好的演讲，就是要让人不舒服 | 双语哈评(3)

 

That basic formula can work effectively whether you’re articulating a new strategy at a staff meeting, pitching a product to a customer, or bringing up an issue for discussion with your team. In all these situations, you are trying to explain your idea, sell it to the audience, and ask people to change their views or take some sort of action. As presentation expert Nancy Duarte has pointed out, you are essentially creating a story, one that sets up a problem, suggests a solution, tells the audience what they should do, and describes how they’ll be better off as a result. [原文来自：www.11jj.com]

 

[本文来自：www.11jj.com]

One of the very best teachers I ever had in business, a technical guru at IBM, used this approach in his training sessions with employees. He told lots of stories about customers and the daunting challenges they faced. In each story he would set up the problem, describe the painful symptoms (slow response time, for example), and explain all the gyrations the customer went through to figure out what was wrong. Then, like Sherlock Holmes, he would tell us how to diagnose the real issue and — “aha!” — fix it. We learned all about problem solving, architecture, and, of course, IBM’s products. His training sessions were master classes in the art of presenting.

 

Once you understand this approach, you can see it applied in TED talks, keynote speeches, instructional videos, blogs, articles, and almost every other form of persuasive communication out there. Unlike the “instant on” communication in Twitter, or even email, presentations give you time and room to make your case and — with help from your voice, face, and gestures — convince people that they should respond to your call to action.

 

You can also layer on lots of beautiful pictures and graphics to grab people’s attention, but visual candy does not substitute for a strong argument and a compelling story. I may find your images engaging, but if they don’t tell me what to do or what I must learn, I may just remember your talk as a “good presentation,” and never take any action as a result.

 

Above all, a well-crafted presentation gets people to focus their attention and their efforts. And focus is something we all desperately need when so many other tools are distracting us instead of making us more productive.