MAKING YOUR POINT

I read about an American Evangelist whose sermon went something like this:

“Shockingly not many of you will realise just how many thousands of children are dying of starvation in Africa as I speak. And you know most people don’t give a shit about it. But what’s even more shocking is that most of you will be more shocked by my using a four letter word than by the death of countless African children a long way away.”

Now that’s impact. That’s the oratorical skill of twisting your audience round your finger. In short that’s magic.

Nick Fitzherbert who wrote “Presentation Magic” is himself a magician.  He tells us to understand what excites the human mind and then working within those limitations turn them to your advantage.

I saw this happen recently when the CEO of a large company strolled across the stage musing his philosophy, values and strategy. It had the electric effect of David Cameron’s speech which won him leadership of the Tory party – without notes and without inhibitions. A magical exposition of his truth. As someone once said about the truth – “the great thing about it is you don’t have to remember what you were going to say”.

The trouble with what Nick says is what excites the human mind today is not necessarily what excited it when I was younger. Now technology is a turn-on like cars used to be. Reach in your pocket, pull out the Samsung Galaxy S4 and it might as well be a Porsche Carrera that you have in your hand.

Similarly people in presentations nowadays call for new techniques and technology like Prezi, the presentational equivalent of the fairground ride called “Mind Scrambler”… put your strategy on the screen then ….spin it…split it….zoom it….explode it and mash it into technicolour fragments revolving fast. Yes, it has movement and pace that bullet points will never have but it also makes the squeamish feel rather nauseous.

It’s the PowerPoint bullet point that’s done for old style presentations. It’s why people want a change.
Some feel old style books need uplifting too.

Here’s a section from Tom Wolfe’s latest - “Back to Blood”.
…..”BEAT thung … BEAT thung… scritch … scritch …SCRITCH… uohhh!”
Tom actually creates sound effects on the page….but if what around it wasn’t a riveting read then none of this would matter.

Making your point is only possible if you actually have a point to make. No amount of technique can substitute for content.

Make sure you have a real story and then (and only then) go for impact recognising the greatest impact always comes when there’s a splash of colour and a bit of a surprise.

Ask any magician.

www.colourfulthinkers.com