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Best Practices To Organize A Speech

What are the best practices to organize a speech or presentation?

Just 4 minutes into Brady’s presentation and I could see the audience eyeballs swimming in circles. In that short span of time, he shared a story, offered content with statistics, a call to action and introduced his organization. His ideas were flying like a pinball machine – going here and there in lightening speed.Worst Result? A lost audience.

 

What’s the solution?

As a speaker consider yourself a tour guide. You have a map to follow. A well-organized speech invites an audience to fully immerse in your content with little effort on their part. You create this flow by being deliberate and clear about the architecture of your speech.But what are the building blocks and how do you stack them together?

That depends on your…

  • Objective or purpose for the talk
  • Your audience
  • Time limitations

Samantha starts with a quote. Ted opens with a riveting statistic. Aubrey’s call to action is right upfront and Rick’s is at the end. Melinda weaves a story in and out of her main content and Cheryl’s time allotment doesn’t allow for Q & A.

There’s no “correct formula” for organizing a speech.
And – this is very important!
 

BE DELIBERATE ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION

Let’s look at a couple of examples…..

This template map is the most common to follow as many speakers
often offer 3 main points of content.

Notice the Q&A is not the last stop on your tour. Regain control of your presentation and give a resounding closing.

_______________________________

In this model, you interweave story and content.

The story humanizes the content and the content illustrates the story in grounded in tangible action and strategy.
 

Using a map or template format, you’ll discover greater ease in organizing your ideas and your audience will appreciate your clarity.

Best results?  An audience that leaves feeling nourished, informed and inspired and perceiving you as a true leader.