Power_ Why Some People Have Itand Others Don't - Jeffrey Pfeffer [63]
3. Use a list of three items, or enumerations in general. “One of the main attractions of three-part lists is that they have an air of unity and completeness about them.”29 Lists make a speaker appear as if he or she has thought about the issue and the alternatives and considered all sides thoroughly.
4. Use contrastive pairs, comparing one thing to another and using passages that are similar in length and grammatical structure. The contrast is strategically chosen to make a point. During the heated debate over health-care reform in 2009, opponents of government involvement would pose the question: Do you want your health-care decisions being made by you and your doctor or by some government bureaucrat? Proponents would employ a different contrast: Do you want greedy insurance companies who drop people when they get sick and exclude preexisting conditions deciding on your care, or would you like to leave those decisions to you and your doctor? The use of contrast as a rhetorical device relies in part on the “us versus them” construct, but it also invites explicit comparison that is structured to be favorable to the ideas advocated by the speaker.
5. Avoid using a script or notes. If you speak without aids, the implication is that you have a mastery of the subject and are spontaneous. In addition, not using notes or a script permits the speaker to maintain eye contact with the audience. Jack Valenti of the MPAA testified often before Congress. He commented that many of those testifying used notes. He didn’t, as he wanted the language to be vibrant and spontaneous and to illustrate his mastery of the issues. As he put it, “If you can’t speak five minutes without a note in front of you, about a subject you know cold, you’re not working at your job.”30 The use of PowerPoint presentations is effective in executing this strategy, as the presumption is that the presentation is there for the audience rather than the speaker.
To Atkinson’s list of speaking tips I would add one important suggestion: use humor to the extent possible and appropriate. As the novelist Salman Rushdie noted on a radio program, “If you make people laugh, you can tell them anything.”31 Humor is disarming and also helps create a bond between you and your audience through a shared joke. When Ronald Reagan ran for reelection in 1984 against Minnesota senator Walter Mondale, he was the oldest person who had ever run in a presidential election (John McCain in 2008 would be older when he ran). During one of the presidential debates, Reagan was asked if he thought age would be an issue in the campaign. Reagan replied, with a smile, that he would not make an issue out of his opponent’s youth and inexperience. Everyone laughed as Reagan used humor to diffuse a potentially troublesome issue and transform a serious concern into a laughing matter.
Sentence structure is also important for making language persuasive. During the 2004 presidential election, University of Illinois professor Stanley Fish had his students examine some of the speeches of the two candidates, George W. Bush and John Kerry. The students perceived Bush to be more effective, regardless of their own political views. Bush would be begin with a simple declarative sentence, “Our strategy is succeeding.” Bush would also use the repetition of sounds. As Fish noted, “There is of course no logical relationship between the repetition of a sound [as in alliteration] and the soundness of an argument, but if it is skillfully employed, repetition can enhance a logical point or even the illusion of one when none is present.”32 By contrast, Kerry would use more convoluted sentence structure and words that did not seem presidential (for instance, “stupid”). Kerry often presumed his audience had information he had yet to provide.
We often avoid situations in which we feel uncomfortable, but if we are going to get better at talking and acting with power, there is no substitute for experience. Seek out opportunities to make presentations for your company, give talks at clubs or professional