Clark S. Judge: Opening Keynote - Your client is not a speaker! You are not a speechwriter!

Clark S. Judge is managing director of the White House Writers Group. This group of two dozen communications professionals shares one thing in common — they’ve all worked for Republicans. The West Wing Writers, on the other hand, are staffed with freelance Democrats.

Judge was a speechwriter in the West Wing during the Bush/Reagan years. After two-and-a-half years serving Vice President Bush, he joined President Reagan’s speechwriting staff in 1986 and remained with Mr. Reagan through the end of his term. A member of the Moscow Summit speechwriting team, he was also the lead writer for the Toronto Economic Summit in 1988 and helped shape the White House approach to the 1988 presidential campaign. He’s proud of helping these leaders speak to the world about freedom, bringing market forces to the world and reducing the threat of nuclear war by ending the influence of the Soviet Union. As Managing Director of the White House Writers Group, Clark Judge provides strategic communications counsel to clients in industries ranging from financial services to transportation to high technology.

He offered the conference his strategic counsel, asking us to see and perform our work through a different lens and see a bigger picture.

We know the drill: The speaking requests come in. The speeches get written. The speaker delivers them. And everybody gets paid. What’s wrong with that? It’s not satisfying to the speaker, it’s not interesting to the writer and, generally speaking, it’s not effective for the organization.

“Speech making is part of a CEO’s job,” Judge says. “Clarity is part of leadership.”

A strategic viewpoint is important for speechwriters who want to become the director of corporate clarity. Speechwriters have a unique overview of every aspect of an organization.

US Presidents deliver speeches in different musical styles. Reagan was symphonic. Bush 1 was rock n’ roll. Clinton was improvisational jazz – brilliant riffs which sometimes clashed. Bush 2 is country music. Reagan had tremendous sensitivity to language. Bush 1 had respect for his audience. He did not want his speech cards to weigh too much. He’d ask “why are we doing this event, anyway?” Speechwriters hear this question a lot. It’s one we should take seriously. It raises questions about our role as speech advisors and causes us to ask if the speaker is carrying a message to an audience who matters?

The three aspects of a strategic speechwriters role:

Integration of the message into whole scope of messaging. Ask: does the work we do contribute to larger purpose of company?

Negotiation involves communicating. When an executive talks to Wall St, customers, or employees they carry a core set of messages. These must be integrated with advertising, other executives’ messages, and so on. The more you integrate the speech with broader messaging the more powerful it is. This begins to answer question Why are we doing this event anyway?

Integrity Words become powerful when they are used with integrity. Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall” was drafted by speechwriter Peter Robison who went to Berlin on an advance trip, where the US Embassy advised he not mention the wall. At dinner ordinary Berliners told him personal stories about living with the wall. The hostess for the evening said if the Russians were serious about perestroika they’d tear down the wall. First drafts of speech included this — against the wishes of the State Department. Reagan demonstrated integrity when he used it. “The boys at State are going to kill me for this but it stays in.”

Initiative Demonstrated by speechwriter who has unique license to go around the company and demonstrate leadership.

Coaching tip: Corporate executives are already have skills in extemporaneous speaking. They’ve had to sell in one form or another and can persuade and communicate on the fly. Working with a prepared text or presentation is totally different: it requires they have the discipline to rehearse so they master the text. They can then move on to a state where they’re comfortable enough to sell the message of the text. This knowledge will start to come across in their delivery.