When communicating with people in The Netherlands, one of the easiest ways to get in dutch is to refer to their country as Holland. North and South Holland are just two of the 12 provinces in The Netherlands. Calling the whole country Holland is like referring to the United Kingdom (or Great Britain) as England. (For that matter, it’s like referring to the United States as America when you are speaking to Canadians.)
These are just a couple of small examples of the kind of idiomatic and cultural knowledge it is increasingly important to have, whether writing a speech, an article, a report or any other communications tool aimed at reaching a foreign audience. Read
As the 1972 election campaignwas approaching, strategists for President Richard Nixon had a problem. They wanted to announce the formation of a re-election committee. But there had been some question raised in the media about whether Vice-President Spiro Agnew would be on the ticket. They couldn’t call it “Citizens for Nixon-Agnew” because that would pre-empt the President’s decision. And they couldn’t call it “Citizens for Nixon” because that might appear to be throwing Agnew under the bus. They turned to the resident master of language, William Safire, who was then writing speeches for the President. His suggestion? “Committee to Re-elect the President.” Read
Perhaps the most important aspect of writing a speech is crafting a clear message. The goal of a speech isn’t to impress people with how well you can write — it’s to get across the point you are trying to make. But what is the key message? Frequently there are several. Which one do you really want to focus attention on? Which message do you want to build the most quotable soundbite around; which point do you want to build up to, and build the speech around? Read
Some people think that speaker training is all about loading the trainee with gestures, pauses, and all the elements of stage acting. Wrong.
More than anything else, speaker training is about getting the speaker so comfortable with a text that his or her enthusiasm for the subject and natural charm can come out.
Most business people are very good extemporaneous speakers, a skill that requires a fast mind and a heightened sensitivity to the audience. On the other hand, speaking from a text requires practice, practice, practice — practice until the text is so familiar that the speaker can stop thinking about the next word or sentence and start thinking about the idea being put across or the sale being made.
The first task in speaker training is getting the speaker to where he (or she) is prepared to make that connection with the audience.
One of the tricks of effective writing is coining memorable phrases. Soundbites. Here are some tips:
Names: Think of the New Deal, the Iron Curtain, the Evil Empire. By giving your idea or initiative a name, you give people something to remember.
Images and Metaphors: Look at those names again. ”New Deal” and “Iron Curtain” each incorporated an image and metaphor into the name. People are more likely to remember words the conjure a vision in their imaginations than an abstraction.
Popular Culture: ”Evil Empire” was a reference to Star Wars, which had recently been released at the time Ronald Reagan slapped the name on the Soviet Union. People are also more likely to remember references to popular culture if only because they know popular culture so well.
There is nothing magical about crafting language that is memorable. The trick is having ideas and arguments that are worth remembering.
Company X has a problem. Their Leader–recognized as trend-setting, dynamo by people in the upper-ranks of his industry–can come across as wooden, even defensive, when making a presentation before large audiences.
This Leader will soon be facing a very large and critical audience–the global meeting of the major investors in his company’s far-flung empire. The case has to be made that these investors need to reach into their pockets and pony-up for a fresh wave of modernization. To make this case, the Leader needs to get off the operational details and shift the thinking of his stakeholders to see startling possibilities.
He needs to be spellbinding. But he isn’t. Read
It’s remarkable that 40 years ago – as the Beatles sold countless singles about the call for revolution in government, culture, and consciousness – a communications revolution transpired and transformed our world in ways the counter-culture could have never dreamed.
As the WHWG unveils its new website, we want to acknowledge the Internet’s recent birthday and four decades of online communication. It’s a tribute to how thoroughly this technology has transformed our lives that most of us don’t think twice about instant communication with dozens, thousands, even millions of people across the globe. Read