I often watch TED talk videos on my computer while I work out. Last night, I watched Sarah Palin’s resignation speech instead. This was not an improvement. Perhaps, it’s not a fair comparison: Palin’s speech was political, TED presentations scientific or artistic. Palin’s an announcement, TED an enticement. Her audience partially hostile, TED’s eager. I say, a speech is a speech. Whether you’re a division head communicating a layoff, a scientist sharing a discovery, or a governor resigning (and preserving a platform for who knows what), you have the same objective: taking some thought from your brain into ours. Doing this requires three elements: - message(s) you want your audience to receive - words and nonverbals that tell the message - ways to keep us focused so that your message is absorbed - Peter Stinson