“I Have My Speech Topic. Now What?”
“Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.” – Dionysius Of Halicarnassus
Old Dionysius had it right. So let’s get right to how to make your speech better than silence.
So you have your speech topic assigned from your boss, teacher, or yourself. Now What? You are probably thinking, “So how do I put this speech together?”
Begin with the body of your talk, then develop your opening and closing. The reason for this is your opening and closing are directly dependent on the body of your talk.
Below are three steps I have found useful to develop my talks from only starting with the topic:
Step 1 – Mind Storm (brainstorming alone) All Ideas Pertaining to your Topic
In this step, you want to generate as many ideas as possible about your topic. This is called Mind Storming. Mind storming is similar to brainstorming only idea generation is not in a group. It is strictly done by you.
A major roadblock to brainstorming and mind storming is evaluating ideas as they are being generated. As you generate these ideas about your topic, you must resist the urge to evaluate the ideas. Remember, you want to generate as many ideas as possible about your topic. Evaluating these ideas as you are generating them actually stops the generation process.
So, assuming you can resist the urge to evaluate your ideas, in two minutes generate as many ideas as possible. Some of your ideas will seem silly. Some will seem not even on the subject. Some will be “spot on” for your topic. Why two minutes? It’s ironic, but when you feel the pressure of time, your ideas will flow more easily. If you feel after two minutes, that all your ideas on your topic have not been discovered, take another two minutes, but no more.
When you have finished your idea generation period, use the Cards on the Wall method to group your ideas into like categories. So what is the Cards on the Wall method? Well, you put each topic idea you generated on a separate sticky note and then logically group them on a board. After all your ideas are on the board, you will magically start seeing patterns of your ideas emerging. These patterns become the main points of your speech.
If possible, strive to winnow the Cards on the Wall to three groups. Three groups or main points is enough to make your talk interesting for the audience without having them remember too many main points. Three main points have the added benefit that it will be easier for you to remember only three main points.
After you have these three main points, use the ideas in each group to support the one main point.
So, you have the body of your speech developed. Now, let us discuss the “bookends of your speech” – the opening and closing
Step 2 – Develop Your Opening by Capturing Your Audience’s Attention
You may think in the opening to your speeches the only thing you have to do is tell the audience what you are going to tell them. However, the purpose of your speech opening is really to capture the audience’s attention, focus them on your main points, and influence them to be eager to hear the details of your main points. There are several ways to do this. Some of these ways are:
Start your speech with a quote. For instance if your speech is about the startling pace of technology, you could state the following:
“Naveen Jain said, ‘We are now living in a fast-paced technological era where every skill that we teach our children becomes obsolete in the 10 to 15 years due to exponentially growing technological advances.’ How can we ever expect our children to keep up?”
You can also start your speech with a story. You can tell an inspiring story about yourself or someone in history such as:
“I pride myself on my persistence as an engineer to determine the right solution to an engineering problem. My upbringing gave me that. I remember a situation when I was 10 years old and what it taught me about the great benefits of persistence. I was sitting in the kitchen of my home and . . .”
You can start with a startling statistic. For instance, if your topic is on the advances in computing power over the last 50 years, you can say, holding up your iPhone:
“The latest phones typically have 4GB of RAM. That is 34,359,738,368 bits. This is more than one million (1,048,576 to be exact) times more memory than the Apollo 11 guidance computer had in RAM. The iPhone also has up to 512GB of ROM memory. That is 4,398,046,511,104 bits, which is more seven million times more than that of the Apollo 11 guidance computer.” (from Your Mobile Phone vs. Apollo 11’s Guidance Computer)
In other words, you want to capture the audience’s attention in an interesting way. In addition to capturing the audience’s attention, briefly state the three main points of your speech.
Quotes, stories, and startling statistics are not the only ways you can capture your audience’s attention. Pick up any book on public speaking and you will find a list of other ways to add impact to your speech openings. These ways to add impact to your speech work for either openings and closings. The next section covers three more appropriate for both.
Remember, above all, whatever you use to create impact must be relevant to your topic.
So you have the body of your speech and your speech opening. The final step in developing your speech topic is to develop the closing.
Step 3 – Develop Your Closing by Reviewing Your Main Points and Giving Your Audience a Call to Action
Audiences remember what you say at the beginning and the end of your speeches more than the body. So the closing of your speech, in addition to reviewing your main points briefly, must leave the audience with a lasting favorable impression of your speech. So, how do you do this?
You can add impact to your closings by using devices I mentioned in Step 2 – quotes, stories, startling statistics. In addition, you can use humor, a poem, or make a relevant referral to a well-known movie. This is not an all-inclusive list. Google “ways to close a speech” and you will find many more.
One last thing. It is always good to include a call to action for your audience. In other words, what do you want your audience to do after the speech to implement what you said in the speech? This always plays well with an audience because they feel the return on the investment of their time is increased by changing something positively in their personal or professional lives.
I have not mentioned above, but continually practicing your speech is essential to you becoming comfortable speaking to an audience.
When you are stumped as to what to do next once you have your topic, do the following: (1) mind storm all ideas pertaining to your topic, (2) develop your opening by capturing your audience’s attention, and (3) develop your closing by reviewing your main points and giving your audience a call to action.
Follow these three steps and you will be amazed at how they help you develop your topic quickly and, maybe just maybe, you will find yourself enjoying the process!
“90% of how well the talk will go is determined before the speaker steps on the platform.” – Somers White
Looking for professional services to help you significantly increase your influence with your audiences? Contact DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI) at info@speakleadandsucceed.com or (703) 815-1324