Page 57 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

9

FORGING A

POWERFUL MESSAGE

O STANDS FOR ONE THEME

Winston Churchill—arguably the greatest speaker of the last cen-
tury, but almost forgotten today—said that you can’t talk about
more than one thing at a time. This is particularly true when you
are just one of a series of speakers at a meeting or event. It is tough
enough to try to remember what everyone said if all six play the
game correctly and each one has only one message. You’ve still got
half a dozen concepts to try to digest.
But the reality is always worse. The reality is that each speaker
will very likely not know how to play the game and will try to cram
a lot of information into a very small space—without thought to
what is the larger truth, what is the real message. These people will
try to talk about more than one thing at a time. What I’m saying is
that it is never enough to simply catalog information and present it
to your audience on a tray.

48