At today’s pace of change, figuring out a direction of travel can feel like navigating Spaghetti Junction: Lots of potential roads forward, very little time to choose between them. Without a clear roadmap, it’s easy to get lost.
Around the start of the pandemic, I was working with a client in exactly this position. He was the founder of an investment firm specializing in early-stage education technology companies. His industry faced opportunities and pitfalls at every turn. COVID had put online education at the top of the agenda. Employers were looking to spend big on upskilling and reskilling. Artificial intelligence seemed set to revolutionize teaching and learning across the board.
With so many possible routes, where should he drive his investors’ cash?
At the risk of seeing every challenge as a nail, I suggested that he try giving a speech. The process of putting remarks together would help clarify his thoughts. We booked him a few relatively low-stakes slots: A talk to students at his alma mater, a presentation to his friend’s mentees, and so on. As I talked through with him what he wanted to say, my client found himself gravitating again and again toward the importance of skills like resilience and adaptability.
Cue the lightbulbs. My client discovered a market need for, and a personal interest in, startups that were training people in those skills. These speeches functioned like a GPS, guiding my client through the maze of possibilities to his ultimate destination.
This approach worked because public speaking is a forcing function in at least two ways.
First, it gives you a deadline that simply can’t be moved. And as Samuel Johnson once quipped, “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
Second, writing for the ear is different from writing for the eye. Your audience must be able to understand what you say first time, without re-reading it. This forces clarity in a way that the written word doesn’t.
Bottom line: If you’re ever at a loss for how to proceed, why not try scheduling a speech? You might be surprised by how much it crystallizes your thoughts.