Monroe's Motivated Sequence
Perfecting the Call to Act
Be inspiring!
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Is persuasion a gift? Are some people born with the ability to speak well and "sell" their ideas successfully?
It sure seems that way when you're wowed by a motivational speaker, or galvanized into action by a thought-provoking presentation.
In your role, do you ever need to motivate, inspire, or persuade others?
Whether you're a senior executive giving a presentation to the Board, a manager giving a morale-boosting speech to your team, or a production manager giving a presentation on safety standards, at some point, you'll probably have to move people to action.
While there are certainly those who seem to inspire and deliver memorable speeches effortlessly, the rest of us can learn how to give effective presentations too. Key factors include putting together a strong message and delivering it in the right sequence.
Monroe's Motivated Sequence: The Five Steps
Alan H. Monroe, a Purdue University professor, used the psychology of persuasion to develop an outline for making speeches that will deliver results. It's now known as Monroe's Motivated Sequence.
This is a well-used and time-proven method to organize presentations for maximum impact. You can use it for a variety of situations to create and arrange the components of any message. The steps are explained below.
Step One: Get Attention
Get the attention of your audience. Use storytelling , humor, a shocking statistic, or a rhetorical question – anything that will get the audience to sit up and take notice.
Note:
This step doesn't replace your introduction – it's part of your introduction. In your opening, you should also establish your credibility (see The Rhetorical Triangle for tips), state your purpose, and let the audience know what to expect. Delivering Great Presentations provides a strong foundation for building the steps in Monroe's Motivated Sequence.
Let's use the example of a half-day seminar...