This is not a talk or an expert opinion or a recipe for great communication or writing,” began Dr N Ravichandran, professor of Production and Quantitative Methods Area at India’s top B-school, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
The audience in the packed room, members of the Madras Management Association, was all ears as they listened in rapt attention to his talk on ‘crafting inspiring communication’.
“In my academic career,” continued the professor, who did his Ph.D in Mathematics from IIT Madras, “I have seen some 30 convocations (with great speakers) and these have been great eye-openers — listening to Manmohan Singh speak on economic conditions; Verghese Kurien on the importance of rural development; Deepak Parekh on leadership and professionalism. It made me think; why not put together all these speeches in the form of a book so people can be inspired and motivated? Not everyone goes to an IIT or IIM. I’m not saying you need to go to these institutions to succeed. In fact, going to these institutions can be a dampener if you want to succeed,” he said, eliciting guffaws from the audience.
“Inspiration happens by communication; by observing people. Those who have accomplished something in life are able to inspire others. The idea is to take the convocation speeches, delivered in an inspiring environment, to a larger student community and a practising community. If they can be inspired to write or talk to people, they can change organisations, and possibly change society as well.”
Prof Ravichandran went on to outline certain important aspects of how to give inspiring speeches. And the audience loved his talk, laced with the right amount of humour, anecdotes and sound sense.
The optimal mix
Most inspirational speeches, he said, have the right mix of ethos, pathos and logos.
Ethos : This refers to the trustworthiness of the speaker. If the person communicating to you has poor credibility, whatever great words he spews will have zero effect on the listeners. That’s why you’ve got to get someone with stature to speak, especially at convocations.
Pathos : This means that whatever you say has to be logically valid. “All of us have brains and, occasionally, we use it also,” said the professor, tongue firmly in cheek. A message has to have consistency. It also refers to your ability to connect with the audience’s emotions.
Logos : And if you really want to inspire people, you must have credibility, consistency and connect, that comes from sound knowledge.
The anatomy
The anatomy of inspiring speeches, that the professor has drawn from the 20 speeches listed in his book, is given below:
Conducive environment : Good advice must be given at the right time. If you give the most inspiring speeches at an inappropriate time, they will go down the drain.
Willing audience / Feeling of accomplishment : When you acknowledge your listeners and validate their accomplishment, they will feel involved and engagement becomes better.
Place speech in context to a place, such as an institute.
Personal anecdotes : When you talk about your own experiences, the connect with the audience is phenomenal. Imagine the kind of inspiration listeners would get when a Chief Justice of India, Justice Kapadia, says, “I am an ordinary person.” How? “Because when I started my job, it started as a peon at a law firm in Bombay. I rose to CJI. If I can, you have hope.”
Dominant theme — optimism : You can’t paint a grim picture and say we’re all going to die, there’s no point making money, or such gloomy thoughts. A good, inspiring speech has an underlying sense of optimism. When economic recession was about to grip the country, and growth had stagnated, Deepak Parekh said: “We live on hope and trust.”
On communication
While talking about the book that contains the speeches (the book is titled Success is a Thief: Inspirational Convocation Speeches ), Prof Ravichandran added: “I think, over a period of time, we all gain wisdom and all know something about something — you get a degree, you learn from people, by mistakes, and all kinds of things happen and then, by 60, you have some wisdom, whether you like it or not. Once you get this wisdom, you get this great feeling that it must be shared with others so they can be spoilt as well. That proves I’m in that environment.”
“A good speech is always crisp — crispness is the essence of excellence.” With that he concluded his crisp speech. Click here to watch a video of the professor talking on the importance of effective communication.