[MUSIC]
Today, I want to share a story about my name.
I see a little bit of confusion out there, but
I just think this is a good way to get to know me a little bit better.
Needless to say, I'm not an expert in Hindu mythology.
But some of the stories I've heard tell me that Dhruva was once the son of a king
whose second wife refused to counter in letting him sit on his lap.
As someone who was, I think, an ardent devotee of the god Vishnu,
Dhruva refused to abide by this injustice.
And marshalled all of his perseverance, devotion,
steadfastness, and fearlessness,
to enter a six month meditative trance with access to neither food nor water.
The austerity of this meditation shook the heavens, and
Vishnu came down to ask Dhruva the stated desire.
However, having already renounced both family and all desires,
Dhruva found himself unable to utter a word.
Touched, Vishnu decreed that, Dhruva could maybe become
a celestial body, visible to all the world forevermore.
I was terrible with that, how many of you disconnected, show of hands?
How many, how many?
How many wanted to disconnect, the nicer ones out there?
>> [LAUGH] >> A lot of us make a few simple mistakes,
like the ones that riddle the story I just shared.
And these mistakes have two horrible impacts.
They reduce the credibility of both our message, and us as individuals.
That's why Christina, Jules, Fanna and
myself want to talk to you about Powerful Words today.
And specifically,
we want to share three strategies that can help make each of us better speakers.
The first, keep it simple, the second, get to the point.
And finally, be confident, be direct.
To illustrate the power of these admittedly extremely central techniques,
let me redo the story I just shared.
People often ask me what my name means.
According to the Indian tradition, there was once a child who prayed so
deeply, he was eternally remembered as the North Star, or Dhruva [INAUDIBLE].
And with that, I hand it over to Cristina, to talk about simplicity.
>> [LAUGH] >> So as Dhruva was saying,
the first rule of powerful speaking is simplicity.
Keep it simple, often when we're nervous or
if we're feeling insecure about a topic, we're tempted to use really big words.
Because we think it'll make us sound smart.
I'm here to tell you to resist that urge.
And we'll start with a video of Joey Tribiani from Friends.
>> Whatcha working on?
>> Monica and Chandler's recommendation.
I want it to sound smart, but I don't know any big words or anything.
>> Well, why don't you just use your thesaurus?
>> What did I just say?
>> [LAUGH] >> Watch, here,
you highlight the word you want to change.
Go under tools and the thesaurus generates, it gives.
>> [LAUGH] >> Gives a whole list of choices.
You can pick the word that sounds smartest.
>> My God, that's great!
I'm smart, no, no, I'm brainy, bright, clever.
I love this thing!
>> [LAUGH] >> Look out ladies,
Joey Tribbiani's got the whole package.
>> [LAUGH] >> So we've all been here, we're tempted
to do this because we want to sound smart, we want to be credible.
But actually the experts all agree that simple short words are much more powerful.
For example, if you want to use the word utilize.
How about just, use?
Or if you find yourself wanting to say commence.
Consider, start, this applies for so many words.
Think of every time you wanted to say assist or facilitate.
How about just, help?
Easier words are much easier for you to say,
and so you end up coming across much more polished.
And you'll get through your speech in a much better way.
But also, easier words are easier for your audience to understand.
So I'll use an example from politicians,
because politicians have a vested interest in you understanding what they're saying.
And feeling like they're credible and smart and being persuaded.
And yet I find that politicians especially get into this mess.
So I'll share a quote by John Kerry.
We need a new approach to national security.
A bold, progressive, internationalism that stands in stuck contrast to the too
often belligerent and myopic unilateralism of the Bush administration.
>> [LAUGH] >> I think I know what he's talking about,
but that was a little bit of a little to say.
And I also end up a little bit confused.
Let's compare this with Barack Obama also talking about foreign policy.
Since World War II, some of our most costly mistakes came not from restraint,
but from our willingness to rush in to military adventures
without thinking through the consequences.
So much better, so simple words.
They're easier to say, much easier for your audience to understand.
But they also make you sound more credible.
If you think about the best technical speeches you've ever heard,
they were probably great because the speaker was able to distill the idea
into its core simple message.
When you use big words, you just end up sounding pretentious.
So to end the point on simplicity, we'll go back to Joey for a minute.
>> [INAUDIBLE] Understand.
>> [LAUGH] >> Some of the words a little
too sophisticated for you?
>> [LAUGH] >> It doesn't make any sense.
>> Of course it does, it's smart, I used a thesaurus.
>> [LAUGH] >> On every word?
>> [LAUGH] >> Yep.
>> [LAUGH] >> What was this sentence originally?
>> They're warm, nice people with big hearts.
>> And that became they're humid, prepossessing Homo sapiens with
full-sized aortic pumps.
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]
>> Simply don't do this, keep it simple.
And now Jules is going to walk us through rule number two.
>> So, rule number two is brevity, get to the point.
Now, before we can learn how we can get to the point,
the first step is to recognize our tendencies.
So, many of us have three tendencies that keep us from being brief.
The first tendency is over explaining.
How many of you have remembered the movie Clueless?
Wow, well, for those of you who don't remember or haven't seen it,
it's a lighthearted comedy about a high school girl who's mostly ditzy,
but sometimes brilliant.
When the star was asked what Clueless is about, this was what she said.
I think that the film Clueless was very deep.
I think it was deep in the way that it was very light.
I think lightness has to come from a very deep place, if it's true lightness.
>> [LAUGH] >> To be fair, Alicia Silverstone,
at that time, was only 18 years old.
But how many times have we been in the audience and
seen people over-explain what they wanted to say?
Second tendency to recognize that all of us have underprepared.
And I'm sure this rings true these couple of weeks
as final assignments are pilling up for all of us.
So I wanted to share a short clip actually from 1988 about
a politician who was laughably underprepared.
>> [INAUDIBLE] >> Okay.
What he did, since we can't access it right now,
was that he essentially said that, we're in this era.
No, wait, wait, wait.
We're not in this era, we fought in World War II in this century.
Wait, wait, wait.
We didn't actually fight in World War II, and it was last century that we lived in.
>> [LAUGH] >> It was extremely convoluted,
and this is a politician who was standing up in front of a press corps.
Who couldn't even show that he had properly prepared for this interview.
The third tendency is for us to miss the point.
I think many of us, when we're having to answer off the cuff, tend to ramble,
think aloud, and end up missing the point.
And the video that I was going to show [LAUGH] perhaps would have
been something that many of us, especially those who are Americans would remember.
It's the video by John Kerry when he uttered the difficult,
the memorable words, binders of women.
So, if you will recall, he was asked in the 2012 presidential debate about how
he wanted to make sure that women could have an equal place in the work place?
He rambled, he talked about how he had scouted for
all many women to be part of the interview process.
And he ended up with, and then I had a binder full of women.
Completely missing the point and
being memed throughout the 2012 presidential election.
But now that we know our three tendencies,
what do we need to do in order to be brief and get to the point?
So it's just three simple steps.
First, map your message, remember the forest.
Step back and see the forest for the trees.
What is the message that you want the audience to take away?
Second step, start with your headline.
Tell the audience, straight up, what the forest is, what your message is.
Third step, trim away all excess detail.
Ask yourself scrupulously, is this sentence necessary?
Is this phrase necessary, is this word necessary?
And with that, hopefully we wouldn't commit this error.
As Mark Twain said, I didn't have time to write a short letter, so
I wrote a long one instead.
So, with that, I'll pass it over to Fanna to talk about the third rule.
>> Confidence, be confident, be direct.
So the GSB coaches us how to dress confident, how to stand confident.
And we will now add on that by showing you how to talk more confident.
For this part of the presentation, I need your help.
I need you to please listen to two examples from my teammates.
And help me decide which one of them sounds more confident.
You up for that plan?
>> Sure.
>> [LAUGH].
>> Audrey's music video was so lovely to watch.
>> I just wanted to say that Audrey's music video was so lovely to watch.
>> [INAUDIBLE] >> Our first step is drop the word just.
If you use just, it minimizes your statement, and
can make you sound defensive or even apologetic.
A tip to get over this is go back to your written communication, read through it,
identify where you use just, delete it.
Reread the statement, and you will see how much more powerful this sounds.
Over time take that tendency and transfer it to your real time communication.
And just in case you use just, channel [INAUDIBLE] and Nike and
remember, just do it.
So don't use just, just do it.
>> [LAUGH] >> Let's look at another example.
>> I'm no expert in this, but Burt's suggestions for pitching were great.
>> Burt's suggestions for pitching were great.
>> This was a easy one?
>> [LAUGH] >> Qualifiers, drop the qualifiers.
If you use qualifiers, you negate the credibility of your own statement.
At times, we all have to give observation or opinion that might turn out wrong.
But if you start off by pointing out why you're going to be wrong
before you've said what's going to be wrong, you're just wasting words.
So in the interest of time, I'm going to speed up a little bit.
The tip to get over the qualifiers is to remember you are already qualified.
No matter where you go, what situation,
you will bring a unique perspective that will add value to that conversation.
As I said, we have little time.
So quickly to get to Q and A, another one to drop is I think,
rather use I expect, I'm convinced, or I believe.
The tip to get over it is keep calm and rephrase.
Take a few seconds, breathe in, and then say what you need to do.
The last one is I can't versus I won't.
This one is much more subtle, but
you can make a much more powerful impression by using I won't.
It gives you the opportunity to plant accuracy and dependence and control.
Can't is passive, I won't is active.
The tip to get over this is remember President Obama, he said yes we can.
Remember, yes you can, but you won't.
>> [LAUGH].
>> So in summary, remember to keep it simple, to keep it brief, and
to deliver with confidence.
So with that, let's open it up for Q & A.
[MUSIC]