What does a clown know about giving a business speech?
More than you probably think, Jeff Raz says.
Raz is a world-class clown who performed the lead role in Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo. Now the 58-year-old program director of California-based Stand & Deliver Group shows clients how to use theatrical skills to engage business audiences.
“You need the same skills of persuasion of communication and creating excitement as a performer in front of 3,000 people in an abstract show,” Raz says.
It’s all about stage presence, eye contact, body language and nimbleness.
Stand & Deliver hires professional actors to provide communication and leadership training for mega corporations including Deloitte, Medtronic, Sony, American Express and Cisco.
I got to know Raz when I wrote about Deloitte University’s Greenhouse in Westlake, where clients gather to work out internal issues with the subtle guidance of Deloitte consultants. Raz is coming back to the Deloitte campus here in March for some refresher work.
Jeff Suttle, who runs the Greenhouse, was a total skeptic about learning to juggle handkerchiefs and improv from Raz three years ago. Today he’s a total convert.
“This guy’s a hero to me,” says Suttle. “It’s all about creating a meaningful client experience and getting to the right question on your feet and on the spot.”
So what are Raz’s tricks of the trade?
Build a delivery “ramp.”
You’ve got two minutes before people tune you out.
“The meta idea here is, ‘When you get in front of a group, whether it’s Cirque du Soleil or a training lab at DU, you’re giving a gift to the people there. You have to focus on, ‘What do they care about? What are they interested in? Why are they even here?’
“We call it a ramp.”
Raz watches for crossed arms in the audience.
“Arms crossed is protecting your heart: ‘This guy’s going to attack me,’” he says. “My goal is literal and physical. At the end of my ramp, which is only a minute or two long, I want half of the arms uncrossed because when they uncross them, it’s: ‘Wait, this guy’s actually thinking about me.’”
Be authentic.
“Sure, you’re authentic around the kitchen table or with your friends at a ballgame,” he says. “But at a conference or a high-stakes meeting or when you’re talking one to one with your boss, you need genuine practiced skills, like an actor has, to let your authentic self come through.”
He says we’ve all experienced the colleague chameleon.
“You’re talking with someone and their voice is vibrant and their eyes are alive. They’re moving and having a great conversation. And then they get in front of the room, and you’re thinking, ‘Who is that person?’ They’ve just lost everything of interest.
“You have to combat that. You can’t do that to people. It’s cruel.”
Adjust your presence to the size of the room.
“If you’re in front of a big room, you can make larger gestures and have more range in the volume of your voice.”
Whenever possible, get rid of the lectern. And step down from the podium, unless the folks at the back can’t otherwise see you. “A raised stage is a metaphor for: ‘I’m on a higher level than you.’”
In a video conference, people can only see your head and shoulders, and gestures get lost. “You should use the softer tones in your voice — almost like whispering in people’s ears,” he says.
There’s also a tendency in one-on-one conversations or small meetings for people to get too relaxed and informal. “You have to find that right balance between formality and warmth.”
Leave a little to the imagination.
Raz’s role in Corteo was Cirque-weird because the audience was left to decide whether the clown was dead or alive as he conjured visions of his festive funeral.
“Cirque du Soleil loves ambiguity — in its marketing, in its shows, in its names. I realized the power of it when I was on the road with Cirque,” he says. “But because almost every story in business has a point, people tend to lead from that front by telling us what the point is. Leave it alone. Let us find the meaning. Be a little mysterious.”
Be a storyteller.
“Create a coherent, concise and compelling narrative so that you can light up a room even if the subject isn’t earth-shattering — like making projections for FY 2016.”
At the outset of his training sessions, Raz routinely asks the group: “‘What is the speaker doing when your eyes start to glaze over and your hand goes to your electronic device?’ There’s never a shortage of answers to that question.”
His advice: Whatever that is, don’t do it.
{ SOURCE: Cheryl Hall, Dallas News | http://goo.gl/IuZvwo }
