The Old Guard
I did the keynote for PuppetConf a few years ago. It was The Second Act talk that I've done many times. There are two key moments you are looking for to see if a talk lands:
- Strong unexpected reaction to points made during the talk.
- The first reaction from the first three people you see when you walk off stage.
The Second Act is deployed at start-ups who are in the middle of rapid growth and attempts to describe the consequences of these growing pains. Emerging strains between teams, communication flare-ups that never existed... a lot of head scratching: What is happening to my company?
You can read the original thesis of the talk in The Old Guard. Historically, what is interesting to me is that I built The Second Act for a different company — years earlier — Riot Games. They pushed me hard for original content that would speak to the current state of their company, and I realized, a few years earlier, I'd written the article they needed.
Day of the Riot talk, the usual butterflies. I started, and seven slides in — an unexpected laugh. Two slides later — clapping... for that? Ok. Strong unexpected reaction. When I finished, a standing ovation. What is going on here? Walked off stage, and the conference organizer immediately said, "Absolutely perfect."
I'd been under the impression that every talk needed to be unique to the company until that moment. Three months later, when another company contacted me, I volunteered The Second Act, and they jumped at it.
Minor touch-ups to the deck. Updated market slides. Fix timings here and there. Drop the slide that doesn't work, but 95% the same talk. On stage, the same claps. A few new laughs. I walked off stage, and the conference organizer smiled at me, paused, and said, "Can I give you a hug?"
Sure.
She said, "That is exactly what we needed."
The Old Guard was an observation I made at Palantir and Pinterest. It's a variation of The Innovator's Dilemma, explaining that the employees who brought your initial success might be a detriment to future success. It was a bit of writing that worked so much better as a presentation.
Try it. Take something you wrote and read it out loud. The truth just sounds different.