How's this for a spectacular definition of what makes a good teacher: "Good teachers matter because they can surprise you out of your complacency and into new views of the world. Or--and this is just as valuable--they can induce you to struggle to affirm intelligently what you've previously believed in indolent, unconsidered ways." Mark Edmundson, New York Times Magazine, Sept. 21, 2008
Great speakers demonstrate these same qualities. They step outside what is conventional to shake people up and in the process help those people think freshly about whatever they believe they know.
Most business speakers do not shake people up--they stick with every convention they know and avoid bold challenges. They don't want to make a mistake, or offend anyone. So they spout facts and figures, corporate details and operations manuals that fit neatly into the audience's mind set.
I don't get this! You're a CEO or a key individual or you're the leader of a high-performance sales team. You've got status and reputation and yet you speak the same old stuff over and over, in the same old format.
Why is there always a podium or lectern? Why read your detailed script? Why throw up power point slides, or stick to the formulaic introductions and summaries and conclusions?
I see audiences hungry for a challenge, not hungry for more of the same.
Why not make a promise to yourself that for one month--this month--you will surprise your audience out of their complacency or make them affirm intelligently what they believe they know?
How do you get your audience to think? To leave the room saying "I never thought of it that way before?" Share your thoughts through our comment link.
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