Equity of Opportunity

If you want to be more inclusive towards a wider part of your audience, here are a few tips and ideas that will help.

1.???? Avoid addressing your audience as ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’. Instead find another way of greeting them, perhaps using the name of the event, organisation or city. Even Good morning/evening everyone would be better.

2.???? Remember that not everyone finds it easy to stand up so if you want them to do that, acknowledge that fact and suggest an alternative.

3.???? Not everyone likes to raise their hands in the air, high-five their partner or shout out answers so qualify any suggestions to do this and make it OK for them not to do it.

This short video gives a few more ideas and feel free to contact me with some of your own suggestions.

?

?

Story prompt of the week

‘What we need is some of that flat plastic tape that holds bundles of magazines together.’

Great idea, but where in the backstreets of Bangkok were we going to find that!

Having parked the car to show my brother one of Bangkok’s lesser known sights, I’d somehow managed to leave the keys inside.

It was at least 28 degrees in the midday sun and my 4month old baby, also with us, was due for a feed.

While my brother’s suggestion was a good one, I didn’t rate our chances of finding any of that tape. In the absence of a better idea, and with no mobile phone back then, we wandered along the road, somewhat aimlessly yet hopefully.

And then we spotted it! An abandoned strip of bright turquoise flat plastic tape. How on earth it had made it’s way into the gutter we’ll never know.

Thank you, thank you, thank you universe!

It was a tricky manoeuvre but somehow my brother managed to make a loop with the tape, slide it through the edge of the door and hook it over the locking button on the door. With bated breath, he carefully pulled the tape more firmly until the button popped up. We were in!!!

One contented baby and 2 adults still not quite able to take in what had just happened.

?

How you could use a similar story:

Sharing a story like this of a time when you found yourself in a challenging situation, perhaps caused, as in this one, by a stupid mistake or oversight, introduces an element of humanity and vulnerability.

Most people will be able to relate to a similar story, whether it’s the locked car, a hungry baby or running out of options in a tricky situation so you and your story immediately become relatable.

Why or when would you tell it? It would usually need to be relevant to your main content so could be an example of ingenuity, luck being on your side, the benefits of staying calm in a crisis, etc.

In terms of crafting the story, it’s important to pick a starting point that piques interest. I’ve chosen one that will likely raise curiosity and get more interest than simply saying ‘I was taking my brother on a tour of Bangkok when we stopped to look at…’

There’s always more than one interesting starting point. An alternative in this case would have been ‘It was at least 28 degrees in the midday sun and my 4month old baby was due for a feed.’ ?Generally, look for a point of tension.

?

If you’d like to explore how I can help you identify, craft and deliver some of your stories, get in touch.

?

?

Different perspectives, different stories

This speech is a great example of the story not only illustrating the key message but actually being the key message. It’s all about the speaker’s early exposure to ableism and lowered expectations, possibly before they were even named as such.

While her story is the backbone to the whole piece, she tells it at pace, giving little time for reflection or empathy to take place. This works well for a TED talk but for a business talk I would recommend taking more time over the story.

With no doubt many more examples she could have included, she makes a good move by focusing in on the key turning points in her life. This creates a natural flow to the story and the speech as a whole.

Although her story is one of personal success she takes care not to celebrate that success, as doing so would have undermined her whole point about expectations. Without her injury, the expectations for her career opportunities would have been entirely different and quite possibly in line with what she has achieved.

She uses wry humour in talking about the ongoing stigma she experiences which is a skilful technique. Having taken her audience to a point where they are likely to feel frustration, even anger, about the situation, it’s important to lighten the mood and to diffuse that kind of emotion. Her use of humour does that.

In conclusion, her story and message are intertwined and she delivers it with candour so that it packs a punch.

Disclaimer:

Many of the videos I feature in this section are of TED or TEDx talks for which the underlying theme is ‘an idea worth sharing.’

I think it’s important to state that my reviews and suggestions are focused on the examples of storytelling in these talks and are NOT a review of the speech as a whole.

When making suggestions of how the story could be told differently, I’m in no way wanting to imply criticism of the speaker but rather to suggest how you, my reader could craft your stories into your talks, more likely for a business purpose which might be quite different from the TED/TEDx purpose.

?

Briefly speaking:

Don’t open too many themes in your presentation only to run out of time to conclude them.

?

In the spotlight

There’s still time to book one or more of my 90 minute Pitstop sessions at the summer offer price of just ￡147 (saving of ￡100).

You can use your session to work on any aspect of your story or your speaking skills.

The offer closes on Saturday 31st August and you can book your session/s here – to be taken at a time to suit you.

?

How else I can help you

?

Keynote speaker – Achieving approachable leadership through strategic storytelling. Leadership/wellbeing/organisational health/cultural change.

Book me to speak

?

Story mining – helping you identify your ‘How’ and other stories.

Speech development – working with you on structuring, creating or tweaking your signature talks.

Trainer/facilitator – on public speaking and communication skills.

Away-day facilitator – running ice-breaker sessions for your team development events.

Speaker coach - one on one or group coaching.

Communication coach - one on one or group coaching.

Work with me

?

?