Tell them what you’re going to tell them…
Tell them…
Tell them what you told them
Source unknown
This is well known advice for speakers. Here’s a story to help you understand the power of this idea. The story is told in The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp.
The year was 1962. Jerome Robbins had just won an Academy Award for West Side Story.
Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for a new play called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It simply was not “working.” After a few preview performances, “audiences were fleeing the theater.” They called in a “play doctor” to see if he could fix it. The “doctor” was Jerome Robbins. He watched a performance, analyzed the problem, and had a solution — after watching just the first half of the play.
He told them — “It’s a comedy. Tell them that.” Sondheim quickly wrote an opening number called “Comedy Tonight”
“Something convulsive/Something repulsive/Something for everyone: a comedy tonight!”
“Once ticket buyers knew what they were supposed to do, they laughed.” The audience came, laughed, reviews were glowing (N. Y. Times: “Cheers for an uninhibited romp”), and it played 964 performances on Broadway before going off to Hollywood and becoming a hit movie. In other words, a truly massive hit for 1962.
Jerome Robbins was never listed in the credits (I don’t think. I can’t find his name on the original Broadway poster at all). But without him, there would have been no successful play.
And, here is Twyla Tharp’s simple and brilliant insight:
“Clearly, it’s a good idea to tell people what to expect.”
So, after you “hook” your audience’s attention (this is always the first requirement for a good speech,) “tell them what you’re going to tell them.”
It is a good idea to tell people what to expect.
And then… give them what they expect.
First Friday Book Synopsis 