Speaking Extemporaneously

Don't be afraid of speaking extemporaneously!

In Toastmasters, we have a part of the meeting called Table Topics, a point at which the Table Topics Master starts talking about the topic of the day and then asks several people in the audience questions for which they have not been prepared.  The speaker then stands and speaks extemporaneously for up to two minutes on the topic they have been asked about.

It is for many people, the scariest part of a Toastmaster meeting. For me, it’s the most exciting. I have been blessed with the skill of speaking extemporaneously, a skill I further developed in college during fraternity and Student Government meetings (surely, much to my colleagues’ chagrin). The ability to speak extemporaneously is a valuable skill to have, as its usefulness is evident whenever someone stands up to speak and stumbles over their words for thirty seconds before sitting down. If you are scared of speaking in front of people, don’t be!  You can learn how to do it.  Here’s how.

First, collect your thoughts. There is no shame in silently standing for a few seconds to collect your thoughts. Usually, while doing so you will grab the attention of the room.  Silence is so rare these days that when someone stands silently, even for a few seconds, people tend to stop what they are doing to pay attention. Silence is not a bad thing. Don’t be afraid of it. Your audience will find themselves on the edge of their seats in anticipation of what you will say. Once you have them there, don’t let them go.

These guys would be a hostile audience.

When you have an idea of where you want to go with what you are going to say, start strong. You will lose your audience immediately if you mumble and fumble your way into your speech. Speak loudly, speak clearly, and state your point at the very beginning. Your audience has just spent ten to fifteen seconds in hungered preparation for what you will say, and it is up to you as the speaker to feed it to them. You want them to know what your point is from the start. Once you’ve stated your thesis, use the rest of your time to frame your oratory around that one, simple thought.

While doing so, be sure you direct your conversation to a subject you can speak on for a few minutes. In other words, don’t talk about things you don’t know about. Too often, I see people who speak on subject from which they have no knowledge, and it is painfully evident from the get go that they will be lost within thirty seconds. Your audience is smart. They will know if you are BS-ing them. I was once asked the following question by an engineering graduate student during table topics: “The philosopher Plato examined the reality of the metaphysical world. His beliefs questioned whether anything in the world is real or merely a construction of our imagination. What do you believe? Are we really here or is all of this a construction of my, or your, imagination?”

Yes, he really asked me that.

It took me a few seconds just to wrap my head around the question. It has been about fifteen years since I studied Greek philosophy, and I have long since forgotten the theories we discussed in my classes. So I stood, gathered my thoughts for a few seconds, and talked about the first thing that popped into my head.

The Matrix.

Yes, the movie.

I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t stand there and try to make up something about Plato’s belief system and whether or not those beliefs were accurate or not. So I started talking about how the allusions Plato discussed were an allegory to the subject matter of The Matrix, and how those who were in the matrix thought their world was real, but it was actually a construct of the machines. (Yes, I still remember the movie’s plotline ten years after it first came out.)

Needless to say, I was pretty happy to sit down after my two minutes were up.

The point of that story is that I didn’t BS the audience trying to make up something about Greek philosophy when I was clearly out of my element. Instead, I steered the topic of conversation to something I could speak about- science fiction movies. You can and should do the same when faced with talking about a subject of which you have no knowledge. Politicians do it all the time- ask them about health care funding and they will move the subject to gun control. Ask them about the deficit and they will answer by talking about privacy rights. A good politician will answer the question THEY want to answer, not necessarily the question that is being asked. And a bad politician will answer a question about Net Neutrality by comparing the Internet to a series of tubes.

Don’t talk about tubes, folks. Speak about what you know.

Finally, as your time is coming to a close, have a definitive finish. Make a point, whether it is a reference back to your original thesis or a joke to close out your speech. I finished my Greek philosophy Table Topic question by positing, “If the question is whether the world is real or a figment of my imagination, I choose the latter, in which case this question was something my mind made up and I no longer feel it is necessary to jump through hoops trying to answer this question.”

Perhaps Homer Simpson put it better. “Alright brain, I don’t like you and you don’t like me. But let’s just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.”

Get To The Point (Again)

One of my most popular posts has been Get To The Point, a primer on how to be clear, concise and quick in a fast-paced business environment.  I talked about organizing your thoughts so you know what you’re talking about, concisely expressing your main points and getting to your conclusion quickly because no one likes to listen to someone prattle on.

I have a few more thoughts on Getting To The Point that I’d like to share with you.  I recently gave a speech in which I used Keynote slides to help illustrate my points.  I had about twenty-five slides and the speech lasted about ten minutes.  For most of you, this description is already bringing to mind some of your own experiences with Powerpoint in a business meeting.  Someone slaps a slide up on the screen full of text and bullet notes and then proceeds to read word for word what is written on the slide.  Within seconds, the audience zones out either by reading the slides instead of listening to the speaker, or by just tuning out completely.

GET TO THE POINT, PEOPLE!

This pretty much describes nearly every single staff meeting I’ve had in my professional career.  It describes about 75% of the courses I took in college.  I don’t know about you, but I can read.  Do I really need someone to put a slide up and then read to me word for word what is on the slide?

NO!

So why do we do it?  Why do you do it?  The biggest complaint I hear from meetings like that are about the presenter reading directly from the slide.  But when given the chance to present, the same exact people do the same exact thing- bulleted powerpoint slide, read from the screen.

THIS IS NOT HOW YOU DO IT.

Your slide should help emphasize what you are trying to say.  It should not give the presentation for you.  You should know what you are trying to say verbally to keep the audience focused on you and your message.  The powerpoint slide is there simply to help make your point or to show off something you want the audience to know.  That’s it.

For example, the speech I gave was about making smart decisions in the workplace.  I came up with a little acronym to help me outline my points.  Here is the slide I used:

Simple, right?  Doesn’t tell the audience what each point means, but it does sort of grab your attention and make you want to know what each letter stands for.  I could have used a slide like this:

But that is so wordythat the audience will focus on reading the text on the screen instead of listening to what I am saying.  I went on to outline each letter in bullet point and summed them up at the end, but I never dwelled on the slide and I certainly never read directly from the slide itself.

Here is another slide I used:

While this slide was up, I talked about Netflix’s recent decision making snafu’s, how they seemed to have no direction and how they only served to anger their customers who left the company in droves (800,000 lost subscribers) and tanked their stock price (from $300+ to $70 in only 15 weeks.

Again, I could have used a slide like this:

But then you aren’t listening to my point, you’re reading the words on the slide.  In fact, you may have read every word on the slide before you moved on, EVEN THOUGH I had just told you what would be on the slide in the previous paragraph.  The goal of ANY speech, whether it is a business presentation, a staff meeting or a toast at a wedding should be to communicate your message clearly and concisely while engaging your audience.  Not to overwhelm your audience with words on a slide.

After my speech, I received the following comments:

“Great visual aid, very well organized.”
“Good use of slides.  Thank you for not looking at the screen the whole time.”
“Your slides were simple and easy to understand and kept me engaged.”

People LIKE to be engaged by their speaker.  They want you to look at them, talk to them and make eye contact with them.  They don’t like having slides read to them.  The next time you have to put together a powerpoint presentation, make your slides simple and focus on the message you are trying to get across.  Your audience will thank you for it.