Dividendos percibidos

Speech-makers are often given this advice: start by telling them what you are going to say, say it, and finish by telling them what you have said. That is perfectly good advice – but only if you remember to give yourself an introduction before the beginning of your speech.

All speeches have essentially the same architecture.

A separate introduction serves many purposes. The first is good manners. You use the introduction to thank anyone you must thank, your introducer, the organizers of the event, the singer(s)/orchestra/actors who performed so brilliantly, the child who presented the bouquet. Thank everybody, even if it makes your speech sound like an Oscar winner.

The first thing you must write down in your speech plan is: Introduction

Thank yous

The second purpose of your introduction is to allow your audience to settle down. Even if you are speaking well down the programme, there may be some latecomers trying to shuffle into their places under cover of the stormy applause for the host introducing you. Even without them, it is an iron law of public speaking that each new speaker on the platform attracts a new cougher in the audience.

The third and most important purpose is to connect. Your introduction makes you part of the event and builds an essential bridge between you and the audience. It should make them like you and respect you before you try to tell them anything important. Your speech plan should now read:

Introduction Thank yous Connect

The copious audience research you have done might suggest some ways of connecting instantly with your audience. In your next indent, under

Connect you might jot down some of the material you have uncovered, for

example, the local headline story, and a way of incorporating it into your introduction. One possibility might be the bus service under threat of cancellation:

Bus 37 – promise to finish before last bus (may not be another for 10 years)

However, there is a risk in getting too close to your audience too quickly. If you are a stranger, there is no reason for you to know or care about Bus 37. People might think it presumptuous of you to mention it, almost like gate-

crashing their community. It is also a trick which is associated with politi- cians. Save Bus 37 for a little later, when they trust you.

Instead, there is one absolutely reliable way to connect with any audience, and your plan should now read:

Introduction Thank yous Connect

● praise host organization

● praise locality

● praise setting

If there is nothing local about your audience you will of course drop the ref- erence to locality. If the setting is totally boring and functional, and reflects no glory back on the host organization, drop that reference too. But there is nearly always something interesting about any setting which will make it worth mentioning. The great ‘connective’ merit of the host organization and the setting is that these are common frames of reference for you and your audience. By complimenting them, you compliment your audience automatically (we should be proud to be in such a fine place, associated with such a fine organization).

Here is a plan for the introduction of a speech to the National Bee Associa- tion in Snodsbury:

Introduction Thank yous Connect

● praise host orgn (grown from 1,000 members 1920 to 1m+, now largest bee orgn in world)

● praise Snodsbury, if Mayor there (home of the legendary Snodsbury Sound in rock-n-roll history)

● praise hall (award-winning acoustics – can you hear me at back?)

By doing such a plan in this way, you will make your introduction very easy to write. You may also stimulate good thoughts or good jokes, so capture them right away.

If you are very clever you might be able to connect with the audience and deliver a key message at the same time. You might praise the organization, or locality, or setting within the special context of your speech. One suc- cessful example took place at a lecture by Mr Vernon Ellis, the International Chairman of Accenture, under the title ‘Enterprise or Exploitation: Can Global Business Be a Force for Good?’

This was a ‘big’, abstract subject: the lecture’s main body covered a lot of ground and had a ‘big’, thoughtful message to convey. To make matters harder for the speaker, he had a very disparate audience to reach.

Mr Ellis had yet another potential problem. He was speaking in one of London’s finest buildings – the Banqueting Hall created by Inigo Jones with a famous ceiling by Rubens. Many of his audience were visiting for the first time, and were gawping in admiration.

He turned their wonderment to his own advantage – using the setting to deliver some key messages. He said:

“

It is a special pleasure to be here in the magnificent surroundings of the Banqueting House, the revolutionary masterpiece of Inigo Jones.

Of course, Inigo Jones was a businessman as well as an architect, and one who benefited from global markets and the opening of trade. By travelling to Italy he learnt not only to be a classical architect but a stage designer who brought England the proscenium arch and moveable scenery. Like so many artists throughout history, Inigo Jones illustrates the benefits of free movement across frontiers.

There is another lesson for business leaders in this marvellous set- ting – a lesson in the perils of ignoring the society around them. It was from a window in this Banqueting House that King Charles the First walked to the scaffold. Now when Charles ruled without Parliament he financed his government (and this wonderful Rubens ceiling) by giving monopolies in essential products to his business supporters. The monopolies were extremely unpopular. His subjects boycotted the Royal products and the King ran out of money. He had to recall Parliament and the English civil war was set in motion. The monopo-

lies were bad politics which became bad business, and they exposed Charles to the ultimate form of hostile takeover.

”

In this passage, the speaker flattered his audience for being there, and for their knowledge of history, and conveyed vividly two complex ideas, the benefits of open markets and the peril of divorcing business from the con- cerns of wider society. He also made a good, relevant joke. Nice work. For the rest of this chapter we are going to study the Beginning, the Middle and the End by planning one imaginary speech. The planning lessons will be relevant for any speech, although a speech to be used in debate has some special needs which we will look at separately.

The imaginary speech is the annual lecture to a community college in a middle-sized town in the American Mid West. The title, by the speaker’s choice is ‘President Harry Truman: Creator of the Modern World’. (Don’t worry if you know nothing about Truman – everything will make sense. For the time being, remember that he was President of the United States from 1945 to 1953.)

This is primarily a speech to inform but it must also persuade the audience of a possibly controversial point of view. (Truman left office 50 years ago – why is he even relevant to modern world, let alone its creator?) And with 40 minutes to fill on a hot summer day the speaker had better produce some emotion and engagement from the audience. In terms of ‘open’ or ‘closed’, we might call it a ‘semi-open’ topic: the speaker must stick to Truman, but has some latitude over the aspects of Truman to be included.

Because I am getting tired of saying ‘the speaker’ and would like to use pro- nouns easily, this particular speaker is a woman. First, watch her plan the Introduction:

Introduction

Thank you (host recently honoured by Am Hist Assn) Connect

● praise college (famous alumni, record baseball season – all in prospectus)

● praise town (record of volunteering in war and peace – people who take responsibility like Truman) R? did Truman stop here 1948 election

As in the previous example, by complimenting the audience in the context of the main subject, she will be able to give a sneak preview of part of the main message.

The symbol R? with underlining is a good way to flag up essential points to be researched, questions whose answer will have an important influence on the speech. Very frequently, you will use this symbol to seek out the ‘killer fact’ (see Chapter 9). Now we will proceed to the Beginning.

In document MEMORIA ANuAL (página 45-48)