Recognizing The Need For Creativity In Industries…

…That Typically Aren’t Accepting Of It.

Public Speaking Analysis of Two Ted Talks.

By This Guy, Chadrick

A Comparison of Kent Larson

To Sir Ken Robinson

Larson’s Summary:

The Lack of Creative Innovation In City Design, Impedes Progressive Growth and Promotes Functionally Challenged Cities Ripe With Congestion. We Need to Creatively Rethink City Design and Modernize our Transportation for The New Century.

Robinson’s Summary:

The Lack of Creative Innovation in Education, Combined with the Amount of Attention Paid to Specific Needs of Individual Students Has Led to an Academic Structure that Conditions Logical and Reasonable Thinking Skills into a Non-Flexible Process which Prevents Fluid Growth and Produces Worse Educational Result as a Consequence. We Put The Brain in a Box.

The Essential Ingredient that Both Speakers Identify as Missing in Their Respective

Trades.

Creativity!

What does this mean?

It Means That Unless We as a Species, Problem Solve our Various

Processes by Introducing the Allowance of Creative Workflow, our End Product Runs the Risk of

Being Less than Optimal and Could Lead to Serious Societal Problems

and Issues.

For Both TED Presentations.

BOTH SPEAKERS AGREE!

So what separates them?

Simple. How they speak and how they present.

Their basic styles are different.

“I, Kent Larson, engage my audience immediately by relating to the past. I then keep them engaged by showing slides and taking them on a virtual tour around the world. I am dynamic in my own way, but the emphasis in my demonstration comes from my slides

and so I only rank a 3 on the Full Sail Speech-a-Ranking system. Next time, maybe I’ll try speaking directly to the audience more,

and focus less on the slides to be more dynamic!” – Kent Larson*

* Not a direct quote.

Opinion Time!

Me Again

“I, Chadrick Baker, am having a hard time accurately gauging if Larson used Duarte’s techniques, but it does not seem so. More evidence of this is found in Ken Robinson’s speech, as they both make the audience laugh and both add elements of storytelling totheir speeches as a way to engage the audience.” – Chadrick Baker*

* Actual Quote

LAUGHTER GOES A LONG WAY IN KEEPING AN AUDIENCES ATTENTION.

Me Again (Not Verifiable)

This is what I’ve mostly taken away from Robinson, because he kept my interest with his humor. Larson utilized pictures and video and that’s what worked for him, but I was less interested.

Opinion Time Over!

Official Score Card of Interesting “Interest Keepers”

Heavily Utilizes SlidesRelates Audience To The Past and future, regionallyUtilizes Duarte’s “What is/what can be”.…

…Nice beard. I was less than enthused with this presentation and it was the products on the slides and content that kept my interest, not the presenter.

Major Con: Beard should have been longer.

Funny! Funny! (Humor is worth Two Points)Well Thought Out, I was hooked.Immediately Gained My InterestStory Teller (This should be worth two points as well)Lined up with my own personal philosophy about education.British accent draws interest (Its unfair but it’s true)

Major Con: Greatly Identified the Problem, but Offered little actual solution outside of concept.

Home Team (Larson) Away Team (Robinson)

It Comes In All Forms

If you are having a hard time speaking, take a deep breath and smile. It can’t be that bad, you still don’t have to give a presentation on restructuring city infrastructure… And slides help.

To Summarize:

The entirety of this document has been a mash-up comparison of both speakers. I start off being matter of fact and demonstrative (Larson), and then went into humor and storytelling (Robinson), utilizing both techniques to emphasize what works in keeping interest and what doesn’t… for me.

Good Day To You.

Glossary

Reference Images:

Slide 1: http://www.insidethearts.com/scanningthedial/2011/11/08/jack-allen/4166/light-bulb-idea-hand-3/Slide 3: Ted.com Speaker Profile Pictures.Slide 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_City_at_night_HDR_edit1.jpg

Slide 6: http://www.tahoecam.com/pics/LakeTahoe-near-EmeraldBay.jpgSlide 7: http://oobly.com/news/wwdc-2011/Slide 8: http://mrpajamasharkman.deviantart.com/art/3-Eyed-Smiley-74388211Slide 9 : http://pappardella.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/national-high-five-day/Slide 10: http://www.portent.com/blog/internet-marketing/you-cant-separate-social-media-seo.htmSlide 11: http://www.polarimagazine.com/polari-hq/wtf-friday-art/Slide 12: http://scg.mit.edu/people/faculty/kent-larsonSlide 14: http://www.laughterbuffet.com/Slide 16: http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/08/30/advice-feedback-and-where-to-get-it/Slide 17: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi04NzQ0NzJhNWNiYmViZjRlSlide 18: You are reading it, silly!

Ted Links for Comparison:

Kent Larson: http://www.ted.com/talks/kent_larson_brilliant_designs_to_fit_more_people_in_every_city.html

Sir Ken Robinson: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html