Red light, green light, keep tight

In this bitterly divided election season we can all agree on one thing about Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry: he doesn’t know when to shut up.

"Saturday Night Live” captured this tendency perfectly in a show that aired during the presidential debates when a comedian playing Kerry said, "I should just sit down, confident in the fact that I just cleaned the president’s clock, and not say anything else. But I’m not going to do that. No, I’m gonna keep on talking. Why? Because I can’t help myself.”

The real debates featured forced brevity in two-minute chunks. Kerry and President Bush were each governed by a traffic-light-type device that shone green, yellow or red depending on how much time they had left. There was also a buzzer system in case they ran over their allotted time. They didn’t.

I think Kerry should carry one of these devices with him for the rest of his life. Because that forced brevity helped him – just like it could help every senior executive in corporate America.

We’ve all had the experience of listening to a politician or an executive who can’t shut up – and frequently doesn’t have to because he outranks everyone else in the room. It’s frustrating because human beings typically have short attention spans. That doesn’t mean they’re inattentive idiots. It just means they’re busy and they want speakers to get to the point.

The public speaking group Toastmasters also uses a system of lights in its meetings to indicate when a speaker’s time is up. In Toastmaster speaking competitions, anyone who goes over time is automatically disqualified. Wouldn’t that be great in the political and corporate worlds?

Of course it takes a long time to deliver a short speech well. As one famous speaker once said, "if you want me to deliver a two-hour speech I’m ready right now. If you want a two-minute speech I’ll need two weeks to prepare.”

Brevity comes from practice. If speakers have two hours they typically fill the time. If speakers use Microsoft PowerPoint they typically spend more time preparing the slides than practicing their delivery – which is a huge mistake. For every hour of rehearsal before a speech each speaker probably increases positive audience perception by 10 percent. And isn’t that the point – to communicate effectively – quality versus quantity?

I have a fantasy. In it, I’m asked to give the commencement address at a prestigious university. It’s an unbearably hot day and the graduating students are in heavy gowns and mortarboards. As I walk up to the podium I pull out an egg timer. I tell the students my speech will be precisely 10 minutes long and I set the egg timer to nine minutes and 30 seconds. Toward the end of my speech the timer goes off; I immediately say "in conclusion,” finish up my speech and get a standing ovation.

Then I wake up and remember I was sitting on my couch watching John Kerry talk when I fell asleep.

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