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TED

5 Elements of a Great TED Talk

by Daria Steigman on March 18, 2013

How to Deliver a TED TalkI was watching this amazing TED talk about turning food deserts into food oases. Ten minutes later I was ready to pick up a shovel and dig. And I don’t enjoy gardening.

So what makes for a great speech?

In How to Deliver a TED Talk, author Jeremey Donovan dissects what makes these short missives some of the world’s most watched and “most inspiring” presentations. The book identifies the 10 TED Commandments (e.g., don’t sell from the stage, don’t trot out “thy usual shtick,” and “reveal thy curiosity and thy passion”) and offers a terrific roadmap for creating and delivering quality presentations.

Among Donovan’s advice:

  1. Begin with the end in mind, and have a clear idea of your central idea. Donovan writes that “laser focus on a single concept will give a fine mesh filter for editing your material.”
  2. Have a catchphrase. The author advises that the best catchphrases are short and include a call to action. Think “Yes We Can” or “If it Doesn’t Fit, You Must Acquit.”
  3. Avoid intro buzzkill. Donovan points out that nothing sets a speaker up for misery more than a poor introduction. Not your intro, but the person introducing you. (People who stand up and just read verbatim from speaker bios drive me crazy.) The author writes that “constructive introductions are limited in scope to information that ties to the speaker’s central unifying idea.” Could we adopt this rule, please?
  4. Open strong to hook your audience. The best openings? A personal story,  a shocking statement, or a powerful question.
  5. Reiterate the “why.” Donovan points out that your conclusion is your “final opportunity to inspire your audience to change their perspective or call them to action.” He highlights several ways to accomplish this, including shortening your sentences  and giving your audience an easy way they can take that next step.

The strength of How to Deliver a TED Talk is its simplicity. Like the best TED talks, it is filled with stories (in this case examples from various presentations) that illustrate how to spread your ideas with grace and eloquence. In addition, the author ends with a call to practice and prepare to be a great speaker. Whether you’re preparing for your first presentation or looking for ways to elevate your effectiveness, this book is filled with advice and “ideas worth spreading.”

What speaker “best practices” would you add?

*Disclosure: I received a free copy of How to Deliver a TED Talk in exchange for agreeing to review it–but without any restrictions on what I might say.

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Don’t Discount Your “Duh” Moments

by Daria Steigman on March 13, 2012

A framed "duh." Seriously.I listened to the TED talk. I sat through a Webinar on the topic. And, last week, I finally read Drive, a book that’s been sitting on my shelf for a while.

In Drive, author Daniel Pink examines the research and concludes that business has it all wrong when it comes to motivating employees. The bottom line: money doesn’t buy you happiness. The better motivators (assuming an appropriate salary and benefits package, of course) are autonomy, mastery, and a sense of purpose. So companies that want to get the best out of their employees long term need to think about how to reward them differently.

For me, this is a “duh.” It took me over a year to read the book because “the surprising truth about what motivates us” isn’t surprising at all. I’ve been arguing the same thing ever since I was in graduate school.

Your “duh” moments are your expertise.

When I first argued that money wasn’t a job “satisfier” in that personnel class, I had no idea that this was a heretical business idea. I just knew that dollars don’t equate to happy, motivated, productive workers.

I wasn’t interested in a career in human resources, so I stood my ground in class and then moved on. But it has clearly continued to irk me–which is why I wrote Can Money Buy Workplace Happiness? in the first place.

And that’s the point: Don’t discount the stuff that’s easy or intuitive to you. It just might be a teachable moment for someone else.

Have you ever discounted a “duh” moment? What did you learn from it?

PS: If you haven’t read Drive, read it. While it might be obvious to me, most companies are a long way from aligning their incentives to what really motivates employees. Pink’s a good writer, and the book is an easy read that provides a lot of food for thought.

Photo by Sarah Deer (Flickr).

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Using Smart Design to Decode the Data

by Daria Steigman on November 30, 2010

We’re swimming in data, but are we mining it intelligently?

David McCandless is a “data journalist,” and he has spent a lot of time thinking about how to sort through data and make the information relevant. In this TED talk, McCandless talks about data in a connected world, and how knowledge compression and smart infographics can help us put information to good use.

Hat tip to Tim Berry, who tipped me off to this video.

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