Authentic Communication Training » History

Speaking with the Power of a King (part 2)

Howard Stableford — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:52:44 +0000

Did you take up my Challenge?

Did you watch the clip and decide how the speech and staging hits all the principles of the MAGIC presentation boxes? Well, here’s what I see.

Message: Remember, Henry’s troops have lost a lot of enthusiasm for his cause. He hears Westmoreland wishing they had more men. Henry’s message is surprising. He doesn’t want one more man to share in the honour that will be theirs by winning the battle. Why should we share the glory with anyone else he says? It would dilute what “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers” are about to achieve. “The fewer men, the greater share of honour.” he says.

This piques the soldiers’ interest. Henry knows he has their attention now because in Branagh’s version he physically moves away to see if they will follow…. and they do.

This is the Gracing the Stage part as I see it. He uses the space to gather all the lords and troops together as he warms to his theme. Now his audience is literally crowded together, unified by the space as Henry, in an elevated position, now unites their minds in resolve and purpose. This is a superb use of space to emphasize the message.

Authenticity: Throughout this speech Henry reveals who he really is and what he stands for. “I am not covetous for gold. Not care I who doth feed upon my cost: It yearns me not if men my garments wear; such outward things dwell no in my desires. But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.” He also says that in this venture we are all equals: “For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother: be he ne’er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition.” He is saying that even the roughest yeoman present today is elevated in social rank to equal the king! Great motivation!

Interest: How does Henry keep them hooked? He paints a picture. He creates a future in which St Crispin’s day forever will belong to each of them. It will be celebrated as a day when they will show their scars to jealous friends and admiring families and remember the glories of this day. “He that shall live this day and see old age will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours and say Tomorrow is St. Crispin. Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. And say “these wounds I had on St. Crispin’s Day”.

Why painting such a picture works so well as a motivational tool is that each soldier’s version of the future is yet a personal one. They can see in their mind’s eye their own families, friends, villages and contexts. So in reality Henry is creating hundred’s of individual pictures, not just one. Therein lies the genius of the speech for me.

Commitment to Practice: OK, I mentioned this in my last blog that I am cheating a bit here by pointing to Branagh’s stagecraft and the fact that this scene clearly took a great deal of practice!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little exercise. Thanks for indulging me in my passion for Shakespeare and may I take this opportunity to wish you and your family a wonderful Holiday Season.

I will be back in the New Year to hopefully paint some pictures for you in which you, like Henry, can rally your own troops and bring motivation and morale to all who hear you.

Leadership Communication: Speak with the power of a king

Howard Stableford — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:36:57 +0000

What if you had but one chance to speak and your life and the life of all those who were following you depended on it? How would you start? What could you possibly say?

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers….”

I was recently working with a group of senior executive leaders at one of the world’s largest and most successful high-tech companies and successfully used our M.A.G.I.C. communication formula to break down some long-standing barriers to effective communication in their organization.

As a part of my preparations I wanted to provide visual examples for Message, Authenticity, Gracing the stage, maintaining Interest and Commitment to practice.

In the process I found a single superb example of extraordinary leadership communication that demonstrates at the same time all five of the MAGIC principles dramatically and profoundly.

Before you take a look at the video here’s some background.

By the time King Henry Vth of England reached the fields of Agincourt in the year 1415, he was a leader without much of a following. He had promised his army quick wins on French soil and here they were six months later exhausted, hungry, most suffering from dysentery while the French army stood before them fresh, ready for battle and outnumbering Henry’s weakened soldiers by at least five to one.

Several times the French send a messenger offering Henry a peaceful but humiliating way out.

Each time Henry refused.

In Shakespeare’s version of events, on the night before the battle Henry dons a disguise and walks among his troops in the camp listening to their opinions of the King that promised much and had delivered little apart from the promise of death at the hands of French swordsmen the next day.

Henry, like many leaders, finds himself in an impossible situation. With little time left how can he change the hearts and minds of his men?

How can he rally and motivate them not just to fight but to fight believing they will win?

Shakespeare composes perhaps his most stirring speech for Henry and as I watched Kenneth Branagh’s version of the “St. Crispin’s Day” speech it occurred to me that this confluence of historical Henry Vth, playwright William Shakespeare and Branagh’s film version of the speech hit everything that our MAGIC communication model strives for.

Take a look at the movie clip and see if you can identify what Henry’s real message is; how he creates and resonates authenticity with his audience; how he uses the physical space as a persuasive tool; how he keeps his soldiers interested and how there is a commitment to practice?

Well, the actors certainly committed to practice since this complex scene is very long for a sequence that has so few shots in it.

In my next blog, I’ll tell you why I think this scene ticks all the boxes of the MAGIC communication model. And if you have ideas you’d like to share about why this is a near perfect persuasive speech, let me know.

Beginnings

Howard Stableford — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:21:56 +0000

It’s a big day for us here at ACT as Michael Gardner and I unofficially launch our brand new blog site and look forward to reaching and engaging with new audiences around the world.

Since this is a new beginning for us, it set me thinking about where it all began for me personally. Where did my passion for authentic communication and creating persuasive performances start? I think I can trace it back to a single incident many years ago when I was a spotty fourteen year old school boy at a northern grammar school in England. The English teacher has just entered the classroom to the customary clatter of chairs and desks as we shuffle to our feet and greet him with a bored rendition of “Good morning Mr. Jagger’. Today is slightly more tense than usual since we are getting our marked essays returned. Before he distributes these his custom is to select one he particularly likes and read to the class. He opens an essay book and begins….

OK I can’t remember the essay, but I do remember being very impressed by it. It grabbed my attention right away, it was dramatic, funny and left you wanting to know what happened next. I started to look around the class to see which of my swotty colleagues must have written this masterpiece. Then I realized this essay belonged to me and I also knew for certain that the essay I wrote was no masterpiece at all.

So what was happening here? Well no doubt you are ahead of me here. It was the way the teacher was “performing” my essay. He wasn’t just reading it, he was bringing it to life in a way I could never have expected - by putting meaning to unexceptional prose through a dramatic delivery.

That revelation has stayed with me ever since. The words don’t have to be monumental, but the power of performance can elevate any message to a much higher level. This has helped me in very practical ways many times in my broadcast career when presented with a dull script and no time to rewrite it!

Actors can only succeed through the power of their own authentic performances. They have to bring something of themselves to every part they play to make the performance authentically their own. Finding this authenticity is crucial for all of us who need to perform to any kind of audience and it’s an important aspect of our courses.

If you want to see an extreme example of a great actor taking these techniques to the limit, take a look at what William Shatner did to the urbane lyrics of Rocket Man written by Bernie Taupin at an awards ceremony back in 1978. The audience was evidently left bemused. I think it’s fantastic.

William Shatner- Rocket Man

Before you go there though, take a look good look around our new site. Thanks for being here, we hope you’ll come back often.