The Three Languages of Life

I was getting set to give a talk to a group of CEOs last week, and the guy who ran the event was making announcements.  He said, “just so you all know, we are banning the use of PowerPoint by future speakers.”  I am no fan of PowerPoint and I never use it, but I was curious, so I asked him why the unique rule.  He said, “because people display PowerPoint slides of text, and then they proceed to read the text on the display.  That’s their presentation.  I guess they think the audience doesn’t know how to read.”

Now like you, I have been treated to more than one intensely dull PowerPoint presentation, but I had no idea that it had sunk to such depths.  Having been a professional performer for most of my life, I started to wonder, how could anyone do such a thing?  And I think I may have an answer.

While we all think that we speak English, we actually all speak three different channels of English.  The first channel you learn is the English you speak with your parents (and by extension, family members).  The second channel you learned is the English to speak with your peer group as you grew up, mostly just a small circle of friends.  (This is where you learn to speak curse words and the latest jargon.)  And the third channel of English you learn is how you speak to representatives of state authority, i.e., teachers. 

I believe that the reason most people give dull presentations (and the reason a lot of people suffer from stage fright) is that they view every audience as being representative of state authority, and they speak in that obsequious hypercorrect 3rd channel of English.  That channel of English also requires constant acknowledgment of hierarchical authority, allows for little or no levity, and is generally rewarded for uniformity and conformity.

Of course, this applies just as much to playing music as it does to giving a spoken presentation.  Learning better presentation skills is not about merely maximizing your skills in third channel English.  It’s about understanding what you have in common at a peer level with your audience, and connecting with them as friends and family. 

© Justin Locke