It can be hard work to deliver a presentation that is smooth, insightful and ends right on time. One of the speakers who really seems to get it right is Malcolm Gladwell. If you have ever watched him speak (like here on TED), you may notice that he speaks eloquently, even effortlessly, and ends with precise punctuality.
But when asked about it once, Gladwell replied, “I know it may not look like this. But it’s all scripted. I write down every word and then I learn it off by heart. I do that with all my talks and I’ve got lots of them.”
It’s great to connect with your audience as if you were just having a casual chat with them. And sometimes that’s precisely what you will want to do. Other times, when you want to really nail it, you might be better off going beyond the bullet points to rehearse, refine and distill the most important information that you are there to share. And find yourself on a level where you have that polish that casual (amateur?) speaking just doesn’t allow.
While memorizing isn’t “the answer”, if you want to deliver a professional-standard speech, you might find yourself enjoying an interesting experience if you treat your next presentation as a performance.
At least that what seems to work for the guy who wrote The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and, most recently, What the Dog Saw.
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