Uncluttered public speaking
I’m sure we’ve all attended memorable presentations — some are memorable because they inspire, others because they’re awful. (I’ll never forget my astronomy professor who droned on and on: “One may find that it’s intuitively obvious” and then he’d add a few incomprehensible points about celestial objects.)
If you freeze, stumble, or clutter up your talk with too much information or “um’s,” there may be reasons for that. Most commonly the reasons are: a) you’re not prepared, b) you’re scared, or c) both.
One inspiring speaker I enjoy is Guy Kawasaki — the marketing genius turned venture capitalist known for evangelizing the early Apple Computer. He makes public speaking look easy. What most people don’t realize is the sheer amount of preparation and practice it takes to deliver a good speech. Some natural talent will help, but you won’t win a five-star rating.
I do regular public speaking, and these are the things I’ve learned over the years that have taken me from a “wing it and hope for the best” approach to a system that leads to more quality, less cluttered talks.
Define the Purpose
What is the purpose for giving the speech? Is it to send off a newly married couple with good wishes? To update your department on the status of a project? Before you jump into writing and research, tap into the purpose first.
Know Who Will Be in the Room
Who will be listening to the talk? A group of inebriated wedding guests? A new client? Your boss and your boss’ boss? Knowing who is in the audience will help you to tailor the speech toward them with relevant examples.
Be Familiar with Your Topic
People generally don’t like to hear speeches that are read word-for-word. Make sure you know your material well enough that you can glance at a few bullet points on an index card or a PowerPoint slide. Research well, especially if you’ll be fielding questions.
Stick to One Main Topic
Cramming in every detail you know can lead to a cluttered talk. Keep it simple — center your presentation on one key theme supported by examples. What are the most important ideas to include? The tricky part is deciding what you’ll leave out, not what you’ll put into your speech.
Prepare
Preparation is a great fear reducer. Practice a new talk aloud at least three times. You’ll discover any rough spots that you don’t know well. Pay attention to filler words that you use, such as “um” and “and.” A simple pause can replace these words.
Be Ready to Go
Getting mentally and physically set to go the day of the event also will decrease fear. Practice your opening sentence on the way to the speech. Once you arrive at your speech location, do what you need to do to feel ready. I like to arrive early, drink water, take some deep breaths and go.
Check Out the Environment
It’s wise to check out the space before you speak if you previously haven’t been there. When it’s not possible to see it in advance, explore the environment when you arrive. Where will people be seated? Check the audio and visual equipment to make sure it’s on and working.
Use Clear, Simple Statements to Start and End Powerfully
The beginning and end of your talk are the bookends crucial to a good talk. You can begin with one fact about you, a compelling story or a statistic to draw people into your presentation. Avoid rambling and don’t apologize for being nervous — usually people won’t know.
Remember though, as Guy Kawasaki demonstrated in the clip I previously linked to, you don’t have to be perfect to deliver a good speech. When you’re live in front of a group, connect with the audience and the topic.
What tips do you use for effective, uncluttered public speaking?
Sue Brenner is a regular contributor to Unclutterer. She offers her own eZine at www.actionsymphony.com and if you want to hear her voice, she gives free, monthly goal-success tele-seminars.
Posted by Sue on Oct 10, 2008 |
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19 comments posted
Posted by Anne Marie - 10/10/2008
That reminded me of this guy’s speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagxPlVqrtM
Posted by Gabriel - 10/10/2008
An Astrology Professor, huh? Was he a Pisces or a Taurus?
Posted by Shanel Yang - 10/10/2008
One philosophy professor had so many “uh’s” in his talk that I really couldn’t focus on anything else he was saying and started keeping track of how many times he said used that annoying filler word. I counted over 50 in less than one hour! I withdrew after that first lecture. He wasn’t nervous or unprepared, either. He (and apparently the rest of the class) just didn’t seem to care about it. Recalling it still makes me cringe.
I’ve spoken publicly about a dozen times and loved it! what helps me is to move around and engage the audience quickly with a well-rehearsed joke and to ask rhetorical questions to get them thinking. I gave up on starting with real questions b/c most audiences are too timid to be the first one to answer any questions without knowing what I’ll do with their answers. As they get warmed up to me, I begin to ask more questions meant for real answers and they usually are engaged enough by then to begin offering answers. If not, I tell them what I guess they are thinking and they usually nod in agreement.
Humor is fantastic if you can do it. But it must look spontaneous. Only a lot of practice can make it seem that way. Study comics. Most of them tell the same jokes hundreds maybe thousands of times and make it sound totally fresh each time! It’s not cheating; it’s entertainment. And who doesn’t want to be entertained when they think they’re going to get a dry speech? ; )
Posted by Lisa - 10/10/2008
I do a great deal of professional training. I consider that my audience consists of adults who are spending valuable time to get information, and then remember that the entire time . I also pick one thing that I hope they learn, and refer to it as my main point. It seems to help. I don’t birdwalk with personal stories much, and don’t let my audience get me off topic.
Posted by Richard - 10/10/2008
Astrology professor? Astronomy, perhaps?
Posted by Nina - 10/10/2008
please, please do not read of a piece of paper. Talk freely because this makes you keep it simple and more easily understandable. Listening to a speech is not like reading a written text so you can not have a speech be like a text.
Posted by Eileen - 10/10/2008
I’m reading this the day after my regular Toastmasters Meeting. Find a meeting near you http://www.toastmasters.org/websiteApps/
Guests are invited to visit meetings for free and membership is very affordable.
Posted by Tabitha (From Single to Married) - 10/10/2008
Great points! And I liked the post by Eileen who talked about toastmasters. I’ve sat through many of my husbands “trial runs” as he practices his speeches for toastmasters. That organization helped him to overcome his speaking fear years ago and it’s a great resource for anyone who struggles with public speaking
Posted by Sue - 10/10/2008
Gabriel and Richard –
Maybe I mistakenly wrote “astrology” instead of “astronomy” because I’m a Sagittarius;-) Thank you both for pointing out that error. I really appreciate it! Yes, it was an *astronomy* class at the Univ of CA…
Sue from Unclutterer
Posted by Arturo Gonzalez - 10/10/2008
I would say that your recommendation for preparation and practice is one of the most important. As with any skill or performance, rehearsal is one of the defining factors for its success.
Many blessings,
Art Gonzalez
Check my Squidoo Lens at: Quantum Knights
Posted by Patti - 10/10/2008
I’m a new Toastmaster and had a good chuckle when I learned that one of the regular duties at Toastmasters meetings is the “Uh Counter.” Someone actually counts all the “uh’s” and filler words in people’s speeches. It works though! Makes you far more aware that you’re doing it when you know someone is counting!
Posted by Sue - 10/10/2008
Use words and terms your audience understands. I once had a co-worker whose job included regular public speaking. He would use $200 words to sound impressive, but people got so caught up trying to figure out WHAT he was saying, few people walked away with the message.
That is a failure of communication.
Posted by Another Deb - 10/10/2008
I deliver a lesson six times a day to the toughest audience in town, eighth graders! I also require that they present their research findings to their classmates. We begin with little two-minute reports in groups and expand from there.
For many years I worked in a performance-based school and, beginning with 6th graders, we had them make a 20 minute solo presentation on their project. Part of that was presenting to their audience (a panel of their parents, administrators and two or three of their teachers). Part of it was responding to questions from the panel.
After watching over 2000 student presentations in the past 10 years, I always train students to:
* Practice, practice, practice! Give your complete presentation to the mirror, the family, the dog, a tape recorder or even to the stuffed animals on the bed.
* Speak slower than you think you need to. We process slower than you can speak. This becomes really obvious when someone tries to just read a speech to us. Thus, the next rule:
* Use visual aids as a focus point for the audience and an anchor point for you. Face the audience but glance and gesture to your visual aid in order to visually guide the audience as you speak. Bullet points are simple for the audience to focus on, yet they serve as a security blanket so you do not go blank or get out of order. You should know your material well enough to talk to the audience instead of read to them.
* Don’t try to memorize word-for-word. You tend to rush breathlessly through the speech just to get it out and you risk getting out of place and having to start over, and over, and over. Pause, breathe, slow down.
* If it helps nervousness, imagine that your family, those who love you best, are in the audience. Use eye contact with the audience, remembering that you OWN them! Say anything with enough confidence and they will believe you.
* Avoid wearing anything that you might play with and distract the viewer. Have a friend watch you practice and give you a body language critique. People who shift restlessly on their feet, who pace, who click their pens, play with their hair, or talk to the wall behind us drive the rest of us bonkers.
*Have a definite ending. The most common mistake I see students make is that they practice the first part of their speech but fail to plan any kind of strong ending. They often trail off with ” And,so, well.. um…yeah…”
* Turn off your own electronic devices and for goodness sake, don’t take calls during your presentation. The worst presenter I ever saw was an education teacher who took three or four calls from her family during each lecture!
//Eighth grader voice// So, that was my essay on how to unclutter a speech. I hope you liked my essay. The End. //Eighth grader voice off//
Posted by One Minute Blogger - 10/11/2008
Thanks Eileen! I just checked for my local Toastmasters Club. I’ve been wanting to join for years! You’ll notice I’m the “One Minute Blogger” – my posts promise to be short and sweet (you can read them in under a minute). Hope you’ll check out my blog at http://www.JustPlainJoy.blogspot.com
Posted by Thom - 10/11/2008
There is sometimes a place for the closely-prepared and highly “scripted” presentation (not in teaching, I agree). For those situations, working from a script is not a sin. There are some additional rules though:
1. Such a script is a *script* (as in a play) and should be written for spoken delivery not for silent reading. This may mean several rewrites as sentences are restructured (shortened, simplified, reordered), contractions and natural colloquialisms introduced, “writerly” vocabulary removed, and so on. It must sound, when delivered, like a polished version of how the speaker would *talk*, not how the speaker would write.
2. The speaker needs to glance down, take in a sentence or two, then look *up* and deliver those sentences without further reference to the text. (Sure, there will sometimes be variations to the text – these will probably represent an improvement – and there may even be slight deviations and spontaneous additions – all this is good.) This strategy lets you avoid the awkward slips and misreadings that come from “reading aloud” from a text and not taking in whole sentences or chunks of thought at a time.
I was introduced to these two principles by a radio broadcaster.
Posted by Aaron B - 10/12/2008
The best thing I wa ever taught about public speaking was the basic skeleton:
Part I: Tell your audience what you’re going to tell them.
Part II: Tell it to them.
Part III: Tell them what you just told them.
Now, I know that sounds ultra-symplistic, but remember that they are not going to retain every word that you say, and to be persuasive and compelling they have to come along for the ride.
I hope that helps someone out there.
Posted by Jen - 10/12/2008
“If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds?”
That’s the premise behind the Ignite format, which has been propagated worldwide courtesy of O’Reilly Media (publisher of Make magazine, as well as all those technical books with the animal drawings on their white covers).
Speakers have no choice but to unclutter their presentations, with fun and interesting results.
Check it out on YouTube by searching for “Ignite” and the name of a host city (such as Seattle, Portland, Boston, NYC, or our very own Philly). As one of my friends noted, “It’s like speed dating for you brain.”
Posted by Zach - 10/13/2008
All great pieces of advice. I joined Toastmasters a few years ago and have found the practice of regularly speaking to an audience well worth it.
Posted by Fred Miller - 10/18/2008
Most people fear public speaking.
Here’s a site I’m working on that has information that should help.
http://www.nosweatpublicspeaking.com/
Be sure to check out the information on Mind Mapping for developing, practicing and delivering a great speech.
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