ON THE SPOT- Workshop #1
FINALLY, the day had come. It was November 21, 2020 and I was ultra-excited. Somehow, I had managed to book a guest speaker for the workshop who was a 3-time multi district table topic champion. Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Godfrey McAllister and I had met/spoken several times to plan and discuss the components of the upcoming workshop:
· A 20-minute educational segment
· A 10-minute question and answer portion
· A 45-minute practice session where 14 participants would give their impromptu responses
· Constructive (but encouraging) evaluations and feedback would be given to the speakers.
It wasn’t until I was giving the introduction of my guest speaker at the workshop, that I really started to question how it was that I was able to get this extraordinary man to agree to being a part of my project. DTM Godfrey was not just a multiple table topics champion but also the composer of the Toastmasters’ Anthem, a past finalist in the world championship of public speaking and a number of other accolades that I was forced to exclude just to keep his introduction brief. I had just started to dwell on my comparatively unremarkable BIO😣when I noticed that my guest speaker had just stuck his fingers in both his ears and was making a number of comical faces.
I was just contemplating making an apology to my attendees when my guest speaker revealed a most profound and insightful reason that most people feared attempting Table Topics (TT) and impromptu speaking. It was also the reason we hesitate doing many other things- a fear of looking foolish. Mr. McAllister maintained that we do not actually have a fear of public speaking, just a fear of looking deficient, unintelligent and foolish. So, the point of his series of comical faces had been to establish that nothing was wrong with looking foolish, and that letting go of this fear was the first step in improving in this area. WOW. For me, he could have easily ended the session right there…but he continued to make several other insightful points:
· Impromptu speaking is not an option. We all speak without rehearsal daily, and without a script (see blog #2). So we are all already excellent impromptu speakers.
· Perfection is an elusive pursuit. It can be pursued but is unlikely/impossible to be attained.
· The story of the “ugly duckling” (which in reality was a beautiful swan in a duck’s pond) was used to show that we should embrace the fact that even if we are beautiful in our own way(which we all are), the fact that we are each different guarantees that we will never get everyone to like us as speakers. Or in fact, to get everyone to like us as persons, in general.
· The first thing to do when you get a TT question…is BREATHE.
· Dissect the question (repeat it if necessary) and identify critical keywords.
· Fluency helps. Even if your response was not ‘impressive’, if you can manage saying it fluently, it can make a world of difference.
· Be confident/forceful. Never have an ‘apologetic’ tone in your presentation.
· The more facts and general knowledge you have, the more will be your ability to pull from a wide array/assortment of relevant material for various topics.
· Table Topic sessions are the only scenarios where you are likely to be asked to speak outside of your area of expertise. Therefore if we master Table Topics, impromptu speaking in the ‘normal’ world will be a breeze.
· Behavior cannot be modified in a 20-minute presentation. The participants of the program were encouraged to completely invest themselves in the journey to see tangible results.
In the survey I had done prior to the start of the project, over 60% of the respondents had agreed that the top reason for their discomfort was fear of being asked a question that did not relate to them or that required a level of creativity. Our guest speaker was very passionate about this issue:
“If I ask you a question about dogs, and you do not own a dog…PLEASE do NOT talk about a cat!! Ok, so you don’t own a dog, SO WHAT? Feel free to tell your audience you don’t own a dog. But have you ever seen a dog? Have you been bitten by a dog? Do you know anyone who has a dog? Did you wish you had a dog?? You can expand your view but stay on topic!!”
It was just 5 minutes into the presentation and I had already filled an entire page of notes. Then he finally asked a question I was sure I knew the answer to… “How many of you have been pregnant?!”. I was again about to apologize to my attendees when I saw that some males in the club had raised their hands. It was clear that I had not yet learned this lesson about creativity and interpretation. In the chat (it was a zoom workshop), my male counterparts announced they indeed had been pregnant… but with ideas and dreams. Other members remembered having pregnant pauses when speaking…apparently several other interpretations were possible. DTM McAllister then made sure to remind me that the ON-THE-SPOT program itself was a product of my own pregnancy. My mind…was blown🤯. Another lesson learned.
With such a potent yet delectable appetizer, the now supercharged team of OTS members swiftly launched into the practical section of the workshop. One after the other, speakers responded to speech titles and questions they had not prepared for. My competent team of On-The-Spot evaluators then gave 30-second evaluations of each speaker…quickly highlighting what our practicing impromptu speakers had done well and what could also have been improved.
I had mentioned in blog #3 that all participants in the program had improved by at least one self-rated level in their confidence. In addition to that, TM Andrea (shown above) went on to win the club level Table Topics contest.
Workshop #1 was just the first (but critical) step in our journey to achieving the vision of ON-THE-SPOT. Stay tuned for blog #5!
Click HERE to see blog #5-next blog in this series)
(Click HERE to see blog #3- previous blog)
