Crafting Your Speech: A Step-by-Step Guide to Defining Your Message
Is your message clear before you step in front of an audience?
Without clear boundaries and guidelines for a specific subject, discussions may lack depth on key points while simultaneously delving into excessive detail elsewhere.
When speaking at a Climate Change convention, rather than addressing Climate Change broadly, the speaker would likely focus on a specific aspect within the larger topic.
Having a clear focus will help the speaker create a powerful message that the audience will understand and remember.
Defining the message of the speech is an essential public speaking skill.
When I do this, the process I like to follow is nice and simple: Topic – Intention – Plan – Message.
Step 1. Identify Your Topic
Think about subjects that you are most passionate about or have extensive knowledge in.
A useful technique I once discovered for this purpose is the “Three Rs Test”: List down subjects and topics for which you’re Recognised by others, have achieved positive Results, and actively invest time in Researching.
Example: Communication is far too broad a topic to talk about, so in the past I have chosen ‘Communication in Sport’ as a topic due to a personal and professional interest in sports dynamics.
Step 2. Understand Your Audience
Who is the audience and what are their interests, needs, or problems related to the topic?
Understanding your audience is crucial for making your speech relevant and impactful.
Example: The audience I spoke to consisted of individuals within the commercial environment with a keen interest in sport that were looking to enhance their communication skills.
Step 3. Find Trends and/or Themes
Think about any specific trends, themes or even personal observations that are relevant to the topic which will make the speech more engaging and relevant.
Example: I used examples of how coaches and players communicated from the rugby and football World Cups.
Step 4. Determine the General Purpose of the Speech
What is the main goal of the speech?
Do you want to inform, persuade, entertain or achieve a mix of them all?
Example: The purpose I wanted to achieve was to inform the audience with the facts that I had, but also entertain them with stories and anecdotes.
There was also a small element of persuasion as the part of the purpose was to help people learn new ways to communicate in a team environment.
Step 5. Identify the key Outcome
Define what you want your audience to learn, feel, or do as a result of your speech. This should be a specific outcome that your speech is designed to achieve.
Example: The specific outcome for my audience was to learn the key benefits of interpersonal communication in a team or group environment.
Step 6. Identify a Problem or Need
Identify a specific problem, need, or gap in understanding that your speech can address. This makes your speech more valuable and practical for your audience.
Example: It had been established before I spoke that there was a need within the organisation for improved communication in leadership roles within team and group environments.
Step 7. Establish the Key Message for the Audience
Summarise the key message or what you want the audience to take away from the speech.
The message should capture the most important part of the speech and be directly related to the outcome of the speech.
Example: My key message was to highlight the importance of tailoring communication to individual team members by leaders.
After completing this simple process, this is what I’m left with:
Topic:
Communication in Sport
Intention:
To inform and persuade, with an entertaining delivery.
Plan:
To educate the audience about the key benefits of interpersonal communication in a team environment, specifically focusing on how leaders can tailor their communication to different individuals within the team.
Message:
The importance of tailoring how leaders communicate to different individuals in a group or team environment is crucial for enhancing team dynamics and overall performance.
This process took me some time to become familiar with, but it’s now the first point of call that I go to when I need to craft a speech, presentation or workshop.
Preparing for speeches this way gives me full confidence in what I’m saying.
It helps me create a clear message and establish the specific topic I’m going to speak about and gives me the focus and boundaries to ensure I don’t overcomplicate my message.
