Al Gore's Convenient Presentation

Set politics aside and analyze the former Vice-President's documentary—it contains five powerful communication techniques for speaking success

by Carmine Gallo

Last weekend, nearly 2,000 people across the U.S. hosted parties to screen the DVD release of former Vice-President Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. In it, Gore makes a persuasive case that the world must take dramatic steps to curtail carbon dioxide emissions in order to reduce global warming.

The point of today's column is not to convince you the issue is as urgent as Gore argues. Rather, it's intended to help you improve the power of your communication skills by breaking down Gore's documentary, which is really a slide presentation in film form. So for this purpose, please set aside any political inclinations you might have and learn from Gore's skillful use of words and images. Here's what Gore does right in presenting his argument.

Set the Stage

Grab the attention of your audience by giving them a reason to listen; the more personal and relevant, the better. Gore begins his presentation—his story—by setting the stage for his argument. In a series of colorful images of the earth taken from space, he gets audiences to appreciate its beauty and reminds them that many theories about the planet once considered fact turned out be to untrue. By doing so, Gore succeeds in framing the issue to support his argument, setting the stage so he can later counter his critics by referring back to his introduction.

The introduction of a presentation is very important, and yet how many of us begin with the "about us" section? The problem is, it's not about you; it's about your audience. Make a connection with them right out of the gate and set the stage for the rest of your argument.

Avoid Bullets

Not one of Gore's slides contains a title and bullet points, the standard template found in Microsoft's (MSFT) PowerPoint software. One reason, of course, is because Gore is using the powerful Apple presentation software, Keynote. But most of the world uses PowerPoint, so keep in mind that it, too, is a tool that can be used effectively. Unfortunately, most slides are boring instead of dynamic. Engaging slides have few or no bullets.

Get away from the standard template and begin replacing titles and bullets with more creative ways of displaying information using graphs, tables, images, and photographs. This takes some creative effort, however. I'm encouraging you to abandon the standard text layout of a PowerPoint deck (where it asks for title and text) and urging you to open the layout design titled "blank slide" or "title only." Staring at a blank slide with no room for bullets can be intimidating at first, but it forces you to think about the information in the way many of your listeners learn—visually (see BusinessWeek.com, 12/5/06, "Presentations with Something for Everyone").

Make Numbers Interesting

Gore could easily have dumped a mind-numbing array of statistics on his audience. But that's not the way to make a persuasive case, and he knows it. For example, for a slide displaying two overlapping graphs representing CO₂ emissions and the average temperature going back 600,000 years, Gore says, "When there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer." He then reveals a slide that shows the graph climbing to the highest level of carbon dioxide in our planet's history—which represents where the level is today.

"Now if you'll bear with me, I want to really emphasize this next point," Gore says as he climbs onto a mechanical lift, presses a button and rises five feet or so in the air. "In less than 50 years," he goes on to say, "it's going to continue to go up. When some of these children who are here are my age, here's where it's going to be…. You've heard of off the charts? Well here's where we're going to be in less than 50 years." It's funny, memorable, and powerful at the same time.