Storytelling goes far beyond simply telling an amusing story and then moving on with the rest of the day’s happenings. At Speech Republic, we believe that the most powerful tool for creating lasting change and connection is at our fingertips; it’s your stories that make the difference.

How can you stop content dumping and really start using storytelling as a powerful tool for your business or organization? Let’s take a look:

Storytelling means making a difference
Storytelling has nothing to do with what you do with your hands or how high or low your voice sounds. Impactful storytelling is based on three fundamental elements.

• Are you showing who you are? (more ME)
• Are you really saying something that matters? (More SOMETHING)
• Does your message reflect the world of your audience? (More YOU)

The moment you can answer these three questions with a resounding “Yes,” the likelihood of impact is high.

It is as simple as: Let ME tell YOU SOMETHING!

Three tips for using both personal storytelling and visual storytelling as powerful tools:

1. Know where you want to go
We’ve all heard it before; a story that describes every detail and and that makes you secretly wonder, “ What’s the point?!.” As a storyteller you can share the most wonderful personal stories, statistics or visuals, but if you don’t know where you want to go with your story, chances are that you’ll end up content dumping.

So: Think clearly about the difference you want to make with your story and make sure you can capture your message in a call to action of about ten seconds. Because: ‘If you can’t say it in ten seconds, you can’t say it in ten hours.’

‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably not gonna get there.’-
– Forrest Gump

2. Harness the power of conflict
What does every bestseller, every Hollywood blockbuster, every Disney movie and therefore every good story have in it that makes everyone willing to spend their precious time on it: Conflict. A James Bond movie would never be a success if 007 had no enemy to fight, and Little Red Riding Hood would never have become a hit if Little Red Riding Hood had not encountered the Wolf. In short: Every story thrives on a healthy dose of conflict. Take a cue from the way Disney does storytelling and, as a speaker, name what you are fighting against and what is the hang-up that no one dares to name.

3. Take your audience through an experience
Have you ever been on a roller coaster? Now imagine that you are listening to a technical story about its construction process. You’ll likely sit and listen for a few seconds, but you won’t (re)live the experience of the actual rollercoaster ride. As a speaker, marketeer and communicator, you have the power of the (spoken)word to take your audience on a journey. What would it mean for your Brand’s Storytelling if you could communicate from the perspective of being ‘in it’ and not just talking ‘about it.’

Don’t just stick to facts, figures and other Left Brain information but leverage the fact that the human brain can actually experience. How will your clients experience your new strategy in the real world? How will your employees experience a ‘new way of working’ both now and a year from now? What does risk management mean in daily practice for your stakeholders? Take your audience on a sensory experience. You can read how to do just that in our blog ‘the power of details’.

Make it personal; show your passion.
‘Why are you even telling me this? That’s the question a speaker, marketeer or team leader should ask themselves more often. After all, to connect with your audience, you need to show them who you are. That you’re not “just another suit.” So: Ask yourself this question, five times; “Why am I telling you this? You’ll see that you’ll start to drill down to the core of your story. That core is essential. Why do you sell what you sell? Why do you believe in your company’s strategy? Why do you believe there needs to be a culture change? Take a cue from Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Barack Obama and make a personal connection to your topic. Without your passion, there is no story. Without ‘I’, there is no impact.

These five questions are important when preparing your story. Ask yourself: 

1. Who is your audience?
2. What is your Call to Action? What is your story in less than 10 seconds?
3. Which examples prove that what you are saying is true? How can you share these in a colorful way?
4. What are you fighting for? What is the biggest misconception about your topic?
5. Why are YOU telling this story?

It is simple: I say ANYTHING to YOU.

Why a magic communicator talks about the future
The future inspires us, challenges us, empowers us, gives us hope, makes us uncertain, comforts us, makes us curious. The future influences us, but we also influence the future. There are actual circumstances in the future that determine our living environment. But how we meet those circumstances is up to us.

Having a Vision of future demonstrates leadership
I believe it is the hallmark of leadership: a leader that is able to take his audience by the hand to a place in the future. All great leaders, past and present, had one thing in common: they had their own vision of the future and from that vision they knew how to bring about change. And that is why the concept of the future in your story is so important, because you too want to bring about change with your message. A clear vision of the future gives your audience the feeling that they understand why the change you envision is so important, and that is your goal.

Be your own trend watcher
Companies hire expensive trend watchers to come and tell them what the future looks like. And really, that’s crazy, because who knows better where things are going in any given industry, than the people who work in it? In 1983, for example, Steve Jobs gave what appeared to be a pleasant talk at an event in Aspen. This was the time when apple was only synonymous with an actual apple. He talked about the advent of the Internet, which his listeners found quite funny as an idea. And he made some more predictions:

We’re about five years away from really solving the problem of hooking these computers together in the office. And we’re about ten to fifteen years away from solving the problem of hooking them together in the home.

Even the timing of this future was on the money. Fifteen years later, there was the Internet. And the App Store he foresaw too, even if we had to wait 25 years for it:

We need the equivalent in the software business. We need a software ‘radio station’. (…) Where we’ll be going is transmitting this stuff electronically over the phone line (…) and we’ll go directly from computer to computer.

And doesn’t this sound a little bit like an iPad:

What we want to do is, we want to put an incredibly great computer in a book that you can learn how to use in twenty minutes.

27 years later, almost everyone has one. And depending on how you listen to the speech, he’s also already predicting Google Maps, the iPhone and voice recognition. Although with the latter, he honestly added: this will be very difficult.

Can you also show us the future of your industry?

Dream and Doom
You can take your audience into your vision of the future, and there are essentially two ways to do that:

1. The future as an opportunity: “We have the chance to make the future better than the present.”
2. The future as a risk: “What will happen in the future if nothing changes now?”

In a probability scenario, outline how you see the world if you and your audience take the opportunity to improve the present. If that customer chooses you as their supplier, what will their world look like in a few weeks? Or two years from now? What would happen if you really took your audience into that future? Sketch your “man on the moon” future scenario for your audience to get them moving.

In a risk scenario, you sketch what you think the world would look like if nothing changed. To bring that picture to life, ask yourself the question: what happens if there are no budgetary cuts? What happens if your customer doesn’t invest? What risks do we face? Maybe this is what your story needs for lasting impact.

More SOMETHING: make the future tangible
Take your audience into a future that appeals or scares them, so they will better understand why change is needed. Bring your vision of the future to life in the minds of your audience and create contrast with the past and present. What will your future look like if you put a clear, imaginative vision of the future in your stories? Be inspired by Steve Jobs, and go with it!

So how do you ensure that your story does not become a “final hurdle” but a moment of connection and pride? Here are 4 tips in advance!

1. Celebrate the whole year, not just December

What happened in January? Who remembers that one project in April? It’s amazing how quickly we forget successes. By looking back at highs as well as lows from throughout the year, you give your people something valuable: perspective. It reminds them how resilient and successful they have been together.

Tip: By reviewing your calendar from throughout the year, you will discover hidden gems. Name them, let them shine and watch pride fill the space.

2. Make it personal, and touch the audience

Authenticity is not a buzzword; it is a prerequisite. A good story starts with yourself. What has the year meant to you? Where did you feel pride? Where was the pain? People don’t want generalities or platitudes. They want to hear what touched you and why. Connect on a felt level, not just on facts.

Tip: Don’t simply tell them that “we all worked hard.” Show what that means. Share how you experienced that one bump or breakthrough and how that defines you as a group.

3. Connect, inspire and be great

A year-end story is not a business update. It is a moment of connection. Who are you as a team? What binds you together? Especially at a time when hybrid working is the norm, physical gathering becomes rare and valuable. Use it to cultivate pride and make your people fall in love with their work, their colleagues and their organization.

Tip: Go full steam ahead. A good story is not a sparse celebration, but an ode to your journey together.

4. Plan ahead: close and reopen

You may already want to say something about plans for next year. But realize that December is about closing, not starting. December often feels like a final sprint: final tasks, tight deadlines. Don’t go overboard with that. Strategy and outlook? Save those for January. After all, two weeks make a world of difference in energy. End your year with pride and vision; start the new year with decisiveness and action.

Tip: Say in December what was, and in January what is to come. Use the energy of both moments to the maximum.

With these insights, don’t give a cliché talk, but an end-of-year story that really touches. Your people deserve it, and you also deserve to end this year with pride and satisfaction. Stand still, connect, inspire. Let your audience leave feeling like they are part of something bigger. Let them go into the holidays with a smile.

 

Working on your year-end speech? 

Over the next month, we will be working with many people again to deliver an end-of-year message with impact. Would you like to work on this as well? Then contact us, and let’s make your year-end speech unforgettable!

Any other tips?

Especially feel like listening further to the best tips for your year-end speech?

From how to hang my laundry, to how to behave in company. Some tips make me genuinely happy and others make me think, “Mom, you’re a sweetheart, but we’re on a totally different wavelength at the moment.” But, to be honest: I sometimes go into a micromanagement fit myself when I see my partner packing the dishwasher in a way that is, of course, completely illogical. He then responds to me the way I respond to my mother in these situations: ‘Thanks for the suggestion, but I’ll just have to do this my own way.’

He’s right. Being managed is not a necessity of life. Maybe that’s why the word “stakeholder management” or, more precisely, “expectation management” always gives me the creeps. Maintaining good relations with the world around us suddenly sounds a bit manipulative to my ears. As if feelings or expectations need to be appeased and people need to be played smartly. In order to make a difference together with your stakeholders, you desperately need each other. And indeed, mutual understanding and razor-sharp goals are very useful…

 

What exactly is an expectation?

Those expectations that you have, and that your audience also has, are essentially personal predictions of the future. Predictions about what the future should look like. Stakeholder management conversations are often about what the mutual expectations are, and especially: why they are not correct and why they need to be adjusted. These are often not the nicest conversations, because in essence you reject the other person’s prediction of the future and say: that’s nice that you expect that, but it’s not going to happen. That can leave a person with a very negative feeling. Does that mean it can be done differently?

 

Learn from love.

Let’s study and learn from the most intimate relationship we will ever have in our lives: the love relationship. Anyone who is in a new relationship – or who can still remember the start of his or her current relationship -knows that our hearts literally beat with anticipation. During the in-love phase of a relationship, we collect evidence about our beloved. About who he or she is, what they deem as important, where he/she wants to go in the future, those type of things. And it is precisely in this phase, one the most vulnerable phases in our lives, that we start looking for certainty and start projecting traits, goals and visions of the future onto the other person in the form of expectation. Heartbreak in any shape or form arises when reality and expectation no longer match. Ouch…

I learned something really beautiful about this the other day: I found out by having a conversation with my partner about how I came to my set of expectations and what feelings lingered behind them. We came out of discussion mode in no time and engaged in an open and honest conversation. We no longer talked about what we expected from each other and whether that was justified, but we talked about the feeling of stress and pressure the expectation brought with it and the worry of not being able to meet it. And about the desire behind it. Arguing about whether or not the expectation was right, got us nowhere in the first place. Really listening to how the other person had arrived at that expectation, took us further than we could have imagined.

 

Be curious about the feeling behind the expectation.

What you are looking for in a conversation with your stakeholder, strongly influences how you listen to your audience. Conversations about expectations only become really interesting when you listen to how someone arrived at that set of expectations. Look for the layer behind it and ask not only what the expectations are, but especially how they came about and what concerns and dreams underpin them. Take a step back in order to take two steps forward.

This way, you can really level with your stakeholder and both leave with a positive feeling from your conversation about something as precarious as “expectations”: because you have really understood each other and you both now see the same future ahead of you.

It is August 19, 1588. England is threatened by an invasion by the Spanish Armada. A fleet of 137 warships is ready to cross the Channel and invade England. Queen Elizabeth I addresses her troops in one of the most famous war speeches in the history of the United Kingdom. Her troops await a potentially deadly battle in the fields of Essex. With her words, she brought back hope and fighting spirit to her troops. Elizabeth I was affectionately nicknamed Good Queen Bess and she reigned for a whopping 45 years: unique for the time. She is still considered one of the greatest heads of state of all time. The Elizabethan era is that of William Shakespeare and the Golden Age; it marks one of the most prosperous periods in English history.

ME

Passion: Time and again she repeats how much she loves England and affirms that (should the time come) she is willing to die for her country: side by side with the soldiers on the front lines. “I have come among you as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved in the midst and heat of the battle to live or die among you all, to lay down for my God and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even in the dust.”

Personal: Even as Queen in an era when sovereigns’ souls were rarely shared with their subjects, she speaks directly and from her heart: “I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects.” She trusts her audience completely and, with these words, openly places her life in their hands. She addresses them with “My loving people.” Wow, what a love for her people and country speaks from that one sentence!

SOMETHING

Conflict: She dares to point out that in the eyes of her male soldiers she may be unfit as a field commander: she may be Queen, but she is also a woman and they know nothing about fighting. She wears her heart on her sleeve and expresses her view on it: “I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm!”

Evidence: Elizabeth surprised friend and foe alike by appearing in person on the battlefield to address her troops. Usually the monarchy kept far from the battle. She went against the decorum and advice of her counselors who did not trust it when the Queen found herself unprotected among her armed subjects. This decorum she cites, only to dismiss it from the table. “We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear!”

Future: Should it come to pass that the doomsday scenario of a major battle would actually become a reality, she paints a picture of how she will fight right there with them: “Rather than any dishonor shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.”

YOU

YES: Elizabeth addresses her soldiers directly. She uses the word “You” very often, leaving no misunderstanding as to who her words are meant for at that moment. She gives them wings by complimenting them on all the victories they had won and she emphasizes how much she appreciates their efforts: “I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you on a word of a prince, they shall be duly paid.”

Action and Promise: She calls on her army to also obey her lieutenant general in her absence during battle with the same strength and loyalty they had already shown. Then victory is at hand.  “In the meantime, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valor in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.”

Communicating with Impact is relevant across the ages. What touches the core of our humanity proves timeless: even in the 16th century there was a female leader who understood this. She used impactful communication at a crucial moment in world history.

The knowledge that a compliment works!
It often takes some soul searching – especially when things are not going so well – but don’t let that deter you. The power of the compliment is enormous. Research from Japan has shown that people who are complimented, perform better than those who receive no compliments. In the study, 48 subjects were asked to press as many single keys in succession as possible on a keyboard within 30 seconds. The subjects were then divided into three groups. In one of the groups, the subjects received a personal compliment. Those in the other two groups did not. The first group performed significantly better than the rest at the same exercise on the second day. Scientist Norihiro Sadato says of the study, “For our brain, receiving a compliment is the same social reward as receiving money. Handing out compliments can be an easy and effective strategy in the classroom, for example.”

Receiving compliments activates a part of the brain associated with reward. The amount of dopamine increases, which makes you feel good. Dopamine enhances memory. So a complimenting boss could also induce better employee performance. Dopamine or not: it remains to be seen whether we really need scientific evidence to know that a sincere compliment works. Just think back to a moment when you received a nice compliment from a colleague or family member about what you had been working on for a while. “You did a great job organizing that!” or “You must have put a lot of work into it.” It can be so nice to get a compliment. Especially if you feel that others hadn’t noticed how hard you are working on something, or if you are uncertain about something.

I don’t have time for that right now!
Despite the fact that we know (both from science and from our own experience) how powerful a compliment can be, it turns out that it is not always easy to give one to those around you. It’s slimy or we simply don’t think we have time for it. Deadlines, full workdays and stress make it seem as if compliments only slow us down. After all, you always have to do better. That’s why you often only get an email telling you that the report you worked on until two in the morning, needs to be improved, without sharing what was good about it.

No half-measures
A real compliment goes beyond a trick (“Yes, nicely done! Say, I was thinking: I think there’s a mistake in the calculation!”) or an empty compliment (“Thanks for coming. Good to have you here, because there is a downward trend in sales.”) No, this is about a full compliment. Every day during the training sessions at The Speech Republic, we notice the power of the (sincere) compliment. The speaker literally looks at his audience differently if he first thought about what he actually likes about them. The audience he is addressing enjoys being seen f their qualities! Now that’s what called a win-win situation.

So even if the problem and lesser performance is on the tip of your tongue: think again. Think about what compliments you can legitimately give to the person you are talking to and share it with them!

Sometimes words fall short to describe an experience.  Summer 2023, three trainers from The Speech Republic traveled to the Nice Place Foundation nestled in the tiny town of Loitokitok, in the heart of Maasai country. Situated on the border between Kenya and Tanzania, the town overlooks Mount Kilimanjaro in all her majestic beauty.

Our goal? To train the next cohort of future female leaders from the Maasai community.

Our client? Nice Nailantei Leng’ete, founder of Nice Place Foundation and International Postcode Lottery Ambassador in collaboration with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation.

 

NICE NAILANTEI LENG’ETE 

Nice Nailantei Leng’ete is the founder of Nice Place Foundation, award-winning activist and International Postcode Lottery Ambassador. Named among TIME MAGAZINE 100 most influential leaders, Nice aims at eradicating the practice of Female Genitale Mutilation as a rite of passage among the Maasai community. Her Nice Place Foundation is not only a shelter for young women fleeing the cut, but also a place of education and activism. Her vision is to empower young Maasai girls to fight for an alternative rite of passage and women’s rights in general.

Over 20.000 girls escaped the cut with the help of Nice Place

Nice’s story is one of persistence, hope and change, as she is well respected among both male and female members of the Maasai community, and so far has helped over 20.000 girls to escape FGM.

 

SPEAK, ESPECIALLY WHEN NOT SPOKEN TO

The Speech Republic team worked together with a cohort of Nice Place Foundation alumni, young women who fought hard to get the opportunity to finish highschool and were now ready to embark on their next adventure. Future Maasai lawyers, farmers, teachers, doctors. Young women with hopes and dreams, living in a context in which the price for these dreams can be social exclusion or worse.

The inherent strength of these young women is touching and inspiring.

It takes courage to find your voice. And then to use it.

These young women reaffirmed just how powerful a voice can be when it is used to not only speak up for oneself, but for an entire community. When it is used to challenge the status quo for the greater good. Not because they were told to, but because they found the courage to do so and in their own way – and this in a community where they are literally expected to only speak, when spoken to.

 

At The Speech Republic, we celebrate those who dare to speak up to change the world. Something that is more easily said than done. These young women showed us once more the courage it takes to do so. The courage to find your voice. And then to use it.

Interested in supporting Nice Place Foundation? Please take a look at www.niceplacefoundation.org

 

4 days. 7 changemakers. Dozens of inspiring stories… with many more to come.

In February, The Speech Republic team flew to South Africa to facilitate a ‘Storytelling for Social Change’ training course in the heart of the country’s city of gold, Johannesburg. In partnership with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation Africa, the training focused on empowering and equipping a passionate and diverse group of civil society changemakers working across human rights defense, whistleblowing, grassroots democracy and youth development, with the tools they needed to share more impactful narratives in the spaces, and with the audiences that mattered to them.

The 4-day immersive training put each participant through their paces, challenging them on all levels of their own personal communication and storytelling development.

If you see something, say something

Looking at South Africa from a historic perspective, it is clear that stories have had and continue to have the potential to create positive change, across communities and at all levels of civil society, as they can influence policy and aid in critical decision making.

As purpose-driven organizations working the civic space in South Africa these professionals showed that they were all natural storytellers and that despite working in (politically) sensitive spaces, with a lot of external scrutiny at times, that they would continue to fight on behalf of their audience – the country, and her citizens.

At the Speech Republic we actively support individuals and organizations who dedicate their time, efforts and stories to making the world a better place.

If you’d like to know more about the civil society organizations we worked with in South Africa, you can find them here:

The Helen Suzman Foundation: https://hsf.org.za/

The Third Republic: https://t3r.org.za/

PPLAAF: https://www.pplaaf.org/

The SA Schools Debating Board: https://sadebating.org/

 

In his short speech, Reagan scores high on all nine elements of the ME-YOU-SOMETHING model. He makes personal connection with the ME, he is painfully clear on the SOMETHING and he really focuses on his audience – the YOU.

ME

The connection that Reagan manages to make from the Oval Office is great. He speaks right through the camera. It is as if he is looking directly at the viewer at home on the couch.

What always comes back to Reagan is his profound Passion for progress. His belief that tomorrow will be better and that America can handle anything. In this speech, too, he emphasizes this:  ‘The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave.”

That Reagan is not only a leader in office, but also a human being of flesh-and-blood, is evident when he shares his and his wife’s shock at the beginning of the his speech: “Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the Shuttle Challenger.

SOMETHING

To make one feel and show how great the tragedy is, Reagan reads out the names of the seven heroes. By doing so, Reagan provides the rock hard and painful Evidence of the fact that seven brilliant minds lost their lives in this explosion.

Even in this situation, Reagan still is willing to remind his audience of the need to really reflect on the courage of The Challenger Seven: “But we’ve never lost an astronaut in flight; we’ve never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we’ve forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle.”

His passion for progress is also reflected in his vision of the future: “We’ll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.”

YOU

Reagan addresses his Call to action and makes a Promise specifically to the children of America: “And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s take-off. I know it’s hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.”

Reagan also really addresses his deeply shocked audience. He knows the entire nation says or feels YES when he tells them he shares in their pain: ‘We know we share this pain with all the people of our country.’ He also specifically reflects on the perseverance of the people who work at NASA (compliment): “Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it.”

So you see, even in a short speech, Reagan manages to show something of himself, has a real message, and he really shares it with his audience. In your next story, what do will you do with ME-YOU-SOMETHING?

IK

Contact: The Queen heeft een spiekbriefje voor haar liggen, maar maakt telkens contact met haar publiek vóórdat ze gaat spreken. Daarmee wordt ze meteen persoonlijker en directer – de koningin die je aankijkt, ongehoord!

Persoonlijk: Ze vertelt een persoonlijke anecdote, om de afstand tussen haar en haar publiek te verkleinen: ‘Twenty-five years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas messages. My own family often gather round to watch television as they are this moment, and that is how I imagine you now. I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct. Now at least for a few minutes I welcome you to the peace of my own home.’

Passie: In haar bereidheid om zichzelf helemaal te geven voor het ideaal van de natie spreekt ze gepassioneerd: ‘I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.’

IETS

Conflict: Elizabeth II wil graag persoonlijk worden, maar is natuurlijk wel The Queen en dat is nogal een kloof om te overwinnen! Dit benoemt ze direct: ‘It is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you. A successor to the Kings and Queens of history; someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers and films but who never really touches your personal lives.’

Ook schuwt ze niet om diegenen die haar idealen bedreigen aan te wijzen: ‘The trouble is caused by unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals as if they were old and outworn machinery. They would have religion thrown aside, morality in personal and public life made meaningless, honesty counted as foolishness and self-interest set up in place of self-restraint.’

Bewijs: Haar persoonlijke ervaringen spelen ook een rol als bewijsstukken. Zo heeft ze bijvoorbeeld de loyaliteit en het enthousiasme van de Canadezen zelf meegemaakt toen ze daar was. Bovendien: ‘…my husband and I paid visits to Portugal, France, Denmark and the United States of America. In each case the arrangements and formalities were managed with great skill, but no one could have ‘managed’ the welcome we received from the people.’

Toekomst: Elizabeth II zet een gelaagd toekomstbeeld neer, eentje waar Toekomst, Conflict, Ja, en Actie met elkaar verweven zijn: ‘Today we need… the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics so that we can show the world that we are not afraid of the future. It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult. That is why we can take a pride in the new Commonwealth we are building.’

JOU

Ja: Elizabeth II zoekt de verbinding met haar publiek door herkenbare conflicten te adresseren, complimenten aan haar onderdanen te geven, of empathie te tonen voor hun zorgen. Bijvoorbeeld: ‘Because of [the speed at which things are changing all around us] I am not surprised that many people feel lost and unable to decide what to hold on to and what to discard. How to take advantage of the new life without losing the best of the old.’

Belofte: In de speech zitten verschillende beloftes verborgen. Ten eerste de belofte dat dit persoonlijker dan eerdere speeches gaat worden. Maar ten tweede de negatieve belofte wat er gebeurt als het moreel leiderschap niet wordt gepakt: ‘At this critical moment in our history we will certainly lose the trust and respect of the world if we just abandon those fundamental principles which guided the men and women who built the greatness of this country and Commonwealth.’

Actie: De afsluiter van de kerstboodschap is in dit geval niet een hele concrete call to action, maar eerder een wens om rust, vrede en fun (!) te vinden: ‘I hope that 1958 may bring you God’s blessing and all the things you long for. And so I wish you all, young and old, wherever you may be, all the fun and enjoyment, and the peace of a very happy Christmas.’

Magische verhalen zijn van alle tijden en de elementen die mensen raken, doorstaan de tand des tijds. En je hoeft geen Koning of Koningin te zijn om van jouw kerstspeech aan de lange dinertafel een magisch moment te maken. Speel met meer IK, meer IETS en meer JOU in je wensen en gesprekken aan die lange kersttafel. May your days be merry AND magical!

Ben je nieuwsgierig naar de prachtige, originele beelden uit 1957?

Op woensdag 14 oktober, tijdens de laatste avond dat kroegen nog open mochten zijn, speelde ik in Utrecht. Het was een geweldige avond. Het publiek had er zin in en ik kon al snel het podium op mijn eigen manier claimen. De spanning was meteen weg, het ijs gebroken en het publiek was vanaf de start aan boord. We zaten in een flow van geven en nemen, van actie en reactie.

In Amersfoort liep het anders. Niet slecht, maar ook niet goed. Een echte versmelting met het publiek kwam nooit tot stand. Hoe kan dat nou? Waarom lukte het mij niet om echt te landen op het podium en daar helemaal als mezelf te staan waardoor de avond een succes werd? Nu is een verhaal vertellen voor collega’s of tijdens een congres toch echt iets anders dan als comedian, maar toch…. als beter-wetende speech coach zou ik mijn ervaring en theoretische kennis toch in praktijk moeten kunnen brengen. Hoe kan je echt als jezelf op het podium staan? Hoe kan je authentiek zijn? Ook ik ging weer bij mezelf te rade waar het mis ging en hoe ik de kans op succes kan vergroten om de volgende keer 100% als mezelf aanwezig te zijn.

De ‘oefening-in-autenciteit’ paradox

Zo herken je een niet-autenthieke spreker, maar dat weet je eigenlijk al…
Maar eerst nog even dit: Waarom komen sommige leiders tijdens presentaties niet authentiek over? Het antwoord moet gezocht worden in de manier waarop onze hersenen informatie en communicatie verwerken. Als verbale en non-verbale communicatie niet op een lijn liggen, verlies jij als spreker je authenticiteit en jouw boodschap zijn kracht. Als je bijvoorbeeld teveel hebt geoefend op je gesticulatie – het gebruik maken van handgebaren – zal je publiek dat opmerken. Onderzoek wijst namelijk uit dat je gebaar daardoor net na het woord volgt dat je uitbeeldt, terwijl bij echt gebruik van je handen je gebaren net voor het geassocieerde woord uitgaan.

“You might say that words are after-the-fact explanations of why we just gestured as we did” schrijft Morgan. Daarom zal je mij als coach ook nooit aanwijzingen horen geven als “wanneer je het woord groot zegt, doe je je handen uit elkaar…” Ik geloof namelijk niet dat je daardoor de harten van je publiek gaat winnen. Het is allemaal teveel gefocust op de buitenkant en dat maakt je artificieel. Als je durft je impuls te volgen en je comfortabel bent op het podium, dan volgen je handen vanzelf en daarna de aansluitende woorden. Nauwkeuriger geformuleerd: Gebaren gaan vooraf aan je bewuste gedachten en je gedachten gaan vooraf aan je woorden.

Deze verkorte versie van een Indiase fabel leert ons dat een enkel gegeven als een olifant wel zes verschillende versies kan hebben. Elke versie is gebaseerd op een andere ervaring en perspectief. Als er bij een redelijk simpel concept als een olifant al zes verschillende opvattingen kunnen zijn, dan kun je je wel voorstellen dat er bij complexere zaken nog veel meer verschillende perspectieven zijn. Laat staan als je een publiek hebt dat uit meer dan zes mensen bestaat!

Als jij je verhaal vertelt, kan dit ook vanuit verschillende perspectieven en met verschillend bewijs om je verhaal te dragen. In eerdere Speech Republic blogs schreven we al dat je verhaal een breder fundament krijgt, als je bewijs aanlevert dat zowel je hoofd prikkelt als je hart raakt. Het is belangrijk om hier een goede balans in te vinden. Hoe die balans eruit ziet, zal afhankelijk zijn van jouw publiek. In deze blog lees je hoe je bewijs aandraagt dat je publiek zal aanspreken, zodat jij iets bijzonders in hun hoofden en harten kan laten gebeuren. Bewijs maakt dat jouw publiek een aha-moment kan beleven of zaken anders zien dan daarvoor. Welke keuze maak je wanneer je je bewijs selecteert als er zoveel informatie beschikbaar is?

JP Rangaswami: informatie geven is als koken.

JP Rangaswami is een technologie-innovator en in zijn ‘Information is food’ TED talk biedt hij een helpende hand om ons perspectief van informatie te veranderen. Hij heeft het over de film Short Circuit, dat het verhaal van een robot vertelt die geëlektrocuteerd raakt en weer tot leven wordt gebracht. Het eerste wat de robot na het heropstarten zegt is: ‘Give me input, give me input!’  Terwijl JP Rangaswami hiernaar keek, besefte hij dat voor een robot informatie en voeding hetzelfde zijn. Vervolgens vroeg hij zichzelf af hoe het zou zijn als hij zichzelf zou aanschouwen als iemand waarbij energie en informatie de twee dingen zijn die hij als input krijgt. Energie en informatie zijn vergelijkbaar met elkaar. Hij beargumenteert dat net als met voeding, de mens begonnen is als jager en verzamelaar van informatie en is doorgegroeid naar boeren en verbouwers van informatie. Daarnaast kan je informatie net als voeding produceren, bereiden en consumeren. De vraag die dan ontstaat, is hoe we in onszelf een dieet kunnen opstellen waarmee we balans in de hoeveelheid verschillende informatie vinden. Net zoals we dit met onze voeding doen, zullen we ons hier met bewijs een weg in moeten vinden.

 

Wat wordt jouw informatie dieet?

De crux is om met jouw verhalen niet alles te delen wat je weet. Dat is wat we bij Speech Republic content dumping noemen. Om een goed gebalanceerd informatie dieet te formuleren voor je publiek die echt een gedachteverandering teweegbrengt, moet je jezelf eigenlijk twee vragen stellen:

Wat is hun perspectief nu? Denk terug aan de Olifant in het Indiase fabeltje: ziet je publiek alleen de staart? Of alleen de flank? Als je 1 feit zou mogen gebruiken om de status quo te laten zien, welk feit zou dat dan zijn?
Wat wil jij dat zij gaan (in)zien na jouw verhaal? Welke informatie hebben zij van jou nodig om de hele olifant te zien, in plaats van alleen een deel? Als je 1 feit zou mogen inzetten om hun perspectief te veranderen, en om te laten zien wat jij ziet, welk feit zou dat dan zijn?
Door het perspectief van je publiek in te zetten om in jouw verhaal scherpere keuzes te maken in het informatierecept dat je hen voorschotelt, word je niet alleen relevanter, maar bovendien interessanter voor je toehoorder. Die aha-momenten ontstaan niet bij toeval. Bedenk welke shift jij teweeg wil brengen, en maak op basis daarvan je keuze in jouw informatie recept.

P.S. Check de TED talk hier:

Are you really competing?

If you can’t share what’s on your mind, you’re not telling a story but presenting a memo. And crazy enough, somehow, that has become the norm. This is what we settle for when it comes to a stage-worthy story. We hide behind dry facts, conformism and last but not least, a whole lot of fear. Deviating from this norm, if only ever so slightly, often feels that it carries too much of a risk (of rejection) so it’s safer and much less intense to just stick to it.

And so, prepared T and scripted to the comma, we step into the most exciting and perhaps only arena left in modern society: the stage. With a mindset focused on defense, we go on that stage to “fight” for the story, that new strategy or yet another reorganization. But the actual battle is already lost, because you stand there with a beaten to death story that you might as well have put it on an email. And your audience? Ah, Ah, they feel socially obligated to applaud. And that’s why they are willing to put their mobiles away… at least for a while.

Freedom is in my DNA and Authenticity is the dream

This is the era of fake news, the inevitable dark side of the digital information revolution. The news is everywhere, all the time, in real time. And sometimes it is the only thing that is “real.” We loathe it, politicians abuse it to (re)gain voter trust, and we ban the Internet trolls who are guilty of it.

But where is that fierce intolerance against everything fake when we are on stage?

Because being real sometimes means being ugly and vulnerable especially in the moments that matter. For example, at the lunch table on your first day at work, where even the CEO has stopped by to get acquainted and everyone is talking about last night’s soccer game. But you didn’t watch, because eyou have soccer and everything sports related.

But this is the moment: Feel the fear, do it anyway! You hate soccer and that’s ok. That authenticity makes you unique, interesting and ensures that you leave an impression. Your impression.

And sure, that authenticity doesn’t come cheap. You always have to overcome something for it: fear of rejection, insecurity or confronting who you really are. But the more you do this, the more you connect with both others and with yourself. You are no longer looking for the affirmation or approval others or for the perfect way to present yourself. And everything you consider desirable in that regard is now given to you anyway: spontaneity, being “in the flow,” humor and focus.

Unleashing the words that change the world for the better

This is my motto. Everyone carries a story with them and that story is allowed to be there. And yes, it can define who you are, but it is also the solid ground beneath your feet that enables you to make that connection with another person. A prerequisite for communicating with impact.

But keep in mind: The judgment or rejection of the outside world is not the only barrier that compromises your story. It’s also that inner critic and fear monger that won’t allow that story to see the light of day.

So yes, for me there is work to do. I’ll continue to fight against forced communication where there is no ownership by the speaker, the energy is missing and the audience drops out. Because for that, the spoken word is too great a commodity to waste.

The world needs a game changer. And that’s me.