The TED Commandments – rules every speaker needs to know

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If you haven’t checked out TED.com and their TED Talks, I strongly encourage you to do so.  Pick a topic of interest among their tags, and pick a video that strikes your fancy and sit back and enjoy (and be prepared to learn something mind-blowing).  They are usually between 10 and 20 minutes, and have great potential in the classroom.

I particularly enjoyed Dan Pink’s talk on the science of motivation.  The talks are known for being dynamic, and it turns out that they send out 10 Commandments for their speakers, which are listed below (along with a link to the site that found these commandments which has some further thoughts on TED talks).

These ideas could easily become 10 Commandments for Classroom lectures:

  1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick
  2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before
  3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion
  4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story
  5. Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Skae of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy
  6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
  7. Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desparate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
  8. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
  9. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
  10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee

via The TED Commandments – rules every speaker needs to know.

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