Spontaneous Words Matter in 1 Speech

Scripts are out. Spontaneous is in.

I recently came across a column by Ted Gioia, who calls himself The Honest Broker. He wrote that the recent presidential election showed that giving speeches from a teleprompter isn’t effective anymore and ”The word ‘scripted’ is now an insult. Plainspoken dialogue is considered more trustworthy.”

Gioia then goes on to list six new rules of engagement:

1. You gain more trust when seated, not standing.

2. Don’t speak at people—speak with them.

3. An informal tone is more persuasive now. Even leaders must adjust to this.

4. Conversations have more influence than speeches.

5. Spontaneous communications delivered from a personal standpoint are considered more “real” than a script created by a team or speechwriter.

6. Soundbites and talking points are less impactful than storytelling, humor, and off-the-cuff comments.

“We could debate endlessly whether this is good for society,” Gioia wrote. “But the more significant fact is that this is now inevitable.” The italics are his.

Some people might say that Donald Trump’s speaking style proves Gioia correct in five of his six rules. Trump speaks at people, is far more informal, talks in a conversational style (aka “the weave”), hates to use a teleprompter, and speaks of the cuff.

For speechwriters, Gioia’s words might sound like a death knell. I believe otherwise, and it’s his last two points I want to emphasize.

Spontaneous communications delivered from a personal standpoint are considered more “real” than a script created by a team or speechwriter.

Anyone who is a good speechwriter knows that the more prepared you are, the more spontaneous you can sound without being spontaneous.

I recently gave a speech about ghostwriting, and I used parts of my website as the script. OK, that’s the formal part. When it came time for the question-and-answer period about speech writing services, I used other parts of the website as talking points. It came off as spontaneous because it wasn’t part of my speech. But it wasn’t spontaneous at all. It was carefully planned.

More recently, I was at a memorial service and reunited with former networking members. They asked me what I did. I proceeded to tell them about ghostwriting, again using my website as my script. It looked off the cuff, but because I knew what I had written so well, it wasn’t.

Soundbites and talking points are less impactful than storytelling, humor, and off-the-cuff comments.

Research by cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner showed that stories are 22 times more memorable than facts. A Nielsen study showed our brains are far more engaged by storytelling than by cold, hard facts. The brain processes images 60 times faster, so when we hear a story, not only do the language parts of our brains light up, but so do the parts of the brain that we would use if we were actually experiencing what the speaker is telling us. This means it’s far easier for us to remember stories than hard facts.

Storytelling and humor liven up your words and make them more powerful. You take the audience on a journey. It’s real easy to set the scene, introduce the characters and conflict, arrive at a solution, and envision what’s next. I recently spoke at a networking event in which I told stories about what I’ve learned in ghostwriting, using past blog posts. I didn’t have the words in front of me. I knew the stories well enough that I could just talk to people—and wouldn’t you know it, nobody got on their phones. Everybody listened intently, including people who usually go to their phones.

Again, preparation is the key. The better you know your audience and the words you want to say, the better you can weave stories without looking at notes and make it look spontaneous  and off the cuff.

I think Gioia’s on to something. I also think it’s not the end of effective speechwriting.

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