Simplicity and brevity are two cornerstones of an effective presentation, and TED talks that fall into the section ‘In Less than 6 Minutes’ give us good (and not so good) examples of utilizing those two principles. Alanna Shaikh delivers one of the good examples with her talk on how she’s preparing for Alzheimer’s, recorded at TEDGlobal this year. Strengths certainly outweigh weaknesses in her talk, and on the whole, it was superbly poignant and moving.
Much of the power in Shaikh’s talk results from her storytelling. The entire talk revolves around her personal story– the story of her father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. Smartly, she discusses a complicated, general topic in the context of a personal story, allowing her audience to connect with the potentially abstract struggle of Alzheimer’s on a personal level. She reveals a lot of herself on stage, which elicits empathy and compassion from the audience. It’s apparent that Shaikh struggles emotionally during her talk, understandably so given the personal topic. However, she doesn’t let emotion get the best of her, and remains composed throughout.
Another notable strength in Shaikh’s talk lies in her use of a solid structure. She does well to discuss points with introductions like first, second, third and so on, allowing the audience to follow the talk with ease. And she employs the rule of three frequently (i.e. “Three things I’m trying to do to prepare…), again making it that much easier for the audience to follow her thought process throughout the short talk. She also uses a good amount of repetition, particularly with some of her most important points, (i.e. “If the monster wants you, the monster is going to get you.”) lending strength and emphasis to the statements.
Shaikh includes several poignant sound bites in her talk, and by sound bite we mean something that is easily quotable. For example, “his naked heart still shines” and “I need a heart so pure that if it’s striped bare by dementia, it will survive.” These are wonderful little quotable gems. While it’s always a good idea to include succinct, moving sound bites in your presentation, make sure that they don’t sound over-rehearsed or robotic. Shaikh deftly avoided the latter, and maintained genuine emotion throughout.
Our only criticism of Shaikh’s short talk is her use of body language and gestures. To put it bluntly, she looks a little uncomfortable up there on stage. She seems out of breath for the length of her talk, as though she’s battling a storm of nervous butterflies inside. It wasn’t until about a full minute into the talk that she actually moves her hands, and we’re unsure whether her feet moved at all. We wanted to jump into our computer screen and grease up her joints, get her moving around a little bit… Get her to do some jumping jacks, maybe a few little funny dance moves.
But aside from that minor criticism, Shaikh’s talk was compelling and genuinely moving. There was significant power in the talk’s brevity, and her poignant reflections won’t leave our minds easily, that much is for certain.
