One of the most frequent complaints I hear from meeting organizers, audiences, and even speakers is that speeches and presentations are too complex. Too much data. Too many examples. Too much visual content. And not nearly enough audience-centric organization.
Here's a fundamental fact. Content developers have the script in front of them. Audiences don't. They have to make sense of it on the fly. They're stringing together your ideas like beads on a string -- in real time.
Make it really easy for them. Keep your overall structure simple. Stick with simple, narrative flow. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. And then tell them what you've told them.
Be repetitive. During speech development, I've heard clients say that repetition smacks of dumbing down the content. This is true if your audience is made up of people with IQs higher than 180 who are listening to every word you say. You wish.
Keep sentences short. Keep them simple. Compound sentences and subordinate clauses are dangerous. They're like giving your audience too many idea beads at one time. They're going to drop some of them. Establish your terms and then stick with them. Using different words to talk about the same idea just confuses your audience.
Give your audience signposts. "Today I'll talk about three reasons why globalization is inevitable." All through the speech, give them mile markers. "Now that we've looked at how globalization levels the playing field, I want to talk about how it can also give you enormous competitive advantage."
Make it very easy for the audience to string together your idea beads. When they get overwhelmed or lost, they check out.
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