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š” Speak like a visionary: Think and communicate BIG
Ft. The Overton Window
Alex Merry
July 15, 2024
There is a stark difference in mindset between a good and a great presenter. Great presenters have realised something that everyone else hasnātā¦
Your audience wants to be challenged.
Most leaders deliver safe presentations.
They sit on the fence,
They say what is expected of them,
They share plausible ideas,
ā¦ that get forgotten.
Visionary leaders challenge the status quo.
They help their audiences to think bigger and feel deeper.
They shift the Overton Windowā¦
Let me explainā¦ š§
The Overton Window is used by politicians to gauge how well an idea might land with the public.
Ideas that fall inside the window are considered normal and expected š„±.
Ideas that fall outside it range from radical to unthinkable š¤Æ.
Put this into the context of a talk and your role as a leader becomes clearā¦
Your job is to take your audience from the āexpectedā to the radical and unthinkable.
That is where change begins.
Over time, ideas that were considered unthinkable 10 years agoā¦
āRockets will become re-usableā Elon Musk
āWomen can make the first moveā Whitney Wolf-Herd, Bumble
āVulnerability is a sign of strengthā Brene Brown
āPeople donāt buy what we do, they buy why we do itā Simon Sinek
āSoftware will eat the worldā Marc Andresson
ā¦ start to become accepted. The Overton Window shifts and a new set of radical and unthinkable ideas take their place.
āOur re-usable rockets will help us to colonise Marsā Elon Musk
āAI will bankrupt the internetā Sam Harris
āLiving to 150 years old will be achievable in our lifetimeā Aubrey de Grey
āRemote work will become the default mode of employmentā Jessica Lessin
āUniversal basic income will eliminate povertyā Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
It starts with two killer questionsā¦
You can take these principles and apply them to your presentations by asking yourself these questions
[Expected] What does my audience currently think?
[To radical/unthinkable] What do I need them to think after Iāve finished speaking?
Your answers to these questions will give you the start and end points for your presentation. The greater the gap, the more radical, unthinkable and inspirational your presentation will become.
Little to no gap? Youāre not thinking big enoughā¦ yet!
An exampleā¦
Last week, I was one of 100 people selected to attend The Do Lectures. The eventās Founder, David Hieatt gave us a tour of his Denim Factory and shared the unthinkable story of how it came to be....
āCardigan had been making jeans for 30 yearsā¦
Until one day, they weren't.
Hiut Demin was created to bring manufacturing back home.ā
Behind him, I noticed a huge sign emblazoned on the the factory wallā¦
Our town is making jeans again.
An idea, that must have seemed unthinkable at the time.
Today, theyāre widely considered to be the best jeans manufacturer in the worldā¦
Unthinkable ideas are powerful.
At the heart of everything we do at MicDrop, my public speaking community for tomorrowās thought leaders, is about shifting The Overton Window.
Itās why we start every new intake with a three week to help you clear on your message. Everyone leaves that sprint, with clarity onā¦
The status quos theyāre challenging
How to communicate their ideas, simply
Where to go for their ideas to be considered unthinkable.
"I gained more clarity on my message within the first 24 hours of joining MicDrop than I have in the last year, and I wish I was exaggerating!"
Heidi Benham, Founder of Gltchs
The October intake is filling up... Click here to find out more.
Alex
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