Some made us laugh. A few made me cry. And there were long pauses with a black screen after each section to bring the attention back onto him and his message. It was a masterclass in the art and science of presenting. These are the notes I took after the training for ‘Truth in 10’. This is the part where Al Gore trains climate leaders to deliver their own version of that epic slideshow in 10 minutes. He has a very unique style that creates drama and tension. I’ve added my own transition notes which are also colour coded for pauses // and the types of emotions that I want the audience to feel. • 10 minutes. • 55 “wallpaper” slides per deck • Script: 180 words per min • Slide transitions av. 11 secs No industrial storyteller has inspired or taught me more than Nancy Duarte. In 2006 Sir Ken Robinson delivered the most popular TED Talk of all-time This is a LOT of work for a 10-minute presentation! Her book Resonate was a revolution in the art and science of visual (90M+ views). I always wanted to understand WHY it was so good so I tried storytelling and the lightbulb moment that pushed me down my own path to figure it out. During the process of crafting this one pager I discovered that The BEST PRESENTATION I ever saw was 615 slides long. Roughly 100 hours in fact. towards purpose-driven storytelling. Her next book Illuminate with the the reason Sir Ken’s talk worked so well was that it followed some very basic wonderful Patti Sanchez built on Resonate and showed you how to turn rules that Aristotle wrote in 335BC. For me, it all boils down to 6 things we It took 2 hours 43 minutes to deliver, in one sitting, but it moments into movements, campaigns into causes and numbers into might all do well to remember the next time we need to give an important felt like 20 minutes. Most of the audience were on the edge Which is what the best TED speakers invest in their decks. narratives. Nancy’s most recent book Data Story by Nancy Duarte is one of presentation. (They're ALL important but #6 is my favourite). of their seats the whole time. This was Al Gore’s slideshow 10 hours per minute! Al Gore’s ‘Truth in 10’ breaks many of the best communications books I've read in recent years and I constantly refer to it when building presentations. 1. The 19-minute talk was broken down into a simple 3 act structure. i) Be for the Climate Reality Leadership Corps delivered in the rules of traditional presenting, but his objective is not prepared to fail - ii) Why education fails - iii) How to not fail in the future. Minneapolis in July 2019. What was even more curious just to teach people climate science, it’s to inspire them to Whenever anyone asks me for storytelling advice, my most regular response 2. Even though this was a serious academic talk about educational reform, about the training was that we were advised not to take ACT. And he’s spent so long working on his craft, that he’s is to watch Nancy’s TED talk and to read anything that she’s written. Sir Ken resisted the temptation to fill his talk with numbers. (He only used 2 stats in the entire talk). notes straight away, but to concentrate on how we FELT. learned exactly HOW to break the rules in order to make his I always wondered if “drawing” a book would be a good way to retain the 3. He made the audience laugh every 29 seconds. (As a professor he presentations memorable. information I read, so this one pager was my attempt to do just that. I didn’t understood that the quickest way to make someone remember As we watched the slides, heard the stories and studied the realise how cathartic it would be either once you get into the zone and just something is to make them laugh). focus on the text, so I highly encourage you to try it for yourself. It slows your 4. He told 8 stories averaging just 2 mins 5 seconds each. (Harvard's MBA science it was like watching a great conductor directing a The point of any story is to make people FEEL something. brain down, makes you think and helps you to remember what you read. All programme estimates this is roughly the attention span of the average symphony. The slides went fast then slow. Al Gore’s voice And the point of a purpose-driven story like this one about you need are some nice Blackwing pencils (other brands are available!), your executive). was direct and dramatic when he was talking about politics, the climate crisis, is to inspire people to DO something. favourite beverage (bourbon or Malbec works for me) and settle down 5. Sir Ken leveraged Aristotle's rhetorical appeals of persuasion: Pathos somewherequietwithanA2graphpadfromAmazonandyou'reoff.... (emotion & values), Logos (reason & proof), Ethos (personal credibility & but quiet and reflective when he was talking about the Something the Truth in 10 does well well. Over 20,000 have trust), Kairos (urgent action). planet or people. The slides were intense. been trained since the Truth in 10 was invented. 6. Hedidn't use PowerPoint. "Don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can never get it I love Malala Yousafzai. I loved her best-selling autobiography, published when GREATspeechesdo6thingswell. They Inform, educate, solve problems (for Finding 18 minutes to watch a great TED talk is one thing. Spending 18 hours wrong". she was just 16. What were you doing when you were 16? (I was chasing girls the head), inspire, entertain, challenge (for the heart). I recently studied to understand WHY it was so great takes things to an entirely different level. I and trying to earn some money for some Air Jordan III’s!) Malala was working Emma Watson's superb #HeForShe speech about feminism at the UN and analysed this talk from Josette Sheeran over a weekend when I was away and Sage advice from Tony Robbins that I heard at Dreamforce, the huge tech on her Nobel prize acceptance speech and campaigning for girls who don’t sawhowshedidall6in12shortminutes writing a leadership programme for social impact and purpose-driven conference hosted by Salesforce in 2015. It's a great line that seems more have access to education. The 2015 documentary “He Named Me Malala” is . storytelling. I didn’t know much about Josette Sheeran before I started this important today than ever. Presenting via Zoom or Webex is not easy, and outstanding. For this one pager I was working on a lecture to teach young • 1,225 words. one pager, but by the end of it she had completely inspired me. Most of my trying to transfer any kind of emotional feeling to your audience via the tiny activists and evangelists how to speak, write, campaign and communicate. It • 11:38, speaking slowly but deliberately (106 words/minute). notes here may not make sense to you, but I highly encourage you to check camera on your laptop is no easy task. I was constantly trying to put Tony’s seemed a fitting speech to be working on given that my 4-year old twins Petra • Telling short personal stories (to make an emotional connection with her out her wonderful TED talk. advice into practice for the virtual keynotes I was giving during 2021/21 about & Mathilda were starting "big" school the following day. I learned 2 things from audience). COVID-19, climate change and how tech can solve some of the world's meticulously studying Malala’s words, trying to understand what made it such a • Acknowledging her nervousness as a public speaker (vulnerable despite Even if my notes don’t make sense, my hope is that you become inspired in biggest problems. Turning up to a virtual keynote and winging it might tick a great speech. her fame). some small way to take your favourite stories to pieces and see how they boxandgetyouby.Butitwon’tmakeadifference.Preparationis everything. • 4stats (to make her case with evidence and reason). work. People who love cars may obsess about their favourite model, and 1. It's amazing how much you can learn from immersing yourself in a great • 1 definition (to ensure clarity). dream about getting under the hood to examine the engine and see what The problem with Webex is that it can be really dull. And your webinar speech just by drawing it. You gain a clearer understanding of what made it • 1 quote (to inspire). makes it special. In much the same way, I’d love to encourage you to become audience, just like with TV, are only 1 click away from being somewhere else, such a great speech so that you can learn to communicate better yourself. a better storyteller by deconstructing the words of someone who inspires so it’s essential that you’re even more engaging than you usually would be. 2. This particular speech was about a big number. 130 million girls around the youtounderstand what makes them tick. Audiences have a 75 second attention spans instead of the usual 3-6 minutes world still have no access to school. All the best speeches often have ONE Ahelpful reminder for all of us: Who needs 45 minutes on a Zoom call if you with a live audience. You need to tell better virtual stories, so I started to memorable stat or headline – something coaches like Nancy Duarte call a can get the job done in under 12? draw my slides instead of memorising them from 'Presenter View' and S.T.A.R moment. Something They’ll Always Remember. rehearsing in PowerPoint. I soon noticed how quickly I remembered the slides Notbadfor"that Harry Potter girl..." and was able to devote more energy on delivering the story. Trying to So, if like me you're a parent who now knows what it’s like to face that school- engage with that little green light on your laptop is hard! Presenting virtually gate meltdown, remember to take a deep breath and remind yourself that in is not easy and we're all suffering from screen-fatigue. It’s time to get out the scheme of things, just being able to send your kids to school to learn stuff your colouring pencils and tell more emotional better stories. andhavefun, we're pretty lucky.