What is the most famous speech in America’s history?  If you guessed The Gettysburg Address you would be correct.  This speech was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln just months after the Confederate troops had been defeated in the Battle of Gettysburg.  The date was November 19, 1863.  What was it that made this speach so amazing?  Was it the setting?  The crowd?  The man who delivered the speech?  No doubt all of these were factors.  However, there are a few other dynamics that are not often thought of that makes the speech even more exhilarating, and hides a few lessons for us as professional communicators/marketers/businessmen and women.

The most impressive fact about this speech, in my opinion is the length.  The most famous speech in America was only 10 sentences long and lasted barely over 2 minutes. I’m not sure about you, but this makes me think much harder about the way we are crafting our messages.  One myth of the speech is that Lincoln crafted it on the back of a napkin on his way to deliver it.  When you use only 10 sentences to make a powerful statement, you must craft it for hours.  I wonder how much more effective we could be as professionals if we put in more work crafting on the front end, and less time talking (or yelling) at people on the back end.  History says you could have a tremendous impact if you changed your thinking this way.

This story comes from content that I was privileged enough to hear Mark Sanborn deliver at an event in Oklahoma City yesterday and he actually talks more about these principles much better than I do in one of his posts: How Leaders Communicate; Part II.