According to monroes motivated sequence, the visualization step involves _____.

A five-step speech outline that aims to inspire or persuade the audience to take action

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

• Steps in Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
• Additional Resources
• Learning Objectives

Developed by American psychologist Alan Monroe at Purdue University in the mid-1930s, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a five-step speech outline that aims to inspire or persuade the audience to take action.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a simple sequence of steps, with a clear structure, that makes it an effective method to organize and deliver persuasive speeches, influencing audiences to take action.

You can follow the technique when giving a speech at work, a conference, or any networking event. It will also work well when giving a sales pitch to a group of people.

Steps in Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

Here are the five steps that comprise Monroe’s Motivated Sequence:

#1 Attention

One of the key values of a good speaker is credibility. If you’re not credible enough, how can you get the people’s attention? One way to establish credibility is your reputation. If the people know that you’re an expert in your field or an authority in the topic, they will most likely be interested in what you’re going to say.

How can you make sure that you can hold on to their attention? You can start telling a joke, quote, trivia, an anecdote, or inspiring story that will stir their interest. This is your opportunity to make them listen and know that there is a need or a problem. If you lose it, it will be challenging to recover the situation.

#2 Need

Once you get your audience’s attention, the next step is to explain the problem and to convince them that the problem needs to be fixed.

Prepare a clear statement of the need or problem, then include practical examples to convey that the problem is real. You can also use references or figures to aid comprehension and to demonstrate how the problem directly affects the listeners.

#3 Satisfaction

Satisfying the need means introducing a solution that takes care of the problem. Communicate In detail what your proposed solution is and what you want your audience to do. You can also include data or examples to support your proposal and show that it has worked before.

#4 Visualization

The visualization step entails some creativity, as you need to move the listeners to see your proposed solution as the right one to meet their needs. Explain the consequences – what would happen if the solution is implemented and if, alternatively, the listeners don’t take action.

#5 Action

Tell the listeners what they can do to be part of the solution. Offer several options so they can choose the best one based on their situation and capability. Provide specific steps and examples.

Lastly, end your speech in a memorable way. Deliver a strong statement, a punchline, or a quote that supports your call to action.

Additional Resources

Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. CFI is the official provider of the Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA)® certification program, designed to transform anyone into a world-class financial analyst.

To keep learning and developing your knowledge of financial analysis, we highly recommend the additional resources below:

Learning Objectives

• Explain the use of Monroe’s motivated sequence to motivate listeners.

Monroe’s motivated sequence is the best-known organizational pattern focused on motivational appeals. It is especially useful in situations where the speaker is proposing a solution to an existing problem.

If you use Monroe’s motivated sequence, you’re asking your audience to visualize the consequences of what will happen if they are persuaded to engage in the action you are arguing for. Health-related appeals often use this strategy: for example, smoking, seat belts, mask-wearing in a pandemic, etc.

Alan H. Monroe was a Purdue University psychology professor who used what he knew about the psychology of persuasion to write a book called “Monroe’s Principles of Speech.” He outlines a speech organizational pattern which is most effective in speeches of persuasion. It involves five key steps for which to order the speech.

1. 1. Get attention. This involves calling the audience’s attention to a problem. It may occur in the introduction part of the speech or as the first point in the body of the speech. For example, according to the New England Medical Journal in their 2018 June article, four out of five people do not get more than five quality hours of sleep per night.
   2. Establish the need. Show that there is a problem or a need for something to be done. Use statistics, evidence, etc., to prove the need. This establishment may occur in the introduction or the body of the speech. For example, lack of sleep depletes productivity.
   3. Satisfy the need. Offer a solution to the issue and explain how the solution would work. This usually is in the body of the speech as a main point. Take a sleep workshop.
   4. Visualize the future. Paint a picture of what the world would be like if the need is satisfied using your proposed solution. For example, how productive the world would be on seven hours of sleep per night? The visualization could be in the body or conclusion.
   5. Action/Actualization. Call the audience to take action and commit to doing something such as signing a pledge to get better sleep, going to a sleep workshop, etc. The call for action is usually in the conclusion.

In this video, Eric Robertson breaks down the components of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.

You can view the transcript for “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence | COMMUNICATION STUDIES” here (opens in new window).

In this TED talk, fashion designer and urban gardener Ron Finley talks about creating gardens in a South Central food desert.

You can view the transcript for “A guerilla gardener in South Central LA | Ron Finley” here (opens in new window).

What to watch for:

Finley’s speech is a good example of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. Here’s how it fits into the five steps:

Attention: “I live in South Central. This is South Central: liquor stores, fast food, vacant lots.”

Need: “Just like 26.5 million other Americans, I live in a food desert, South Central Los Angeles, home of the drive-thru and the drive-by. Funny thing is, the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.”

Satisfaction: “So me and my group, L.A. Green Grounds, we got together and we started planting my food forest, fruit trees, you know, the whole nine, vegetables. . . . I have witnessed my garden become a tool for the education, a tool for the transformation of my neighborhood. To change the community, you have to change the composition of the soil. We are the soil.”

Visualization: “Now this is one of my plans. This is what I want to do. I want to plant a whole block of gardens where people can share in the food in the same block. I want to take shipping containers and turn them into healthy cafes.”

Action: “If you want to meet with me, come to the garden with your shovel so we can plant some sh*t.”

Monroe's Motivated Sequence

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (MMS) is an organizational pattern used to develop a sense of want or need in the audience, satisfy that want or need, and to help the audience get enthused about the advantages of that solution.

Need versus Want

Before presenting MMS, it is important to understand the difference between a need and a want. A need, according to Webster, is a “necessity.”A want, also according to Webster, is “a desire for.” Note the difference.

--A need is something that fills a significant, life impacting void. For example, we need food, water, shelter. We need money to secure our needs. We need other people.

--A want, on the other hand, is something we would like to have, but does not impact our lives in a significant way. An Ipod may be nice to have, but it does not impact our lives in significant ways.

Why is this distinction important? Knowing whether to build a need or want tells you what your focus of the speech is going to be. If your persuasive goal is to fulfill a want, and you present it as if it were fulfilling a need, your audience may be offended. If, on the other hand, you sell a need as a want, you may miss some strong persuasive appeals. Thus, you need to determine and adhere to what kind of appeal you are going to build--a need or a want.

MONROE’S MOTIVATED SEQUENCE--THE FIVE STEPS

For your presentation, you need to use MMS something like this:

Step 1: Get Attention-- Through the use of attention getting devices, you will aim to do two basic things: get the audience’’s attention, and ease the audience into the topic.

Step 2: Build the Need/Want-- In this step, you will work to get your audience to feel a need or want, whichever you determine to be appropriate. This is accomplished via four steps:

A. Statement: give a definite, concise statement of what the need or want is.

B. Illustration: give one or more examples illustrating the need or want. This is where you try to “"paint pictures”" verbally to really get audience to feel that need or want.

C. Ramification: here you can offer additional evidence, such as statistics/testimony/examples which give even more weight to the need or want.

D. Pointing: this is where you really point out how this need or want is directly related and important to the audience.

Step 3: Satisfy the Need/Want-- In this step, you will now fill the need/want you built in step 2. It is vital that you be consistent; i.e., be sure the solution you offer  really does fit the need/want. There are five steps here:

A. Statement: tell your audience in a very specific, direct sentence what it is you want them to do (THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE WILL HAVE HEARD--PRECISELY--WHAT IT IS YOU ARE ADVOCATING)

B. Explanation:  Explain what exactly it is you are advocating.

C. Theoretical Demonstration: This is where you make it clear how what you are advocating fulfills the need you built in step 2.

D. Reference to Practical Experience: This is where you bring in external evidence supporting the value of your proposal.

E. Meeting Objections: here you anticipate counter-arguments and you pre-empt them, i.e., address them before the audience has time to actually bring them up.

Step 4: Visualizing the Results-- In this step you are working to intensify your audience’s desire for your product/service. This is often called the projection step because it looks forward to the future. There are three options here:

Option A: The Positive Method: Using this method, you offer vivid descriptions of how much better the person’s life will be as a result of buying your product or service.

Option B: The Negative Method: Using this method, you offer vivid descriptions of how bad the person’s life will be as a result of not buying your product or service.

Option C: The Contrast Method: Using this method, you combine the previous two methods, addressing negatives first, and positives second.

Step 5: Call for Action-- This step is the final call for the buyer to actually make the purchase, the “go out and get it already” step. It should be brief, powerful, and well worded. End on a strong note, then sit down.

DIFFICULTIES OF USING MMS: (things to watch out for)

1. Careful of repetition. It is very easy to find yourself repeating points from one step in another step. For instance, the attention step should not get into need building. Or in step four, visualization, do not repeat things from step 3.

2. Be sure to do all steps. Frequently I hear students start these speeches with "I’m here to get you to. . .” Clearly, that is the statement from step 3. Be sure to use some sort of attention getting device and build the need/want first.

3. Be sure to take time to build the need. What I think happens is that dealing with the specific action is so straightforward that students want to jump to that. Granted, need/want building is less “"definite,”" but it is so vitally important.

4. Be sure to use clear “statements” at the beginning of the steps. This allows for clear transitions.

5. Be sure you need/want and action advocated are consistent. In other words, make sure your action has solvency. Solvency is when your proposal really does fill the need/want developed in step 2.

6. Make sure all proposals have workability. An advocated action is workable for an audience if they can reasonably do it--that the advantages outweigh the difficulties of doing it.  Can they afford it?  Do they have time?  Are they able to do it?