At some point in the history of the English language, birds got a raw deal and became the butt of jokes and negative slurs. For example, if someone called you bird brain, jive turkey or old buzzard, you most likely would not leave the conversation feeling terribly friendly towards that person, or particularly good about yourself. Fair or ‘fowl’, I must admit that, beyond my disdain for pigeons who launch their business toward my car windshield, I really didn’t have an opinion about birds.
All that changed when I was enlightened by a documentary detailing the life of the great philosopher, Iron Mike Tyson. In the very first scene, Tyson was on the rooftop of a New York City building feeding his pigeons . . . homing pigeons, to be exact. I first thought the idea of pigeons as pets was extremely weird until Mike demonstrated how the pigeons raced over extremely long distances and returned directly back home. Apparently, they have a special sense called magneticoreception that allows them to perceive location and direction while in flight. I’ll spare you the nerdy details but my first thought was, “what if speakers had that special sense?” We would no longer have to worry about their drifting away from their point, losing their audiences and never finding their way back home. Clarity and engagement would go through the roof! It would be the perfect fix but, unfortunately, that’s not going to happen; we lowly humans have to settle for the next best thing, GPS navigation. If speakers adhere to the principles of GPS navigation, we can cover more ground with speed and precision.
Just like taking a road trip requires a designated route, the same is true for your speeches and presentations. You should establish definite starting and ending points and carve out the route for your message before you write the first word. For example, your speech may follow the path of Problem―Solution―Benefit; Cause―Effect; or Past―Present―Future. Your ability to predetermine your path . . . your mental GPS, so to speak . . . and confidently navigate it is what inspires your audience to follow you.
What about roadblocks? Even the most carefully mapped-out journey can be brought to an abrupt halt when something blocks the way. I’m almost certain you have at least heard of the waze app but just in case you’ve been under a rock for the last five years, waze is a GPS navigation app that helps you get from point A to point B. One of the fascinating things about waze is that it virtually connects all drivers in your immediate area who are currently using the app. This allows wazers to send real-time reports on things like accidents, a stalled vehicle, police activity, etc. Everyone using the app in close proximity receives updates as they travel to their destination. Can you judge the effectiveness of your presentation via signals from your audience?
Like the homing pigeon, GPS and waze are all about taking the most simple and direct route to your destination. Speakers should have the same goals for their presentations. Take the most simple and direct route to get your audience to your point of view.
You have arrived at your destination!
Dez Thornton is a communications coach who helps you say the right words in the right way when they matter most! For more information, see www.dezthornton.com.
This is really good! Thanks for sharing.