Sir Ken Robinson is a great public speaker. He is engaging, passionate and funny and communicates his message in a way his audience will understand.
In his latest TED Talk at the 2013 TED Education event. All his communication skills were on show. So, in celebration of this great speaker, here are five tips we can all learn from Sir Ken Robinson’s presentation.
1/ TELL STORIES THAT PEOPLE CAN RELATE TO.
We all know by now that telling stories in your presentation is a key component of a great presentation, but these stories need to relate to both your audience and your theme. It is no good telling a story about travelling to the Far East, when your presentation theme is not on a topic related to travelling. Likewise, telling stories about something your audience cannot imagine or understand is not going to work. So tell stories that your audience can relate to, for example telling a story about when you were a child in school, or when you were a salesperson and how you got a difficult sale.
2/ DON’T USE A SCRIPT
What helps to make Sir Ken’s presentations so compelling is the fact he is not speaking from a script. Scripts make you sound robotic. Even the best actors find it difficult to sound natural when they use a script. Instead use notes with keywords and phrases that will help you to refresh your mind if you lose your way, and make sure you know what you are talking about. Practice standing up in a room with just your notes and imagine yourself giving your presentation to an audience.
3/ SLOW DOWN YOUR SPEECH ON IMPORTANT POINTS.
Sir Ken Robinson is a native English speaker but many in the audience are not. Whenever he gets to an important point, his speech noticeably slows down. This has extra importance as he is not using slides. As a non-native English speaker slowing down the speed at which you speak will greatly help your pronunciation and the clarity of your message.
4 / BE CONVERSATIONAL
I think one of the reasons Sir Ken Robinson’s presentations have prove so popular on TED is the way he speaks to his audience. It is not about telling the audience about facts and figures, it is about engaging his audience in a kind of conversation. Questions such as “am I right?” and “you know what I’m talking about, yes?” these phrases always makes your presentation more conversational because they involve your audience in the conversation, not directly, but in a way that has your audience nodding their heads in agreement.
5 / LOOK AT YOUR AUDIENCE
One of the advantages of not using slides in a presentation is that the audience’s attention is on you. And a presentation, done correctly, should always be about the message and the presenter. however, this can bring along its own unique difficulties. Because the audience’s attention will be on you, you need to make sure you are looking at your audience, talking to them and involving them with your body language. Don’t focus on just one part of the room, make sure you look at all parts of the room, from the front to the back and from the left to the right.
So there you are. That’s my take on Sir Ken Robinson’s latest TED talk. A valuable lesson in communicating an idea we can all learn from.
