Is fifth grader Dalton Sherman the next Barack Obama?

Of course, it’s far too early to tell, but that’s how he refers to himself in an interview on the Ellen show, where my wife first saw this extraordinary young man who can teach us all something about inspirational speaking.

This article reviews the keynote address at the Dallas Independent School District (D.I.S.D.) Teachers’ Conference delivered by a 5th grade student: 10-year-old Dalton Sherman from Charles Rice Learning Center.

This article is the latest in a series of video speech critiques which help you analyze and learn from excellent speeches.

View Dalton Sherman Speech Video

I encourage you to:

1. Watch the video;
2. Read the analysis in this speech critique; and
3. Share your thoughts on this presentation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Speech Critique — Dalton Sherman

This speech is remarkable for many reasons, including:

• Repetition of signature phrases
• Connecting personally with audience members
• Vocal variety which signals key statements
• Humor throughout
• The rule of three

These areas are discussed in the speech critique below.

Repetitive Refrain – “Do You Believe…”

Dalton repeats the signature phrase 11 times during his keynote speech. [Note that numbers in brackets refer to the time in the speech.] These lines emphasize the central theme that teachers and students need to believe in each other.

1. “Do you believe in me?” [0:43]
2. “Do you believe that I can stand up here fearless and talk to over 20,000 of you?” [0:51]
3. “Do you believe in me?” [1:12]
4. “Do you believe in my classmates?” [2:05]
5. “Do you believe that every single one of us can graduate ready for college or the workplace?” [2:15]
6. “Do you believe in your colleagues?” [4:32]
7. “Do you believe in yourself?” [5:50]
8. “Do you believe that what you’re doing is shaping not just my generation, but that of my children and my children’s children?” [6:01]
9. “Do you believe that every child in Dallas needs to be ready for college or the workplace?” [6:40]
10. “Do you believe that Dallas students can achieve?” [6:50]
11. “Do you believe in me?” [7:45]

On many occasions, this phrase follows a pause in delivery. By doing this, the repeated refrain also bookmarks the major divisions of the speech (the students, your colleagues, yourself, then back to students). This 4-part structure is highlighted in one of the lines near the end of the speech:

• “We need you to believe (1) in us, (2) in your colleagues, (3) in yourselves, and (4) in our goals.” [7:10]

More and More Repetition

Sherman uses other repetitive figures of speech. Among these, here are two of the most powerful:

• “I can do anything…
  be anything …
  create anything …
  dream anything …
  become anything …
  because you believe in me.” [1:28]

• “We need you” is repeated five separate times in the speech, making this a secondary theme (along with “Do you believe?”). [5:47, 6:34, 6:58, 7:02, 7:10]

Make it Personal

Sherman makes the speech personal by calling out specific groups within the massive audience. On every instance, his reference draws applause from that segment of the audience.

• Early in the speech, Dalton calls out personnel from his own school, Charles Rice Learning Center. [1:10]
• “Let me ask you a question, Dallas I.S.D.” (Dallas Independent School District) [1:55]
• He refers to several large geographic regions: Sunnyside Dallas [3:10], Pleasant Grove [3:20], Oak Cliff [3:25], North Dallas [3:35], West Dallas [3:38]
• Finally, he refers to the different educational roles in sequence. Nearly everyone in his audience should fall into one of these groups; the effect is that his message seems personal for everyone.
  “So whether you’re a councilor, or a librarian, a teacher’s assistant, or work in the front office, whether you serve up meals in the cafeteria, or help keep the halls clean, or whether you’re a teacher or a principal… we need you.” [5:15]

Lower and Slower Voice to Emphasize Key Points

Dalton Sherman delivers most of his speech with a loud and energetic voice. However, on four different occasions, he slows down and lowers his voice to deliver key points. This vocal variety is a signal to the audience that important words are coming, and the lines become more memorable as a result.

1. “… is to believe that we can reach our highest potential.” [2:55]
2. “As you know, in some cases, you’re all we’ve got.” [3:50]
3. “… who love us when sometimes it feels like noone else does.” [4:10]
4. “If you don’t believe — well, I’m not going there.” [7:22]

Humor Both Implicit and Explicit

The premise of this speech — a 10-year-old fifth grader giving the keynote address at a teachers conference — seems wonderfully absurd, and this fact alone provides much implicit humor in the speech. Numerous audience outbursts testify to their enjoyment.

In addition, Dalton’s speech includes a couple explicitly humorous lines:

• “You better, because next week, we’re all showing up in your schools — all 157,000 of us.” [2:32]
• “We all know, that sometimes, we kids can make it tough.” [5:00]

Rule of Three

The classic speechwriting Rule of Three technique is present a couple times in this speech:

• “You’re the ones who feed us,
  who wipe our tears,
  who hold our hands or hug us when we need it.” [4:00]
• “Believe in them.
  Trust them.
  And lean on them when times get tough.” [4:50] (refers to colleagues)

Did Dalton Sherman write this? Was he coached?

The speechwriter? As pointed out by this Dallas Morning News article, school district officials wrote the speech. The full speech text is also available here.

The coach? The article also reveals that Dalton was coached by his parents and an oratory coach from his school for several months. His preparations involved delivering the speech three times a week at his family’s church.

For these reasons, some Internet critics attack Dalton Sherman, suggesting that he’s a puppet reciting someone else’s words.

What do you think? I think this underscores how good you can be if you devote yourself to consistent practice and obtain speech coaching.

Although the delivery of some lines is choppy (which indicates memorized, but unnatural text), the majority of the speech is wonderfully delivered. As the video demonstrates, Dalton nails most of the choreographed body language, and he receives loud applause from his audience.

As just one example of this young man’s personal speaking strength, consider the opening to his speech. Despite standing before 20,000 while delivering this keynote address, Dalton Sherman still has the presence to wait for applause to die down before beginning [0:30 - 0:39]. Many adults have the tendency to talk over the audience applause, but he avoids this temptation. This a testament to the courage of this remarkable young man, and demonstrates that he has considerable talent.

Dalton Sherman on Ellen: “… the next Obama”

Here’s the appearance of Dalton Sherman on the Ellen show.

When asked what he wants to do when he grows up, Dalton responds that he wants to be a news reporter and “the next Obama.” Aim high, young man!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dalton Sherman on Oprah

Update — After this Six Minutes article was originally published, Dalton Sherman appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode seeking to highlight some of the world’s smartest and most talented kids.

What did you think?

I’d love to hear your opinion on Dalton Sherman’s keynote speech.

If you are a teacher or have a career working with youth, does this speech inspire you? Does the speech achieve its goal as the keynote address at a school district conference to start the year?

Similar Articles You May Like... Video Critique: J.A. Gamache (Toastmasters, 2007) Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005) Video Critique: Al Gore (TED, 2006) Critique: Lessig Method Presentation Style (Dick Hardt, Identity 2.0, OSCON 2005) 5 Presentation Lessons from Randy Pausch in The Last Lecture How to Speak: 7 Speaking Tips from Patrick Henry Winston

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

The “elephant in the room” — Pausch’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer — serves as an emotional backdrop for this memorable lecture.

In addition to illuminating many of life’s important lessons, Randy Pausch’s last lecture also provides five lessons which can help you connect with your audience.

Randy Pausch and the Famous Last Lecture

Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2006. Pausch delivered his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University (where he is a Professor) on September 18, 2007. In the seminar series (aptly titled “The Last Lecture”), professors were challenged to deliver the message of a lifetime as if it was their last lecture. The irony makes his words that much more poignant.

The Last Lecture has become one of the most viewed lectures on the Internet. Its popularity is increased by appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show and an appearance on ABC with Diane Sawyer titled The Last Lecture – A Love Story For Your Life.

Watch it now…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Five Presentation Techniques Taught by Randy Pausch

When I first viewed the Last Lecture months ago, I hesitated to review it because of the emotional impact. However, on the encouragement of several friends and Six Minutes readers, I asked myself: “Is the speech memorable because of the context, his delivery, or both?”

There is no denying that the context makes the speech memorable, but that quality is enhanced by five timeless presentation techniques exhibited by Randy Pausch. Each of these helps you connect with your audience and helps them remember your words into the future:

1. Introduce the elephant in the room.
2. Define the scope.
3. Conclude strong.
4. Show enthusiasm. Immerse yourself.
5. Get personal.

1. Introduce the Elephant in the Room

Randy Pausch opens his lecture in the best way possible for this lecture, this audience, and this venue — by relieving stress.

Following an easy joke about the title of the lecture series, he introduces the elephant in the room; that is, he spends a minute discussing his pancreatic cancer. Then, he raises the emotion in the room by doing a series of pushups. If he had not opened this way, the audience would have been distracted for the entire lecture, and unable to fully immerse themselves in the powerful lessons to come.

Key Lesson: If there are issues distracting your audience, address them sooner rather than later.

2. Define the Scope

Pausch then proceeds to define the scope of his lecture. He outlines what he will talk about and, more importantly, what he will not talk about. This is a classic speech outline technique.

Declaring the scope is important because it establishes the starting point and the boundaries for your presentation. It brings your audience to the starting point with you, and ensures they are in the right frame of mind to receive the message you are about to deliver.

Ideally, the scope for your presentation will be conveyed to the audience via pre-talk advertising or by your introduction. If this isn’t the case, however, it is worth addressing early in your presentation.

Key Lesson: Before you get into the heart of your talk, frame your speech for the audience.

3. Conclude Strong

As strong as the opening was, I suspect that the conclusion is far more memorable for most people who view this lecture.

Pausch follows conventional advice for a conclusion by summarizing his key points. It is a good practice for any length of speech, but especially so for longer speeches like this one (~75 minutes). He actually provides several “recaps” throughout the speech.

In addition, he reaches back to one of the concepts introduced earlier — the head fake — and reveals that his entire speech has been a pair of head fakes. It makes the audience replay the entire lecture in their heads in the context of this new revelation.

Key Lesson: Finish strong. Leave your audience thinking.

4. Show Enthusiasm. Immerse Yourself.

Randy Pausch smiles and laughs many times in this lecture. Okay, fair enough. That’s not too unusual. However, he also:

• Wears an Alice in Wonderland hat.
• Dons a football jacket.
• Does pushups.
• Gives away stuffed animals.

He could have assumed a very reserved, somber tone for this speech. He could have treated every word as if it were a matter of life or death. But that would have drawn more attention to his condition instead of his core message.

Key Lesson: The audience is more apt to have fun and cherish life if they see you doing so in your speeches.

5. Get Personal

This may seem obvious, but the last lesson I’d like to highlight is to get personal with your audience. Or, phrased in the opposite way, don’t hide your personal side from the audience.

To some extent, this entire speech is personal. Fair enough. The content of the speech are the personal lessons Randy Pausch has learned through life, and he illuminates these through personal stories.

Still, there is a way to tell personal stories while still remaining distant and somewhat clinical. You can tell a story about visiting Disneyland, but if you don’t show a glint in your eye, you’re holding something back.

Randy Pausch holds nothing back. He conveys the personal emotions in his stories. One of the most memorable moments in the lecture is when he has the audience sing Happy Birthday to his wife.

Key Lesson: Let your guard down. Showing emotion is one of the best ways to connect with an audience.

The Last Lecture: Video, Transcript, and Book

• Download the entire video. You can then watch it offline or schedule a viewing with your family, colleagues, Toastmasters club, etc.
• Download the speech transcript.
• Read The Last Lecture book, on which Randy Pausch comments:

A book allows me to cover many, many more stories from my life and the attendant lessons I hope my kids can take from them. … The book is a far more personal look at my childhood dreams and all the lessons I’ve learned. Putting words on paper, I’ve found, was a better way for me to share all the yearnings I have regarding my wife, children and other loved ones.

Thank you, Randy, for sharing these lessons with us.

Similar Articles You May Like...

• How to Speak: 7 Speaking Tips from Patrick Henry Winston
• Video Critique: J.A. Gamache (Toastmasters, 2007)
• Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005)
• Video Critique: Al Gore (TED, 2006)
• Critique: Lessig Method Presentation Style (Dick Hardt, Identity 2.0, OSCON 2005)
• How can you inspire your audience? Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Positive word of mouth spread over the years, and the event now draws a beyond capacity crowd with people sitting uncomfortably on steps and the floor to listen to Winston. You can learn from the master teacher from the comfort of your web browser by viewing the lecture video.

In the 45-minute lecture, Winston delivers dozens of practical tips for speaking effectively, particularly when teaching. This article highlights seven of the best.

Seven Speaking Tips from Patrick Winston

1. Use Stories and Analogies

Winston explicitly advises his audience to use stories, and he does so himself.

One example is in the introduction. Winston skis better than gymnast Mary Lou Retton not because he is more athletic, but because he has some knowledge and he practices. This story reinforces his key message: knowledge and practice are critical to speaking success.

2. Open Your Speech Strong

Winston advises against a humorous opening, and instead recommends making a promise (stating your core message) and providing a speech outline.

He does this himself in his introduction. In addition, he opens with a great analogy between the military and educational institutions. His first words — “The uniform code of military justice states…” — grab the attention of his academic audience.

3. Use Rhetorical Devices

Winston doesn’t explicitly advise using rhetorical devices (aside from rhetorical questions), but he provides several memorable examples.

For example, here is a memorable triad which invokes the Rule of Three:

Your careers will be determined largely by how well you speak, by how well you write, and by the quality of your ideas… in that order.

Another memorable line uses contrast to achieve its effect:

What I hope to accomplish is to transmit to you [...] something that will make the difference between a career-busting tragedy and a career-launching triumph.

4. Find Your Style

Winston reveals the big four around which he crafts his lectures: cycle, verbal punctuation, near miss, and rhetorical questions. More importantly, he emphasizes that these are his big four, but every speaker needs to find their own public speaking structure.

5. Use the Blackboard to Pace Your Delivery

Winston gives several reasons to use the blackboard (or whiteboard or flip chart), but the most compelling reason is to pace your delivery. The act of writing or drawing introduces delays which allow your audience to catch up and absorb the information.

6. Salute the Audience Rather than Thanking Them

Many speakers I respect take a very strong position in the debate over whether you should thank or not thank your audience. Winston takes the position that you should not thank the audience, because doing so conveys a lack of confidence that you have just delivered something valuable. Instead, he suggests that you should salute the audience.

7. Handle the Q&A Skillfully

Winston delivers several nuggets of advice for question and answer sessions. Be prepared to ask yourself the first question. Repeat the question so that the rest of the audience can hear it. Aim for a conversation, not a lecture. Stay in control. This advice agrees with a previous Six Minutes article: Leading the Perfect Q&A.

More Resources on How to Speak…

Cal Newport provides a detailed play-by-play of the 2008 Winston talk which he attended.

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• Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005)
• How can you inspire your audience? Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.
• Toastmasters Speech 2: Organize Your Speech
• Video Critique: Al Gore (TED, 2006)

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Majora Carter’s TED talk has both incredible strengths — passion, energy, authenticity — and one unfortunate weakness — rapid speaking rate. Both extremes are worthy of public speaking analysis.

I encourage you to:

1. Watch the video;
2. Read the analysis in this speech critique; and
3. Share your thoughts on this presentation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What is Phenomenal about this Speech?

Guy Kawasaki has written a thorough 15-point speech review, describing the many wonderful aspects of this talk. His entire review is worth reading, but I’d like to quote a few excerpts which echoed my own analysis:

• She immediately provides a clear problem statement. (1:00-2:00)
• She personalizes her story all the way through the speech.
• She shows raw emotions and unveils a piece of her soul when she breaks into tears when talking about her brother being gunned down. (5:10)
• She capitalizes on alliteration: “pimps and pushers and prostitutes” (6:50) and repetition: “economic degradation begets environmental degradation which begets social degradation” (7:24).
• Her presence exudes power and confidence without a trace of arrogance, fear, or condescension.
• She ends with an insanely great call-to-action: “Please don’t waste me.” (17:57)

In short, Majora Carter exhibits incredible passion — more in 19 minutes than many of my college professors in an entire semester. Her message is captivating, and her enthusiasm is infectious. All speakers can learn from Majora Carter.

But… it could be much, much better

This talk by Majora Carter is not without flaws. Here’s what Guy Kawasaki wrote about her speaking rate:

• She speaks rapidly—bordering on too rapidly, but she is articulate at all times. And she slows her cadence for her most important points. You can tell that she’s trying to observe her time limit—communicating that she respects the audience’s time.

While I agreed with much of Guy Kawasaki’s analysis, I believe he is being too generous on this point.

Majora Carter speaks too fast for much of this talk. Period. It does not “border on too rapidly.” It is too rapid.

Her talk is packed with dense information, often delivered at a rate too fast for many in the audience to absorb. Garr Reynolds recently wrote about a presentation by economist Robert Frank. One of Frank’s slides asks these questions:

• How much can I cover today?
  vs.
  How much can my students absorb today?

While Majora Carter may be respecting the audience’s time, she is not respecting the audience’s capacity to absorb information.

I have the luxury of watching this video three times, pausing, and rewinding to get the meaning. This is a luxury that your audience rarely has. More importantly, your audience will rarely give you more than one opportunity. Overloading them with information is not effective.

Her speaking rate is so fast that she trips over her own words multiple times. At times, she seems breathless. Used sparingly, a rapid speaking rate can be used to very good effect by a speaker. However, when most of the talk is delivered at this rate, that’s a clear sign that too much information is being presented.

What’s the Solution? Aggressive Editing.

If you have a 20-minute time slot and 40 minutes of information, the solution is not to double your speaking rate. The solution is to cut the material in half. Keep the best lines, the best stories, and the most powerful images. Be ruthless in trimming the rest.

Depending on your speaking scenario, you may be able to include additional facts, figures, statistics, stories, and diagrams in handout material for the audience.

What about Reading from a Script?

It is generally better to avoid reading from notes, but that in itself didn’t bother me in this presentation. Despite frequently reading, Majora connects deeply with the audience throughout the talk. Her face is expressive, her body is active, and her vocal variety is excellent. She compensates well for the use of notes.

The indirect problem with reading notes is that it encourages rapid delivery. This is a problem that I have personally battled. In the past, I often wrote with red pen in margins of my notes: “SLOW DOWN!” In recent years, I go without notes or with only a few key phrases to guide me along. The time it takes me to occasionally catch my thoughts is time well spent — it allows the audience time to digest what I’ve just said.

Critical analysis notwithstanding, this is still a fantastic talk from Majora Carter. It could have been better with some aggressive editing and a slower delivery. [For contrast, watch this 2-minute video from Majora Carter demonstrating a much better speaking rate.]

Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this speech? What did you like most? What did you think of the speaking rate?

Similar Articles You May Like...

• Six Simple Techniques for Presenting Data: Hans Rosling (TED, 2006)
• Video Critique: Al Gore (TED, 2006)
• Video Critique: J.A. Gamache (Toastmasters, 2007)
• Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005)
• Critique: Lessig Method Presentation Style (Dick Hardt, Identity 2.0, OSCON 2005)
• How can you inspire your audience? Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Hans Rosling uses six simple techniques for presenting data which transform a run-of-the-mill presentation into a must-see presentation.

I encourage you to:

1. Watch the video;
2. Read the analysis in this speech critique; and
3. Share your thoughts on this presentation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Six Techniques for Presenting Data

Rosling employs GapMinder to display his statistics. This is a wonderful software tool for displaying data, but the real magic of this presentation lies in the techniques demonstrated by Rosling. These techniques are easy to do, but I’ve rarely (if ever) seen them all demonstrated so well in a single talk. The techniques are:

1. Explain the data axes
2. Highlight subsets of data
3. Dig deeper to unwrap data
4. Place labels close to data points
5. Answer the “Why?” questions
6. Complement data with energetic delivery

Let’s examine each one and compare this presentation to common approaches.

Technique #1: Explain the Data Axes

Common approach. Graphs are displayed with either no explanation of the axes, or a quick, obligatory “Here we see variableX versus variableY“.

As Hans demonstrates, don’t assume that your audience intuitively “gets it,” particularly when presenting statistical data.

Starting around 2:43, he devotes approximately ninety seconds to:

• Explain what quantities are on each of the two axes (e.g. fertility rates versus life expectancy at birth);
• Provide the background story as to why he chose these two quantities (”We vs Them = Western World vs Third World“);
• Share his students’ prediction as to what the data will show.

Because of this careful preparation, the audience understands the context thoroughly. A very energetic description of the data follows while the time advances the “movie” for about 45 seconds.

The “instant reply” is a nice touch which fills the otherwise empty time during audience applause, although I suspect this was added in the post-production by the good folks at TED.

Technique #2: Highlight subsets of data

Common approach: Presenters attempt to explain complex data which they have studied for days, weeks, or months in just a few minutes. The audience grasps little.

Rosling recognizes the impossibility of explaining all of the data in detail. Instead, he carefully selects and explains subsets of the data.

• Example #1: 1964-2003 United States and Vietnam [5:15 to 6:06] This is a clever choice as his (mostly American) audience will easily connect the early part of this period with that of the Vietnam War.
• Example #2: 1960-2003. South Korea, Brazil, Uganda, United Arab Emirates [12:22 to 13:40]

Technique #3: Dig deeper to unwrap data

Common approach: Presenters restrict themselves to one level of data inspection. Deeper analysis is often only present in scientific journals.

Several times, Rosling displays first a high-level data view (e.g. one point for a country) and then digs deeper to lower-level view of the data (e.g. country quintiles).

• Example #1: Income versus population
  Compare the global curve [7:26] to the one broken down by geographic region [7:54]
• Example #2: GDP per capita versus Child survival rate
  Compare the Sub-Saharan Africa bubble [9:48] to the individual country bubbles [9:54]
• Example #3: GDP per capita versus Child survival rate
  Compare Uganda bubble [14:12] to quintile data points for Uganda [14:18]

Technique #4: Place labels close to data points

Common approach: Data legends and labels are often absent. The presenter assumes that the audience will follow their verbal cues. Or, when legends and labels are present, they are often presented far away from associated data points. This forces the audience to visually scan back and forth.

Throughout Rosling’s talk, data labels are presented right next to the data points. An example is shown here for the OECD data point [9:28].

Additionally, the appearance of these labels is synchronized well with the verbal component of his speech. In this way, the visual labels complement the audio.

Related to this, there are several instances where GapMinder shows a bubble “about to burst” a second or two before the data is expanded. This is a subtle touch, but an effective measure to draw the eye to the right spot on the screen. The Sub-Saharan Africa example shown is from 9:48. Others are at 10:33 and 10:40.

Technique #5: Answer the “Why?”questions

Common approach: Large data sets are presented, and the presenter often explains only the dominant trend or the one measure of most interest. The audience is left to wonder things like “Why is that data point there?” or “What caused that point to be low/high/odd?”

Obviously, no presenter can answer every question the audience might be thinking, but Rosling does a good job of anticipating these questions. He anticipated several “Why?” questions, and answered them on the spot.

For example:

• Q: Why does the progress in Vietnam accelerate in the 1990’s? [5:43]
  A: They give up communist planning and go for a market economy.
• Q: Why is Mauritius so different from most of Sub-Saharan Africa? [9:54]
  A: Mauritius was the first country to get rid of trade barriers. They could sell their sugar. They could sell their textiles.
• Q: Why is China moving up and then to the right (when most countries are moving diagonally)? [11:52]
  A: Mao Zedong bought health to China (up) and then he died. Deng Xiaoping then brought money to China (right).

Anticipating and answering the why questions achieves two goals:

1. It allows you to satisfy the audience’s curiosity while also maintaining an energetic pace (rather than being interrupted by questions).
2. It demonstrates your credibility and solid grasp of the subject.

Technique #6: Complement data with energetic delivery

Common approach: Statistical data is often presented in a dry, clinical manner. Perhaps the theory is that the audience should naturally be excited about data?

The most memorable technique displayed by Rosling is his energetic delivery. Examples are numerous, and include:

• Highly energetic sequence as he narrates 1962-2003 fertility rates versus life expectancy [4:15 to 5:03]. This is the highlight of the presentation for me. The audience seems to agree, rewarding Rosling with 13 seconds of applause.
• Spider-web shape with his hands to demonstrate how the bubbles burst [9:55]
• Ghost-like acting to accompany “overlooking the United States, almost like a ghost” [18:11]
• Approaching the screen numerous times to align his arms and body with the data

The thoughtful presentation of data makes this an understandable talk. Rosling’s energetic delivery makes it memorable.

Other Opinions from the Public Speaking Blogosphere

• Lisa Braithwaite: Best Presentation Ever?

Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this speech? What did you like most? How could this presentation be enhanced?

Similar Articles You May Like...

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• Critique: Lessig Method Presentation Style (Dick Hardt, Identity 2.0, OSCON 2005)
• How can you inspire your audience? Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

This video critique analyzes many noteworthy elements of the presentation, including:

• a memorable speech opening and closing which feature the same prop;
• the callback technique for repetitive humor;
• emotionally charged writing; and
• a series of wonderfully choreographed gestures.

I encourage you to:

1. Watch the video;
2. Read the analysis in this speech critique; and
3. Share your thoughts on this presentation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Effective Prop for Strong Opening

J.A. opens his speech by blowing a train whistle and yelling “All aboard!” [0:30] This may be the greatest impact in the opening four seconds of a speech I’ve ever seen. It is simple and quick, but it transports the audience out of their chairs in a ballroom and onto a train.

Also note how J.A. expertly conceals the prop before its use (in his left hand, so that he could shake hands with his right), and then immediately pockets it afterwards. This is a good lesson: display the prop only when you are specifically using it. You don’t want the audience’s attention on the prop anymore, so don’t hold onto it, fidget with it, or leave it anywhere in view.

(Effective Prop for) Strong Closing

J.A. closes the speech exactly as he opened it: blowing the train whistle and yelling “All aboard!” This is wonderfully circular, and symbolically tells the audience not only that the speech is complete, but that we have neatly returned back to where we started.

Immediately preceding the whistle, J.A. says: “In the train of life, the world needs more Mr. and Mrs. G’s like you.” This is a well-crafted call to action for several reasons:

• metaphor (”train of life“)
• simile (”like“)
• personalized for audience (”you”)

“Mr. G.” – A Contemporary Hero

When first used in the speech title, “Mr. G.” creates mystery in the minds of the audience. Who is Mr. G.? The use of “mister” implies that it is someone J.A. respects (i.e. Mr. G. rather than simply G.), but that is a subtle clue.

Later, after the true identity is revealed, J.A. continues to use “Mr. G.” I think this gives the hero a more contemporary quality. This makes Gandhi seem more like a next-door neighbour than a great man who (to the audience) lived around the world in a faraway land sixty years ago. The word choice is an effective way to bridge the distance – in time, geography, culture, context – between the life of the hero and the lives of the audience members.

Repetition of Key Phrases

“Awww. How sweeeeet.”

• Three repetitions. J.A. first uses this phrase following the story of Gandhi and the two sandals [1:51]. He repeats it during the stories of giving shoes to a homeless person [2:33] and dancing with the hearing impaired crowd [5:00].
• J.A. uses virtually the same vocal variety and gesture every time.
• He gets a little laughter on the first use, and much more laughter on subsequent uses. This is not accidental. The callback technique creates a psychological connection between each use. Essentially, G.A. created a lightweight conditioned response for the audience to laugh whenever he used that phrase and that gesture.

“Dare to care.”

• Five repetitions. First used with “Gandhi dared to care.” [2:08] Used again at 2:43, 2:48, 5:05, and in the conclusion at 7:28.
• In all cases, this phrase is followed by a longer-than-average pause to indicate its importance.
• This is the signature phrase of the speech. “Dare to care” would have been a suitable title for the speech, although I prefer the title J.A. used for the mystery it created.

Emotionally Powerful

“Dance with me.
And we danced.
At last we understood each other.
Not a word was spoken.
Yet we were not silent anymore.
Our joy roared louder than a thousand voices.
Some words erupted from my heart.
I couldn’t hold them anymore.
I yelled.” [4:22]

These words and the complementary gestures – the foot beating the stage and dancing around – combine to create the most emotional moment in the speech. J.A. is marvelous in this segment:

• His dance and gestures draw the audience in.
• The vocal variety creates building excitement.
• Note the short sentences in this segment: nine sentences with just 44 words (less than 5 words/sentence). The short, simple sentences complement the up-tempo rhythmic beat of his feet.

Rich Figures of Speech

There are many other examples of clever speechwriting as well:

• Double meaning. “Just chatting…[pause] So to speak.” [3:24]
  The latter phrase – So to speak – has a double meaning here:
  1. Its usual meaning – to draw attention to the understatement preceding it. (To say that hearing impaired people just chat is an understatement.)
  2. In this case, the understatement is about speaking. This double meaning is apt to be particularly appreciated in an audience of public speakers.
• Simile. “My brain started melting like ice cream in a heat wave.” [5:32]
• Vivid exaggeration. “Sweat … pooled in my shoes.” [5:34] Later, this is followed by “I slushed back to my seat.” [5:52]
• Repeated word.
  • “Confused… Confused…” [5:39]
  • “Thank you. Yes, you. You. You. All of you!” [6:58] Audiences like to be complimented, as long as you are sincere as J.A. is in this segment.
  • “You.” J.A. uses this word 38 times (including derivatives “your” and “yourself”). The entire speech has 718 words. Over 5% of the words in the speech are explicitly audience-focused. The concentration of “you” words is especially high in the opening and conclusion.
• Anaphora and the Rule of Three.
  “A sandal of hope when you reach out.
  A sandal of joy when you listen to your heart.
  A sandal of courage when you dare to care.” [7:13]
  The first two are accompanied by great gestures. The third gesture is interesting, though I’m not certain what it is meant to represent.

Expressive Gestures

J.A.’s use of body language in this speech was masterful. He demonstrates that gestures should not be random, or an afterthought. Gestures should be carefully crafted to complement and punctuate the words being spoken (or, occasionally, to express ideas in the absence of words). With gestures, he is able to express numerous emotions and ideas throughout his speech. In addition to those already mentioned, there are several more:

• Pride. “You are wearing a pair of sandals you proudly made yourself” complemented by glancing down at sandals with pride. [0:50]
• Motion. “The train starts to pull away” complemented by backwards walking (to the left). His movement makes it seem as though the stage is moving off to the right. [1:02]
• Displeasure. “I would have cursed my bad luck…” complemented by stomping around on stage and “sour puss” facial features. [1:09]
• Recalling a memory. “Big deal. It’s just a pair of sandals.” complemented by a gesture to the stage location where the sandals were removed earlier. [2:15]
• Bravery. “I jumped on the loudspeaker” complemented by a lateral jump to the left. [3:50]
• (Lack of) Physical fitness. “Well, actually, I climbed on the loudspeaker” complemented by cradling his stomach. [3:55]
• Yelling. Waving arms above his head. [4:00]
• Slow motion. Compare the waving of arms @ 4:15 to the earlier waving of arms @ 4:00. The latter gesture is much slower. This contrast shows that that latter waves were more deliberate, more heartfelt.
• Drum vibrations. Tapping of foot on stage to mimic the beating of a drum was masterful. [4:22]
• Sign language. “We love you too.” complemented by sign language. This is far more effective than simply saying “They signed back that they loved me too” without actions. [4:50]
• Nervous and confused. “Boy! Was I nervous! My heart was pounding…” complemented by various nervous gestures. [5:21]

Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this speech? What did you like most? How could this presentation be enhanced? Was the evaluation fair? Did I miss anything?

Similar Articles You May Like...

• Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005)
• Video Critique: Al Gore (TED, 2006)
• Critique: Lessig Method Presentation Style (Dick Hardt, Identity 2.0, OSCON 2005)
• How can you inspire your audience? Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.
• 5 Presentation Lessons from Randy Pausch in The Last Lecture
• How to Speak: 7 Speaking Tips from Patrick Henry Winston

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

The style and content are very different from his Apple product launch presentations, but no less worthy of study.

Noteworthy elements of this wonderful speech include:

• strong opening;
• simple classical structure;
• the Rule of Three;
• rich figures of speech; and
• a recurring theme of birth/death/rebirth.

My suggestion is to:

1. Watch the video.
2. Read the analysis below.
3. If you like, read the full speech text to gain further insights.
4. Share your thoughts on this presentation. What did you like? What could have been done better?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Strong opening: Praise the audience and show some humility

Jobs opens with a compliment for the audience: “I am honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.” He follows that by showing humility in admitting that he never graduated college. In just a few sentences, he has made the audience feel very good about themselves, and increased their receptiveness to his message.

Conversational Style

Contrast “Steven Wozniak and I started Apple” with “Woz and I started Apple.”

• The former is formal, and invokes an image of two entrepreneurs who founded Apple.
• The latter is conversational, and invokes an image of two close friends. Jobs chooses a conversational style, and this is a wise choice. His audience is composed of college graduates for whom graduation often means diverging paths from their close friends.

Simple structure and sentences

Jobs adopts a simple and traditional structure. Opening >> Three stories >> Conclusion. He guides the audience through the 14.5 minutes with simple sentences.

• “Today I want to tell you three stories.“
• “The first story is about connecting the dots.“
• “My second story is about love and loss.“
• “My third story is about death.“

Pauses and Timing

Jobs executes effective pauses before and particularly after key points to allow the audience time to digest his points.

• For example, he concludes his first story with an apparent reference to Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken: “even when it leads you off the well-worn path… and that will make all the difference.” This is followed by a full six seconds of silence. (5:16 – 5:22)

This speech is littered with humour, but I felt the comedic delivery was a bit lacking. Perhaps this was intentional – was his goal to imitate an academic orator? Regardless, the timing was off on several punch lines.

• For example, consider his delivery of “I didn’t even know what a pancreas was.” (10:07) The line is delivered with only a hint of emphasis and barely any pausing before or after. I would have liked more. This is a particularly tense moment in the speech, and the audience would benefit from stress-relieving laughter.
• A minute and a half later, he does a better job of injecting humour in the midst of a serious point: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.” (11:40) The timing is better here.

Rule of Three

Jobs structures his speech around three main points, and he applies the Rule of Three in many sentences and paragraphs.

• “I learned [1] about serif and san serif typefaces, [2] about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, [3] about what makes great typography great.” (3:39)
• “It was [1] beautiful, [2] historical, [3] artistically subtle…” (3:47)
• “... [1] started a company named NeXT, [2] another company named Pixar, [3] and fell in love…” (7:16) Jobs follows this up with three sentences which demonstrate how each of those turned out great.
• “[1] all external expectations, [2] all pride, [3] all fear” (9:33)
• “[1] It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. [2] It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. [3] It means to say your goodbyes.” (10:28).
• “… [1] don’t waste it living someone else’s life. [2] Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. [3] Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” (12:18)

Several of those (marked in bold) are additionally examples of anaphora – repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.

Figures of Speech Abound

Jobs employs numerous figures of speech in his remarks.

• An antithesis (or antitheton) is a figure of speech using the juxtaposition of contrasting words, often in a parallel structure. Jobs uses several well-crafted examples:
  • “If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in…” (4:34)
  • “Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” (4:40)
  • “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again…” (7:05) Note also the alliteration of “being a beginner.”
  • “…Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.” (11:55)
• Parallelism (and another example of anaphora): “… that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school.” (1:38)
• Anadiplosis (repeating a phrase from the end of one sentence at the beginning of the next): “the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” (8:15) This example is effective, but rather loose due to the repetition of “the only way to.”
• Assonance (repetition of vowel sounds): “And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” (9:18)
• Repetition. In addition to the many examples highlighted previously, Jobs concludes his speech by repeating “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” three times. Repetition adds strength to key arguments, especially in a conclusion.

Recurring Commencement Themes: Birth, Death, and Rebirth

In a literal sense, Jobs talks about his birth in his first story, and about confronting death in his third story. However, this speech contains numerous other metaphorical references to these “circle of life” concepts:

• In addition to his physical birth, he relates how the original couple decided they wanted a girl (a symbolic “death” since his life with them was “snuffed out” due to gender). He then tells about how he experienced “rebirth” with his parents.
• His college career had a short “life.” The “death” of his formal academic career made way for the “birth” of his informal learning process.
• His relationship to Apple (in his 20’s) was “born”, grew, and then “died.” Later, when NeXT was purchased by Apple, his career at Apple is reborn.
• He uses the word “renaissance” (a rebirth or revival) to describe the current state of Apple.
• He receives the cancer diagnosis (a “death sentence”), but later is saved by an operation (a rebirth).
• The Whole Earth Catalog. Stewart Brand “brought it to life“, and “then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.”

Interspersed with these stories, Jobs repeatedly ties it back to his audience. This is particularly clear in the conclusion when he relates these metaphors to his college audience one last time with “as you graduate to begin anew.”

Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this speech? What did you like from a public speaking perspective? How could this presentation be enhanced?

Similar Articles You May Like...

• Video Critique: J.A. Gamache (Toastmasters, 2007)
• Video Critique: Al Gore (TED, 2006)
• Critique: Lessig Method Presentation Style (Dick Hardt, Identity 2.0, OSCON 2005)
• How can you inspire your audience? Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.
• 5 Presentation Lessons from Randy Pausch in The Last Lecture
• How to Speak: 7 Speaking Tips from Patrick Henry Winston

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

This was a fantastic presentation worthy of study. There is much to be learned from analyzing what Gore did well, and what he could have done better.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Humorous Opening Segment

The first six minutes of this sixteen-minute speech are devoted to establishing rapport with the audience. Gore does this with several humorous observations and stories.

Tamsen Salvador writes:

Whether you love him or hate him, Al Gore will make you laugh out loud. No kidding!

Kate Trgovac observes (and laments):

After a wry and witty bit of stand-up (Al, where was this passion, charisma and personality during the 2000 campaign?!?!), Gore got down to brass tacks.

Remarks like those from Kate are echoed often when people view this video. Let’s take a closer look at the techniques employed by Gore in this opening segment.

• By my count, he gets nineteen laughs from the audience during this time (@ 0:54, 1:01, 1:11, 1:17, 1:30, 1:54, 2:00, 2:12, 2:18, 2:55, 3:02, 3:12, 4:27, 5:05, 5:11, 5:22, 5:26, 5:37, 5:48).
• Primarily self-depracating humour. Not only is this form of humour generally safe, but this humanizes Gore effectively.
• Storytelling! I love it.
• Lots of smiles.
• Delivery and comedic timing is superb.
• Vocal variety is fantastic in several impersonations:
  • Restaurant customer: “He’s come down a long way…”
  • Man on runway: “Call Washington! Call Washington!”
  • News reporter voice.
  • Bill Clinton: “Congratulations…”
• Gore is holding the slide remote during this entire opening sequence, despite not using it once. Why? Holding objects (e.g. remotes, pens, papers, props) can limit mobility to use arm gestures, so he would have been better off picking up the remote only when he needed to use it.

The Fifteen Call-to-Action Slides

A set of 15 text slides forms the core of the presentation. The text of these slides is reproduced here (coloring inspired by Ferry Simatupang):

1. Reduce emissions from your home energy use (better design, insulation, green electricity)
2. Reduce emissions from your car and other transportation (buy a hybrid, light rail, carpool, biking)
3. Buy the most energy-efficient appliances and other products. Be a green consumer.
4. Live a “carbon neutral” life. It’s easier than you think. Reduce; then offset the rest.
5. To find out how, go to: www.climatecrisis.net Use the carbon calculator.
6. Then make your BUSINESS Carbon Neutral. (It’s not as hard as you think.)
7. Then, whether you work in the T, E, or D — INTEGRATE climate solutions into all your innovations.
8. Invest sustainably — in companies and funds that are part of the solution.
9. Become a catalyst for change in your community. Teach others about the Climate Crisis.
10. Raise awareness by promoting “An Inconvenient Truth” in your community.
11. Send someone to Nashville who can learn how to give my slide show in your community.
12. Become politically active – Speak up! Contact your elected officials! Make our Democracy work!
13. Urge the U.S. to join the rest of the world community in capping and trading carbon emissions.
14. Help with the mass persuasion campaign when it is launched this Spring.
15. Let’s call it the “Climate Crisis” It really is a “Planetary Emergency”

Highlight colors. What is the symbolism for the use of green and red here? I cannot figure it out. I thought perhaps green was going to indicate environment friendly phrases, and red the opposite. But, that relationship isn’t used consistently. I think it would have been better to stick to one highlight color.

Text-only slides. This presentation follows one that Gore gave to the same audience earlier in the conference which was highly visual, so I suppose it balances out. Still, audiences prefer more visuals and less reading from the slides.

Tornado slide transition effect. Why was the bizarre swirling effect used to lead into each of the 15 main slides? Perhaps the letters magically falling into place is a metaphor to show how some complex theories are leading to some simple actions? It’s possible, but that isn’t the impression I had.

A better alternative? He’s trying to convince the audience that there are very simple actions they can take. Yet, there’s this complex set of letters flying around the screen that looks anything but simple. A simple appear or wipe effect would have been cleaner.

“Teach others. Learn about it. Talk about it.” (Slide 9) I particularly liked this slide. Simple and effective. A clear call-to-action within a set of calls-to-action.

Audience Awareness and Interaction

T, E, and D. Slide 7 directly references the Technology, Entertainment, and Design groups in the audience. The best presentations are customized for the audience, and Gore demonstrates this.

Ask for Help. Gore asks for help twice from “those of you who are good at branding.” Techniques like this help create a conversation rather than a presentation.

Contextual Ad-libbing. Gore refers to Larry Lessig and other speakers from the conference. This reinforces that he’s not just giving a speech. He is part of the shared experience (the conference) just as he hopes the audience will be part of the shared solution (climate).

Asking a Question with Purpose. Gore asks: “How many people here serve on the Board of Directors of a corporation?” (14:20) Many hands go up. This is textbook audience interaction, but many speakers stop there. Instead, a few seconds later (14:25), he follows up with: “You will have legal liability if you do not urge your CEO…” The emphasis here on you is made more powerful with the earlier question which prompted many audience members to raise their hands. (i.e. “Oh, I raised my hand… when he says YOU, he must mean ME.”)

Other Observations

Unnecessarily complex language. Recapitulate is the only one I caught. Gore otherwise uses fairly simple, easily understood language.

“Killer app.” (8:45) “CCS is going to become the killer app” Is this phrase mainstream? Or is this more readily understood in technology circles? I liked it, but I have a technical background. It might not be as effective in other audiences.

Failed humour. (7:05): “I know that you wanted some more bad news about the environment.” It seems like he’s looking for laughs here, but doesn’t get any. He also doesn’t get a laugh on his follow-up line: “I’m kidding”. It was reassuring to know that his humour wasn’t all perfect. He demonstrates good technique by not dwelling on the failed joke. He just moves on.

Inconsistent phrases. He uses “It is easier than you think” and then later “It’s not as hard as you think.” Consistency would be better, considering this phrase is one of the key take-home messages from his presentation.

Left hand in his pocket. I suppose one could argue that this adds to a very conversational style. Nonetheless, I don’t like it because if his hand is in his pocket, then it isn’t readily available to punctuate his words with gestures.

Not political? (15:47) “This is not a political issue… We are one.” I agree that it isn’t political, but Gore’s words and gestures are sending mixed messages.

• He gestures to the audience’s right when he refers to Republicans. He gestures left for Democrats. When you’re trying to take politics out of it, perhaps it is better not to reinforce this left-right polarity?
• Earlier in his opening, he takes a crack at the current Republican administration: “What in the world could be wrong in Washington. [pause] I remembered it could be a bunch of things.” If he truly wants to remove the politics from the situation (and I believe he does), partisan jokes should be removed. He’s clearly capable of delivering humour which is safer.

Repetition makes for memorable phrases. (~11:44). “People do what you pay them to do.” Great line, with repetition of “do“. This is followed shortly by: “…based on the short term returns, you’re going to get short term decisions.” Again, repetition of words “short term ” makes for a memorable phrase. Great energy in this segment.

Oops. (14:41) “The market will work to solve this problem” (turn to screen, pause, then turn back to audience) “… if… if we can accomplish this.” The slight glitch in delivery here weakened this point. I’m glad I’m not the only one to botch lines once in a while.

Emotional peak. (~14:50) The segment ending with “we have to buy a lot of those ads” felt like the emotional peak of the presentation. Gore is emphatic with his voice, his facial expressions, and his gestures. I loved the emotion in this segment.

Other Opinions

Loïc Le Meur:

Al Gore gave a mind blowing speech…

Bruno Guissani:

It shows both the “old” Gore – lecturing us about global warming with depth of knowledge and intensity – as well as the “new” Gore that many seem to have discovered only recently – funny and passionate and convincingly authentic.

Finally, here is just one of many comments from TED participants, many who witnessed the presentation live. [If you ever doubt what effect one presentation lasting 16 minutes can have, read all of these comments.]

My wife and I came to TED uncertain about Al Gore and not thrilled to hear him. He seemed fake to us in the national political election he had gone through. His presentation profoundly changed our view of him even more than his message. We bought the messages. We did not buy the message presenter. At TED, he gave a sense of his humor, three-dimensionality, commitment to the cause, ability to criticize himself. We left with a positive attitude toward him and a commitment to help. — David and Heidi Hoffman

Similar Articles You May Like...

• Video Critique: J.A. Gamache (Toastmasters, 2007)
• Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005)
• Critique: Lessig Method Presentation Style (Dick Hardt, Identity 2.0, OSCON 2005)
• Video Critique: Majora Carter – Greening the Ghetto (TED 2006)
• Six Simple Techniques for Presenting Data: Hans Rosling (TED, 2006)
• How can you inspire your audience? Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

I recently returned to the presentation with a more critical view.

• Was the presentation really that good?
• Was it the style, the substance, or both?
• More importantly, what can we, as presenters, learn from it?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Style, Substance, or Both?

Hardt’s talk uses the Lessig Method or Lessig Presentation style. (Hardt credits Lawrence Lessig on his last slide.) In fact, this talk has often been cited (example1, example2) as one of the more noteworthy examples of the Lessig Method of presentation. Lessig himself comments on the presentation:

Dick Hardt is brilliant. Watch (and copy) the style.

The Lessig style is certainly the first thing one notices about this presentation. Martin Davidsson writes:

It’s hard to not pay attention to this style of presentation.

I would go one step further and suggest that it is hard to pay attention to anything other than the style of presentation.

Does the style of presentation overwhelm the message, or is the message effectively conveyed? Tony MacDonell argues the latter:

I … was totally impressed by the clarity of his presentation in comparison to most web 2.0 discussions that are generally vague.

I agree with Tony on this point. I doubt that Hardt’s goal is to do a spectacular job of illustrating the “Lessig Method”. His chief motivation is to deliver his pitch, and he has done this very well.

Aside from the Lessig Presentation Method which frames this talk, Hardt has employed numerous techniques which contribute to a strong presentation.

Speech Opening

Opening “Who am I?” segment. Rather than seeming like a “let me quickly introduce myself so that I can get on with my real talk”, the introductory “Who am I?” segment is core to the presentation (after all, this is a talk about identity) and is consistent with the presentation style used throughout.

“if you don’t know Dick” (00:56) – This is a reference to Hardt’s past successes. ActiveState, a company he founded, used a catchy marketing slogan – “If you don’t know Perl, you don’t know Dick” This is a subtle reference, perhaps too subtle. However, the live audience for this talk was likely quite familiar with the reference, so he gets a pass. He makes another reference to this phrase at 14:54.

Lots of Humour

He gets plenty of laughs at 1:18, 1:52, 2:22, 2:50, 3:20, 6:14, 6:26, 8:00, 11:00, and 12:32, and there are other funny bits as well. There is even some “hidden” humour, such as the pictures of Mona Lisa and Lady Diana in the photo ID at 3:00.

Keeping the Big Picture In Mind

Know (and identify with) your audience. Hardt cycles through books, magazines, and movies which he enjoys (at 2:24). This is not filler. Since it is likely his audience shares these likes with him, the implicit message is: “Hey, I’m just like one of you.” This message is made even more powerful when he follows up with the Porsche logo. “Join my Identity 2.0 crusade… we will all drive cars like this together.” Later in the presentation, the words “Simple and open wins” are used; again, this ties in with his the majority view of his audience.

Know the context of your presentation. The lightweight identity reference (13:08) was essentially a negative one (translation: “It’s lightweight. My solution is better”), but Hardt was aware that this concept was being presented later in the day at the same conference. He mentions this, and I think he threw in the conciliatory “it solves part of the problem” on-the-fly to avoid appearing like he is stomping on a fellow presenter. This is a savvy move!

Know your marketing needs. “Sxip is pronounced as in ’skip.’” (14:09) Hardt is a pro at marketing and branding. He doesn’t need me to tell him how important it is for people to know the correct pronunciation of your (or your company’s) name. Further, Hardt understands that this presentation needs to be audience- and message-focused, so he keeps references to his own company minimal.

Repetition

“Trust”. This word appears over and over again in the presentation slides, at 2:45, 2:54, 3:20, 3:40, 4:27, 5:11, 6:06, 6:31, and 10:14. Does this imply that Hardt is trustworthy? That his digital identity solution can be trusted? Either way, it’s a win for him.

More repetition. Several words/phrases/slides are repeated in this talk. For example, “I was Canadian, I live here, I went to UBC, and I’m over 21.” (3:05) The words and slides are a repeat of those used previously. They are repeated again at 6:39 and 14:38. The British Columbia flag is repeated numerous times as well. Mental strain is a risk when you thrust hundreds of slides on an audience in fifteen minutes. By repeating images/words previously used, Hardt lessens this strain.

Lessig Techniques

Honor by Association. In the sequence where Hardt mentions Sxip (and its pronunciation), the previous three slides are industry heavyweights: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Although his words are not saying “We are great just like them”, this sequence of slides creates this impression in the mind of the audience. “Honor by association” can be suggested with the rapid-fire Lessig method.

Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. One of the chief benefits of the Lessig Method is that each slide contains just a single word/phrase/picture idea. Even within this format, Hardt further simplifies his images by using highlighting to point to the parts of the image which are important (4:21 and 4:34). Later (at 8:25), he simplifies a very simple image by introducing it in three stages.

Use of contrast. Most of the words in the presentation are presented in black text on a white background. Starting with “directory entry, Identity 1.0, …” (6:26), several phrases are presented as white text on a black background. This formatting is used again at 7:05, 7:13, 7:18, 7:20, 7:42, 8:07, 14:48, and 14:51. The bad, different, or old ideas are clearly distinguished from the others in the talk.

Summary of presentation chunks

At 5:20, a summary of the talk so far is given before moving on to the next topic. This divides the talk between “what you already know” and “what new things I’m going to tell you”.

Analogies Abound

The primary analogy between “real world identity” (photo ID) and digital identity is key. The talk hinges on this. But other analogies are used as well (e.g. DOS/Windows vs Identity 1/2) to enhance the understandability of the message.

Room for Improvement

The presentation wasn’t perfect. For example:

• I found the logic lacking around 9:30-10:00, and in a few other places.
• The use of XML to itemize points at 10:51 is odd. I know that his live audience will all recognize this as XML, but why use it? It seems gratuitous.
• Contrary to the very effective use of white text on black (as noted above), I am confused by the use of white text on blue for “Kim Cameron’s Identity Weblog” (12:47). This is the only white-on-blue usage in the slides.
• “But” is presented at various times with italics or bolding or red color. Why the mixed bag of formats? I found it a bit distracting, so I think it would be better to stick with consistent formatting of “but.”

Comments from Reviewers

Nonetheless, the strengths of this presentation far outweigh the weaknesses. There’s no wonder that it has received such high praise from many reviewers.

Alex Barnett:

First class

The You Blog:

It’s a tour-de-force.

Noah Campbell:

a great example of an engaging presentation style that keeps your attention for 15 minutes. …any longer and I would have been exhausted.

Elizabeth Lane Lawley:

Wow.

Now that’s a good presentation. Visually effective, great style, good enough to survive transformation into a low-bitrate streaming presentation.

Knowhr.com lists the Identity 2.0 talk as one of the the Top 10 Best Presentations Ever (alongside Dr. Martin Luther King) :

Hardt’s preparation and energy sets the standard for presentation quality. He uses hundreds of slides in this 20-minute, high buzz work. Heck, I didn’t even care about virtual identity and still watched this one five or six times. It has a chance of becoming my presentation Dirty Dancing (which I’ve seen 100 times), where “nobody puts baby in the corner.”

Finally, several user comments from del.icio.us:

One of the nicest presentations I’ve ever seen. A must-see for anyone who ever does any presentations (that is – for pretty much everyone). — taw

I bookmarked this as a great example of the “Lessig” presentation style. Dick has made this quite an art. — Rolias

Dick Hardt gives the best presentation ever. Wow! – frankroche

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Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.