Chinese Hats Seldom Impress European Queens

Chinese Hats Seldom Impress European Queens

Anand Chaturvedi

You must be wondering, "What does that mean"!

This is precisely how I start a class on training people to make ‘openings that get undivided attention' from their audiences. I ask them a couple of times and get really hilarious responses but finally I tell them that the sentence actually means nothing and invariably people burst into laughter.

The sentence has a hidden formula for preparing an opening of a talk that guarantees an undivided attention from the audience. Let's look at the same.

• ØC(hinese) stands for Curiosity.As humans, one of our innate behaviors is Curiosity, so as soon as you are introduced and you take the stage....you could begin your talk by saying - "It was a cold wintery morning in the year XXXX when.... And continue what you want to say by making sure that you bring the audience attention to the topic of your talk. Alternatively, you could use date...17th December, XXXX my life changed for ever...that was the day I had joined this organization....I met this client...I lost an order...etc.
• ØH(ats) stands for humour.To begin your talk with a humour needs some practice as not everyone can tell a joke punch line and then there is a chance of loosing your audience. My favorite joke which can fit almost anywhere, in any type of talk which you are about to give goes as follows.......Once there was an international competition going on to make a donkey nod horizontally ( side ways ) while it used to always nod vertically ( up and down ) - I hope this makes sense. After everyone tried and failed, the last one who got to try was an architect (or a lawyer, or a tax consultant, or an engineer, or a businessman, or anyone who is audience that day).. this person said something in the ears of the donkey and it suddenly started nodding horizontally and he won the competition when everyone had failed. A press conference followed and the reporters asked the winner about the secret he had whispered in the ears of the donkey, he replied, "I had asked the donkey do you want to become an architect in its next life"....ladies and gentlemen today I am going to give a talk on pains and pleasures of being a successful architect and so on...
• ØS(eldom) stands for Story.This is easy and almost everyone can tell a story. The only secret is start abruptly. Do not say that I am now going to tell you a story...just start by saying...long, long ago once upon a time in a village there lived a young man....go ahead you can do it. Surely people will get engrossed as we all like to hear stories.
• ØI(mpress) stands for Illustration.Carry a report, some graphs, a handout probably, a newspaper article and straight away start talking about it...."I have in my hand this evening a report from interior ministry that shows X % rise in the crime in this city and most seem to be originating from illegal immigrants...I am going to talk of steps which you and me need to take to protect ourselves form neighborhood crimes..
• ØE(uropean) stands for Exhibit.Take a prop - a medal, a trophy, an award, a gift, anything and start....this is an award which my department got from you last year for excellence in customer service. Today I am going to share with you high standards we maintain in our company on developing and maintaining such attitudes in our employees...
• ØQ(ueens) stands for Question.Starting your talk by asking a question is the most gripping (and can be most disastrous too). Get some experience of handling tough situations before trying this. But once you have "been there" and "done that".....I am sure you will use the opening with a Question the most.

So go ahead and start experimenting, remember - excelling in public speaking is a short cut to name, fame and success.