Why Some Speakers and their Ideas are Riveting

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

— Pres. Kennedy, May 25, 1961

President Kennedy communicated an exciting idea to “put a man on the moon in the decade”.  In their book 2007 Made to Stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath dissected the structure of communication behind a famous speech.  This is what they found.

1.    Simple A single, clear mission.

2.    Unexpected A man on the moon? It seemed like science fiction at the time.

3.    Concrete Success was defined so clearly—no one could quibble about man, moon, or decade.

4.    Credible This was the President of the U.S. talking.

5.    Emotional It appealed to the aspirations and pioneering instincts of an entire nation.

6.    Story An astronaut overcomes great obstacles to achieve an amazing goal.

It may not be possible to do all of these every time you communicate.  What do great communicators do that help them along this path?

How can each of us use these components?  Let’s take a look.

 

My husband, John Hofmeister, communicates in much the same way.  His speech on Energy Security in 2007 was the speech of the month in Vital Speeches.  Here is what it has. Have a look at the speech to see how he did it.

 

1.    Simple The good news and bad news about available energy in the US

2.    Unexpected It was a story about energy abundance around us.

3.    Concrete Described energy in real-life terms like pulverized coal turned into a talcum powder consistency for clean coal.

4.   Credible This was the President of Shell Oil talking.

5.   Emotional The speech referred to the devastating hurricanes Katrina and Rita and how they had strained our nation’s energy supply.

6.   Story An oil company executive asked for help after the hurricanes cut off supply of gas from the Gulf of Mexico; divine intervention made it work at the last minute.