Originally published on LinkedIn - December 2018
This week the UK news is awash with stories associated with Brexit, so naturally it is a topic that is buzzing around in my head. I’ll leave the political analysis to others (although I’ll admit my view at the end), but it got me thinking about the major speeches involved.
When commentators talk about the main communications on Brexit from Theresa May, our British Prime Minister, since the referendum vote in 2016, they regularly reference three speeches. And they give these speeches names. In this blog I’m going to talk briefly about the speeches and the names given, but really I am going to introduce the age old principle of Method Of Loci.
I admit I find major political debate engaging. I grew up in a political family where my mother was an elected local politician for over a decade. So in this critical week in the life of Brexit I am glued to BBC News. During a break in the parliamentary debacle, I decided to look back at the three major speeches Theresa May has given on Brexit.
On January 17th 2017 we had the speech on “The government’s negotiating objectives for exiting the EU”. On 22nd September 2017 we had the speech about “A new era of cooperation and partnership between the UK and the EU”. March 2nd 2018 provided us with the speech vocalising “Our future economic partnership with the European Union”.
Even those of you who have avidly followed the machinations of Brexit will not recognise these speeches by name. This is because, although these are the official titles of the speeches on the UK Government website these three speeches are consistently known sequentially as the Prime Minister’s “Lancaster House Speech”, her “Florence Speech”, and her “Mansion House Speech”.
The reasons for these names are many, clearly. We need short names as the official ones are impossible to remember and take too long to say on the BBC. You have got to call them something else. But there is the key reason that they all describe WHERE the speech took place. Two are official government addresses in London (but neither places where the PM regularly makes speeches), and one is a major city in Italy.
I sat and read the three speeches today. It was, as you can imagine, hard work.
The Lancaster House speech lays out three principles which really organise “12 priorities that the UK government will use to negotiate Brexit”. That is a long, long list to sit through, let alone remember afterwards.
The Florence Speech has a central theme of creativity and innovation. It talks about how the UK and the EU should “demonstrate that creativity, that innovation, that ambition that we need to shape a new partnership to the benefit of all our people”. When not making veiled references to how important the UK is to security across Europe, it gives a consistent positive central message around what is possible. But is still full of a lot of dull weighty details.
The Mansion House Speech lists “Five Tests” that must be passed in any agreement and then a further five “foundations that must underpin our trading relationship”. It is hard work to follow.
Do you now want to click away to read the full speeches yourself just for the fun of it? It is unlikely.
So how do those who choreograph these critical speeches help us connect to what was said at each? They deliberately stage them at key locations rarely used by a British PM, and then connect each to where the speech is delivered. The location acts as a fillip to recall the main policy information held in each. The content is still stodgy and pretty bland, but naming the place helps us segment the differences. It matches the journey the Brexit story is following.
There is a bucket of evidence that a key aid to memory is to connect to a location. Connecting significant (but bland) information with a sense of place. The Greeks and the Romans used it in rhetorical speeches. It is often called the Method Of Loci, but there are similar systems called “mind journey”. Our modern Sherlock Holmes, at least the Benedict Cumberbatch version, famously uses it as the basis for his "mind palace" technique.
I’ll write briefly about Lynne Kelly who is an Australian researcher and writer whose work focuses on primary orality and oral tradition. She posits that nomadic cultures, such as traditional aborigine tribes, benefited greatly by having in their collective memory an extensive knowledge of animal behaviour, plant properties, the landscape, tribal kinship, water sources, etc. All critical to survival. Her work explores the use of oral stories, myths, and associated rituals.
Some of what she is exploring connects to the use of evocative stories told - how the more unusual and exciting the characters the more of the moral is remembered. This connects to conclusions from many disciplines that if something is perceived as new and or unique it is more memorable.
Kelly mostly focuses on the importance of place; where the story is told, where the ritual is held. How the location anchors the information in the minds of the listeners, helping it be retrieved when most important.
Is this a plant that will heal me or poison me? The elder stood on that hill above the wiry tree to tell me the tale of...
Is the tribe on the horizon one with which we have binding family ties, or one with long held grudges? The yearly ritual of reciting our kinship links with other tribes is always down by the circle rocks down by the stream...
Connecting information to place helps people remember what was spoken, especially if the location is in some way distinct.
The Brexit Speeches by Theresa May are an example of this aspect of Method Of Loci. The sense of place helps people to remember the stories shared, and then the facts verbally documented come more easily to mind.
When I worked in the UK Procter & Gamble business, each year we would get together in a single location to review the strategies for the coming fiscal. All but one of these were held in a generic Hilton Hotel in the centre of London. I can remember elements of what was shared, but I could never tell you the chronology or how the information connected to other content from the that day.
A single one of these town hall presentation days was held in the conference suite of Wembley Stadium. I can picture the walk up to the famous stadium, the room where the presentations were delivered, and the faces of those who spoke. This is the one day of presentations from which I can even today, over ten years later, remember key elements of who said what.
When you have the most important things to say, especially if those things are in their nature dry and even dull, consider where you will say what you will say. Use the location of your talk to anchor your speech to a time and place.
This is a simple and yet under-utilised techniques in anchoring a presentation. As you consider WHAT you will say, and to WHOM, pause to think about WHERE you will speak, and WHERE you will visually take them. This can be the literal location of the talk, or conceptual journeys in the content.
There are many more ideas to explore within the Method Of Loci. I'll likely include some in an upcoming blog. In the meantime, when you need a speech to be remembered however dense the content, set a sense of place.
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p.s. I committed to share my personal perspective on Brexit: It breaks my heart. For all my career I have enthusiastically worked closely with people from across Europe. Emotionally I would always choose staying connected and interdependent with my neighbours over breaking away purely for perceived self-interest.
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