by Peter Meyers
The speech ends with this dessert: To my children, I make this pledge: I will not give in, Zachary, because I draw my courage from you. Your silly giggle gives me hope; your gentle prayers give me strength; and you, my child, give me the reason to say to America, “You are at risk.” And I will not rest, Max, until I have done all I can to make your world safe. I will seek a place where intimacy is not the prelude to suffering. I will not hurry to leave you, my children, but when I go, I pray that you will not suffer shame on my account.
To all within the sound of my voice, I appeal: Learn with me the lessons of history and of grace, so my children will not be afraid to say the word “AIDS” when I am gone. Then, their children and yours may not need to whisper it at all.”
(http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/maryfisher1992rnc.html )
Elie Wiesel, “The Perils of Indifference”:
Ramp: Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up, not far from Goethe’s beloved Weimar, in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again. Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw. And even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be grateful to them for that rage, and also for their compassion. Though he did not understand their language, their eyes told him what he needed to know—that they, too, would remember, and bear witness.
The speech comes full circle with this: And so, once again, I think of the young Jewish boy from the Carpathian Mountains. He has accompanied the old man I have become throughout these years of quest and struggle. And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope.
(http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ewieselperilsofindifference.html )
For more information on how to tell a story that would make a good dessert, please see Chapter Three: Techniques.
ADJUSTING YOUR DESIGN
If you’ve got tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil, you can combine them to make any number of Italian dishes. Similarly, once you’ve mastered the core ingredients of preparation and architecture, you can combine them in an infinite variety of ways to create your own recipes. Think of them as plug-and-play modules that can be rearranged to meet your communication needs in any situation.
For example, every important communication that you make, including e-mails, voice mails, and audio conferences, should begin with the elements of preparation: a clear outcome, relevance, and point. You must know what you’re trying to accomplish, why the listener should care, and what your message is in one sentence. If you don’t know these things before you pick up the phone, you’re wasting both your time and hers.
In a formal presentation, the structure becomes more refined, and the elements of architecture come into play. Let’s look at a few situations that require different combinations of the core principles.
In a situation where you’re communicating with your peers, and you want to get through the entire narrative before being interrupted, the classical structure is most powerful:
1. Ramp.
2. Road map.
3. Three PoDs.
4. Q&A.
5. Dessert.
This allows you to make it clear in your road map that there will be time for questions, and increases the chances that you make it all the way through your talk.
When you’re speaking to an audience that is senior to you, it helps to remember: senior managers like to interrupt. The more senior they are, the more they like to get their hands on the interaction. They want to control and direct how they’re getting the information. They generally do it through questions. In practice, this means that you have very little chance of actually making it through your presentation without being interrupted. In the military they say, “No plan survives the enemy.” In communication we say, “No outline survives the CEO.” This means that your lovely, organized schematic is likely to be shattered by people throwing questions to you outside your given order.
The most effective response to this is NOT to look annoyed and snap, “I’ll get to that point in a minute ... or in the next slide. ” You need to respond to most questions in that very moment. So, plan for it. The best structure for an executive presentation is to offer them a quick, clean ramp and road map, engaging their interest and letting them know the areas you’re prepared to explore. Give them a five-minute executive summary. And then open it up for questions. The majority of your knowledge and information will come out as you answer their queries. Let the listeners’ questions drive your narrative. This establishes you as responsive, interactive, and someone who doesn’t want to waste their time. Of course, as always, you finish with dessert. In this case, the structure would be this:
1. Ramp.
2. Road map.
3. Executive summary of the three Points of Discovery.
4. Q&A that explores the three PoDs, in a flexible order.
5. Dessert.
When you are speaking to one person instead of a larger audience, the method changes slightly but the core principles of communication remain the same. First, you open with a ramp, where the bond with your listener is created. This is where you demonstrate an understanding of their needs. “When you joined the organization six months ago, you told us you wanted the opportunity to grow and develop your career. You also said you wanted feedback on anything that might be getting in your way. I’d like to share some thoughts about what you need to do to move to the next level. Is that okay?”
Then you create a road map: “We have an hour. I’d like to share three suggestions with you, hear what you think about each one, and then create a plan for going forward. How does that sound?” Most likely he’ll say, “Good,” satisfied that there will be no surprises in the conversation. You’re off and running. Because this is a dialogue, the questions will be sprinkled throughout the body of the communication, instead of being held until the end. The diagram below shows the form of this narrative structure.
At the end of your conversation, you offer dessert. Just as in a larger presentation, you need to close the communication on an emotional high note. Plan ahead—what are you going to say at the very end of the talk that will send him out the door with a feeling of renewed clarity, confidence, and dedication? For example: “By the way, I got an e-mail from one of your customers the other day. He took the time to say how much he appreciated the personal attention that you gave him during a crisis. It’s that kind of dedication that’s inspiring to all of us. Thank you.”
For more information on one-on-one interactions, see Chapter Ten: Courageous Conversations.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
So, we’ve pulled apart the engine, taken off the tires, and shown you how it all works. Now let’s put the car back together and watch how it performs in the real world, when you actually put it on the road. Here are two examples of presentations constructed according to the principles of High Performance Communication. One speech was given by Peter, one by a client.
Example Number One: Peter
Five years ago, I was asked to speak to a board, to raise funds for a children’s theater. The school was at a major crossroads, and its survival was at stake.
Who’s Listening? The board.
Step 1—Outcome: By the end of this talk, this funder will decide to provide $120,000 and recommend us to two other funders.
What do they need to know?
1. Theater helps kids with language arts performance, and raises test scores.
2. Theater helps kids socially, teaching them to understand other cultures and work in teams.
3. Theater helps kids to get attention in a positive way, which keeps them out of jail.
What do they need to feel?
1. Urgency about helping kids at risk.
2. Confidence in our plan.
Step 2—Relevance: Why should they care?
1. They’re frustrated with
rising juvenile delinquency and lower test scores in schools.
2. They want to make a difference.
3. They need to find a worthwhile, reliable project to fund.
Step 3—Point: “Theater helps kids succeed in school.”
Here’s the ramp I created, based on relevance: “Each and every one of you is here because you care about kids. You know that hundreds of thousands of children in California today are at risk of falling through the cracks in the educational system because they cannot read, write, or speak English at grade level. You’re aware that test scores are going down, juvenile crime is going up, and more and more kids are at risk of being disenfranchised.” (Note the strong I:You ratio, and high angle of the ramp, created by a sense of urgency: children’s lives are at stake.)
My three Points of Discovery, based on the three things they needed to know, were: (1) Theater helps kids by improving their language skills; (2) Theater helps kids by developing their social skills; (3) Theater helps kids by keeping them out of jail—giving them the spotlight in a positive way and keeping them out of trouble caused by attention seeking. I supported each PoD with stories, anecdotes, and statistics.
Then I summarized, moved into Q&A and took questions, some of which were aggressive. One listener asked: “Why are your programs so expensive?” I acknowledged the listener: “That’s an important question, and it needs to be addressed.” Because the question was aggressive, I didn’t embed the question in the answer. Instead, I reframed: “This is a question about quality. We’re sending artists into some of the toughest schools in California. And when we send them in, we send in only the very best people we can find. The work is difficult. Trying to save money on teachers by paying them the minimum is not the answer. This is an investment in our children. We find the most talented people available, and we pay them fairly.” (For more details on embedding, acknowledgment, reframing, and other techniques for handling Q&A, please see Chapter Three: Techniques.)
After the Q&A, I took back the floor for dessert. I said, “Before we close, I’d like to leave you with a story about one of these programs in action. Recently I went to watch auditions in the auditorium of one of the schools. Kids were running everywhere—it was chaos. Suddenly this one little girl stood up. She had two long black pigtails, shiny patent leather shoes, and a purple lace dress—the kind you would wear to Sunday school. She began to walk very slowly toward the stage. The kids saw this and gathered in amazement as they began to sit down. You could hear them whispering, ‘Shhh ... Maria’s going, Maria’s going. It’s Maria.’
“Soon they were all sitting there, motionless. Maria walked to the front of the stage and stood with her toes exactly placed on the edge. She lifted her head high enough so that you could just barely see her eyes, and recited a poem by Dr. Seuss. You could hardly hear what she was saying. But every kid in that room sat there and listened in complete silence. As I stood in the back of the room with the teacher, I saw that the teacher’s eyes were wet, and her chin was quivering. I leaned over and whispered, ‘What in the world is going on?’ She said, ‘That’s the first time we’ve ever heard that little girl speak.’
“And that is why we teach theater in schools.”
Outcome of the presentation? The board signed the check for $120,000, and the school was saved.
David
All his life, David had wanted to be a VP. He had watched his father’s life fall apart after he was laid off following a merger, and David was determined to climb the corporate ladder and win, for his dad’s sake. David enrolled in business school, got his MBA, and began a long apprenticeship at a large, high-tech firm in Silicon Valley. After five years working in sales, his hard work and long hours paid off when he became the youngest manager in the history of the company. He was given a region with 120 people in it, and life looked good. But eight months after he stepped into his new role, the bottom dropped out of the market. The competition became increasingly aggressive, offering similar products at cheaper prices and winning customers who had been loyal to David’s company for years. Members of David’s team started defecting at an alarming rate, lured by the success of the competition and the promise of better salaries. David’s boss called him in, and said that he had three months to raise his employee retention rate, or he would be moving back down to a sales role. He needed to begin a series of face-to-face meetings with the team, designed to get them back on board. Here’s how he organized his first speech.
Example Number Two: Hal
Step 1—Who’s Listening? The team.
Outcome: By the end of this presentation, anyone thinking of leaving will have renewed their commitment at least six months.
What do they need to know?
1. The current market trends point to a growing opportunity in our area of expertise.
2. How we’re going to take advantage of the opportunity ahead.
3. The ways I will support them in the field.
What do they need to feel?
1. Determination to avoid missing out on a big opportunity;
2. Confidence about the future.
Step 2—Relevance: Why should they care?
1. They’ve felt what it’s like to be part of a high-performing team in the past, and they want it back.
2. They’ve already struggled through the hardest part, and it would be a waste of their efforts to quit right before the rewards come due.
3. They want to get their bonuses back.
Step 3—Point: The rewards for our hard work are just ahead.
Here’s David’s ramp, based on relevance: “Three years ago we were number one in the market. We were right up on top of the mountain, and our competitors were way down in the foothills. They didn’t even have a base camp. Each and every one of you has tasted that kind of success, and you remember how it feels. Three years later, we’ve slipped from that summit. In the past eight months you’ve all seen a lot of changes—some of them not so good. But one benefit of the struggle is this: our company has demonstrated its ability to adapt, to innovate, and invest in our products and marketing. We are still on our feet, still moving forward. The tough times have made us lean and mean. Our skills have been honed under blizzard conditions. And after three tough years, we are just a few miles away from what could be our greatest success yet. These efforts are about to come to fruition. That number one spot can be ours again. [David’s road map: ] In the next forty-five minutes, I’d like to show you how we’re going to accomplish this, by walking you through (1) current market trends that point to a growing opportunity in our area of expertise; (2) how we’re going to take advantage of the new opportunity; and (3) my commitment to supporting you out in the field.” (Note the 3 Points of Discovery. David then moves through each PoD, elaborating on each with stories, statistics, anecdotes, graphs, etc.)
Dessert: “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a long journey, and it’s not over yet. The hardest part of climbing to the summit of a mountain is the last mile. The oxygen gets thinner, and your muscles start to get tired. Along the way, we’ve lost some people. Some have gone gracefully, some not so gracefully. You may feel that you’re never going to make it all the way up to the top. That’s the time when you may feel the most like giving up. But folks—we can see the summit from where we are. We’ve done this together. We’ve come this far. Let me say to you what I believe with all my heart: this is not the time to let go of the rope. This is the time to dig deep, push forward, and follow the team. Reach down and grab the guy who’s behind you and pull him up. Reach up and accept the hand above you when it is offered. Keep your eye on the goal. And imagine, when we reach that summit, how it’s going to feel to look around, and own the top of the mountain again.”
* * *
PETER
This architecture works equally well in formal and informal settings. One of the toughest talks that I ever gave was to my teenage son. When Tyler was a senior in high school, he came downstairs one day with his electric guitar slung over his
shoulder, and announced that he had decided not to go to college. Instead, he planned to live at home with us for the next few years while he pursued his interest in heavy metal music. My wife turned to me and said, “Okay, Mr. Communication, you go upstairs and have a talk with Tyler. Do your thing.”
I knew that I could give him twenty-five good reasons to go to college. But I also knew that by reason number five, he would have tuned me out. Time for a strategy. So, I defined my outcome: By the end of this conversation, Tyler will reconsider his decision about college. What did he need to know? (1) That I am committed to his success no matter how he defines it; (2) That his heroes, like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Carlos Santana, all became hugely successful not by playing other people’s music, but by composing their own; and (3) That in college, he would learn how to compose his own music. What did Tyler need to feel? (1) Concern that he may be missing out on opportunities if he doesn’t go to college; (2) Excitement about new possibilities. Then I found the relevance. Why did Tyler care? Because he wants to be a successful musician, and he wants to make money, and he wants an active social life. I clarified my point, which was this: If you want to be successful as a musician, you need to learn to compose your own music.
My dessert? “By the way, at any midsize university, there are between ten and twenty thousand girls without boyfriends who have just left home.”
The talk went well. The end of the story? Today Tyler is a senior in college with a 4.0 average—and he’s applying to medical school.
* * *
3
TECHNIQUES
YOU SPEAK AN average of seven thousand words a day. (Men average around six thousand, women average around eight thousand!) 1 But with all those words spoken, the sad fact is that most of what you say will be forgotten by the time the listener’s head hits the pillow.