It is five days after the speech. Its effects linger. Quotable quotes roll off the tongues of listeners. Social media is ablaze. And John Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s President, is an unmistakable toast of the fans.
In my view, five features helped to make the President’s speech unforgettable: the high stakes platform on which it was delivered, its ability to connect the heart to purpose, its ability to strongly rally donors and recipients alike to some form of concrete action, the relatable conversational tone used and finally, its brevity.
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Harvard Business School teaches a style for this type of speech-making. The style leverages the power of storytelling to make an impactful, even dramatic effect. The speaker takes the audience right into the moment of the events. Actions are narrated in the present tense. In short staccato bursts. Feelings are brought to life. In words used. In the pitch of the speaker’s tone. The look on the face. The arch of the brow. The silence in the pause. The power of the silence.
To the above style, Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organising, and Civil Society at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, gave a three-step structure, famously described as the “Story of Self,” the “Story of Us,” and the “Story of Now.” I would argue strongly that by fate or design, President John Dramani Mahama used this structure to overwhelming effect in Brussels.
Story of Self
President Mahama started off with a personal story. Of his brother, who suffered physical disability on account of the unadministered Polio vaccine. He recounted complications of depression, alcoholism, eventual death and its attendant social consequences. Very crisply narrated, the President succeeded in grasping our attention from the get-go. More importantly, he defined his personal motivation to embrace and act on the cause of GAVI’s Replenishment.
Story of Us
Was Ghana’s President’s story unique? Or was there more that bound everyone listening to the sea of Presidents and philanthropists pledging resources in support of childhood immunisations? Favouring the latter, the President spoke about the power of immunisation to save over 500 million lives. He also acknowledged the previous gallant efforts of everyone in the room and highlighted the collective destiny of the global health community. In a room full of policy makers, scientists, activists, technocrats, philanthropists, etc., these acknowledgements resonated.
Story of Now
By this time, President Mahama had clearly established the basis for action. He did so by answering the simple question: given what we have accomplished previously, what can we do together today with this current challenge? To quote from the Marshal Ganz framework, the President “Painted a picture of the world as it is and the world as it should be, emphasising the urgency and importance of the moment.” He framed some moral issues and choices for our collective consideration. The world can rain bombs that kill at an incredible cost, but cannot afford a fraction of the cost of those bombs to save the lives of children? He made it clear that we had a choice in the matter. And if we indeed failed to raise the needed amount, it certainly was not for lack of resources, but basically because we had opted to spend our money elsewhere. Unfortunately. And tragically.
To show how alive he was as an African leader, was to his own responsibilities, he demonstrated skin in the game by announcing Ghana’s full payment of its counterpart funding with GAVI for the procurement of crucial vaccines for 2025. Additionally, Ghana announced that it was looking forward to graduating from GAVI support by 2030, and also positioning itself to contribute in the support of others in the future.
In six minutes, the speech was done. The room erupted. Many times, in fact. The case had been made. When the $9billion in support of the next five years of GAVI’s strategy is secured, Ghana would certainly have played its part. Personally, it felt very good to be a Ghanaian in the audience. To quote an American seated right next to me, “Your President gave the best speech tonight!”
