Public speaking tip: Connect the dots when sharing facts and figures

In certain speeches, sometimes it’s important to the message to share a few facts and figures, numbers and statistics.

Here’s my question for public speakers:

Do you take the time to connect the dots?

A colleague of mine in the Professional Speechwriters Association, Carlos Razo, has a Ph.D. in economics.

As special assistant and adviser to Joakim Reiter, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Razo deals every day with a plethora of facts and figures, numbers and statistics.

In his award-winning speech for Reiter on Nov. 24, 2016, read how Razo first shares three bits of data – and then brilliantly connects the dots for attendees at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva:

[SHARING THE DATA]

Twenty years ago, trade as percentage of GDP was 20 percent. In 2015, this figure was nearly 30 percent.

Twenty years ago, global FDI was worth US $341 billion. In 2015, this figure reached US $1.7 TRILLION, with FDI stock tripling as a percentage of global GDP since 1990.

Twenty years ago, there were 123 members of the WTO. Today, there are 164.

[CONNECTING THE DOTS]

To put it differently: We have never traded as much as we do today. Firms have never invested as much abroad as they do today. And there have never been as many actors as there are today in the global trading system.

Because your audience is listening to you and not reading your words, they have no way to rewind and review what you just said.

It’s up to you to draw the conclusions you want and need people to draw.

Connecting the dots is always the speaker’s job — not the audience’s job.