Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell is known for his titles The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. He is also a widely sought after speaker. Gideon Rachman is a writer for the Financial Times who recently shared space with Gladwell on the lecture circuit.

After Gladwell’s riveting speech, Rachman provided a key takeaway:

So how does Gladwell do it? Afterwards, I broke through the autograph-hunters surrounding him and asked him how he managed to time his talk so beautifully – so that it ended bang on 45 minutes, without ever looking at his watch. He answered – “I know it may not look like this. But it’s all scripted. I write down every word and then I learn it off by heart. I do that with all my talks and I’ve got lots of them.”

Memorizing a presentation allows freedom to roam around the podium, and may be just the technique to really connect with your audience. Read Rachman’s post for more insight on Gladwell’s approach.