Thursday, July 19, 2007

Challenge

The Baha'i Speaker’s Challenge

By John Taylor; 2007 July 19

One of my original goals in starting this Badi' Blog was to offer research materials that will assist Baha'i speakers to present the Message of Baha'u'llah. Though no orator myself, I am an independent researcher and much of what I produce here can be made suitable for public presentation. My career has this little theme or motto: I do not seek out what is new, I concentrate on what is old, what is already known, but which should be better known by your average world citizen. I record the details and pathways of my research in an unfinished essay format not to make original discoveries but just to trample down the underbrush on overgrown trails in order to make the path easier for presenters to walk down. Today I want to address this particular purpose of the blog more directly and explicitly than usual.

I have been searching for some time for a book on PowerPoint that goes beyond the usual list of features of the program and talks about how to use it in real-life presentations. This has been a surprisingly long and difficult quest. At last I found what I was looking for in one of the smaller libraries in Hamilton this week. It is, "Using PowerPoint 2000, Special Edition." This older book is not obsolete; it is excellent in what it sets out to do, to show you how to make computer-aided shows.

As anybody who strolls down the computer book section of the bookstore knows, the "Using" series sets out not only to cover the subject but also to produce vast tomes that can double as bricks, paperweights and doorstops; so I jumped over the first five hundred pages and am reading the final quarter of the book, called "From Concept to Delivery." The text of this edition is not available online, but the complete, identical text of the following edition, "Using Powerpoint 2003," is available at:

<http://www.ubookcase.com/book/Microsoft/Que.Special.Edition.Using.MS.Office.PowerPoint.2003/source/0789729571_part07.html>

It is nice to look at a book that has been around for a while. I looked over reader reviews of this book on the Web and discovered that people tend to love this guy's theoretical approach or hate it. I am among those that love it. The author of this section, by the way, is Tom Mucciolo. Many readers seem to dislike his humor, but again, it works for me so far. Humor theorists confirm one of his first points, that a presentation depends wholly upon the person presenting it. If you dislike the person, chances are you will not like the jokes. Consider what he says early on, that "communication is about people." In a section called "Putting people first," he says,

"One thing all the experts can agree on is that the success of communication is dependent on the presenter. That would be the person in the front of the room trying to keep the audience awake. The visuals are secondary to the concept, which is subject to the delivery skills of the person. All three elements are important, but without the person, you really can't call it a presentation."

He continues this theme in a following chapter, "Making a Lasting Impression,"

"People remember people, not data. Very few people will come up to you at the end of your presentation and say, `You know. The third pie chart? The fourth slice? Loved it! The other slices, nahhhh, but the FOURTH slice, wow!' No way! But a person might say, `You know. The story you told about the young woman and the two kids? I'll never forget that!'"

If this is true in the practical world of business, how much more must it be for teaching the Baha'i faith! Religion is essentially mystical, and ultimately the most you can hope to communicate to your audience is the spirit of what you believe. Listening to the Baha'i speakers at firesides, I notice that even when they avoid personal testimonials, the usual "How I became a Baha'i" story, people afterwards always ask to hear them, even if they have heard the story a thousand times.

So whether we want it or not, every talk is bound to be some sort of bearing witness. This makes it hard, since few veteran believers remember the particular facts and data that led us into faith. Nor do we know exactly the facts and data that will lead others into the same pathway. But if we concentrate on personal stories, we are more likely to hit the nail on the head.

Another thing I learned was that although you are there to convey and demonstrate personal love and get people to understand your point of view, that does not necessarily mean that you always need to shy away from polarizing your audience. A good speaker does this soon, even right off the bat by using what he calls a hook. I will talk more of that later. You use a hook basically to do what the Book of Revelation says: "Be ye hot or cold, but if ye be lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

Mucciolo holds that there are two kinds of talk, linear and non-linear. Non-linear is more like a conversation, you talk as long as you need to, and about whatever subjects time and occasion seem to demand. Linear talks are more systematic, and he says that there are only five types.


1. Matching Ideals
2. Main Points
3. Question and Answer
4. Meeting Needs
5. Problem-Solution


I will talk more about these specifically later. What happened was that for me this was bedtime reading last night. I read over these theoretical points just before dropping off to sleep and when I awoke I had in my head an exercise, a way to apply these five theoretical points to the problems of Baha'i speakers everywhere.

What we need is a standard Baha'i text long enough to turn into five model talks about the faith, one for each of the five kinds of talk spoken of in "Using PowerPoint." It should be illustrated, recently updated, authoritative and easily available to speaker and listeners alike. There is only one such document right now that has all of these qualifications, the magazine slash pamphlet called, "The Baha'is, A Profile of the Baha'i Faith and its Worldwide Community." For one thing, just like "Using PowerPoint," the entire text, as well as its photos and graphics (though in low rez format, unfortunately) of "The Baha'is" is available online at:

<http://www.bahai.com/thebahais/pg5.htm>

Not only that, but it is available for cheap, about three or four dollars in bulk, and thus can be handed out to all comers at any talks we may give. I have not read it myself but my contact was impressed by the copy we gave him and he read most of it. The pictures and illustrations can easily be placed into a PowerPoint presentation.

Speech Challenge

So, here is the Baha'i Speech Challenge: make up five talks, one for each of the five kinds of speeches listed above, using only the material, visuals and text in "The Baha'is." Use my motto, nothing new, concentrate on what should be common knowledge. While your contents are standard, based upon The Baha'is, your creativity will be strained to the limit by the hook you use at the start, and by the personal testimony interspersed throughout. That, as we established before, is the lifeblood of every Baha'i talk, like it or not. The topics discussed in "The Baha'is" are:

1. The Baha'is
2. Unity in Diversity
3. Baha'u'llah
4. Social and Moral Teachings
5. Spiritual Beliefs of the Baha'i Faith
6. A System for Global Governance
7. A Century of Growth and Expansion
8. New Approaches to Old Problems
9. Towards the
New World Order

So, to answer the challenge all you have to do is pick out five of these headings, and regurgitate it in a way that would please the audience at a fireside or public meeting. To better understand the five types of talk, consult the online text of "Using PowerPoint 2003" that I pointed to above. Then give your own stamp to the material.

I too will strive to do this. I will write five essays here. I also promise to share here any talks or essays that you may wish to send to me. Ideally, the product of all our labor would be shared openly with other potential Baha'is speakers in PowerPoint format somewhere on the Web, perhaps at a Baha'i speaker's website. So, while I am straining my powers to come up with five essays, you do the same, and may the results prove fructuous.

 

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