Here's how to improve a speech in just 15 minutes

A friend asked me the other day if I’d help him think through an upcoming speech. This particular speech opportunity was pretty standard for his organization, but he wanted to do something more than standard because the message he needed to share was important. 

Regardless of importance, the fact remained that employees expected some sort of talk at this particular time. They'd heard versions of this very talk before from previous leaders. My friend knew that if the employees expected the same talk at the same time, there was a greater likelihood that they’d just tune it out. If you fly often, it’s likely that after a few flights, you don’t listen to the standard safety message anymore. You’ve already heard the same thing many times before. Why listen?

The challenge, though, is that the safety information is important. In case of emergency, it helps people survive. The information my friend needed to share was important too, and he needed his audience to listen.

To combat this message fatigue, my friend needed to say something different. In just 15 minutes, I helped him figure out how.

We spent those 15 minutes discussing the overall point to the talk and the three pieces of information he needed to deliver. I helped him determine how to order the information as well as how to make it relevant to his audience. We discussed how to simplify what he needed to say, and we came up with examples and stories so his employees could easily understand how the message applied to them. After just 15 minutes, he had a solid plan to work from.

What my friend did not do was just wing it. He knew that even for run of the mill talks, it was still important. He knew that the best way to make it meaningless was to go into the talk unprepared. He knew that his employees deserved someone who would be considerate of their time and they deserved someone who would make sure they heard the information critical to their success.

He spent just 15 minutes creating a plan from ideas and his talk had significantly more impact because of it.

(Photo by Fredrik Öhlander on Unsplash)