104 Resonate
People are naturally attracted to opposites, so presenta-
tions should draw from this attraction to create interest.
Communicating an idea juxtaposed with its polar oppo-
site creates energy. Moving back and forth between the
contradictory poles encourages full engagement from
the audience.
Taking a strong and clear position opens up the oppor-
tunity for others to come up with a compelling counter-
position, creating contrast. For each claim you make,
the odds are high that there is a polar opposite claim
that someone in the room supports. Of course, you
believe that your perspective is the correct one—yet
others in the room will likely differ.
The gap between what is and what could be is estab-
lished through creating contrast. Most people jump
right to describing what the world looks like today (or
historically) versus what it could be tomorrow. That’s
the most obvious type of contrast. But it could also be
“what the customer is like without your product” ver-
sus “what the customer could be with your product.”
Or “what the world looks like from an alternate point
of view” versus “what the world looks like from your
point of view.” Basically, the gap is any type of contrast
between where the audience currently is and where
they could be once they know your perspective.
Contrast Creates Contour
Addressing alternate points of view and contrasting
perspectives is not only thorough; it’s interesting—and
there’s proof.
In a 1986 article in the American Journal of Sociology,
John Heritage and David Greatbatch analyzed 476 politi-
cal speeches in Britain and studied what preceded the
applause. They wanted to figure out, for example, why a
speech could be received in total silence, whereas other
speeches were applauded nearly twice per minute.
What was it that appealed to the audience enough to
evoke the physical response of clapping? After studying
over nineteen thousand sentences, half of the bursts of
applause could be attributed to a moment in the speech
where a form of contrast was communicated. The role
that contrast plays in generating a response from the
audience was quite evident.
6
The exercise on the next page will help you broaden your
own perspective and create room for you to consider
and address the audience’s alternate beliefs. Confronting
their perspective gives you credibility; you’ll even hear
opponents say things like, “Wow, that was thoroughly
thought-out.”
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Create Meaningful Content 105
WHAT COULD BE
Your point of view •
Future•
Gain•
Solution•
Clear Passage•
Action•
Possible•
Fulfillment•
Advantage (Opportunity)•
Insight•
Special•
Answer•
Alternate point of view
Past/Present
Pain
Problem
Roadblocks
Resistance
Impossible
Need
Disadvantage
Information
Ordinary
Question
WHAT IS
Create Contrast
Review the ideas you’ve brainstormed so far. Each one
of those ideas should have a contrasting idea inherent to
it. There is an intelligent counterargument to each point
you make. It’s important to explore them all. You might
not use them, but as part of your preparation, you should
know what they are.
To the right is a list of contrasting elements to serve as a
springboard. Most of your ideas possibly fall in one column
or another. Look at all the elements in the list and gener-
ate new ideas you might not have considered. Create
opposing ideas for each point that you can think of. Do
this exercise for the items in each column and then repeat
the process in the reverse order, which could trigger more
ideas. When done, you should end up with a nice, hefty list
of contrasting perspectives.
Contrasting the commonplace with the lofty transforms
audiences toward what could be. These thematic ideas are
what creates the shapeliness of the up-and-down pattern in
the presentation form.
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“Recollecting our experiences and the
experiences of others are precious
gifts of attention that never stop
gracing us with sense-giving and
sense-making moments.”
Terrence Gargiulo
7
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