How to Deliver a Great TED Talk: Presentation Secrets of the World's Best Speakers (How to Give a TED Talk) (10 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Adding Internal Credibility to Your Messages

If you want to tell compelling stories that will leave your audience no choice but to be caught up in them, then you must use this next technique. It is a psychological technique so influential that it can unconsciously sway your judgments even when you are required to be objective. To understand this psychological technique, we have to head over to the University of Michigan.

Imagine that you are a part of the following experiment, which was carried out in 1986 by two researchers at the University of Michigan, Jonathan Shedler and Melvin Manis. In this experiment, you are assigned the role of a juror deciding whether Mrs. Johnson is capable of continuing to care for her seven-year-old son. You are given a case to read, with eight arguments for and eight arguments against Mrs. Johnson. You are required to analyze the arguments, and then come to an objective conclusion by indicating on a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest) how well you think Mrs. Johnson can take care of her son.

Okay, got that? Great!

Now think of a friend - a friend who you believe is an objective and rational person like you. Let’s involve your friend in this experiment too. Your friend also is assigned the role of juror and told that his job is to be as objective as possible while analyzing the eight arguments for and against Mrs. Johnson.

Now, if the two cases are exactly the same, we can expect that both of you will come to a fairly similar conclusion.

However, imagine that you received Case A and your friend received Case B. Each case contains eight arguments for and eight arguments against Mrs. Johnson. However, for the sake of space and time, the cases below contain just one argument for and one argument against Mrs. Johnson. See whether you can spot the difference between Case A and Case B, and try to predict whether this minor difference is enough to affect your judgment:

Did you manage to pick out the subtle differences between Case A and Case B?

In case you missed it, Case A contains the vivid, easy to picture image of the “Star Wars” toothbrush whereas Case B doesn’t. Similarly, Case B contains the vivid image of the nurse spilling the Mercurochrome and “staining her uniform red” whereas Case A doesn’t.

The experiment is set up so that for Case A, all the eight favorable arguments for Mrs. Johnson contain vivid details that are easy to picture; for Case B, all the eight unfavorable arguments against Mrs. Johnson contain vivid details such as the spilling and staining of the uniform.

However, none of these vivid details should make a difference to the logic and reasoning of the case. They are both irrelevant to the question of whether or not Mrs. Johnson was a good mother.

So, are these irrelevant but vivid details enough to sway you and your friend’s judgments about Mrs. Johnson? It turns out that even though these irrelevant details should not have mattered, they did.

The researchers found that those people who read Case A (with the vivid details included in the arguments for Mrs. Johnson) were more likely to judge Mrs. Johnson as a good mother than those people who read Case B (with the vivid details included in the arguments against Mrs. Johnson). In fact, those who read Case A rated Mrs. Johnson, on average, a 5.8 in terms of suitability as a mother, whereas those who read Case B rated her 4.3 (out of 10).

This seems strange, doesn’t it? Why should the irrelevant detail of the “Star Wars” toothbrush in Case A make a person think Mrs. Johnson is a better mother than does someone who read Case B (without that detail of the “Star Wars” toothbrush)? While it matters that Mrs. Johnson makes sure her child brushes his teeth every night, it certainly doesn’t matter that he uses a “Star Wars” toothbrush!

However, as the results from the research show, the vivid details did make a significant difference in the ratings of Mrs. Johnson. But how can this be?

The reason is that providing vivid details gives the message internal credibility. Because the “Star Wars” toothbrush makes it easy for jurors to picture the child brushing, they unconsciously perceive it to be more credible.

Let us have a look at another example of adding internal credibility to a speech by providing specific details. Take a look at the following two descriptions.

1)
A while back, I met a man who told me that he was heading to Iraq soon.

2)
You know, a while back, I met a young man named Seamus in a VFW hall in East Moline, Illinois. He was a good-looking kid, 6’2”, 6’3”, clear eyed, with an easy smile. He told me he’d joined the Marines and was heading to Iraq the following week.

The second line is from Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech. Obama realizes that vivid details are more memorable than vague statements. Just like the “Stars Wars” toothbrush and the spilling and staining red of the nurse’s uniform, Obama’s description creates a specific picture in your mind and engages you visually. It involves your imagination in creating the picture of a man who is 6’2” with an easy smile, and as a result, it’s memorable. It also seems more credible than the first statement simply because it contains a lot more details.

The principle at play here is that specific details are more memorable
and
credible than vague statements. For example, instead of saying, “He was well-dressed,” say, “He was dressed in a black, crisp Brooks Brothers suit.” Not only will your message be more visually appealing, it will also be more memorable and be perceived as being more credible.

IN A NUTSHELL

Build internal credibility into your speech by providing specific and vivid details about characters and events.

PART 5

EMOTIONAL

In this section, you will learn how to make your messages emotional by learning how to:

• Build the we-connection
  
• Address the elephant in the room
  
• Unite people towards a common enemy
  
• Highlight the pain before offering a solution
  
• Use compelling visuals to arouse audience’s emotions
  
• Arouse curiosity - tease before you tell
  
• Use humor to engage the audience’s emotions
  
• Use rhetorical questions to get the audience to reflect on their own lives
  

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Building an Emotional Connection with Your Audience

Malcolm X’s “The
Ballot or the Bullet” speech
was one of the greatest speeches ever delivered.

Whether or not you agree with the message, you can pick up a few tips on public speaking, speechwriting and persuasion from it.

In this chapter, we will analyze Malcolm X’s speech to see what lessons we can learn from it about building an emotional connection with our audience:

ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

The first step in building an emotional connection with your audience is to address any problematic issues up front. By addressing the elephant in the room at the beginning of your speech, you ensure that there are no barriers preventing you from connecting with your audience.

For example, in his “Ballot or Bullet” speech, Malcolm X immediately addresses the main issue concerning his religion. He knows that people are going to have questions about his faith, so he addresses those questions straight away by saying:

“Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself. I’m still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. That’s my personal belief…Although I’m still a Muslim, I’m not here tonight to discuss my religion. I’m not here to try and change your religion.”

In your speeches and presentations, if there are any problematic issues that your audience members are going to be thinking about, then address them straight away. Unless you first address the problematic issue (“the elephant in the room”), your audience members won’t pay full attention to your speech because they will be thinking, “Yeah, but what about this other issue that you haven’t addressed?”

Dispel people’s fears and doubts by dealing first with the elephant in the room.

UNITE PEOPLE TOWARDS A COMMON GOAL

After addressing the issue of faith, Malcolm X builds an emotional connection with his audience by uniting them towards a common goal. He lets them know that they are all on the same team, working towards the same goal:

“I’m not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it’s time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether you’re a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you’re educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you’re going to catch hell just like I am. We’re all in the same boat...”

When giving your speech or presentation, make sure you unite people towards a common goal. Let everyone know that you’re working towards the same goal.

UNITE PEOPLE BY FOCUSING ON A COMMON ENEMY

Nothing unites people more than fighting a common enemy. In his “Ballot or Bullet” speech, Malcolm X unites his audience members (mostly a group of African Americans) by pointing out the common enemy. He says:

“We’re all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be a white man. All of us have suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man.”

Malcolm X then details who this enemy is and how he oppresses and exploits African Americans. This gets the entire crowd worked up to fight together against the common enemy. It builds a strong emotional connection with the audience by tapping into their primal instincts for self-defense.

In your speeches and presentations, look to see if you can unite your audience members by focusing on a common enemy.

For example, in a business presentation, your common enemy might be your competitor. The common enemy could be high costs. Any common enemy, along with a common goal, will win you your audience’s support.

HIGLIGHT THE PROBLEM AND BUILD THEIR PAIN

Before you offer a solution, build up people’s pain. Highlight all the pain that people are experiencing before you offer a solution. The more pain your audience feels, the more enthusiastic they will be about the solution.

In his speech, before offering his “solution,” Malcolm X highlights the problem that the people in his audience are experiencing (
Note:
“The Man” refers to the white man who oppresses blacks):

“And because these Negroes, who have been mislead, misguided, are breaking their necks to take their money and spend it with The Man, The Man is becoming richer and richer, and you’re becoming poorer and poorer. And then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The conditions become run down.”

Highlighting the problem and building up people’s pain makes them desperate to find your solution.

In your speeches and presentations, always highlight the problem first (and then build on the pain) before you offer a solution.

BUILD THE “WE-CONNECTION”

In his speech, Malcolm X lets his audience members know that he is one of them. He is a part of their community. He lets them know that he is facing the same problems and challenges that they are. He does this by using the “We-Connection”:

“So we’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped. Anywhere we go we find that we’re trapped.”

The We-Connection lets your audience members know that you are a part of their group. It lets them know that you are on their side because you are facing the same challenges that they are.

If you want to gain your audience’s trust and support, then in your next presentation or speech build the We-Connection.

IN A NUTSHELL

Build an emotional connection with your audience by:

• Addressing the elephant in the room
  
• Uniting people towards a common goal
  
• Uniting people by focusing on a common enemy
  
• Highlighting the problem and building their pain
  
• Building the we-connection