bill gates
Effectiveness through Understandability
January 29, 2008 Filed in: Delivery
Earlier this month, Seattlepi.com ran a comparative language analysis of
Steve Jobs' and Bill Gates' keynotes for
Macworld Expo and CES respectively. Simply put,
Steve Jobs rated as the easier speaker to
understand, and the site attributes this as a
factor in Mr. Jobs' overall effectiveness as a
speaker.
The language we use when speaking can either help us connect with our audience or distance ourselves from them. How many times have you groaned in a seminar of conference room presentation when something like this flits through the air?
Speech like this requires so much time to digest and translate that the meaning is lost before it is reached. (To be fair, the above example is pure gibberish.) Kathy Sierra refers to one who speaks like this as a glib and as someone who should be ignored at all costs. Deep down, I think we already know this, and an audience is more likely to tune out a speaker following this pattern than engage him or her.
When giving a public presentation, think about how you are sating what you are saying. If you are using Microsoft Word to draft your talk, use the built-in Flesch-Kincaid readability scale. Easier to understand passages rate closer to 100 in Flesch Reading Ease, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level gives you an approximation of the vocabulary level.
readability statistics in Word
Communicate clearly. Eliminate buzzwords, excessive acronyms, and unnecessary jargon from your speech. Think of how you would converse with the individuals in your audience, and take that approach to communicating your ideas. Remember, for anyone to connect with your presentation, they must first be able to understand it.
The language we use when speaking can either help us connect with our audience or distance ourselves from them. How many times have you groaned in a seminar of conference room presentation when something like this flits through the air?
bizarre buzz-speak courtesy of Corporate IspsumWe can phosfluorescently redefine out-of-the-box best practices before timely expertise and efficiently re-engineer inexpensive e-tailers with focused customer service. This allows us to enthusiastically synergize ubiquitous benefits for interactive methodologies.
In this, we credibly visualize integrated experiences through vertical best practices, giving us leverage to enthusiastically generate empowered technology and holistic total linkage and assertively redefine resource-leveling solutions via accurate potentialities.
Speech like this requires so much time to digest and translate that the meaning is lost before it is reached. (To be fair, the above example is pure gibberish.) Kathy Sierra refers to one who speaks like this as a glib and as someone who should be ignored at all costs. Deep down, I think we already know this, and an audience is more likely to tune out a speaker following this pattern than engage him or her.
When giving a public presentation, think about how you are sating what you are saying. If you are using Microsoft Word to draft your talk, use the built-in Flesch-Kincaid readability scale. Easier to understand passages rate closer to 100 in Flesch Reading Ease, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level gives you an approximation of the vocabulary level.
readability statistics in Word
Communicate clearly. Eliminate buzzwords, excessive acronyms, and unnecessary jargon from your speech. Think of how you would converse with the individuals in your audience, and take that approach to communicating your ideas. Remember, for anyone to connect with your presentation, they must first be able to understand it.
Learning from Bill & Steve
October 01, 2007 Filed in: Links
Presentation Zen: Learning from Bill
Gates & Steve
x
Garr Reynolds posts another great comparison between the presentation styles of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, focusing on the contrast between Bill Gates' formal tone of presentation and Steve Jobs' conversational tone as well as their visual styles. While the two presentations he's citing are very different, he shares some very useful insights (and be sure to read the comments for some good continued discussion).
x
Garr Reynolds posts another great comparison between the presentation styles of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, focusing on the contrast between Bill Gates' formal tone of presentation and Steve Jobs' conversational tone as well as their visual styles. While the two presentations he's citing are very different, he shares some very useful insights (and be sure to read the comments for some good continued discussion).