Philip Collins - The art of speeches and presentations: the secrets of making people remember what you say

Philip Collins is a columnist on The Times , chair of the Board of Trustees of the think-tank Demos and chief executive of High Windows Ltd, a speech-writing company. He was, until 2007, the Chief Speech Writer to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He has also worked as an investment banker and ran the Social Market Foundation, a political think tank. Since leaving Downing Street, he has written speeches for many chief executives in the corporate and voluntary sectors and for many senior government ministers. He writes a regular column analyzing important speeches for The Times .

This edition first published 2012

2012 Philip Collins

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Collins, Philip, 1967

The art of speeches and presentations : the secrets of making people remember what you say / Philip Collins.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-71184-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Public speaking. I. Title.

PN4129.15.C63 2012 2012004083

808.5'1dc23

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-470-71184-2 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-470-71194-1 (ebk)

ISBN 978-0-470-71195-8 (ebk) ISBN 978-0-470-71193-4 (ebk)

To Hari and Mani, who are already teaching me about the art of argument

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My professional thanks are due to three sets of people. First, my colleagues in Downing Street where I had the privilege of being able to enact everything I had learnt about writing a speech for the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Second, great thanks are due to The Times , whose generosity as an employer has allowed me the time off my duties there to write this book. I also owe a debt of thanks to The Times for granting me the space to analyse prominent speeches in its pages. Its a privilege to do so and the interest that these pieces have generated shows that rhetoric continues to fascinate people.

Third, to Brendan Barnes and the team at Speakers for Business who have helped to put together the speech-writing symposium at which I have tested the ideas contained in this book. My thanks are due to the people who came to those classes, for their stimulating thoughts and responses. For research assistance, my great thanks to Claudia Wood.

My personal debt of gratitude is much greater. Suffice to say that it is owed to an extended family but most of all to Geeta, Hari and Mani.

INTRODUCTION:
ATTENTION TO DETAIL

A man steps forward out of the dark, alone, trailed by a spotlight. He walks slowly towards the podium which is the only thing that decorates the otherwise naked stage. He is being watched, not just by the two thousand people in the auditorium, all of whom are gripped by excitement, but by millions more watching as the event is broadcast live on television.

He walks into a strange isolation, for he knows, as does his audience, that he is about to beg their undivided attention for at least 25 minutes, probably more. There is no other setting in which we permit anyone to speak, uninterrupted, for so long. Yet this is precisely the exchange that we, as audience members, have licensed by our presence in the auditorium.

Some part of the audience is inquisitive, hoping to learn something; some part is sceptical, reluctant to be persuaded; and some part is eager, hoping to be inspired. Then there are audience members who are already bored, hoping, but not expecting, merely to hear something that retains their attention. Interest groups or rival firms or jealous colleagues are all paying particular mind, hopeful that the event will yield some advantage to their cause, even if that means you falling flat on your face, which will at least be amusing.

Soon enough, either simultaneous with delivery or very soon afterwards, the address will be enmeshed in a web of different technologies. If it is a major speech, it will be cut up and analysed for the news bulletins on television. It will be written up selectively for the newspapers the following morning. There may be a sketch of the speech, in which the writer picks out the one aspect that has gone wrong or is easily lampooned. Although the days in which speeches were published verbatim, without commentary, have gone for good, the speech may even be analysed in some depth with the best and worst passages highlighted and scrutinized.

Even if the occasion is not one that warrants the attention of the nation, it will rapidly be found in other contexts. The days when the speech existed solely as a transaction between the speaker and those in the audience are largely past. A transcript of the speech will probably be made available on an intranet, where the occasion will no doubt be broadcast. If it is not broadcast in real time, a recording of the occasion, certainly aural and probably visual, will be loaded onto the website later to the rest of the company sitting at their desks. Many speeches are multi-media events at the moment they occur. A transcript of the text may be circulated to members of an extensive corporate email distribution list.