 A great
speech has seven qualities:
- It's emotionally engaging -- it triggers something inside
you that gets your heart pumping, your adrenaline flowing, your pores
opening, your tear ducts flowing
- It's intellectually stimulating -- it introduces you to new
information, or new ideas, or new ways of thinking about things
- It's clever -- it uses smart, creative language, analogies,
contrast and opposition of ideas, humour (or satire), compelling
examples
- It's memorable -- by using stories, repetition and other
techniques that help people retain what they've heard
- It's concise -- no wasted words, no unnecessary tangents
- It's actionable -- people leave knowing what they need, and
want, to do
- It starts and ends powerfully -- saves the best 'til last
and starts with the next best
The last great speech I heard or read was this one. It
has all seven qualities. I keep looking for more. I listen to political
speeches. I selectively watch and listen to news analyses, read op-eds,
attend lectures, watch dramas and comedies looking for these qualities.
I read voraciously. There are few great speeches. There is more good
writing in the blogosphere than in the mainstream press, network
television, the universities, the business rubber chicken circuit, or
the mainstream parties' political podiums. I wonder where the good
speech-writers have gone, or whether it has simply become a lost art.
When he accepted the Irving G. Thalberg lifetime achievement award at
the Oscars four years ago, Norman Jewison spoke briefly and brilliantly
about the importance of writing excellence in the arts and the
entertainment industry. The sad irony is that the media barely
mentioned his speech. The awards, and the media attention, was all
about the actors, not about those who craft the content they merely
deliver.
|
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
