I have watched each of the most popular TED presentations, not once but several times. (Please click here to check them out.) My personal favorites include Ken Robinson’s “Do schools kill creativity?,” Amy Cuddy’s “Your body language shapes who you are,” Simon Sinek’s “How great leaders inspire action,” and Brené Brown’s “The power of vulnerability.” Each of the most popular TED presentations is uniquely compelling as well as highly informative. Bravo!
Briefly, TED was founded in 1984 by architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman, who observed a convergence of the fields of technology, entertainment, and design (that is, “TED”). It covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. In 2000, Wurman, looking for a successor at age 65, met with new-media entrepreneur and TED enthusiast Chris Anderson to discuss future happenings. Anderson’s UK media company Future bought TED in 2001. TED is owned by a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation and led by Anderson, its Curator.
Anderson is the author of TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking (May 2016), Makers: The New Industrial Revolution (2014), and The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More (2006).
He also contributed Appendix B, “How to Give a Killer Presentation,” to the HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case (Harvard Business School Press, 2015).
If you need to prepare a “killer presentation” in one form or another, here are the first two of Anderson’s five recommendations:
Frame Your Story: “When I think about compelling presentations, I think about taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miracle — people see the world differently afterward. If you frame the talk as a journey, the biggest decisions are figuring out where to start and where to end. To find the right place to start, consider what people in your audience already know about your subject — and how much they care about it…The most engaging speakers do a superb job of very quickly introducing the topic, explaining why they care so deeply about it, and convincing the audience members that they should, too.”
Plan Your Delivery: Once you’ve get the framing down, it’s time to focus on your delivery. There are three main ways to deliver a talk. You can read it directly off a script or teleprompter. You can develop a set of bullet points that map out what you’re going to say in each section rather than scripting the whole thing word for word. Or you can memorize your talk, which entails rehearsing ton the point where you internalize every word — verbatim…My advice: Don’t read it, and don’t use a teleprompter. It’s usually just too distancing — people will know your reading [rather than personally sharing what you really care about].”
He also explains how to Develop Stage Presence, Plan the Multimedia, and Putting It All Together.
According to Anderson, “The simple most important point to remember is that there is no one good way to do a talk. The most memorable talks offer something fresh, something no one has seen [or heard] before. The worst ones are those that feel formulaic. So do not on any account emulate every piece of advice I’ve offered here. Take the bulk of it on board, sure. But make the talk your own. You know what’s distinctive about you and your idea. Play to your strengths and give a talk that is truly authentic to you.”