E-Tips

I FOUND IT AT THE MOVIES

The key to how the human mind works is at the movies. The Academy Awards are behind us for another year, but what the movies teach us goes on. We can not measure the human psyche directly by, say, asking people how their minds work. We can, though, analyze what turns them on in the darkness of the movie theater. By reverse engineering movies we can discover what moves human beings deeply.

You could make the argument that the most insightful psychologists in the world are Hollywood scriptwriters. They have literally hundreds of millions of dollars riding on the success of their scripts. With virtually unlimited budgets, Hollywood can hire the best writers in the world, and they do. So, if you want to understand how the human mind works, go to the movies. If you want to put together an outstanding presentation, go to the movies, especially movies with speeches in them.

Let's cut to the chase. If you want to move people in your next speech, here is a formula that works. I know it works because we see it repeated over and over again in films that feature speeches.

• First, have strong feelings, usually anger, about the situation.
• Second, be vulnerable and show deep emotion.
• Third, close with a call to a higher purpose.
  

Well, there you have it: the key to understanding how the mind works and how to move people to action in your next speech.

Now for the details. A number of very successful movies released in the past decade or so, show this unmistakable pattern. Most often the speech is the turning point in the plot. Let's look at a few examples (you can probably come up with many more).

An American President (Michael Douglas)

The president is angered by the attacks of his opponent from the other party. He blasts away, then, looking down confesses his love for two women and how he lost one to cancer and the other to his own blind ambition. He closes with high sounding rhetoric about gun control and pollution legislation.

City Hall (Al Pacino)

An angry diatribe about the death of an innocent boy and the death of a great city. He admits vulnerability and identification with the boy. He ends with a call to make the city great again.

Contact (Jodie Foster)

When told her project is science fiction, she yells at the committee about all the stupid ideas of the past like airplanes and rockets to the moon. She then calls on them to seize this moment as the most important moment in the history of history. She confesses her frustration and apologizes.

Cool Running (John Candy)

Gets mad about the unfair disqualification of his team. He then confesses his past sins of cheating. He closes with a plea that his team deserves to compete and that is an athletes highest honor, don't deny them that chance.

Gettysburg (Jeff Daniels)

Reflects on the sacrifice and death of his men. Then talks of what the stakes are and how much this means to him personally. Ends with a plea to have these men join in the coming battle.

Scent of a Woman (Al Pacino)

Outrage at the sham of the Baird School's court. Confession of his own failures and praise of Charlie's character. Ends with a plea that the committee should protect his future, "It's a valuable future. Embrace it. It's gonna make you proud one day. I promise you."

Other things that mark these movie speeches is that they usually start with something shocking or unexpected. They are tailored to the particular audience. They are not abstract and they usually do not contain data. When the speaker moves from anger to self-revelation, he or she looks down and becomes softer.

So, how can you use this information in your next talk? Realizing that most corporate talks may not lend themselves to this kind of intensity, there are times when this model could be appropriate. So, when the stakes are high, and you must have impact, use the time tested model the best scriptwriters in the world use. Begin with some strong emotion, perhaps anger, move into a personal story about why the issue matters to you so much, and end with a call for a higher vision.

You may not win the Oscar, but you may change the course of an important program or project.

Rick "Spielberg" Gilbert