meese). His blog explains all about Ingersoll. Ingersoll’s best speeches show him a masterful orator and a fiercely intelligent and independent thinker. He openly wore the badge of his atheism – which in 19th Century America got him into about as much trouble as it would in some corners of the Heartland today. This speech on Chinese exclusion masterfully skewers the limited horizons and profound lack of cultural understanding in the USA. As then, perhaps now:

The average American, like the average man of any country, has but little imagination. People who speak a different language, or worship some other god, or wear clothing unlike his own, are beyond the horizon of his sympathy. He cares but little or nothing for the sufferings or misfortunes of those who are of a different complexion or of another race. His imagination is not powerful enough to recognize the human being, in spite of peculiarities. Instead of this he looks upon every difference as an evidence of inferiority, and for the inferior he has but little if any feeling. If these “inferior people” claim equal rights be feels insulted, and for the purpose of establishing his own superiority tramples on the rights of the so-called, inferior. In our own country the native has always considered himself as much better than the immigrant, and as far superior to all people of a different complexion. At one time our people hated the Irish, then the Germans, then the Italians, and now the Chinese. . . The patient followers of Confucius were treated as outcasts — stoned by boys in the streets and mobbed by the fathers. Few seemed to have any respect for their rights or their feelings. They were unlike us. They wore different clothes. They dressed their hair in a peculiar way, and therefore they were beyond our sympathies. These ideas, these practices, demoralized many communities; the laboring people became cruel and the small politicians infamous. When the rights of even one human being are held in contempt the rights of all are in danger. We cannot destroy the liberties of others without losing our own. By exciting the prejudices of the ignorant we at last produce a contempt for law and justice, and sow the seeds of violence and crime.

There’s a lot more where this came from here. Read it and weep.

Dawne Simmons From speechwriter to speaker: What you can learn by taking the podium

Dawne walks the walk and talks the talk. One of the rare breed of speechwriters who also know how to speak in public. She’s a dynamic independent consultant who participates in National Speakers Association trainings.

Her claim, which I fully agree with, is that by mastering the art of public speaking you learn to do what you are asking those you write for to do. You step away from the computer monitor and leap the divide that’s represented by the truism: Those who can, do, those who can’t, write about it… 

Indeed, I have often wondered how many authors of sex manuals are actually great lovers? How many cookbook editors can create a meal that would actually delight the palette? Do the editors of travel guides really enjoy exploring foreign parts? Speechwriters might be able to describe the motions, but not until they’ve assumed the position and engaged in the act with an appreciative audience can they really understand what it takes to get it up. Speaking to an audience is an act of seduction. If you’ve not experienced the sweat on your palms and the palpitations of the heart as you present your naked voice to an audience for the first time then in some real sense you are still a callow virgin.  Writing text, even if you annotate with pointers for techniques and timing, is not the same as participating in an uncensored relationship with consenting adults.

So, where was I. Oh yes, Dawne’s class. She challenged the audience face up their fear. Toastmasters is a great place to start. There’s a club meeting near you this week, guaranteed. Being both a writer and a speaker advanced Dawne’s career. Public speaking changed from a stumbling block to a stepping stone for success. Bottom line:

Practice both speaking and speech writing, they go together like a left and right shoe!

Bill Crain Speechwriting (fun)damentals: How to wow audiences and win business

Bill is an independent consultant who writes for ExxonMobile and was recently hired as a speechwriter for the government of Thailand. By the  afternoon the crowd had thinned out and I was just about to do the same . But I’m glad I stayed for this post-conference seminar. It was filled with more practical tips and tricks than  rest of the conference put together. Bill provided a great handout with step by step checklists:

He included a bonus selection of samples from commercial speeches he had written and extracts from well-known speeches by Martin Luther King, Churchill and Shakespeare.

Bill’s work pushes the envelope when he looks at major factors reshaping speechwriting today, including those of globalization and the shift in the geo-political axis toward Asia which he and I agree is changing the form of acceptable business communication. He also acknowledges discoveries in quantum physics and human potential psychology as relevant factors. His most unique views are around suggesting meditation as a practice to unlock creativity and the power of the still quiet voice within. He has studied the Sanskrit chakra system used in Indian ayurvedic medicine and suggests the relevance of different chakras to speechwriting. Considering the ascent of the chakras from  bodily base to crown he interprets the color and quality of each for a speechwriter, suggesting we review each speech to ensure it includes at least a reference to each element.

Specifically:

The root of the body at the base of the spine is associated with the color red and signifies the family, health and issues of physical survival. For speechwriters: how does your topic pertain to the family and to human health and safety?.

The sacral area of the body and sexual organs associated with the color orange signifies sex, power and money. For speechwriters: how does your topic affect men and women differently? What are the political and economic aspects? (I would add – does the speech turn your audience on?)

The solar plexus and diaphragm associated with the color yellow signifies ethics, integrity and personal will. For speechwriters: what are the ethical dimensions of this topic?

The heart, chest, lungs associated with the color green signfies love, compassion and kindness. For speechwriters: to what extent is there an emotional dimension to your topic? To what extent is compassion called for? (I would add, unless your audience are automatons you must appeal to their hearts – since they can only comprehend with their head what their hearts have responded to on some level).

The throat, ears, nose, teeth associated with the color blue signifies personal expression and communication. For speechwriters: what are the communication challenges in your topic? What is essential for the speaker to communicate? (I would add a big DUH! You better communicate throughout the speech.)

I was intrigued by Bill’s groundbreaking work here. I’ve not heard of the chakra system being applied to business communications. And I assume that if Bill had more time he would have included the all important final two chakras:

The brow chakra or third eye center, associated with the color indigo signifies the act of seeing, both physically and intuitively. As such it opens our psychic faculties and our understanding of archetypal levels. When healthy it allows us to see clearly, in effect, letting us “see the big picture.” For speechwriters: to what extent does your speech deal with the big picture?

The crown chakra sitting on or above the physical top of the head. Associated the color violet. It relates to consciousness as pure awareness. It is our connection to the greater world beyond, to a timeless, spaceless place of all-knowing. When developed, this chakra brings us knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection, and bliss. For speechwriters: to what extent does anything in your speech really mean a damn in the big scheme of things?

Thanks Bill, you’ve given me a whole raft of ideas: Feng Shui for Speechwriters; Speechwriting Zen (the companion to Presentation Zen); The Inner Game of Speechwriting, and more.

A busy day at the ranch for over 300 speechwriters who attended the first full day of the conference. Here’s a list of the main points I noted from the six sessions I attended. Since the day ran on parallel tracks, there were a whole other set of presentations I did not capture.

Also, I’ll be writing up my various hallway and meal conversations in a later blog after the conference ends. There are speechwriters here from the PTA, TVA and NSA not to mention the FBI, Health Ministry of Holland and a whole lotta consultants.

Meanwhile, this is some of what I heard today:

David Kusnet Speechwriting in a post-rhetorical era: Is the era of Big Speechwriting over?

The opening keynote delivered in the very the hotel where FDR composed the speech that contained the impassioned plea We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Kusnet was one President Clinton’s main speechwriters, now at the Economic Policy Institute.

Notable points:

Ron Kirkpatrick Dump the outline! Structure speeches for maximum impact

Ron is the Manager of Executive Communications at Toyota, USA. He took us through the template from his friend Mark Walton’s book Generating Buy-in: Mastering the Language of Leadership which shows how the intent of every speech should be to build a connection between what is important to the audience and the objective of the speaker via a strategic storyline that tells of a positive future for the audience. The best example of compelling strategic storylines are 30 second television ads and company taglines like GE’s We bring good things to life.

An interesting tie-in with Kusnet’s plea that we open the speech with something that makes the audience sit up and take notice is the suggestion we start with a solid ‘Scene Setter’ – such as a topical newspaper article, reference to current event or something to grab their attention. Developing the body of the speech follows the ‘law of three’ (Faith, Hope, and … / Lights, Camera, …) and gives a framework to deliver three targeted messages with supporting evidence from stories, data and business experiences.

The all-important, and oft-missed, conclusion must contain a call-to-action – something that, in my experience, many executives seem to need the most help articulating.

Walton’s book offers a good practical template that mirrors that used by Speakeasy Inc’s class on content development. Well worth checking out for the $13.75 amazon.com price.

Tack Cornelius Regrets of a Corporate Speechwriter

Tack continued with more of the practical tips he shared in yesterday’s pre-conference session.

Lunch The Best Advice I ever got!

Assorted senior speechwriters shared their favorite tips ‘n tricks, the best advice they were ever given in their careers (apologies for losing track of who said what):

Blanchard Hiatt Reconcilable Differences: How to be a speechwriter in a PowerPoint world

Blanchard is director of executive communications at Avaya, Inc. He shared a medley of PowerPoint tips n’ tricks – everything from suggestions on minimum font size to acknowledging of the wisdom of Edward Tufte.

The Ten Commandments of Wisdom for Presentation Graphics:

1. Speak to you audience before launching your visuals
2. Keep eye contact with your audience, not with your visual aids
3. Avoid reading your slides to your audience
4. Keep text to a minimum; let images and graphics illustrate and dramatize your points
5. Use a font style that is simple and large enough to read at a distance (san serif 20-24)
6. Keep the number of points to 3-5 per slide
7. Ensure consistency of syntax on each slide (if the first bullet point starts with a verb, so should all)
8. Take the time to introduce, and allow the audience time to absorb, complex information
9. Put your slide titles to work – they should help deliver the message (think headlines!)
10. Turn the projector off to focus attention and reclaim the spotlight

Ron Shewchuk What you need from your speaker and how to go about getting it

Ron is a Canadian speechwriter working with a number of different companies. He shared his own ten commandments for the speakers he writes for:

1. Don’t take the name of your company in vain
2. Always check the facts
3. Don’t whitewash the part or paint too rosy a picture of the present, or falsely brighten the future
4. Keep the speech short
5. Use plain language
6. Present a thesis, back it up, and end with a call to action
7. Don’t say anything you would not want to see in the newspaper the next day
8. Understand your speech has a life after you deliver it (leverage it!)
9. Make the speech consistent with company values
10. Never publicly refer to your speechwriter

He then shared his own list of a speechwriter’s responsibilities:

That’s all for tonight, folks!

Quick: What do San Francisco, New York and Limerick all have in common?

Answer: Smoking has been banished from the bars in California, New York and Ireland (yes, even Ireland!). So you can enjoy a smoke-free atmosphere when you go out for a drink. However, in Washington DC you’ll find the smoke-filled room is alive and well.

On my first evening in The Nation’s Capitol I was driven away from a couple of places where I went to slake my thirst by the unwelcome smoke. I even saw a couple of Young Republicans puffing on a stogie. Since all the jokes about Republican’s putting cigars to their proper use are a little tired by now I better report on the proceedings of Day1 of the Ragan Speechwriter’s Conference.

The pre-sessions kicked off today. About 30 experienced speechwriters, some with 20+ years experience, attended Tack Cornelius’s session Flying lobsters and a muse of fire: Practical tips for veteran speechwriters.

Tack has one of those improbable Southern names right out of a John Grisham novel which the British find fascinating. He writes from Gainesville, Georgia and has over three decades of experience in journalism, government and business. His clients include former Kentucky Gov. Martha Layne Collins and two Bellsouth CEO’s: John Clendenin and Duane Ackerman.

The intriguing title of his afternoon class refers to the story of UPS keeping lobsters on ice in their Louisville, KY hub to ‘freshen ‘em up before they are whipped off to the four corners of the globe as air freight. An insight to make even the most boring lecture on the modern supply chain come alive for an audience. The Muse of Fire references the opening lines of Henry V – recommended by Tack as a sterling example of the use of sound in speech – as is Macbeth and the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters.

Tack believes in the salutatory effect of writing a speech out in full – the text being a point of departure for key insights that make the spoken word come alive. Other tips include:

Quirky suggestions (from Tack and the audience):

Recommended reading:

Off to Washington DC on Tuesday for the 2006 Lawrance Ragan Speechwriters Conference. My first time with the heavy-hitters in the world of speechwriting. Seems appropriate that we’ll be down the road from the West Wing of the White House.

But I try, and I try and I try.

Seems The Stones are to play half-time at the Superbowl. Never watched the Superbowl. Never ate a hamburger neither.

Mick is funny when he wants to be:

At least whatever cultural difference survived four decades of the Stones is so far from the time the girl with far away eyes made him run twenty red lights in a row… that I wonder, I just wonder… did any American ever write such insightful lyrics about England or Ireland as Jagger and Richards, Al Stewart and The Pogues have written about the States? Why not? I don’t think Simon and Garfunkle’s Homeward Bound quite captures the spirit of British Rail.

The protests in the Muslim world over the publication of cartoons they find offensive shows how serious religious and cultural differences can be in the world today. If you hope to do business with other cultures, or to help make the world a better place, it’s a good thing to develop cultural understanding. It can be a matter of survival for all of us.

It’s often remarked that the two remaining taboo topics in today’s world are your age and your salary. This in an era where sex n’drugs n’ rock n’roll have made discussion of previously off-limit topics like frequency of intercourse a commonplace (Sex and the City conversations are routine in Silicon Valley watering holes).

But it’s an odd thing about life at the top: CEO’s have no privacy. There’s dozens of sources that tell us everything about a CEO except the color of their underpants. Forbes reveals that HP’s Mark Hurd is 49 years old, and earned in excess of $23M in the 9 months he spent at HP in 2005.

Over at GE, they helpfully provide a Bio of past CEO Jack Welch that includes the year of his birth (1935). Since Jack is one of the best-known CEO’s in the world it’s not just his age and past remuneration that are widely known, but every aspect of his marital history and most of his private life.

Perhaps CEO’s have a tendency to brag about these two aspects of their life that the rest of us jealously guard. Jack and Suzi Welch don’t seem to shy away from publicity – they have books to sell. But the average CEO is probably uncomfortable with everyone in their organization knowing their age and tax bracket. It’s the price they pay for the top job.

Meanwhile, the further down the organization you go the less people know about you. If you are responsible for cleaning the offices or cutting the grass outside the building no-one even knows your name.

The position of the CEO is like that of a President or head of State. They are given power and privilege but they must sit in the hot-seat as the ‘man in the middle’. The Western Spiritual Adept Adi Da Samraj spoke of this in one of his first published talks in Los Angeles in 1973:

Just so, HP sacrificed Carly; the US sacrificed Nixon, and tried the same with Clinton. Talk is that Bush is fighting that tendency right now. Want to know the color of Ken Lay’s underpants over at Enron, stick around, Court-TV will have details at eleven.

Oh, today is my birthday. I was born in 1952.

I earn considerably less than either of the CEO’s mentioned above.

I prefer light blue boxers.