Provoking Thought in an Audience

[dropcap background=”” color=”” circle=”0″]I[/dropcap]f there is one thing that speakers can do to cover a variety of the necessary pillars of a great speech it is to consistently provoke thought in the audience. One of the great examples of this is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s world famous speech on feminism. The speech has garnered a lot of attention throughout the world due to its thought provoking characteristics. Adichie is able to ask questions and make statements that cause the audience to continually raise their eyebrows and cock their head sideways. She’s also continually showing just how powerful thought-provoking statements and questions can be.

Asking Thought-Provoking Questions

Notice exactly what the questions she asks are doing. As you’re viewing the video and listening to these points you’re inevitably led to a state of, ‘Wow, that’s a good point. Why DO we do that?’ Her ability to do this continuously not only points to a strong argument that engages the audience but it also creates a powerful delivery and attractive presentation.

Here lies the incredible benefit of posing just a single thought-provoking question to the audience. When doing so, a speaker has the ability to cover a multitude of the pillars of a great speech at the same time. It also creates a sense of remembrance for the speech. One of the many thought-provoking questions that she uses in this specific speech has been used multiple times by other speakers and has even been quoted in a song by megastar pop artist Beyoncé.

Working to Cover the Pillars

With each thought-provoking statement and quote that Adichie makes, it becomes clear that she is a master of continually tying her talking points back into her overall theme. The structure of her speech is impeccable and, while she isn’t overly energetic, she’s still able to achieve a very powerful delivery.

It is interesting to note that the benefit of the speech is not clearly shown up front and that Adichie kind of leaves it up to the audience to determine their own benefit. While this is difficult to achieve, she is still able to generate a broad benefit to the audience that leads to them making their own decision on what the clear benefit is.

All in all, Adichie’s ability to consistently provoke thought in the audience allows her to cover the pillars of a great speech in a way that is almost impossible through other methods. Incorporating these statements and questions into your own speech will surely be beneficial.