I’ve been doing some webinars on public speaking technique: helping people write words for speaking, not words for reading.  One of the things I’ve learned is the Power of Contrast.

One exercise involved drafting a short speech (some four minutes max) on The Main Problem facing the UN, as if opening a serious gathering on that subject. The idea was that one participant would draft the speech and another would deliver it: this would show everyone how exactly different ways of attacking the subject and laying out the words on the page influence the outcome, the way the speaker communicates with the audience.

I had a go myself, in partnership with a course participant. This is what emerged, where the asterisks indicate a pause by the speaker:

The Main Problem Facing the UN

Distinguished Guests. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome!

* * * * *

Suppose you’re the new UN Secretary General.

What would you do differently?

Suppose you’re a Head of State, or Government.

What do you want from the UN?

* * * * *

You know? People ask me these questions.

And I don’t know what to say!

* * * * *

I DO know ONE THING!

It’s easy enough to list what’s not quite right.

* * * * *

Start at the top.

The UN’s systems and approach go back to 1945.

Today it’s 2017!

Would we choose the same, five Permanent members, all with veto powers today?

I just have a feeling we wouldn’t!

So one problem is right at the top of the UN system.

Legitimacy …

When you start to analyse really closely what’s going on here, the key idea is ‘contrast’. Different ways of contrasting things helps the speaker give the ideas energy and interest.

Let’s break it down.

The Main Problem Facing the UN

Distinguished Guests. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome!

* * * * *

No messing around with extended greetings/thanks. Straight to it. Contrast: a second ago you were there. Now you’re HERE!

Suppose you’re the new UN Secretary General.

What would you do differently?

Suppose you’re a Head of State, or Government.

What do you want from the UN?

* * * * *

Several contrasts here. Taking the audience somewhere quite (for them) unexpected, then asking a bold direct question of them.

What would you do differently? Contrast: what is <–> what might be.

You know? People ask me these questions.

And I don’t know what to say!

Contrast: I’ve just asked you these questions. But I too get asked them!

Contrast: you think I have the answers? I don’t!

I DO know ONE THING!

It’s easy enough to list what’s not quite right.

* * * * *

Contrast: What I don’t know <–> what I do know.

Contrast: Hard v easy

Contrast: What’s not right <–> what implicitly is accepted

Start at the top.

The UN’s systems and approach go back to 1945.

Today it’s 2017!

Contrast: then <–> now, Past <–> Present

Would we choose the same, five Permanent members, all with veto powers today?

I just have a feeling we wouldn’t!

Contrast: what we did <–> what needs to be changed, or now makes sense if done differently.

So one problem is right at the top of the UN system.

Legitimacy …

Contrast: Just where you might expect things to be the best they can possibly be (ie right at the top) there’s a big wide issue that maybe affects everything negatively. Fair <–> unfair.

And so on. The speech in a similar vein identifies two other plump problems: Resources and Effectiveness.

It ends thusly:

Your ideas today go into the UN system. At a senior level.

What will happen to them? I’m not sure.

* * * * *

Maybe THIS is the main problem facing the UN.

Confidence! … Confidence

The confidence to change.

* * * * *

Thank you.

Note the meta-contrast here. The speech has taken the audience methodically to think about Legitimacy, Resources and Effectiveness as the UN’s main problems. All fair enough. But then right at the end they are abruptly dropped, in favour of something even broader and more human and utterly unexpected. Confidence.

* * * * *

This whole public speaking business is complicated. There’s so much going on. A speechwriter takes Life and writes down ideas on a page that a speaker has to use to talk to a load of people s/he has probably never met. Deft intellectual and emotional fine-tuning is required at every stage to get a good result.

To make any speech or presentation interesting, a speaker needs to convey ideas simply with energy and variation. Right at the heart of doing that well is the idea of contrast. Sometimes contrast within contrast within contrast.

Cleverly worked contrasts, both implicit and explicit, in the words/ideas on the page help a speaker give added human emphasis on the day through tone, intensity, body language, pauses and so on.

Note too how different ways of laying out the page make a big difference to the ease of the speaker in adding emphasis, irony, repetition on the day for extra effect. Short sentences! Play with format.

In short? Contrast is just another way of delivering the magic potion of all public speaking: surprise.

What are they expecting?

Don’t give them that.