Some talks inspire for a few minutes, then nothing changes after the applause. In this article, Jef Menguin shares how to speak in a way that moves people from feeling to action, one clear step at a time. If you want to learn how to create your stage and leave a real mark, this will help.
Have you ever delivered a presentation that people praised…
…and then nothing moved?
You didn’t fail to explain.
You failed to land.
The plant manager in Sta. Rosa
Let’s call him Marco.
He’s a plant manager in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. He loves his company the way some people love their hometown—may sablay, but you still defend it. He wants the plant to grow because he knows growth isn’t just profit. It’s stability. It’s pride. It’s fewer “crisis Mondays.”
Marco is not careless. He comes prepared. He has clean data, clear trends, and solid analysis. His secretary is excellent at PowerPoint—slides that look like they came from a global HQ. When Marco speaks, he sounds credible.
And the room behaves well.
People listen politely. They nod. They clap.
The moment after applause
After one quarterly update, Marco walked out of the conference room thinking, Okay. This time, they get it.
He went down to the floor that afternoon.
Same shortcuts. Same “mamaya na” habits. Same delays that his charts clearly showed were draining the plant. A machine stopped, a workaround kicked in, and the shift turned into a sprint—again.
Marco didn’t explode. He just stared for a few seconds longer than usual.
A supervisor noticed and said, almost like a comfort line: “Sir, we’ll align with the team. We’ll cascade it.”
Marco heard that phrase—we’ll cascade it—and felt the problem in his stomach.
Because “cascade” often means, “We’ll translate this later… when we’re no longer in front of you.”
The Relay Problem
Here’s what was happening, quietly.
Marco’s talk was being treated like a baton in a relay race.
Managers would “interpret” it. Supervisors would “translate” it. Frontliners would finally decide what it really meant in daily life.
By the time the message reached the people who do the work, it had lost its heat.
Let’s name it: The Relay Problem.
It’s not sabotage. It’s survival.
When you’re far from power, you don’t react quickly to big messages. You wait. You watch. You protect yourself.
And if the talk doesn’t answer the question nobody wants to say out loud—“What’s in it for me?”—then people fill in the blanks on their own.
Usually like this:
“Okay, dagdag trabaho na naman ‘to. Sino sasalo pag nagkaproblema?”
Good intentions that don’t get felt
This is the painful part: Marco cared.
He worried about safety. He hated rework. He didn’t want targets to be met through overtime and stress. He believed discipline was protection, not punishment.
But when your language is mostly dashboards, your care can sound like pressure. When your talk feels like an academic report, people file it under “for compliance,” not “for us.”
Marco wasn’t missing passion.
He was missing proximity.
The shift Marco made
The next month, Marco did something simple.
He kept the same data. He kept the same deck. But he changed his opening—and he changed what the talk was for.
He started with a question that belonged to their world.
“Can I ask you something honest? When we miss targets, who feels it first?”
A manager answered, “Operations.” A supervisor said, “Frontline, sir.”
Marco nodded and said the line he usually kept to himself.
“Exactly. And that’s why I’m pushing this change. I don’t want you carrying the cost of problems we can fix—through rushed shifts, overtime, and safety risk.”
The room didn’t become emotional.
It became close.
Then he showed the chart, but he translated it while it was still alive.
“This downtime trend doesn’t just hit numbers. It turns your shift into a sprint. You lose rhythm. You rush. And rushing is where accidents happen.”
Now the data wasn’t academic.
It was personal.
The moment the talk became leadership
Marco didn’t end with a summary.
He ended with a decision.
“I want one small test from each area for the next two weeks. Not forever. Two weeks. Something we can observe.”
Then he shortened the power distance on purpose. He started with supervisors, not managers.
“What will you test?”
A supervisor said, “Sir, five-minute pre-start checklist. Right now we assume okay lahat.”
Another said, “We fix handover. The last ten minutes of the shift is chaos.”
Marco didn’t say, “Great idea.”
He made it real.
“Who owns it? What proof will we see by Friday?”
That’s where the Relay Problem broke.
No interpretation later. No translation next week. No waiting for the memo.
The action happened inside the room.
Why this worked
Marco didn’t become a better presenter.
He became a better bridge.
He connected performance to daily life, and care to felt experience. Then he pulled the first step forward—so the talk didn’t end as “content,” but as a commitment with an owner and proof.
That’s what changes things.
A tool you can steal: The WIIFM Bridge
Before your next talk, write these three lines. Don’t “think” them. Write them in plain language.
1) Their day right now
“Right now, your day feels like ______.”
2) The cost if nothing changes
“If we keep this pattern, what gets harder for you is ______.”
3) The gain if we shift
“If we improve this, what becomes easier for you is ______.”
Then end with one decision prompt:
“What’s one two-week test we can run, who owns it, and what proof will we see by Friday?”
A filled-out example (Marco’s version)
Their day: “Right now, your shift feels like a sprint after every stop.”
Cost: “If we keep this, you’ll keep rushing—and rushing is where accidents happen.”
Gain: “If we reduce downtime, your shift becomes smoother, safer, and less draining.”
Simple. Human. Direct.
If you want people to use this, shrink the distance
If your message has to travel through layers before it becomes real, you will always lose momentum.
So don’t just deliver information.
Deliver meaning people can carry.
And pull one small action into the room while you still have everyone’s attention.
Send this to someone you respect
If you work with a leader who presents well but struggles to get traction, send this to them.
Not as criticism.
As a bridge.
Sometimes a good leader doesn’t need more confidence.
They need a closer message.
Try this in the next 24 hours
Pick one upcoming moment where you normally “present”:
Your monthly ops review.
Your safety briefing.
Your KPI meeting.
Your quarterly update.
Your change proposal.
Open with one honest question that connects to daily life.
Use the WIIFM Bridge in one paragraph.
End by asking for a two-week test with an owner and proof.
If you do that, your talk stops being something people admire.
It becomes something people move on.
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If your team is stuck in meetings, misalignment, or slow decisions…
Let’s design one shift they can use immediately.
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