Evan is a highly intelligent and confident structural engineer, working with a construction company based in Dublin. As a leader of a team of 12 young experts providing equipment for the maintenance of bridges, Evan feels a strong passion for what he does… except for one task that fills him with a stomach-churning dread right on cue at the beginning of every month…
In order to comply with certain financial regulations for projects Evan is required to present summary reports of his team’s activities. His audience is made up of a mix of poker-faced finance auditors and accountants with nothing else on their minds but having a detailed breakdown of what was spent where and why. In Evan’s words it “gets extremely tedious”.
“I have to defend every installation and calibration of specialised equipment”, he says, rubbing his forehead, “They don’t trust anything no matter how many spending measures we take. That means going into details on stone types, erosion patterns, centres of gravity. I can tell it bores the hell out of them, and yet they want every reason behind every single order. I can’t win.”
I ask Evan to take me through one of his typical presentations, and I spot the problem after 30 seconds. It has nothing to do with poker-faced finance auditors or the erosion patterns of slabs of concrete. The problem is that Evan (like many technical presenters I’ve coached) is quite simply “fact-ing” his audience to death!
Six years ago I attended a public speaking seminar by 2001 World Champion Darren LaCroix. He made a statement that struck me as obvious in hindsight but cathartic on the day (which is usually the sign of a truly excellent insight).
“As a speaker”, Darren said, “You are following the thought process of the audience.”
Bingo! With each sentence, phrase or even word I utter, my audience will have a mental reaction. As a speaker it is essential that I understand what thoughts fire off in my audience’s minds during my delivery. It could be “Wow, that’s brilliant”, or it could be “Huh? What did he mean by that?”
Let me ask you a question, “Have you ever listened to a presentation that was delivered in a clear and articulate way but somehow your mind switched off after a minute or so?”
The chances are, either you genuinely had zero interest in the topic, or the speaker made the very common mistake of delivering bare fact after fact… after fact… after fact… ad infinitum. Most speakers make this rookie mistake. The human brain can only take in so many bare facts in a row before it needs a time-out to digest. The reason why the average person’s mind tends to switch off after approximately 3 to 5 facts is because their mind is full.
When the thought process of your audience switches off, you have successfully disconnected from the public speaking process. Not good!
Evan has a big bundle of highly detailed facts that he needs to share with his colleagues. What’s the best way to succeed without switching them off? He was delighted to learn there are several options. However, the overall concept is the same - break your facts up in a way that makes your material much more digestible. You do this by sticking your facts onto what are called “hooks”.
Here’s a list of speech hooks: a story, question, quote, metaphor, joke… there are many. The reason these grossly underused components of speech-writing are called hooks is simple. They literally allow you to “hook” facts onto them. Why are they so powerful? Because they engage the human brain in fundamentally different ways to bare facts. When you deliver a hook that leads to a fact, that fact remains anchored in the human mind for a surprisingly long time. As author/speaker Brene Brown once said, in her excellent TED.COM speech on The Power of Vulnerability… “Stories are data with a soul.”
Stories are undoubtedly the most powerful component of speaking, and they are worthy of their own blog series (watch this space). Did you notice how I began this blog with a story? It’s a much better technique than launching straight into the brain science I think you’ll agree. Let’s glance over the other hooks…
Questions are effective because they seek direct access to the human mind. They force your audience to wake up. If I ask you “what is 2 + 2?” whether you like it or not a part of your mind has fired off the thought “4”… unless it was “5” in which case I can’t help you…
Quotes are handy because they offer insights and wisdom in a way that lends a certain authority (especially if the source is an expert of some sort... and please, always quote your sources). Don’t underestimate the power of a well-timed quote. They are extremely popular these days in case you haven’t looked at your Facebook timeline in the last 24 hours. As Oscar Wilde once said, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
Let’s return to Evan. To help him come up with a new selection of hooks I asked him how he could help his audience understand erosion patterns. One of my favourite hooks, and one I don’t see often enough in the field, is the analogy. They are so powerful because they allow you to relate a new fact that you want to teach with something your audience already has a relationship with.
Evan decided to describe the erosion of certain blocks as a sort of “tax” from the river that shaves a little off your bridge’s net worth every year. The audience woke up, they liked it. Evan swore he heard someone laugh. Now he is addicted to analogies. The last time I spoke to him I tried to persuade him to mix it up with questions and stories – go for what takes the least effort for the biggest reward - but I think the laugh he got that day lit a fire under him.
Speaking of humour, let me finish with a joke. The Russian and American space programs decided to join forces to build a space station. There were many challenges - some led to healthy competition to see who could solve what task in the best way. One day the Americans decided to tackle the issue of pens not working properly in zero gravity. They spent millions engineering a pen that could deliver ink in a weightless environment. On the next day that both teams met to exchange ideas, the Americans proudly laid their “zero-g pen” prototype on the table in front of the Russians. The Russians responded by putting their solution on the table… a pencil.
Sometimes the easiest solutions are right under your nose.
Hey, did I just use a joke to teach a fact?
Author: Eddie O'Hanlon
In order to comply with certain financial regulations for projects Evan is required to present summary reports of his team’s activities. His audience is made up of a mix of poker-faced finance auditors and accountants with nothing else on their minds but having a detailed breakdown of what was spent where and why. In Evan’s words it “gets extremely tedious”.
“I have to defend every installation and calibration of specialised equipment”, he says, rubbing his forehead, “They don’t trust anything no matter how many spending measures we take. That means going into details on stone types, erosion patterns, centres of gravity. I can tell it bores the hell out of them, and yet they want every reason behind every single order. I can’t win.”
I ask Evan to take me through one of his typical presentations, and I spot the problem after 30 seconds. It has nothing to do with poker-faced finance auditors or the erosion patterns of slabs of concrete. The problem is that Evan (like many technical presenters I’ve coached) is quite simply “fact-ing” his audience to death!
Six years ago I attended a public speaking seminar by 2001 World Champion Darren LaCroix. He made a statement that struck me as obvious in hindsight but cathartic on the day (which is usually the sign of a truly excellent insight).
“As a speaker”, Darren said, “You are following the thought process of the audience.”
Bingo! With each sentence, phrase or even word I utter, my audience will have a mental reaction. As a speaker it is essential that I understand what thoughts fire off in my audience’s minds during my delivery. It could be “Wow, that’s brilliant”, or it could be “Huh? What did he mean by that?”
Let me ask you a question, “Have you ever listened to a presentation that was delivered in a clear and articulate way but somehow your mind switched off after a minute or so?”
The chances are, either you genuinely had zero interest in the topic, or the speaker made the very common mistake of delivering bare fact after fact… after fact… after fact… ad infinitum. Most speakers make this rookie mistake. The human brain can only take in so many bare facts in a row before it needs a time-out to digest. The reason why the average person’s mind tends to switch off after approximately 3 to 5 facts is because their mind is full.
When the thought process of your audience switches off, you have successfully disconnected from the public speaking process. Not good!
Evan has a big bundle of highly detailed facts that he needs to share with his colleagues. What’s the best way to succeed without switching them off? He was delighted to learn there are several options. However, the overall concept is the same - break your facts up in a way that makes your material much more digestible. You do this by sticking your facts onto what are called “hooks”.
Here’s a list of speech hooks: a story, question, quote, metaphor, joke… there are many. The reason these grossly underused components of speech-writing are called hooks is simple. They literally allow you to “hook” facts onto them. Why are they so powerful? Because they engage the human brain in fundamentally different ways to bare facts. When you deliver a hook that leads to a fact, that fact remains anchored in the human mind for a surprisingly long time. As author/speaker Brene Brown once said, in her excellent TED.COM speech on The Power of Vulnerability… “Stories are data with a soul.”
Stories are undoubtedly the most powerful component of speaking, and they are worthy of their own blog series (watch this space). Did you notice how I began this blog with a story? It’s a much better technique than launching straight into the brain science I think you’ll agree. Let’s glance over the other hooks…
Questions are effective because they seek direct access to the human mind. They force your audience to wake up. If I ask you “what is 2 + 2?” whether you like it or not a part of your mind has fired off the thought “4”… unless it was “5” in which case I can’t help you…
Quotes are handy because they offer insights and wisdom in a way that lends a certain authority (especially if the source is an expert of some sort... and please, always quote your sources). Don’t underestimate the power of a well-timed quote. They are extremely popular these days in case you haven’t looked at your Facebook timeline in the last 24 hours. As Oscar Wilde once said, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
Let’s return to Evan. To help him come up with a new selection of hooks I asked him how he could help his audience understand erosion patterns. One of my favourite hooks, and one I don’t see often enough in the field, is the analogy. They are so powerful because they allow you to relate a new fact that you want to teach with something your audience already has a relationship with.
Evan decided to describe the erosion of certain blocks as a sort of “tax” from the river that shaves a little off your bridge’s net worth every year. The audience woke up, they liked it. Evan swore he heard someone laugh. Now he is addicted to analogies. The last time I spoke to him I tried to persuade him to mix it up with questions and stories – go for what takes the least effort for the biggest reward - but I think the laugh he got that day lit a fire under him.
Speaking of humour, let me finish with a joke. The Russian and American space programs decided to join forces to build a space station. There were many challenges - some led to healthy competition to see who could solve what task in the best way. One day the Americans decided to tackle the issue of pens not working properly in zero gravity. They spent millions engineering a pen that could deliver ink in a weightless environment. On the next day that both teams met to exchange ideas, the Americans proudly laid their “zero-g pen” prototype on the table in front of the Russians. The Russians responded by putting their solution on the table… a pencil.
Sometimes the easiest solutions are right under your nose.
Hey, did I just use a joke to teach a fact?
Author: Eddie O'Hanlon
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