Being able to communicate your ideas clearly in a presentation, putting forward your firm arguments during a group meeting as well as talking in a persuasive manner about your product or service are essential to be successful in any business today. All these require confidence and strong public speaking skills. While only a few people are born with this talent, there is still hope for the rest of us, as these competencies can be easily developed. In this series I will try to give "short-cuts", some easy-to-follow tips to increase your impact as a public speaker.

^{Source of the C00 free image}

The Holy Hand Grenade Rule

In the movie, Monthy Python and the Holy Grail there is a scene when they try fight the Rabbit and would like to apply the Holy Hand Grenade but before doing so, they read the instructions from the Book of Armaments:

'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out! Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.'

This rule is well-applicable to any speech, too: always count to three! If you have only two topics, add one more; if you have four, choose the most important three of them - five is right out! LOL😁

Why three is the magic number?

• Your speech would have three parts: the introduction or beginning part is for raising interest, the middle part is to detail your topic and the end is to wrap up the essence of your message. This structure allows you to express a concept, emphasize it, and make it memorable. (Another triad 😊).
• In writing the use of three represents completeness, wholeness, roundness - same applies for oral communication, if you use only three adjectives to characterize something, that is more complete than if you used four or five.
• People like better and can remember better lists of three - this is why most slogans and advertisements operate with it. Great speakers also incorporate lists of three in their speeches.

A few examples for the use of three (but you can find a lot more from a lot of areas in life here):

• Steve Jobs introduced iPhone in 2007 this way: I would like to introduce an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator.
• "Gut, besser, Gösser" (A beer advertisement slogan)
• Barack Obama said this in his inauguration speech: “we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America“

So don't forget The Holy Hand Grenade rule next time, when you want to make an impact! Until then here is the scene from the movie:

This post has been crossposted on both Steemit and Whaleshares.