Wilbur Ross' Speech Cut Off: He Went Overtime!

In a minor diplomatic incident, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was cut off during a German business conference. His biggest sin: he exceeded his time limit. No one likes a speaker who uses too much time. The only exception is when the speaker is very interesting. Ross was not. Ross' failure is an object lesson for public speakers everywhere. Two lessons, actually: (1) stick to your time limit and (2) don't be boring.

It seems that the context was this. The CDU Economic Council met to discuss international trade. Ross did not attend in person, but the conference accommodated him by running his speech on a video feed. He was allotted 10 minutes for his presentation, which is apparently what other speakers were allotted as well. After about 20 minutes, while Ross continued to drone away, the video feed was abruptly cut off, to the mirth of the live attendees, not to mention the joy of the Internet, and Angela Merkel took her turn to speak.

What else did Ross do wrong? First, his topic was to criticize Germany for running a trade surplus.

Wilbur Ross

This has been a subject of much controversy, with many economists taking the position that the Trump administration simply does not understand how international trade works. Germany is part of the European Union, so trade agreements are written for the entire Union, not just for one country. It is understandable that some of the attendees resented Ross's criticisms. No one likes to be criticized. They were still willing to listen to him, but when he doubled his allotted time and showed no sign of stopping, it was time to move on.

Second, based on the snippet of video feed that I have seen, Ross was unbelievably boring. His delivery was dreadful. I would never have given a decent grade to a student who gave a speech like that in class. He stared down at his notes, droning from a prepared manuscript, making no attempt to engage the audience. He spoke in a dull monotone. If there was ever a speech that needed to be cut off, it was this one. Furthermore, Ross was wasting everyone's time. No one can listen to a speech that is delivered that poorly. It doesn't matter how good your listening skills are. It can't be done. Ross reminded me of Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Except that Ross was worse: Ben Stein was funny.

There are criticisms that the organization did not show Ross respect. That is probably true. At the same time, it is difficult to imagine how anyone could advance to a high government position and yet lack public communication skills. I think that boring speakers need to be cut off more often. This is true regardless of political party, economic status, privilege, or political office. There is no reason for people to listen to dreadful speakers. 

Can you get away with a speech that is too long? The answer is yes! But your speech needs to be really good. Booker T. Washington was invited to speak at the 1895 Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. He was given only five minutes for his speech. In his famous book Up from Slavery, Washington describes his chagrin at being given such a short time to speak. He took a long train ride to Atlanta to deliver his brief presentation. Although he was a bit insulted, he decided that it was worthwhile to make the trip to address the audience. He gave the speech of his life, often known as "Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are." The speech was obviously longer than five minutes, but Washington was absolutely brilliant; the speech was insightful; Washington's language was thrilling, and the audience responded with enthusiasm.

So, yes, you can go over your time limit, but you had better be really, really good.

Otherwise, everybody likes short speeches.

Department of Commerce Photo