An MIT prof's tips on Public Speaking
My notes of the "How to Speak" lecture by Prof Patrick Winston
If you’d rather listen to the captivating professor directly, watch it here
What is “better” speaking?
Quality of speaking = function (KNOWLEDGE, Practice, talent)
Knowledge is the most important input, while talent is the least. This is because you can speak a lot better than more talented people if you have acquired enough knowledge and practice.
How to start
Don’t start with a Joke. It may fall flat because people are still settling in.
Start with an Empowerment Promise. E.g. At the end of this talk, you’ll know this which would be useful there.
Sample Heuristics
Cycle - Tell them what you want to tell them, tell them again, and then tell them a third time.
Build a fence - Make your idea distinguishable from other similar ideas to make it clearer what it is and isn’t. E.g. I’m going to talk about negotiation for a better job offer, but will not go over the kind of negotiation one needs in business deals. That could be similar but has its differences too, and I’ll not cover it today.
Verbal Punctuation - Because people in the audience can fog out, you can help them by announcing an outline and enumerating topics and sub-topics at regular intervals. This will help them get back on track with your talk. E.g. I mentioned that we’ll cover these 3 things today. We’ve looked at A and B on this 2nd thing and now we’re going to look at C.
Ask a question - The standard time to wait for the answer is 7 seconds. If there are no responses by then, you need to help with hints or provide answers yourself. The question also needs to be carefully chosen - too obvious, and no one replies because they’re embarrassed, too difficult, and no one knows the answer.
These are 4 samples but there can be many more, which may or may not be suitable for you. Patrick recommends that you consider this as the “Knowledge” input of the Quality function, and find out what works for you to build your personal reportoire.
The Tools
If possible, you want to get the right tools to aid your speaking. Some of those are:
Time & Place - 11 AM in a well-lit room. Because everyone is awake and isn’t going to be drowsy after a heavy lunch. Light keeps people active. Also, you should have seen the place already before speaking and insist on it being populated appropriately.
Board - It is great for talks because it can help you add Graphics or draw over and around text, which helps people visually. It also supports the right speed, at which people can process information. It also gives you a target, to point your hands towards.
Props - These can be used to convey certain points better, and make your talk more memorable.
Both board and props help your audience connect better because of “Empathetic Mirroring” i.e., they feel like they are writing on the board or using the props. This isn’t possible with slides.
Slides - Don’t do the following basic crimes with the slides:
Too many words on the slide
Standing far from the slides, which causes a tennis match feeling of jumping between the slides and the speaker
Using a stick pointer or laser pointer, because you lose eye contact with the audience
However, this is what you can do:
Get rid of the background color or images, and logos which can be distracting because they make the slides busier
Get rid of the title, because you as the speaker can tell the title
You can even remove bullets if they’re only a few words each
Use an arrow pointer on the slide if you want the audience to focus on something specific on a slide
Keep font size large and a lot of white space.
Making it memorable
Symbol - Patrick’s Ph.D. thesis had an “Arch” which became its symbol.
Slogan - A small memorable slogan that can help people recall the talk and its contents.
Surprise - An idea in the talk that is novel for the audience.
Salient - An idea that sticks out as being the important one. It’s better than presenting too many good ideas but nothing that sticks out.
Story - How you did it, how it works, and why it’s important, etc.
How to stop
What should not be your last slide:
Collaborators - This should be the first slide rather than the last.
Questions? - Worst possible way to end a talk. It squanders an opportunity to tell people who you are.
Providing links for details or resources - No one writes those down.
The End / Thank You - Even worse!
What should be on your last slide is something that tells them more about you and what you have done.
You can end a talk with a joke because people are ready for it now.
You shouldn’t end talks without a “Thank You” because it’s weak. Instead, you can salute the audience by saying things like “It’s been great talking to you all today. You have asked great questions and listened patiently. I look forward to meeting you again!”