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Article supplied by Susie Ashfield for Maximum Performance
Do you dread public speaking? You’re not alone. If like me you feel inspired by a great TED Talk, you may wonder just how so many speakers make the process seem so effortless.
The Good:
The average price of a TED Talk is $7,500 dollars. For that price, you are going to be expecting something that changes your life, or at the very least, something that makes you sit up and listen. Sir Ken Robinson does both in his TED Talk titled simply "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" and he does it without props, PowerPoint, or visuals, standing alone to make an argument so compelling that it becomes the most watched TED Talk ever.
So, what makes this talk stand out? Why does this speaker have the power to engage us with just his own presence? In the book 'Talk Like TED', Carmine Gallo suggests that this comes down to not one key factor, but a combination of three crucial elements.
Firstly, the talk must be memorable, so months after viewing, the audience can still remember the way they felt after the talk, and what the essence of the message was. Robinson ensures his talk is unforgettable by starting in a calm but focused way. He has a conversation with the audience. Nothing here seems over-rehearsed, nothing seems laboured or artificial. He simply stands and talks to the audience as though they were in his own living room, delivering jokes with a wry smile, pushing up his glasses, and throwing out questions to his enraptured listeners. It is his ability to weave stories into his material that makes the whole talk so accessible, so relaxed and sincere.
Secondly, the talk must be novel. With such a simple but unexpected title, how could it not be? He takes an institution we see as fundamentally good and productive, and turns it on its head with an argument that is as complex as it is simple. The topic he chooses embodies the very ethos of TED: an idea, and an idea worth spreading. At no point throughout his talk do you feel you are in a learning environment. The irony of this is outstanding, the audience is captured by an idea through the forum of storytelling, jokes and a casual conversation.
Finally, a talk must be emotional. Robinson, though quiet and seemingly mild mannered has the focused sort of energy that requires no shouting or screaming for attention. His passion for his subject is undeniable. Humour (the most prevalent emotion in his talk) is in itself an extremely powerful tool, but when the tone of the talk becomes more serious, the change in the atmosphere is one that allows a very clear, very strong message to drop to the floor with a deafening thud. It is a combination of all these factors that makes this TED Talk unmistakably brilliant, undeniably honest and completely and totally inspirational.
The Bad and the Ugly?
Talk Like TED in a Day! - workshop
Susie Ashfield delivers one of our most popular workshops structured around the iconic TED Talks, the gold standard for public speaking. Learn a step-by-step method to inspire and motivate
your audience over the course of a day. Master the art of storytelling, learn to paint strong visual imagery and understand how to get your audience behind your ideas, no matter how audacious or complex they seem. Available in a variety of formats - full details available here.
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