Simon Lancaster - TEDxVerona

5 Techniques to speak like a leader

1. Three breathless sentences
Three is the magic number in rhetoric.
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people”
“Here, there, everywhere”
“Reinvent, rethink, relay

2. Three repetitive sentences and balance
Three sentences in which the opening clause is repeated. This helps to show passion and understanding of the topic. It sweeps you on to the next point which is three balancing statements. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. …. “There is nothing wrong with American that can’t be cured with America”. If the sentence is balanced we feel that the underlying idea is balanced. Our brain is tuned to like things that are balanced.  

• “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the land, we shall fight on the fields and in the streets”
• “I love Verona, I love Italy, I love pasta, I love tiramisu, I love all of you”
• “I love the excitement, I love the energy, I love the enthusiasm in this room”
• “I’m not asking 20 pounds, I’m not asking 15 pounds, I’m not even asking ten pounds

3. Metaphors
The bit that is not talked about, the elephant in the room. We use metaphors once every 16 words. Images of people, images of love, images of family, of sunshine. These bring people towards things. Then we can use images of unpleasant things to move the the conversation. Changing nothing more than the metaphor in the text can change the reaction of people hearing it.  
  
 Three of the big metaphors examples are:

• “The Arab Spring”
  
• “The Calay jungle”, which implants the idea that migrants are like wild animals. To be afraid of, they represent a threat. This is a very dangerous metaphor.
  
• “The Financial Storm”, used in terms of the financial crisis. Makes it seem like it was a storm that created the financial crisis and not bad choices. It suggests that it was nothing to do with greedy bankers or timid politicians. Thus a big lie.

4. Exaggeration
  When we are excited our perception distorts and we go over the top. Exaggeration is part in part with ordinary conversation.

5. Rhyming.
    Things are more likely to be accepted if they rhyme. This feels absurd, but it is what linguists talk about as the processing fluency of language. How easy is language to swallow. “One, two, buckle my shoe.” They signify truth and can be used to conceal fallacy. “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” “I before e except after c” ((40 words where this is true, more than 90 words where this is not true)). “You’ve got to speculate to accumulate”. They should have said “speculation leads to liquidation” and perhaps we would not have had the problems we had.