Great speakers have one common thread which makes them good orators. Although they may be speaking on different topics it is one common quality that makes the audience sit up and listen to them with rapt attention. It is the presentation of an idea to the audience’s mind in such a manner that the audience is curious while listening to the talk and involuntarily allows the entry of the new idea from the speaker into the listener’s mind. So the first step to making a great talk is to ignite the mind of the listener by arousing his curiosity and thereby transporting the idea in the mind of the listener. Thereby, the audience’s minds are in sync with the speaker’s mind. By this step, the millions of neurons that are taking shape in the speaker’s mind are also igniting in the minds of the listeners and taking a similar shape. These neurons are nothing but the new idea which is being talked about by the speaker.
What is an idea after all? The idea is that patterns of information come in all shapes and sizes- some are easy and some are complex in nature. However, if the idea is communicated properly, it can forever change how someone thinks about the world. Shaping their action for the present and also for the future. That is why ideas are the most powerful force shaping human culture.
So if you accept that the primary role of a speaker is to ignite an idea in the audience, then here are four practical tips for becoming a good speaker. One, your speech should primarily revolve around one central idea, and all other reasoning should be supportive of that very idea. Hence, reduce your content to that very idea only and give yourself a chance to explain that very idea properly, by giving context and sharing examples. Two, give your audience a reason to care. Arouse curiosity among the listeners so that their minds may allow your idea to be transported into their minds. You can use intriguing, provocative, questions so that the knowledge gap, if any, of the listeners may be underlined, and curiosity to fill the gap may be aroused in the minds of the audience. Once you have sparked that desire, it is much easier to build up the idea in the audience’s mind. Three, build the idea, bit by bit out of concepts that the audience can easily understand, not in your language but in their language or metaphors that they understand. And it is also a good idea to test the talk with your trusted friend to know if there is any part where they get confused. And the fourth and last tip is, that your idea should be worth sharing with the audience at large and not confined to your organization or close circle of friends. The idea should be such that it could brighten up someone’s day, or he could see the world from a new perspective, or he could do things differently. If you have that content in your speech, then it will truly be a gift to the audience and to all of us.
