“Total Exposure”
by Gustav Larson
Amacon, 2000
At first glance, the book seems like an incisive account about the new business media environment with all its power, possibilities and potential for good – and even harm.
“Business news,” says author Gustav Larson, “isn’t the sleepy, stodgy world of newspaper stock tables it was ten years ago.”
“Ten years ago,” he adds, “business news was nowhere. Now, it’s everywhere. Average Americans are thinking about business, talking about business. And the news media are delivering more information about business to feed this growing demand. Whether you like it or not, you are part of this phenomenon.”
Larson’s setting is the Western hemisphere, and you would probably say, this does not apply to us in the Philippines.
Think again. The space where Executive Read appears delivers business stories in a lively, dynamic style. Mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and hostile takeovers, are eye-catching news headlines. They are the stuff that brews a storm of talks in coffee shops and that feeds the rumor mill. Bank runs compete successfully with bank heists; and corporate collapse matches the breakdown of talks with communist rebels.
No doubt, our business media are as vibrant and active as their counterparts anywhere around the world. And most of our business editors and columnists have the same, if not more, clout than general interest editors and opinion leaders.
What does this mean, then? The book says “engaging the new media environment” presents tremendous opportunities for companies to gain positive exposure, but is also full of pitfalls that can derail the best laid out plans.”
And here’s the author’s inescapable point: Companies no longer have a choice of whether to engage the media or not.
In “Total Exposure,” Larson, a former executive of global PR firm Hill & Knowlton, has actually given a valuable briefing to CEOs, COOs and communications practitioners about a deeply altered and suitably alerted business media environment in both print and broadcast.
First of all, he says, the rise of the value of the business story is brought about by the emergence of “consumer-investors” – they who are interested, not only in firms’ products, but in their performance as well. Why? Because, they are thinking of investing in such companies. They want details, analyses, and insights 24 hours a day, Larson points out.
Once the pre-occupation of hard-nosed businessmen, business media has morphed into “business news as entertainment.” Watch business headlines on CNN/fn, Bloomberg and CNBC and you agree with Larson: “It’s no longer business news; it’s show business” brought to you by real-life Barbies and Kens with breathless reports on the latest merger rumor, etc.
But, he warns that the rapid expansion and increasing influence of business media have its downside. The present crop of business reporters, with scant business knowledge, no longer have the professional journalistic will to verify their facts – and so use print space or airtime to purvey baseless reports.
Some also have the “pack mentality,” according to Larson, where reporters see safety in numbers. “If everybody else is writing it or saying it, it’s O.K. for them to write it or say it.”
Is the author criticizing or giving business media ringing rebuke? No, he wants readers to have “media savvy” by understanding this new phenomenon.
So much like Sun Tzu (of the “Art of War” fame) telling us to master the terrain, the author is advising companies to deal with these new realities. For example, with the drive of reporters to get news in the raw, he counsels: Be ready for transferring media relations work from PR folks to senior executives through media training.
To deal with the easy access of non-journalists to the Internet and websites – Larson calls them “scam artists,” purveying rumors to scare away customers of a competitor – he advises: “Develop a quick-response plan for online crises.”
At the end of every chapter, the author has made it easy for readers to note the “summary of trends,” on one hand, “lessons for companies,” on the other. If you need one good media counselor, Larson is your guy.
This book of 225 pages is a must read for CEOs whose responsibility it is to keep their companies viable and growing, and for communications professionals who must come to terms with the magnified power of the business media. With such might, any enterprise must begin learning how to live in a transparent world. If you cannot hide anything anymore, you must at least master the art and science of telling the truth – well and fast.
Sunday, March 25, 2001
Sunday, March 18, 2001
21st century changes at speed of light: How can we thrive?
“The Wealth of Choices”
By Allan Murray
Crown Publishers, 2000
“It’s a great moment to be alive.”
This is second to the last line on page 250 of a book that will enable the reader to catch up with the dizzying changes now happening in the 21st century. This is an unusual beginning for a review of the book “The Wealth of Choices” by Allan Murray.
But this isn’t a work fiction, and we are not depriving the reader the excitement moving toward the denouement of a suspenseful plot. A dramatic statement like that is actually meant to kindle, not dampen, the reader’s interest to read from the beginning to find out if the author’s conclusion is really called for. The spontaneous question shall be: “What is the author talking about?”
Mr. Murray, a literature major who drifted into economics – and who became Washington bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal and columnist of SmartMoney magazine – has come up with a book that is not only reader-friendly; it gives the reader new eyes by which to observe every little detail that’s profoundly altering people’s lives in this incredible century. He even suggests how we can thrive in every area of our life.
The writer in the author is immediately noticeable with the structure he crafted for an otherwise complicated subject. He begins with a comparison between two economies under the heading, “Not My Father’s Economy,” telling readers at once that a revolution has just happened – between two generations!
Going for the sense of the new economy, Murray declares: “The balance of power has shifted away from those who have capital and toward those who have ideas.”
Isn’t this truly liberating, especially for people who only have their brilliant minds to lose or use?
Then Murray brings you along on his “personal journey in the New Economy,” from the world of thought reading John Kenneth Galbraith’s “The New Industrial Estate” who, Murray says, erroneously predicted that large corporations, due to their sheer size and production capacity, would dictate the products to the consumers. “Technology, in Galbraith’s view, didn’t work in favor of a consumer driven-free market; it worked directly against it,” Murray quotes Galbraith. But Murray quickly adds: “How wrong he was.”
Murray takes the reader by the hand to visit or revisit major economic theories – what worked and did not work – and even political developments like the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher in England and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. whose policies affirmed the truth that indeed “the consumer is sovereign” in this century.
The book is easy and fun to read. Witty repartees and jokes abound in the book -- like this one:
Three men gathered in front of Lucas Cranach’s painting of Adam and Eve, naked in the Garden of Eden. The first who was British, speculated that the two people were British, since in no other society would a man and a woman share an apple in such a civilized way(!). The second, who was French, said the figures in the painting were French, since in no other society would a woman give her body to a man for merely an apple (!!). But the third man, a Russian, said Adam and Eve were obviously Russian: they had no clothes, no shelter, only a single apple to eat between them – and someone had told them they were in paradise (!!!).
Obviously, the author is a believer of Adam Smith, author of Wealth of Nations, written 230 years ago, and therefore a non-believer of Karl Marx, author of Das Kapital.
The new economy is telling us to be familiar with the “new economics.” Just to illustrate how even old theories have to be shed off, he quotes Greg Mankiw, an economist, who defines economics as “the study of how society manages its scarce resources.” Murray debunks this: “But networks often obliterate scarcity. A great novel or a brilliant new piece of software may be costly to create; but once created, it can be reproduced and distributed to millions, even billions, at little or no cost.”
Murray does not load us with theories. He devotes sections to practical questions on how we can be street smart as we shop in the new economy, offering tips on surviving and thriving. For instance, he advises: Don’t be fooled by a product distinction between “silver” or “gold.” (I don’t know about him, but I prefer Vortex Gold to Vortex Silver for my car’s fuel.)
He has really smart advice on health care choices, haggling for lesser tuition fees in Harvard (it doesn’t apply here yet – later, maybe for Ateneo, La Salle or AIM). The sections, “Your Mind Is Your Best Investment” and “You Are Your Own Brand,” is giving one powerful message: Never in the history of humankind has the individual so much power in his/her hands to shape his or her future.
Here’s one book that makes us live with a sense of excitement about the 21st century living. He offers a bunch of lists and guidelines on how to win – and even get rich -- in the 21st century, which is truly upon us. Two types of people view these changes: the realist (who sees both dark and light) and the optimist (who would rather focus on the marvelous light). No wonder, the author’s optimism in the very last line in the book, which can serve as the century’s slogan, is this: “Make the most of it.”
By Allan Murray
Crown Publishers, 2000
“It’s a great moment to be alive.”
This is second to the last line on page 250 of a book that will enable the reader to catch up with the dizzying changes now happening in the 21st century. This is an unusual beginning for a review of the book “The Wealth of Choices” by Allan Murray.
But this isn’t a work fiction, and we are not depriving the reader the excitement moving toward the denouement of a suspenseful plot. A dramatic statement like that is actually meant to kindle, not dampen, the reader’s interest to read from the beginning to find out if the author’s conclusion is really called for. The spontaneous question shall be: “What is the author talking about?”
Mr. Murray, a literature major who drifted into economics – and who became Washington bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal and columnist of SmartMoney magazine – has come up with a book that is not only reader-friendly; it gives the reader new eyes by which to observe every little detail that’s profoundly altering people’s lives in this incredible century. He even suggests how we can thrive in every area of our life.
The writer in the author is immediately noticeable with the structure he crafted for an otherwise complicated subject. He begins with a comparison between two economies under the heading, “Not My Father’s Economy,” telling readers at once that a revolution has just happened – between two generations!
Going for the sense of the new economy, Murray declares: “The balance of power has shifted away from those who have capital and toward those who have ideas.”
Isn’t this truly liberating, especially for people who only have their brilliant minds to lose or use?
Then Murray brings you along on his “personal journey in the New Economy,” from the world of thought reading John Kenneth Galbraith’s “The New Industrial Estate” who, Murray says, erroneously predicted that large corporations, due to their sheer size and production capacity, would dictate the products to the consumers. “Technology, in Galbraith’s view, didn’t work in favor of a consumer driven-free market; it worked directly against it,” Murray quotes Galbraith. But Murray quickly adds: “How wrong he was.”
Murray takes the reader by the hand to visit or revisit major economic theories – what worked and did not work – and even political developments like the ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher in England and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. whose policies affirmed the truth that indeed “the consumer is sovereign” in this century.
The book is easy and fun to read. Witty repartees and jokes abound in the book -- like this one:
Three men gathered in front of Lucas Cranach’s painting of Adam and Eve, naked in the Garden of Eden. The first who was British, speculated that the two people were British, since in no other society would a man and a woman share an apple in such a civilized way(!). The second, who was French, said the figures in the painting were French, since in no other society would a woman give her body to a man for merely an apple (!!). But the third man, a Russian, said Adam and Eve were obviously Russian: they had no clothes, no shelter, only a single apple to eat between them – and someone had told them they were in paradise (!!!).
Obviously, the author is a believer of Adam Smith, author of Wealth of Nations, written 230 years ago, and therefore a non-believer of Karl Marx, author of Das Kapital.
The new economy is telling us to be familiar with the “new economics.” Just to illustrate how even old theories have to be shed off, he quotes Greg Mankiw, an economist, who defines economics as “the study of how society manages its scarce resources.” Murray debunks this: “But networks often obliterate scarcity. A great novel or a brilliant new piece of software may be costly to create; but once created, it can be reproduced and distributed to millions, even billions, at little or no cost.”
Murray does not load us with theories. He devotes sections to practical questions on how we can be street smart as we shop in the new economy, offering tips on surviving and thriving. For instance, he advises: Don’t be fooled by a product distinction between “silver” or “gold.” (I don’t know about him, but I prefer Vortex Gold to Vortex Silver for my car’s fuel.)
He has really smart advice on health care choices, haggling for lesser tuition fees in Harvard (it doesn’t apply here yet – later, maybe for Ateneo, La Salle or AIM). The sections, “Your Mind Is Your Best Investment” and “You Are Your Own Brand,” is giving one powerful message: Never in the history of humankind has the individual so much power in his/her hands to shape his or her future.
Here’s one book that makes us live with a sense of excitement about the 21st century living. He offers a bunch of lists and guidelines on how to win – and even get rich -- in the 21st century, which is truly upon us. Two types of people view these changes: the realist (who sees both dark and light) and the optimist (who would rather focus on the marvelous light). No wonder, the author’s optimism in the very last line in the book, which can serve as the century’s slogan, is this: “Make the most of it.”
Sunday, March 11, 2001
With 100 success tips on hand, you must at least score one
“The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success”
Brian Tracy
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2000
Seminars on how to succeed abound, simply because participants, wanting to “hit it someday,” are simply plentiful anytime of the year.
Designing and copywriting success courses, deploying speakers, producing audio and video tapes, and publishing books have become a multi-million dollar industry in the Americas and Europe – and they find their way in the Philippines – leading to a surfeit of these “how-to-succeed” seminars, books and tapes given in installments.
Two questions pop up: For our shopping list of success tips, why can’t we have the equivalent of a “one-stop shop” that offers everything we need? Or, put another way, why can’t someone design a “carry-all” package that answers every need and deals with any situation?
One book, “The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success,” offers itself as a carry-all cart of principles to guide, warn and inspire us to achieve one goal devoutly to be wished: to be a success.
The author, Brian Tracy, renowned motivational speaker, has wisely divided these 100 laws into eight categories: Laws of Life, Success, Business, Leadership, Money, Selling, Negotiating and Time Management. He lumped them in one book, while another author could have produced eight books instead of one.
Tracy presents the laws as if they are, yes, unbreakable natural laws, even giving such an approach a scientific, philosophical and religious basis (how can he go wrong?). He quotes Aristotle to support his contention that “everything happens for a reason,” adding that every action, then, is purposive.
Sir Isaac Newton (who – legend puts it – came upon a great insight when an apple fell and hit his head) is also called in to reinforce the efficacy of laws, enunciating a principle we knew since our high school science class: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
And he cites the Scriptures, with the King James Version’s rhetorical majesty: “Whatever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.” The author has gone through all that trouble to enunciate a single point: Success is no accident.
It is doubtful if these laws are as immutable as natural laws that govern earth and stars, but readers surely have the elementary wisdom to gloss over that ambitious claim and proceed to what Mr. Tracy wants to say. And sure enough, he makes sense, in the same way that success seminar speakers pass off formulae as products of mathematical equations.
Under the Law of Control, for example, he declares: “By failing to plan, you are planning to fail.” He quotes a highly successful entrepreneur producing and distributing audio programs on success (I told you!): “Success is goals, and all else is commentary.”
Is Tracy preaching selfishness? No, in fact, his 100 laws throb with the principle of service. His quote of Zig Ziglar on achieving something says it well: “You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough other people to get what they want.”
The book author is no believer in the “windfall mentality” or getting lucky. He presents the Law of Applied Effort: “All great success is preceded by a long period of hard work in a single direction toward a clearly defined purpose.” Said like a scientific hypothesis this homespun truth: The harder you work, the luckier you get.
He cites a corollary of the Law of Forced Efficiency to emphasize the need to test your limits: “Only by stretching yourself can you discover how much you are truly capable of. Poet Robert Browning said it better: “A man’s reach must exceed his grasp/ Or what’s a heaven for.”
And yet the author can be laconic with his laws (a rebuke against the verbiage of our legislation), especially when he endorses decisiveness: “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.” He is speaking from experience, and the truth truly inspires. Decisions, to him, must also be quick, lest one is overtaken by the law of obsolescence, which warns: “Whatever exists is already becoming obsolete.”
The book also has a dozen laws on leadership, topped by the Law of Integrity. “Annotating” such law, the author says: “Integrity lies at the core of leadership, at the heart of the leader. Everything you do revolves around the person you really are inside.” The book also has 14 Laws of Selling, highlighted by a principle couched in startling wit: “Nothing happens until a sale takes place.”
When you get the shorter end of the stick in a transaction, you can’t succeed. That explains why the author includes Laws of Negotiating, beginning with a simple truth: “Everything is negotiable.” The Law of Desire is particularly insightful: “The person who most wants the negotiation to succeed has the least bargaining power.” My brod Jun has given this advice long ago with regard to courtship.
By choice, I am no excited reader of “how-to” success books. You show your respect for your reader when you present principles, not methods. This book has done just that -- and is thus a refreshing exception.
Brian Tracy
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2000
Seminars on how to succeed abound, simply because participants, wanting to “hit it someday,” are simply plentiful anytime of the year.
Designing and copywriting success courses, deploying speakers, producing audio and video tapes, and publishing books have become a multi-million dollar industry in the Americas and Europe – and they find their way in the Philippines – leading to a surfeit of these “how-to-succeed” seminars, books and tapes given in installments.
Two questions pop up: For our shopping list of success tips, why can’t we have the equivalent of a “one-stop shop” that offers everything we need? Or, put another way, why can’t someone design a “carry-all” package that answers every need and deals with any situation?
One book, “The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success,” offers itself as a carry-all cart of principles to guide, warn and inspire us to achieve one goal devoutly to be wished: to be a success.
The author, Brian Tracy, renowned motivational speaker, has wisely divided these 100 laws into eight categories: Laws of Life, Success, Business, Leadership, Money, Selling, Negotiating and Time Management. He lumped them in one book, while another author could have produced eight books instead of one.
Tracy presents the laws as if they are, yes, unbreakable natural laws, even giving such an approach a scientific, philosophical and religious basis (how can he go wrong?). He quotes Aristotle to support his contention that “everything happens for a reason,” adding that every action, then, is purposive.
Sir Isaac Newton (who – legend puts it – came upon a great insight when an apple fell and hit his head) is also called in to reinforce the efficacy of laws, enunciating a principle we knew since our high school science class: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
And he cites the Scriptures, with the King James Version’s rhetorical majesty: “Whatever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.” The author has gone through all that trouble to enunciate a single point: Success is no accident.
It is doubtful if these laws are as immutable as natural laws that govern earth and stars, but readers surely have the elementary wisdom to gloss over that ambitious claim and proceed to what Mr. Tracy wants to say. And sure enough, he makes sense, in the same way that success seminar speakers pass off formulae as products of mathematical equations.
Under the Law of Control, for example, he declares: “By failing to plan, you are planning to fail.” He quotes a highly successful entrepreneur producing and distributing audio programs on success (I told you!): “Success is goals, and all else is commentary.”
Is Tracy preaching selfishness? No, in fact, his 100 laws throb with the principle of service. His quote of Zig Ziglar on achieving something says it well: “You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough other people to get what they want.”
The book author is no believer in the “windfall mentality” or getting lucky. He presents the Law of Applied Effort: “All great success is preceded by a long period of hard work in a single direction toward a clearly defined purpose.” Said like a scientific hypothesis this homespun truth: The harder you work, the luckier you get.
He cites a corollary of the Law of Forced Efficiency to emphasize the need to test your limits: “Only by stretching yourself can you discover how much you are truly capable of. Poet Robert Browning said it better: “A man’s reach must exceed his grasp/ Or what’s a heaven for.”
And yet the author can be laconic with his laws (a rebuke against the verbiage of our legislation), especially when he endorses decisiveness: “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.” He is speaking from experience, and the truth truly inspires. Decisions, to him, must also be quick, lest one is overtaken by the law of obsolescence, which warns: “Whatever exists is already becoming obsolete.”
The book also has a dozen laws on leadership, topped by the Law of Integrity. “Annotating” such law, the author says: “Integrity lies at the core of leadership, at the heart of the leader. Everything you do revolves around the person you really are inside.” The book also has 14 Laws of Selling, highlighted by a principle couched in startling wit: “Nothing happens until a sale takes place.”
When you get the shorter end of the stick in a transaction, you can’t succeed. That explains why the author includes Laws of Negotiating, beginning with a simple truth: “Everything is negotiable.” The Law of Desire is particularly insightful: “The person who most wants the negotiation to succeed has the least bargaining power.” My brod Jun has given this advice long ago with regard to courtship.
By choice, I am no excited reader of “how-to” success books. You show your respect for your reader when you present principles, not methods. This book has done just that -- and is thus a refreshing exception.
Sunday, March 04, 2001
Power from oratory is greater than kings' might
“Strictly Speaking”
by Reid Buckley
McGraw Hill, 1999
We were all part of the disbelieving public when we heard that a well-loved and famous “legal gladiator” at the impeachment proceedings – Joker Arroyo – confessed that he’s got the shivers up his spine whenever he speaks in public. Joker? He must be joking (no pun intended)!
But, such confession could be revealing the truth. Joker, the veteran of legal skirmishes and stirring polemics, found himself in an alien territory when he faced a large throng of people in a political rally. That proves only one point: In the familiar ground of the House, the Senate, the courts and the Supreme Court, he holds sway. But in the political arena, he is – to use the phrase he himself used that rankled the nerves of a senator – “uninitiated.”
In the area of public speaking, we are aware that we are coolly professional in some situations (like persuading a high-powered corporate board), but sadly inadequate in explaining a corporate citizenship program to a diverse community of non-government organizations. It is also possible that we have the mastery of the subject, but we do not have the language and the savvy to bring the message to the “gut level.”
Many issues ago of the Executive Read, we featured On Speaking Well, written by Peggy Noonan, speechwriter of two former U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. The book is a good find to guide us through excellent speechwriting but, justifiably so, does not cover other concerns in oratory or public speaking.
Well, the book, Strictly Speaking by Reid Buckley comes in where Ms. Noonan leaves off. In fact, the book offers much more. First of all, in over 300 pages, all seven parts and 22 chapters deal with every conceivable situation from social functions to a political rally; every imaginable “vice” and every desirable “virtue” in public speaking; every valuable advice on writing style, use of humor, overcoming stage fright, plus and gestures that turn the audience on or off -- and the most useful insight on concluding the speech with brilliance – and even majesty.
The book is a joy to read. In fact, you should even be ready to laugh aloud and alone when you read his anecdotes. The book jacket offers “tricks of the speaker’s trade from a master of rhetoric.” It would be understandable if this is just a try at hyperbole to sell the book, but the moment you turn to the preface, you know at once that you are transported to one of the lively seminars of Mr. Buckley, who happens to be a very effective storyteller. In fact, you come away with the impression, after reading Buckley’s book, that a public speaker must, first of all, be a master of the narrative art.
He points out: “Your life may not hang in the balance; your livelihood may. What the art of public speaking boils down to is, crudely stated, selling; morally analyzed, imposing one’s will.”
“Therein the prize: dominion over the minds and spirits of one’s audience, power over their capacity for action,” he adds.
The book is a treasure of advice – not the usual pedantic lecture -- but, in the hands of an excellent speaker, raconteur and debater, you get advice with unusual frankness, humorous anecdotes, and ringing rebuke on people – even Messrs. Clinton and Dole – on the former’s verbiage and the latter’s arid style.
“Think of it as a checklist,” the author says, on how to read the book. He offers “quick fixes” for someone who has a speaking engagement tomorrow at the PTA or a town meeting. And the book delivers what it promises, because you can pick up good and stunning advice at every page.
“The very first paragraph of your talk should shock the audience with its complexity and difficulty, or with its outrageousness,” he says, in bold, italicized letters. But he follows it with the next advice: “Having first shocked them, soothe, placate, and coddle your audience.” Simply with these lines, you can picture what kind of public speaker and mentor Mr. Buckley is. He uses words like “pugnacious,” “tough,” and “taking command.” Wait a minute, are we talking about public speaking. Yes, the Buckley variety.
A 30-minute speech is a mistake under any situation, he says. “Don’t waste people’s time,” he advises in another section, adding a wise counsel so simple we miss it: “Don’t tell them what they already know.” On finding and developing a subject, he stresses: “It is best to establish one solid point well.” He quotes sources to buttress advice, such as not overcrowding your speech with many points. Quoting a master styliest and polemicist, Willmore Kendall, he gives this formula: “A person cannot make more than one point in 1500 words.”
Beyond the verbal, Mr. Buckley has something useful to say on voice (modulation, pronunciation, enunciation, etc.), hand gestures suitable each for men and women (they are really different!), eye contact (you must individualize the audience) and – hear this – “what not to do with your hands if they have nothing else to do” – including what he calls the “fig leaf position.” Find that out for yourself. In fact, this review is just one percent of what you can pick up from the book. Dear reader, you know what to do. Especially after reading this quote in an unpublished essay of Winston Churchill:
“Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king. He is an independent force in the world.” Churchill, as we know, inspired Great Britain to resist the Nazi advance. Oratory’s power is indisputable.
by Reid Buckley
McGraw Hill, 1999
We were all part of the disbelieving public when we heard that a well-loved and famous “legal gladiator” at the impeachment proceedings – Joker Arroyo – confessed that he’s got the shivers up his spine whenever he speaks in public. Joker? He must be joking (no pun intended)!
But, such confession could be revealing the truth. Joker, the veteran of legal skirmishes and stirring polemics, found himself in an alien territory when he faced a large throng of people in a political rally. That proves only one point: In the familiar ground of the House, the Senate, the courts and the Supreme Court, he holds sway. But in the political arena, he is – to use the phrase he himself used that rankled the nerves of a senator – “uninitiated.”
In the area of public speaking, we are aware that we are coolly professional in some situations (like persuading a high-powered corporate board), but sadly inadequate in explaining a corporate citizenship program to a diverse community of non-government organizations. It is also possible that we have the mastery of the subject, but we do not have the language and the savvy to bring the message to the “gut level.”
Many issues ago of the Executive Read, we featured On Speaking Well, written by Peggy Noonan, speechwriter of two former U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. The book is a good find to guide us through excellent speechwriting but, justifiably so, does not cover other concerns in oratory or public speaking.
Well, the book, Strictly Speaking by Reid Buckley comes in where Ms. Noonan leaves off. In fact, the book offers much more. First of all, in over 300 pages, all seven parts and 22 chapters deal with every conceivable situation from social functions to a political rally; every imaginable “vice” and every desirable “virtue” in public speaking; every valuable advice on writing style, use of humor, overcoming stage fright, plus and gestures that turn the audience on or off -- and the most useful insight on concluding the speech with brilliance – and even majesty.
The book is a joy to read. In fact, you should even be ready to laugh aloud and alone when you read his anecdotes. The book jacket offers “tricks of the speaker’s trade from a master of rhetoric.” It would be understandable if this is just a try at hyperbole to sell the book, but the moment you turn to the preface, you know at once that you are transported to one of the lively seminars of Mr. Buckley, who happens to be a very effective storyteller. In fact, you come away with the impression, after reading Buckley’s book, that a public speaker must, first of all, be a master of the narrative art.
He points out: “Your life may not hang in the balance; your livelihood may. What the art of public speaking boils down to is, crudely stated, selling; morally analyzed, imposing one’s will.”
“Therein the prize: dominion over the minds and spirits of one’s audience, power over their capacity for action,” he adds.
The book is a treasure of advice – not the usual pedantic lecture -- but, in the hands of an excellent speaker, raconteur and debater, you get advice with unusual frankness, humorous anecdotes, and ringing rebuke on people – even Messrs. Clinton and Dole – on the former’s verbiage and the latter’s arid style.
“Think of it as a checklist,” the author says, on how to read the book. He offers “quick fixes” for someone who has a speaking engagement tomorrow at the PTA or a town meeting. And the book delivers what it promises, because you can pick up good and stunning advice at every page.
“The very first paragraph of your talk should shock the audience with its complexity and difficulty, or with its outrageousness,” he says, in bold, italicized letters. But he follows it with the next advice: “Having first shocked them, soothe, placate, and coddle your audience.” Simply with these lines, you can picture what kind of public speaker and mentor Mr. Buckley is. He uses words like “pugnacious,” “tough,” and “taking command.” Wait a minute, are we talking about public speaking. Yes, the Buckley variety.
A 30-minute speech is a mistake under any situation, he says. “Don’t waste people’s time,” he advises in another section, adding a wise counsel so simple we miss it: “Don’t tell them what they already know.” On finding and developing a subject, he stresses: “It is best to establish one solid point well.” He quotes sources to buttress advice, such as not overcrowding your speech with many points. Quoting a master styliest and polemicist, Willmore Kendall, he gives this formula: “A person cannot make more than one point in 1500 words.”
Beyond the verbal, Mr. Buckley has something useful to say on voice (modulation, pronunciation, enunciation, etc.), hand gestures suitable each for men and women (they are really different!), eye contact (you must individualize the audience) and – hear this – “what not to do with your hands if they have nothing else to do” – including what he calls the “fig leaf position.” Find that out for yourself. In fact, this review is just one percent of what you can pick up from the book. Dear reader, you know what to do. Especially after reading this quote in an unpublished essay of Winston Churchill:
“Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king. He is an independent force in the world.” Churchill, as we know, inspired Great Britain to resist the Nazi advance. Oratory’s power is indisputable.
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