Transcriber: Eman M. Abu Helal Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
What do we do when we have an idea for spreading?
We say it, we shout it out loud, and afterwards we begin to explain—
connect it all with all.
But the question is: is this convincing?
And I have some question marks.
What we here talking about is rhetoric. And rhetoric is often tone, pronunciation,
staging, body language, and so on.
But in my 20 years practice as a coach, I know...
the most important is content, so let’s talk about content.
How to create content, how to organize content... I am German
And the Germans are structured and process guys.
And I know the very important in content is structure.
Let's talk about structure.
When we think about back, our daily conversation—
the business speech of our business partners, our own ones, and so on.
They are all the time dull or sharp.
Dull or sharp
So let’s take a deeper dive
In my studies, I’ve found four basic structures:
the box, the swirl, the pyramid, the funnel.
Let’s look deeper.
The box: in General speech, German speech, you can see (Laughs)
In General speech,
fact driven, text charged, no interesting beginning,
no interesting end, no rhetorical impact. It’s dull.
It’s boring
to witness people talk like this— like a swirl.
All the time connecting all with all,
long winding all the time.
We hate people talking like this unprofessional.
But the swirl is the prototype for a professional approach.
The mind map.
The mind map is connecting all with all—no end, no beginning.
I cannot give you a device to talk with a mind map in your hand.
So the pyramid— the pyramid, as I said,
beginning with the most important point afterwards: explaining, explaining,
explaining. This is fact driven. This is dull. This is informing.
Prototype is a Lexicon article Wikipedia,
Frankfurt is a big city in Germany,
600000 inhabitants partly destroyed in the World War Two.
In the middle age, there was a big pandemic and limited details.
That’s the principal.
News journalists do like the pyramids; hard news are organized on pyramids.
An earthquake has happened this night.
This sentence has to be the first sentence.
There is no reason to convince to take part in an earthquake.
The press pyramid, the Wikipedia unlimited details and press. They can delete from
the end; possible to delete details.
So, strategy consultants do like Pyramids.
That famous book: The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto
that’s the Bible of all strategy consultants all over the world.
All over the world
for studies, for slide decks, for pitch decks.
Very fine. But this became the conventional speech,
the conventional business speech all over the world.
I have three pitfalls. First, no space for people,
no space for connecting people.
Second, who not agrees is turned off from the beginning maybe
you lose one part of your audience.
And number three, there is no possibility to come to the point.
The pyramid cannot come to the point because it’s beginning with it.
And I want to point out something more: the pyramid is about logic.
That’s fine.
If you want to convince anyone,
you have to have a structure for psychological work, not logic,
psychological. And you have to disrupt the conventional speech
into a kind of reversed pyramid
looking like this
A simple structure, coming to the point, powerful,
and kind of funnel, I call this reversed pyramid.
So this is backed by scientific research.
Let’s go 65 years back, some Stanford guys made studies regarding arguments,
and they found the primacy effect. As an example,
“Premium Gas is excellent for engine care. But of course,
that means it’s more expensive.” But they found the opposite effect as well.
An example: “Of course, Premium Gas is somewhat more expensive,
but in turn, it’s excellent for engine care.” Pyramid.
and funnel. And the same guys in Stanford made another study;
they looked for the impact range of arguments.
They found the middle one, the middle impact one at the beginning, a weak
one in the middle, and the most powerful one at the end.
So we need an example.
There are masters of reverse pyramid, and I have one example.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is
a place where all things are possible,
who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time,
who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
These are the words of Barack Obama in his inauguration speech in 2008,
the prototype of a funnel.
And let's look deeper in the ingredients of a good funnel.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts “connection” that there America is
a place where all things are possible “altitude”, who still wonders “connection”
If the dream of our founders is alive in our time “altitude” of arguments,
who still questions “connection”, the power of our democracy “altitude”,
tonight is your answer. It’s the punch point. So, this is
organized, composed, like music, like a dance, like a waltz. Connection,
altitude, connection, altitude, connection, altitude, punch line.
Connection, altitude, connection, altitude, connection, altitude, patch.
You might ask. OK, one speech, one funnel? No, a good speech is organized by many
many funnels. Obama’s speech was organized by about 40 funnels.
One funnel, one theme, one break.
One funnel, one theme, one break, one topic,
one reverse pyramid, one break, and so on.
That's the structure of a good and successful speech.
Let’s look at two thousand three hundred fifty years back— Aristotle.
I have some sentences of Aristotle here for you.
“Make your decision.”
“Three reasons for this.”
“I have spoken.”
“You have heard it.”
“You know the facts..”
Sentences of Aristotle, but the structure is fake.
I changed the structure. I changed the structure into the pyramid.
But Aristotle didn’t speak in pyramids; he was speaking in funnels.
I’ve spoken, you’ve heard it, you know the facts, you make your decision.
The funnel, reversed pyramid. So, you can say, OK,
but Obama, Aristotle
There are some other persons: Joe Biden.
Joe Biden, 77 years old, all had doubts because his speech style.
But he had a training. Obama, Clinton, and Biden
they have the same speech coach.
And (Laughs) I want to point out that they have the same approach.
It’s a reversed pyramid.
Another person, another person, Donald Trump. Donald Trump in his speeches,
in his tweets, all the time becoming to one pointed end. Horrible guy,
nasty woman, bad for America, and the Mexicans have to pay for the wall.
By the way, they didn’t pay till today. (Laughs)
OK, how to organize, how to create reversed pyramids?
This is the way of our talking and speaking from the beginning to
the end. And a successful funnel has to be organized from the end to the beginning,
from the end to the beginning. That means you have to know the punch point first.
You have to write it on the bottom of the paper and you have to know
the punch point first, even when you talk free, especially when you talk free.
So back to our daily business communication, you need one million.
Imagine... You make a slide deck for your chief, for your potential investor,
whatever. And in the executive summary, you write: “I need one million.”
That’s fine information, but
If you want to convince, you have to reverse the pyramid.
Access, altitude, punch, you remember,
and the punch line is: That’s why I need one million.
So, back to my initial four basic structures:
boring, confusing, informing, convincing.
You have to decide if you want to convince,
you should reverse the pyramid.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)