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Chris Anderson on what makes a great talk … great

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It’s an alchemic question that’s very hard for us to answer: what makes a great TED talk?

In this talk, which was given to a gathering of 100+ TEDx organizers from 43 countries during the TEDx Workshop at TEDGlobal 2013, our curator Chris Anderson stresses the incredible power of a well-structured, honest talk.

“We’re giving someone a new worldview that, 30 years later, might make them think differently, might make them act differently,” says Anderson in this video. “Sometimes I think a TED Talk is like playing Tetris with the brain. All these ideas are coming in and you’re trying to fit them in and slot them so that they are received.”

Watch the talk above to hear what Anderson considers the key to a good talk — taking the audience on a journey. In it, he shares his advice on how to do so authentically, without forcing it.

Those who want more should read Anderson’s essay in The Harvard Business Review, in which he shares his fine-tuned advice for delivering a powerful talk »

And here, watch more TED Talks about talking »