The art of speech is easy to master

Speakers always complain about being rushed. In fact, time is not a problem at all, as long as it is properly allocated.

In addition to crafting manuscripts with clear core ideas, producing vivid slideshows and being familiar with on-site technical equipment, it is more important to understand the following concepts and allocate time evenly: "what to say" - "how to say"; "Practice" - "Preview"; "Material Preparation" - "Mental Preparation".

A lot of managers don't start to get the hang of it until the end of the presentation: "If only I had a little more skill in dealing with that problem"; "If only more convincing data could be found. Just to support my point of view." Of course, the biggest regret after the speech is: "If only I had more time to prepare." These are all hindsights and completely unhelpful.

In fact, for most managers, no amount of time to prepare a presentation is enough. If you stay up three nights to prepare, you will feel like you should stay up five nights after the talk.

Time always seems short, in part because many managers strive for perfection in their presentations. How you use that precious time (usually, whether or not you really understand the difference between practice and rehearsal) determines whether your presentation is bland or shocking.

That said, there is no one-size-fits-all rule for how to use your time. Every manager is very different, they have their own goals, speaking experience, different ability to grasp the content of the speech and the audience, and the audio-visual equipment they use is also different, so the "common law" is not very useful if there is one. A better and more realistic approach, according to experts, is to make the most of every minute you can squeeze in.

Elaborate the "what to say" of the speech.

Start by writing the speech and then create diagrams or slides to supplement it. It may seem obvious, but many managers do slides first and then write sentences on them. Although some people can do it this way, for most people, reversing the order can lead to a cluttered speech and a disorganized topic.

Once you start writing your speech, allow plenty of time to edit and polish it. Professional speech writers recommend writing your first draft as quickly as possible, without pausing to revise sections that have already been written, or fiddling with wording. Save this work for later. Concise and vivid language must be constantly revised to appear, not in the draft stage to achieve this effect.

When editing a document, be bold. Professor David Dempsey, who studies the art of public speaking, said: "You can use three points to highlight the theme, and don't use ten points, which will not make any impression. Always ask yourself, this Is it the most important question? Is this the best example? Is this the most provocative way to express my point?"

If your conclusion or important point has not been carefully thought out and revised, please "No matter how much time you spend practicing, no matter how good your presentation skills, you can't hide this fundamental flaw," says Pusey.

David, Curriculum Director, Dale Carnegie & Associates · David Green advises time-stressed managers to remember: "It's better to do things right in front of you than hindsight." While you want your speeches and slides to excel, you can't waste too much time mulling over words and phrases , not to mention that the actual speech may not be scripted.

Green believes: "In general, most people are ready to speak much earlier than they think they are. They need to allocate more time to rehearse and practice how to interact with their audience."

The core idea is always there.

No matter how you structure your speech, you can save time by listing key passages or concepts as "triggers", that is, getting to the point, and Instead of writing the entire article word for word.

According to Steve Mandel, CEO of Mandel Communications Ltd, the memory trigger pattern helps with improvisation during speeches, and audiences love to hear it. "I tell the speakers, don't do a one-man show, use a conversational mode to communicate with the audience, like two people sitting at the kitchen table talking, it feels natural, relaxing, and you don't have to put a lot of effort into it Think about what to say. A monologue is when a person talks to himself bluntly into a slide."

In the beginning stages of preparing a speech, more time should be spent thinking about how to get around the core point of view to organize the content of the speech. An "elevator speech" is one where the core idea remains throughout the speech, as if an elevator would run from floor to floor. Of course it takes time, but it's worth it, to avoid giving in when setbacks are encountered, and to avoid spending too much time on innocuous things until the core point is reached.

Rehearsing "what to say"

Marilynn Mobley, president of a consulting firm, recommends rehearsing speeches before they're finalized, so you can know early where There are places where you may be talking too long and what needs to be adjusted.

When Mobley prepares a speech, she arranges her time like this: Because she is familiar with the topic and the audience, she first spends 15% of her time investigating the needs of the audience; 50% of her time is spent preparing the speech--- Determining arguments, gathering evidence, setting up transitions, and making slides; 20% of the time is spent on preliminary rehearsal, "with an audience in front of you, practicing how to pause, how to combine slide presentations, and familiarize yourself with equipment to determine the entire Whether the process is feasible and whether the time is reasonable"; 10% of the time is for further revision of the speech after the preliminary rehearsal, including editing the text and reversing the order of some slides; the remaining 5% of the time is used for the final rehearsal.

First think about how you usually prepare speeches in the past. Maybe you're like most managers, taking every opportunity you can to practice, or racing against the clock on the road, or sneaking around in the office.

According to experts, this approach is problematic: too much time is spent practicing and not enough time rehearsing. Rehearsal means standing up, using the same gestures and eyes as the real speech, and controlling the progress of the speech with audiovisual equipment.

Carnegie's Green believes that sitting on a plane or in an office reviewing a speech or slideshow is an exercise, not a rehearsal. Just as an actor in a play doesn't feel like he's in a play without wearing a costume, a non-professional speaker shouldn't appear in front of an audience without a full rehearsal or two. It is also a good idea to select some people to sit in the audience during the preview and give the speaker some feedback.

Green said: "You can't just sit in the room and recite the speech, you have to go to the rehearsal, imitating the real speech, so that you can achieve the purpose of rehearsal. Shift your mind from the content of the speech to the interaction with the audience, This is also the difference between rehearsal and practice. I don't think everyone in the business world understands the value of rehearsal. Managers tend to put too much emphasis on 'what to say' but not enough on 'how to say'."

Mental preparation is a must.

Jim Cathcart, a professional speaker with 26 years of speaking experience, clearly distinguishes between mental preparation and physical preparation. Material preparation includes getting everything in order: presentations, audiovisual equipment, technology, sound, venue setup, etc.

Psychological preparation refers to taking the time to experience the thoughts of the audience, rehearsing your speech in your mind first, thinking about possible problems in advance, and mentally preparing for the speech.

Mental preparation also includes thinking about the following questions: Who are my audience? How are they different from me? What would they think of me, a lay speaker, or a respectable advisor? What excites them? What memorable things remain in their minds after listening to the speech?

According to Cascart, taking the time to prepare mentally often results in better speeches than those who only focus on physical preparation. He said: "If I can say something to move the audience, it doesn't matter if I go off the mark, dress inappropriately, or even know nothing about the content of the promotional material. Remember: most listeners judge emotionally first, Then think logically."

Technical link to ensure

Many speakers spend too much time in the process of making slides, or spend a lot of time doing too many slides, Or don't have the time to do the most basic compliant slides.

No one wants to panic making or editing slides in the final moments before a presentation, so it's important to allow enough time, but not too much. For those new to the software, experts recommend setting aside at least an hour for each electronic slideshow, including initial page design and content revisions. Of course, professionals can do the job faster.

It is also important to incorporate multimedia means for rehearsal. For most people, rehearsing means reviewing the main points of the content and running a slideshow to act as a prompt. The problem is spending too much time on the "visible" content (which the audience can watch for themselves) at the expense of rehearsal time for the "invisible" content, including setting the transitions during the slideshow. , tell personal stories and details, and give examples.

The audience's focus is either on the visuals or the speaker, and it's impossible to do both. Mandel asks his clients to rehearse this pattern, for example, a salesperson might say, "I just talked about a problem with the sales process, let's see a solution that I came up with after talking with your IT department. Program." The salesperson then played the slideshow and didn't speak for five seconds because the audience was watching the slideshow and wouldn't listen to him. To regain the audience's attention, the speaker takes a step or two in the direction of the audience before continuing.

Also important is what content you choose for your slideshow? Green suggests that when making slides, speakers should start by asking themselves: "What slides can I replace with something else that is more visually impactful and gives the audience the same message?" Designers within the company seek ideas, but it's the visual representation of important ideas that is the crux of the matter.

Cascart points out that a visual approach can be used to break away from the past convention of creating slideshows with a lot of text and data. One speaker used the street "wrong way, please don't come in" sign to make a slideshow of the mistakes people make when executing a business plan, to great effect.

In addition to making speeches more persuasive, he says, this visual-image-driven model saves speakers time and forces them to focus on turning a bland speech into a memorable one Presentation skills: free play, interact with the audience, listen to the audience's feedback, grasp and understand the content of the speech instead of rote memorization.

Original text excerpted with permission from Perfect practice by Dave Zielinski, from the May 2003 issue of Presentations Magazine, copyrighted 2003 by VNU Business Media. Translated by Xiao Dongyan.

Dave Zielinski is a staff writer for Presentations Magazine.