I have mixed thoughts about Graham Hill’s TED speech.
He has a nice attention-getter; he utilizes a prop to make a point about how often we move from place to place, and the amount of things that we drag along. He has a simple premise; simplify
, and some very nice examples. He uses PowerPoint very well, utilizing simple, entertaining images to drive his premise, and he does not clutter his slides with data.
But I’m still a little underwhelmed. And that’s because w e’ve heard this speech before.
It’s important to really sweat out what your premise is when you begin a speech. Once you’ve decided what you would like to do with the speech, whether it is to entertain, persuade, or educate, it’s crucial that you look for something novel or new to say with your speech. Unfortunately, we’ve heard many times before that we all ought to simplify our space, simplify our lives. There is nothing terribly novel about Mr. Hill’s speech, so it lacks power.
What might have helped? A new approach. Ok simplifying living spaces is your passion… how about discussing the concept of simplicity itself a bit more? Or delving a bit into why we clutter? Or connecting a personal story of your own to why you truly like to simplify? Personalizing a speech always creates more interest.
Yes, sometimes it’s good to go with your first instinct with a speech, but often we need to sit with our premise for a long time in order to reap its rewards.
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