To have a presentation that’s easy to follow and easy to understand-which should be any speaker’s objective-there needs to be a clear sense of organization. The beauty of a well-organized talk is it not only helps the audience follow along and stay with you, but it also helps you stay on track and not lose your train of thought.
The simplest, yet most powerful, tool for organizing and delivering your thoughts logically and coherently is the “talk template.”
Here’s an outline and explanation of the elements of the template. Note it’s divided into three parts. But it’s not three equal parts. Like the famous sandwich of the comic strip character Dagwood, all the meat is in the middle. The intro and conclusion serve to hold it all together, to add a little flavor and interest, but the body is the meat of your talk-it’s what you’ve got to say.
I. INTRODUCTION: The introduction sets the stage, establishes your credibility, gets your momentum going, and makes the audience want to listen to you. Two components:
A. Hook: get the audience’s attention. Reel ‘em in. A great hook will make the audience take notice and want to listen to you. Possible hooks include: an anecdote, story, prop or visual, question, quotation, startling statement.
B. Reason to Listen: Tell the audience how they’ll benefit from your talk. How will it will make them happier, safer, more successful, make their jobs easier, make their wallets thicker?
II. BODY: This is the meat of your talk. Here is where you present your main ideas in a logical order and explain and elaborate on each point as much as your time limit allows. It’s composed of:
A. Road Map: Just as a map on a road trip helps you know where you’re going, a road map for your talk lets the audience know where you’re going to take them. It makes it easier for them to follow along. This is the same thing as the classic speech adage, “Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em.”
B. Main Points: Identify your main ideas-usually about three to five-and chose the most logical way to order them.
- Topical-your main points are arranged by particular topics.
- Chronological-your main points follow a natural sequential flow, such explaining a recipe.
- Spatial-your points are arranged according to geography, such as reports about the North, South, East and West divisions; or a description of a room, a building, a city.
- Problem-Solution-you explain the problem you encountered, then describe how you solved (or propose to solve) it.
III. CONCLUSION: The ending of your talk is important because it’s your last chance to make a good impression. To be effective, it should have two elements, plus note how the Q&A is inserted:
- Summary: bring it all home, wrap it all up, deliver one final gem that embodies the essence of what you’ve said.
- Q&A. In order preserve the impact of your close, consider opening the floor for questions before you deliver your closing. After your Q&A session, you deliver your closing statement.
- Closing: bring the talk to a definitive and memorable end. You can use the same tools in closing as in your hook: an anecdote, story, prop or visual, quotation.
A final thought about your template. Don’t write it out word for word. Instead, outline it with key words and bullet points-enough to keep you on track, but not so much that you feel the need to read them. This will enable you to be conversational and natural, a great attribute of a compelling speaker.