Do you remember Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats?
Recently I was speaking to a younger client, and I mentioned Edward De Bono to him. He immediately interjected, ‘Who’s he?’ De Bono’s book was originally published in 1985, but it has long been held in high esteem in the corporate world across the globe. I was fascinated by this apparent loss of wisdom and knowledge!
In writing my recent book, Gravitas: Timeless Skills to Communicate with Confidence and Build Trust, I had the opportunity to reopen my study of ancient rhetoric – as understood by Greeks and Romans – and share some of their knowledge and wisdom (far more ancient than Six Thinking Hats, but wisdom is wisdom), including the effect of memory when it comes to delivering a strong, powerful presentation in the business world.
You see, those ancients actually knew how to remember a presentation – these are skills that they were taught from childhood on and which the best orators practiced religiously. They knew that powerful presentations are never:
That’s because these ways of delivering a presentation simply don’t work.
You may not realise it, but engaging with a group and reading a piece of paper are two completely different eye foci. One is expanded awareness, and the other is focused on a point. It’s just not possible to switch between the two more than a couple of times fast.
Sometimes we think ‘I’ll have the notes there, just in case’. But once they’re in front of you, you find that you’re just reading them off. Frustrated, you have to make a choice – just read the notes or dump them completely. But because you’re not prepared for either, your presentation suffers.
Rote memory – isn’t that what actors do? Well, yes. They do, but they also have a classic six weeks of rehearsal before a show (plus a lifetime of training). You don’t have that luxury.
When you learn and deliver your presentation by rote, without the proper training and rehearsal time, your presentation inevitably suffers. You either forget things or sound like an automaton – or both.
Many, many presenters prefer to ‘make it up as they go’. Sure, improvisation is wonderful, but not from whoa to go! If you don’t have a structure in place, and a strong guide to take you from point to point, you’re going to walk away with a significant portion of your presentation undelivered. And that means a significant portion of your impact will be undelivered as well.
If you’re doing any of these things, I want you to know that it’s not your fault. You’re probably exhausted and frustrated with recreating the wheel, because so much of the knowledge around presentation delivery is left out of our education. But we can fix this – starting by embracing sound memory tools.
For me, when I present, I use the same structure every time. Not the content, but the structure. While structure could be an entire article in and of itself, we can content ourselves here by saying that when you choose and craft your presentation’s structure, you need to keep the needs or your audience at the forefront of your mind. What challenges do they face? What problems can you solve?
Having this in place allows you to create a structure that is packaged in a way that is optimally digestible to your audience.
One of the best memory techniques that I have is the ‘rule of three’. The ancients referred to this in Latin as omne trium perfectum, which means everything in three is perfect.
Three things are memorable for you, and they are memorable for your audience. This is because human beings respond to patterns (and while two isn’t a pattern, three is), and because three creates an imbalance that allows you to build in comparison or change. In other words, either all three things go together, or one won’t – and that one will stand out in comparison.
Finally, most people – including you as you deliver your presentation – can remember three things at the same time. The US Marine Corps uses the Rule of 3 in organising its squads for this reason.
While AI has a lot of uses, if you don’t prepare your own presentation (and I mean from the ground up), it simply won’t be memorable to you. It’s like trying to remember someone else’s words, instead of your own. It simply won’t resonate.
One of the best memory tools in my tool bag is to combine your memory with the way you deliver. This can involve using visual aids to back up your structure with pictures or short phrases on slides. Using props – including your own movements on the stage – help you remember what comes next in your speech.
Gestures are also vital. Apart from freeing the body and guiding the eyes of others, gestures are a brilliant memory tool. Use your arms and the space around you to remember information. Place your hand high for one piece of information, halfway down your body for another and then low for another. You’ll be surprised how the body can guide the mind.
Finally, the alphabet and acronyms working together are a fantastic memory aid. For instance, you might want to list ‘three reasons why businesses need change’ in your presentation. These might be first, the time is right. Second, the cost is right. And third, all staff are looking for something different. So, using the alphabet/acronyms memory tool this would be ‘T’ for time, ‘C’ for cost and ‘A’ for all. Now you simply have to remember the word ‘CAT’.
The ancients had it right. A well-prepared, engagingly delivered presentation will always resonate more deeply than one that is boringly read, memorised by rote, or waffled through via improvisation. By utilising structured approaches, embracing the rule of three, and focusing on delivery skills, you can significantly improve your recall, and therefore, your impact.
Dr Louise Mahler is a global expert in communication and body language and the author of the book Gravitas: Timeless Skills to Communicate with Confidence and Build Trust.
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Dr Louise Mahler is a global expert in communication and body language, a leading international keynote speaker, and author of Gravitas: Timeless Skills to Communicate with Confidence and Build Trust. A highly sought-after media commentator, Mahler is a regular contributor to Sunrise, The Today Show, SBS, the ABC, as well as radio stations across Australia and for international and Australian print media. Mahler has a PhD in business focusing on leadership communication and in 2023 was named an adjunct professor of Federation University Australia.
