What Rahul Dravid's talk on Bradman teaches us about Keynote speeches
School of Meaningful Experiences
SoME provides communication training programmes for working professionals, entrepreneurs and leaders across sectors.
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Ceremonial speeches are an amazing tool that offers insights into the topic, the speaker and their experiences.?
In this newsletter, let us analyse the speech that much loved Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid gave at the Sir Don Bradman Oration on December 11, 2011, in Canberra, Australia. He is the only Indian cricketer invited to do so, exemplifying the immense respect "The Wall" holds in the world of cricket.??
The main objective of this ceremony was to celebrate the life and legacy of Sir Don Bradman and honour his contributions to The Gentleman's Game.?
The keynote speaker is supposed to give a powerful speech that aligns with the topic, event and objectives. They are usually a distinguished member from various industries - IT, Corporate, Arts, Sports, etc. Usually, such events are planned months in advance, giving the keynote speaker plenty of time to prepare and live up to the expectations of the organisers and audiences who come to the ceremony. This is a tall order for any speaker worldwide, and Rahul Dravid nails it beautifully.
The speech is analysed in three ways:
a. The substance of the speech: This is judged by logic, examples, facts, and data and how they are structured together in words, sentences, and paragraphs. Also, whether the speech was accommodated in the allocated time and matched the context. ??
b. Overall speech should be approximately 6,400 words divided into approximately 450 sentences and 100 short paragraphs.?
c. The choice of words must be simple, connecting with the kind of audience present there and similar people worldwide.
d. In Dravid's speech, the first few paragraphs of the speech heralded Sir Don Bradman's legacy. The sentence, "He was a No.3 batsman. It is a tough, tough job." and many more sentences not just emphasised Bradman's quality but also seamlessly connected with Dravid's own experiences as a batsman. Many who did not watch Bradman, but did see Dravid at play, could now visualise how the former would have played.???
e. Dravid also did a great job connecting stories and anecdotes from his life to Sir Bradman's and spoke extensively of how he inspired other players to have good values. Here is one such paragraph,?
"One of the things Bradman said has stayed in my mind. That the finest of athletes had, along with skill, a few more essential qualities: to conduct their life with dignity, with integrity, with courage and modesty. All this, he believed, was totally compatible with pride, ambition, determination and competitiveness. Maybe those words should be put up in cricket dressing rooms all over the world."
f.Towards the end, Dravid also gives his views on how the sport is changing, its challenges, and his personal suggestions to solve them. This is also part of the ceremonial speech objective and allows the orator to be more persuasive and impactful and establishes them as thought leaders.???
2. Delivery of the speech: The second aspect of the analysis is how the speaker delivers the speech. This includes how they project their presence on the podium, appearance, style of speaking, facial expressions, the tonality of their voice, speed, diction, confidence and dozens of other parameters that work on audiences. Again, there is no one-size-fits-all here. Every speaker has their own style that may or may not work for their audience.?
a. Dravid speaks for approximately 37 minutes and 20 seconds. His speech rate was an average of 180 words a minute, calculated by a simple division of the number of words in his speech, available on many websites, with the overall time he spoke.?
b. He was very calm, which is also how he was on the field.
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c. Though the person who introduced him was dressed in a tuxedo, Dravid was a bit underdressed. He was wearing an Indian cricket team blazer and a simple tie. But he looked comfortable in his skin.?
d. His speech speed was about 180 words per minute which is a tad fast. This could also be because of his nervousness or being conscious of running out of time allotted to him.?
e. He was frugal with his smile and facial expressions. But again, that's his usual style, and he seemed to be in no need to pretend to be someone else.?
f. His tone was serious, and there wasn't much variety. He cracked a few jokes that worked quite well because of his frugal expression, brevity and timing.?
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3. Impact of the speech: The third aspect is how the audiences react to the talk. It is hard to analyse the impact on audiences because it is highly subjective to the person listening to it. Despite that, one may be able to gauge some parameters of how audiences react to speeches like these
Overall, this was a wonderful speech and Dravid prepared it well. Even after 12 years, the words to date seem fresh and relevant.??
Though oratory is just a fraction of our professional lives, practising it helps us be more confident, choose our words properly in conversations and conflicts, connect with audiences better and impact the world we live in positively.
Join our programmes from the School of Meaningful Experiences to better your communication skills. New batches start every month: https://www.some.education/program/programme-for-mid-managers
Watch the entire video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF2r-ui47ow&t=2335s
Transcript taken from Sportskeeda.Com
https://www.sportskeeda.com/cricket/transcript-of-rahul-dravids-speech-at-the-sir-donald-bradman-oration?Reported by Dibyasundar Nayak
A brief on what the Sir Don Bradman Oration is all about is at the wiki link below.?