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    How Bill Gates Radically Transformed His Public Speaking and Communication Skills

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    Bharat Shah
    by Carmine Gallo, Contributor : I write about success, leadership and communications. Gates realizes that to inform, educate, and inspire, he must be able to address complex problems in a simple, visual, and compelling style. Although his new role as Nadella’s advisor might not give him the opportunity to be as public as Microsoft’s CEO, it will be interesting to see how Gates transfers his presentation skills to tackle the big technology issues Microsoft tries to solve

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    How Bill Gates Radically Transformed His Public Speaking and Communication Skills

    Uploaded by

    Bharat Shah
    488 views6 pages
    by Carmine Gallo, Contributor : I write about success, leadership and communications. Gates realizes that to inform, educate, and inspire, he must be able to address complex problems in a simple, visual, and compelling style. Although his new role as Nadella’s advisor might not give him the opportunity to be as public as Microsoft’s CEO, it will be interesting to see how Gates transfers his presentation skills to tackle the big technology issues Microsoft tries to solve

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    by Carmine Gallo, Contributor : I write about success, leadership and communications. Gates realizes that to inform, educate, and inspire, he must be able to address complex problems in a simple, visual, and compelling style. Although his new role as Nadella’s advisor might not give him the opportunity to be as public as Microsoft’s CEO, it will be interesting to see how Gates transfers his presentation skills to tackle the big technology issues Microsoft tries to solve

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    488 views6 pages

    How Bill Gates Radically Transformed His Public Speaking and Communication Skills

    Uploaded by

    Bharat Shah
    by Carmine Gallo, Contributor : I write about success, leadership and communications. Gates realizes that to inform, educate, and inspire, he must be able to address complex problems in a simple, visual, and compelling style. Although his new role as Nadella’s advisor might not give him the opportunity to be as public as Microsoft’s CEO, it will be interesting to see how Gates transfers his presentation skills to tackle the big technology issues Microsoft tries to solve

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    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    How Bill Gates Radically Transformed His Public Speaking And Communication Skills

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/02/07/how-bill-gates-radically-transformed-his-public-speakingand-communication-skills/ Carmine !allo" Contributor : # write about success" leadership and communications.

    Leadership
    2 !" 2!#$

    $ill !ates has returned to the company he co-founded" ser%ing as product and technology ad%isor to newly appointed &icrosoft C'(" )atya *adella. #n this new position" the public might see a %ery different communicator than the leader who left his day-to-day role at &icrosoft in 200+. #,%e watched !ates %ery closely as he,s transformed himself into a persuasi%e communicator who can e-plain comple- sub.ects clearly and simply. $eginning in 200+ when $ill !ates announced he would focus most of his time on philanthropy through the $ill / &elinda !ates 0oundation" he also began to think seriously about how to communicate the comple- problems the foundation was trying to sol%e 1e-treme po%erty" childhood deaths" global healthcare2 in simple ways that most people could understand. !ates knew it would be nearly impossible to encourage stakeholders to take action3or donate their wealth3if he failed to grab their attention and to persuade them to sacrifice for the greater good. 0or e-ample" e%ery year $ill and &elinda !ates write a letter focusing on the big issues of po%erty" foreign aid" and philanthropy. 4he title of the 2014 letter: % &yt's T'at Block Progress (or T'e Poor. 5egular readers of my column know that #,m a big fan of 64he rule of three.7 4hree is the most powerful number in communication theory. 4here,s a reason why !oldilocks saw three bears and why there are three 6unalienable rights7 in the 8eclaration of #ndependence. 4hree is substantial enough to support an argument and short enough to remember. #nstead of o%erwhelming people with too much information" !ates chose three myths to dispel in the newsletter. 4hey were: &yth 91: :oor countries are doomed to stay poor. &yth 92: 0oreign aid is a big waste.

    &yth 9;: )a%ing li%es leads to o%erpopulation. 4he approach worked and garnered millions of %iews on tele%ision and social media. 0or e-ample" nearly e%ery inter%iewer opened the con%ersation with the list. )immy (allon* 6#n the letter you debunk three myths. 0irst" you say that poor countries are doomed to stay poor<7 )oe Scarboroug'+ &S,BC* 6=e,re talking about three myths. =hat,s the first one>7 C'arlie Rose+ CBS &orning ,ews* 6$ill !ates has three myths he says blocks help to the world,s poorest people.7 &ost of the headlines on blogs and in newspapers also chose to highlight the three myths. 0or e-ample" T-&. &aga/ine* $ill !ates 4alks 4o 4ime ?bout 4he 4hree &yths of !lobal ?id T'e 0all Street )ournal* $ill and &elinda !ates (n 4op ; &yths of :o%erty 4he foundation,s letter appears online. 4he website contains a remarkable %ideo that you would ha%e ne%er seen from the $ill !ates who ran &icrosoft. #n this short" two-minute %ideo" $ill !ates uses old school technology3 e%en older than :ower:oint3to describe how the way the world has impro%ed since 1@+0. !ates uses nothing more than simple circle drawings on a white notepad. !reat communicators understand one fundamental rule of persuasion A comple- ideas must be communicated simply.

    Release t'e mos1uitoes2 4he best e-amples of !ates, new and impro%ed style can be seen on 4'8.com. 4'8 14echnology/'ntertainment/8esign2 is a series of conferences where the best and brightest are in%ited to share their ideas with other bright people. 4he presentations are captured on line and ser%e as instructi%e case studies for those who want to transform their public speaking and presentation skills. #n 200@ !ates deli%ered this 4'8 presentation on the topic of malaria in third world countries. 6&alaria" of course" is transmitted by mosBuitoes"7 !ates said as he opened a glass .ar. 6# brought some here so you can e-perience this. #,ll let these roam around the auditorium. 4here,s no reason why only poor people should ha%e the e-perienceC7

    !ates then made it clear that the mosBuitoes were not infected" but the stunt grabbed the attention of his listeners. !ates had drawn the audience into the con%ersation and they knew it. 4he stunt worked so well that when !ates deli%ered another 4'8 talk the following year on the topic of sol%ing the world,s energy crisis" he brought fireflies as an e-ample of one of the many gimmicks that people ha%e offered as solutions. De said" Now, I thought, How could I really capture this? Is there some kind of natural illustration, some demonstration that would grab peoples imagination here? I thought back to a year ago when I brought mosquitos, and somehow people enjoyed that !"aughter# It really got them in$ol$ed in the idea of, you know, there are people who li$e with mosquitos %o, with energy, all I could come up with is this I decided that releasing fireflies would be my contribution to the en$ironment here this year %o here we ha$e some natural fireflies& (f course #,m not suggesting that you release insects at your ne-t presentation" but # am encouraging you to elicit a surprise" what # call a 6.aw-dropping moment.7 4he .aw-dropper might include a personal story" an intriguing %ideo" an unusual prop or demonstration. 4he brain cannot ignore no%elty. 4he most compelling presentations surprise the audience with new information or information packaged in a fresh" une-pected way. 3se pictures instead of words4 #n his global warming presentation titled" Inno$ating 'o (ero" !ates used imagerich slides that represented a radical departure from the cluttered :ower:oint slides seen in nearly e%ery conference in ?merica. 4he slides !ates created for Inno$ating to (ero contain mostly photographs and %ery few words. 4he a%erage :ower:oint slide has 40 words. !ates didn,t reach 40 words until his 1Eth slideC (n !ates, first slide the audience saw a photograph of poor children in a small ?frican %illage. 6'nergy and climate are e-tremely important to these people. #n fact" more important than to anyone else on the planet"7 he began. 4his techniBue is called picture superiority. )imply put" people tend to remember pictures better than they remember words alone. 4he best presentations include a balance of words and pictures. 0or e-ample" !ates e-plained global warming in se%en seconds and his slide was remarkably simple. De said" 6C(2 gets emitted. 4hat leads to a temperature increase and that temperature increase leads to some %ery negati%e effects.7 Dis slide contained the simple formula o%er an image of a dry landscape:

    C(2 A temperature increase A negati%e effects !ates realiFes that to inform" educate" and inspire" he must be able to address comple- problems in a simple" %isual" and compelling style. ?lthough his new role as *adella,s ad%isor might not gi%e him the opportunity to be as public

    as &icrosoft,s C'(" it will be interesting to see how !ates transfers his presentation skills to tackle the big technology issues &icrosoft tries to sol%e. )armine *allo is the communications coach for the worlds most admired brands He is a popular keynote speaker and author of se$eral books, including Talk Like TED, which re$eals the + public,speaking secrets of the worlds top minds %ign up for )armines newsletter and follow him on -acebook or 'witter

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