Great explanation builds an idea in someone’s head by starting where our hearers are, igniting curiosity, building slowly, and by using metaphors and examples.
TED Head Chris Anderson says that “if the goal of a great talk is to build an idea inside someone’s mind, then explanation is the essential tool for achieving that goal.” The TED Talks that have gone viral have all been masterful explanations that produce new understanding. Or as Anderson puts it, “the upgrading of a worldview to better reflect reality.”
That’s partly what preaching is about too, isn’t it? It’s about building an idea, a divine idea, inside someone’s head, explaining the biblical text in such a way that it upgrades our hearers’ worldview to better reflect reality. Preaching is more than that; but it’s at least that.
Having analyzed innumerable TED talks, Anderson has isolated five key components of great explanation:
1. Start where your hearers are. Begin with the here and now, with your hearers’ world, time, concerns, and needs.
2. Ignite curiosity. “Curiosity is what makes people ask why? and how? It’s the feeling that something doesn’t quite make sense. That there’s a knowledge gap that has to be closed.”
3. Bring in concepts one by one. Make sure you have fully explained the earlier steps of your case or else the latter parts will come crashing down and destroy everything.
4. Use metaphors. “For an explanation to be satisfying it has to take puzzling facts and build a connection from them to someone’s existing mental model of the world. Metaphors and analogies are the key tools needed to do this. They help shape the explanation until finally it snaps into place with a satisfying aha!”
5. Use examples. Little stories help lock the explanation into place.
The end result of this kind of explanation will be a richer, deeper, truer mental world. And if it’s preaching, it should also produce the same in our spiritual world.
TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson.
Great explanation builds an idea in someone’s head by starting where our hearers are, igniting curiosity, building slowly, and by using metaphors and examples.
More articles in the Preaching Lessons from TED Talks series.