How to temper lofty goals with reasonable expectations

President Obama campaigned on a promise of hope. And while it was an effective message, some believe Obama’s goals aren’t realistic. Case in point: In President Obama’s Feb. 24 address to Congress, speaking of his recovery plan, he stated:

“It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time.”

MyRagan.com readers were asked if that claim was science fiction, as many had dubbed President George W. Bush’s goal to put on man on Mars. Or was it inspirational, like JFK’s famous speech to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

Putting aside the invective and the ad hominem attacks, Ragan.com readers were divided. Some saw this as a “rash claim” and a “baseless promise” that crossed a dangerous line — playing with the emotions of cancer sufferers and their families. Some criticized “inspirational rhetoric” and warned it would wear thin. On the other hand, there were those who applauded the president’s “vision for the country” and saw the goal of conquering the disease as realistic.

Quite clearly, the lofty rhetoric Kennedy (and Ted Sorensen) employed in 1961 inspired the audience. It was a call to action that marked the start of a nine-year program. Policy was formulated. Technicians implemented the details. Gantt charts planned out specific milestones to design rockets, train astronauts and develop the space capsule. What began with rhetoric ended in success.

It remains to be seen if we’ll ever set foot on Mars or conquer cancer.

The question for speechwriters is, how far should lofty goals be tempered with realistic expectations? When does a call to action lose credibility? What guidelines can be employed to inoculate inspirational speeches against a skeptical response by an audience?

Guidelines to follow

Effective speeches often motivate by highlighting difficulties, tempering vision with realism.

On December 8, 1941, with the U.S.S. Arizona still smoking, Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation:

“We are now in this war. We are in it – all the way. It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war … We don’t like it – we didn’t want to get in it – but we are in it and we’re going to fight it with everything we’ve got.”

Motivational speeches are effective when they draw attention to a perceived weakness in the speaker, turning doubts to advantage in the audience’s mind.

In 1588, Queen Elizabeth I, visiting the troops at Tilbury on the eve of the battle with the Spanish Armada, said:“I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king.”

Acknowledging difficult aspects of the current situation can motivate listeners. Dr. Martin Luther King’s most famous speech mirrored a series of obstacles with their opposite:

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream….I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice … I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight …”

So is Obama guilty of being too like Pollyanna in his speeches? Of being too wrapped up in “inspirational rhetoric”? I would argue not. The opening minutes of his Inauguration speech show a classic tempering of expectations:

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.”

To be effective, speakers must understand the limits of empty inspirational rhetoric. Avoid groundless optimism. Temper expectations. Know audience expectations and your own ability to bridge the gap between what is and what might be. While reaching for the moon, keep your feet firmly on the ground.

(This article was originally published on ragan.com, April 2, 2009)

As I noted in February, word is that presenters now need to be aware that audiences might be using Twitter to discuss their speech while it is in progress.

There’s more on the implications from Mark Ivey who has a useful article on How Speakers Can Manage Twitter- and Live to Talk About it.

The goal, of course, is to channel the Twitter discussion into a force that works for your speech. For speakers (and communications managers) it’s time to reassess presentation styles and start planning to adjust.

Mark advises specific ways to mitigate the potential disruption Twitter can cause.

Imagine you had to give a presentation on the current economic crisis. We read, for instance, that the Federal Reserve will purchase securities up to $1.25 trillion this year. How would you convey the scale of this to an audience?

One option might be to say that the if these were $100 bills a stack of a trillion would reach 64,834 miles – a quarter-way to the moon. The problem you face as a speaker is that very few audience members have a clear concept of how far 64,000 miles really is; fewer still have been to the moon. But people are fond of these analogies:

One trillion seconds would take you back 31,709 years to the time of the hunter-gatherers. If you lined up the 1.5tn (British) pound coins that were reported to have been wiped off the global markets on one single black Friday, they would get you from here to Mars.

These words impress, but they only replace one abstraction with another.

Better is a picture (worth 1,000 words – which is the approximate length of this blog posting…).

This is one time when a speaker would benefit from a PowerPoint slide.

Pictures illustrating the enormity and scale are much more effective than words.

Here’s a powerful set of illustrations from OneNote which brought home for me what a trillion dollars really looks like – especially in relation to a $10,000 wad of cash, which is something most audience members can grasp:

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. It fits in your pocket easily:

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it:

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet:

And $1 BILLION dollars… now we’re really getting somewhere (Bill Gates would have 40 of these stacks if he cashed in his chips):

Finally, 1 TRILLION, which is a million million, or a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros (note the pallets are double-stacked):

Incorporating images like this in a presentation that deals with large numbers forcefully brings your message home to the audience.

News that Obama is being criticised for relying too much on a telepromter should not surprise professional speakers. The President seems to require the twin panes of glass be there whenever he speaks. Critics rightly claim it strips him of authenticity.

Communications expert Bert Decker has noted that it causes a metronome-like quality to his delivery as he switches from one screen to the next. The solution, according to Decker, is to find a new focal point apart from the screens and vary the intervals with which he switches between them.

I can heartily endorse Laurie Brown’s The Teleprompter Manual for anyone wanting to know all the tricks of the trade when it comes to effective communications using a teleprompter.

Michael E. Lara, MD maintains a private psychiatry and psychopharmacology practice in Belmont, California, where he specializes in the treatment of mood, anxiety, and memory disorders.

He earned his undergraduate and masterʼs degrees at Stanford University and Harvard University respectively, then his doctorate of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. Dr. Lara completed his residency training in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University Hospital and Clinics. Dr. Lara is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Dr. Lara has been the recipient of several research awards in the areas of cross-cultural psychiatry, including the University of New Mexicoʼs Annual Award for Best Original Research in the Area of Cross-Cultural Psychiatry (2001). He has participated in several key clinical trials, as well as served as an invited presenter at numerous national and international medical conferences. He is the principal author of “Understanding the Role of Culture on Treatment Adherence” in the comprehensive textbook, Best Practices in the Behavioral Management of Chronic Disease.

Pro-Track Profile

Dr. Lara signed up for the the Northern California National Speakers Association (NSA) Pro-Track training this year.

You can reach Dr. Lara at 650-592-1229 or on his website www.mlaramd.com.

To hear what he told me about how his medical interests fit with professional speaking and his expectations about the 2009 NSA/NC Pro-Track program, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:30 — 820.2KB)

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Duncan Davidson, a professional photographer at the O’Reilly tech conferences, has some great advice on how to look good on stage. He’s based this on his experience watching thousands of speakers over the years.

Check out the growing list of comments which supplement the main article. I liked:

…slowing down is a great thing to do. A short 10 second pause can feel like an eternity to the speaker, but can give an audience just enough time to absorb a few things that you just said.

Also, there’s never anything wrong with taking a 5 second pause to take a sip of water. Nobody will ever hold that against you if you need it. Just don’t carry the water bottle around in your hand for the rest of the presentation.

What Smart Speakers Do Differently in Tough Economic Times

Saturday’s meeting of the Northern California chapter of the National Speakers Association featured a panel of Past Presidents who discussed ‘What Smart Speakers Do Differently in Tough Economic Times’.

Host Barry Wishner talked with:

* Michael Soon Lee, CSP
* Marilyn Manning, PhD, CSP, CMC
* Craig Harrison
* Patricia Fripp, CPAE, CSP

In this fourth and final highlight from the event, Barry asks the panelists what is the one piece of advice the audience should implement on Monday morning.

In the video you’ll hear:

* Why you should call your 10 most loyal customers – now!
* How to convince a client they would be crazy *not* to hire you
* The one question to ask when a client says they found you on Google
* How to improve your skills as a professional speaker
… and much more …

What Smart Speakers Do Differently in Tough Economic Times

Saturday’s meeting of the Northern California chapter of the National Speakers Association featured a panel of Past Presidents who discussed ‘What Smart Speakers Do Differently in Tough Economic Times’.

Host Barry Wishner talked with:

* Michael Soon Lee, CSP
* Marilyn Manning, PhD, CSP, CMC
* Craig Harrison
* Patricia Fripp, CPAE, CSP

In this video, the third highlight from the event, Barry asks the panelists to share what’s the greatest risk they’ve ever taken and what’s the funniest thing that ever happened to them onstage.

In the video you’ll hear:

* How Marilyn Manning ‘worked the room’ when the room was filled with armed police…
* Which of the panelists has appeared in Playgirl…
* Backstage stories from Patricia Fripp on the time she descended onto a stage from a spaceship, dressed as Wonder Woman…

What Smart Speakers Do Differently in Tough Economic Times

Saturday’s meeting of the Northern California chapter of the National Speakers Association featured a panel of Past Presidents who discussed ‘What Smart Speakers Do Differently in Tough Economic Times’.

Host Barry Wishner talked with:

* Michael Soon Lee, CSP
* Marilyn Manning, PhD, CSP, CMC
* Craig Harrison
* Patricia Fripp, CPAE, CSP

In this video, the second of four highlights from the event, Barry asks the panelists what it takes to thrive in today’s tough economy and which opportunities they see out there.

In the video you’ll hear:

* Why follow-up and personal relationships are important
* What else, apart from keynote speaking, can bring in business
* Why you should listen to clients
* What people who hire speakers really want
* Fripp’s secret for becoming an industry expert … fast!

What Smart Speakers Do Differently in Tough Economic Times

Saturday’s meeting of the Northern California chapter of the National Speakers Association featured a panel of Past Presidents who discussed ‘What Smart Speakers Do Differently in Tough Economic Times’.

Host Barry Wishner talked with:

* Michael Soon Lee, CSP
* Marilyn Manning, PhD, CSP, CMC
* Craig Harrison
* Patricia Fripp, CPAE, CSP

In this video, the first of four highlights from the event, Barry asks the panelists what’s their response to the challenges of today’s economy and what they are doing differently today compared to the past.

In the video you’ll hear:

* Why professional speakers need to re-focus on new vertical markets
* Which topics are popular with audiences and conference planners
* How to use the Internet to promote your speaking business
* Why you should consider giving free talks
* Why it’s important to develop products to sell along with your speeches
* The importance of personal relationships