I just witnessed several clients reading scripts. There was something very unsatisfying about the experience for me. They lacked life and expression. They didn’t appear to mean what they were saying.
Yet scripts are often useful and necessary. So what are the pros and cons of written speeches? And how do PowerPoint presentations stack up?
Written Speeches are More Formal
Whether you write your own speech, or hire a speechwriter to help you, you are committing yourself to taking a written document to the front of the room and reading it to the crowd.
There are pros and cons to this. First, the pros. You will appear to be prepared; speak in full sentences; present your thoughts in a more formal fashion; be more likely to address big thoughts and avoid data and details; have a written document for the historical record; and finally, avoid the terror of standing alone on the stage in front of a crowd with the possibility of going blank or saying something really dumb.
Compared to a presentation delivered without a script, a written speech requires more time writing, and less time rehearsing. And the script is a huge security blanket. With a script, there are times when you can just show up and read. (Not a great thing to do, but sometimes necessary.)
However, there are cons to consider as well. You have to be a good writer to write a good speech; speeches that are read are less alive than presentations that are spoken without scripts. (It’s hard to read and sound like you’re talking. Even great actors and politicians have trouble with this. It leads to a lack of engagement with the audience.)
There’s less give and take because the speaker is constantly looking down to read, and the listeners see this, know that the speaker is reading, and feel obliged to sit still and listen. It’s a monologue, more about getting the words out than engaging with the audience in the here and now.
PowerPoint Presentations are Less Formal
Now how about the pros and cons of a typical business presentation, one in which the presenter stands and talks from slides?
The pros? More conversational; more opportunity to interact with the audience; more informal; more lively; more room for improv; greater ability to display data and dive deep into technical subjects.
The cons? Bigger challenge to the stage-worthiness of the speaker; more rehearsal required to discover an efficient way of verbalizing the points; greater likelihood the speaker’s cup will run over with data, data everywhere and not a thought to think; the likelihood that the predictability of PowerPoint will undermine the impact of the speaker and the message; and finally, the greater chance that a charismatic speaker with an inferior argument will carry the day.
Quo Vadis?
Speeches have their place on formal occasions, and can be delivered brilliantly. But it’s a rare person who can connect with an audience while reading a prepared text.
(Was it Dick Cavett who said, “Richard Burton can make reading the phone book sound like Shakespeare. The rest of us make Shakespeare sound like the phone book.”?)
Presentations with PowerPoint provide a greater opportunity for connection between presenter and audience. However, the over-use of text slides, the predictability of the typical format, and the demands on the speaker’s stage presence made by the wide open space of the typical meeting room cause many business presenters to struggle with the task of getting their point, and themselves, across to the audience.
The differences between the two seem to be getting blurred. I recommend a speech when there is no real need for visual aids; when the occasion is emotional or commemorative; when the crowd is so big that a presentation with slides might be hard to see and hard to deliver. (After all, as the audience gets bigger, the need increases for less information and more emotion.)
A speech is more formal and lofty. A presentation is less formal and can more effectively accommodate the technical details of a narrowly defined subject. A speech is like an opera. A presentation is more like a chalk-talk, like a coach in the locker room diagraming on the blackboard what the team will do in the second half of the game.
They both have perils and promises. Choose wisely.