Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #1: How Schools Kill Creativity (Ken Robinson)

TEDTalk countdown: the #1 most-watched video on TED. Video and Transcript The Big Idea:  “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” The overall construct of the speech:  Loosely persuasive, using humor and stories/examples to increase receptivity for his message. Not perfect:  Some digressions. This […]

Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #4: My Stroke of Insight (Jill Bolte Taylor)

Video and Transcript TEDTalk Countdown:  the #4 most-watched video on TED (2008) The Big Idea: Spend more time choosing to “run the deep inner-peace circuitry of the brain’s right hemisphere.” The overall construct of the speech: A story of insight arising from tragedy. Jill Bolte Taylor, brain researcher, had the opportunity of a lifetime when […]

Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #8: Underwater Astonishments (David Gallo)

This is the third in a series of 10 posts, looking at  public speaking lessons from each of the top 10-most viewed TED Talks. video and transcript For five and a half minutes, I was transported to the wonder years of my childhood. Mesmerized by the biodiversity of undersea life just as I was as […]

Speaking Tips from TEDTalk #9: The SixthSense Interaction (Pattie Maes)

Video and transcript here The Big Idea:  An inexpensive, wearable device (SixthSense) can interact with our environment to give us easy access to relevant information to help us make better decisions. The overall construct of the speech:  A demonstration, mostly via video.  The demonstration was of a device that functioned somewhat like Google Glass, but […]

Speaking Tips from TED Talk #10 The Puzzle of Motivation (Dan Pink)

This is the first in a series of 10 posts, looking at the public speaking lessons from each of the top 10-most viewed TED Talks. Dan Pink:  The Puzzle of Motivation video and transcript here The Big Idea:  Science has proven what business is only slowly realizing: Using incentives as rewards in business doesn’t work […]