Page 80 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS 71

Without your guidance, audiences don’t know which newly
introduced subject may be your theme. Worse, let’s say you are just
one of many speakers at a two-day event, and all the other presenters
make the same mistake of trying to talk about half a dozen points
separately with no effort to connect them as one voice. Then instead
of perhaps eight or ten messages, suddenly we are dealing with fi fty
messages. This is clearly unproductive. Themes melt into the muck,
and you can’t blame all the people who complain later that they
thought the whole thing was a waste of time. So if you want people
to remember what you say, and you respect the fact that they took
the time to come to hear you say it, then you’d better start thinking
rocket.
If your theme is the need for globalization, but you also want to
talk about research and development, strategic planning, productiv-

ity, profitability, sales and marketing, and manufacturing, you might
try weaving your subthemes into your main theme like this:

◆ “We can’t talk about globalization without talking about the
challenges of distribution on a global scale . . .”
◆ Or, “So we will be a global enterprise, but to do that we’ve also
got to be smart and that’s where strategic planning comes
in . . .”
◆ Or, “In a global marketplace, nobody can compete without
higher productivity, and that’s why we are spending more than
100 million dollars this year alone to streamline our processes
and upgrade our manufacturing facilities . . .”
Put it all together, and the design of your rocket may look something
like this: