The Response

The "pep talk" is a process, a movement toward an action. The intent (the purpose, the ultimate goal) of the "pep talk" is to gather together the collective energy of a group and direct it to take a specific action.

This gathering process, the building up, or escalation, or "adding fuel to the fire," may go on in many different ways, but it commonly involves a continued and increasing series of "horror stories." These intensify the fears, increase the tensions, accumulate the forces, to the point where it is necessary to have a release, an explosion, a discharge, an overflow. In flight-or-fight terms of human behavior, the "pep talk" is part of a fight response: it is the verbal prelude to action, the threat returned.

The final part of the "pep talk" is the response, which involves the triggering of this release, and the directing of it.

Triggering the release is a matter of pacing and timing. The audience has to be sufficiently aroused and emotionally engaged in order for the spark to ignite the fire. Most of our language to describe triggering emphasizes degree and extremity: "last straw," "final insult," "crossed the line, " "reached our limit, " " breaking point, " " had enough ... .. had too much," "more than we could bear," and so on.

Our language suggests that the emotional intensity surpasses our rational powers of restraint: the adrenaline is flowing, we are out of control, we can't hold back, we've reached the breaking point.

If a threat is removed, or when a danger passes, we are relieved: we "breathe a sigh of relief" and the tensions are relaxed.

Specific triggering devices include urgency words ("Now!" "Today") and the skilled use of questions ("Are you going to let them get away with that?") geared to elicit expected answers ("NO!"). This tactic can fail if the questions are poorly worded, poorly timed, or if the audience isn't sufficiently bonded or aroused; but, in favorable conditions, this is a very common triggering device.
Direction. Ideally, an effective "pep talk" focuses the energy of the group on a specific course of action. A "pep talk" shouldn't end with a vague generality ("let's do something"), a qualification (". . . maybe ... perhaps . . . if . . ."), or with an undirected hand-wringing, shoulder-shrugging "what can we do" letdown. The effective "pep talk" ends with the call for a specific action.