Workshop: Preparing a manual speech

In March 2007, Betsy was in a club where it is like pulling teeth to convince people to give speeches, but everyone likes to do table topics.

She has thought about holding a pizza party table topics meeting!people can opt to do a traditional table topic or a "long" table topic (must speak at least 4.5 minutes).

I thought I would list 5 fun questions for these longer table topics on the> agenda, so people would have a little bit of time to prepare, even though the speeches would still be impromptu.

At the end of the meeting, I would announce a big surprise--I had quietly evaluated all of the longer table topics, and would now be> giving the evaluations, so that the speeches could count toward manual credit.

I replied:

My concern with this is that it moves away from the intent of the CC manual - prepare the speech by addressing the content of the assignment.

I also believe strongly in discussing personal objectives with the evaluator in advance of giving the speech, although this is a personal preference rather than a program requirement.As an alternative, how about running a workshop on how to give a manual speech.

Nominate the five topics, as you intended, but then split the club into pairs - the evaluator and the speaker come up with ideas together. The evaluator acts as a mentor, in a way. You could have some resource articles associated with the topics to help them with content. Downloaded web pages would be good, because it introduces the concept of researching your content.Maybe program a few of the speakers on the night of the workshop, the rest at successive meetings. That way you have half of the members with prepared speeches, and hopefully have demonstrated that preparing speeches is a lot easier than they thought.

Focus the workshop on one of the more general assignments - Get organized or Apply your skills (I am looking at an old manual - the titles may have changed)Spend about 10 minutes taking the assignment apart - the objectives, the text, the evaluation guide then move into pairs for thirty minutes.You or a couple of workshop leaders could move around and offer assistance to people who seem to be getting stuck.This would take about an hour, including time for the speeches and evaluations.

Good luck. As always, I admire your enthusiasm and creativity.

I have posted a sample workshop outline below;

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Workshop: Preparing a Manual Speech

Do your club members have difficulty preparing manual speeches? Do you have a number of members working their way through the Competent Communicator manual? Do you have one or more members who are looking for something more from the program than just manual speeches – perhaps they would like to run a workshop?
In this article, John Sleigh outlines a one hour workshop that could help meet all of these needs.

Objectives

To provide Toastmasters members with guidance and assistance to gain full value from their manuals.
To encourage more experienced members to take on a mentoring role

Structure
The workshop starts with a five to seven minute outline of a typical manual assignment.

Then members pair off – one as speaker, the other as evaluator, mentor, sounding board. The speakers prepare a speech on one of the nominated topics by referring to the manual and the resource materials that are available.

To close the workshop, volunteers (as many as time allows) deliver their speeches and are evaluated by their workshop partner – mentor. Other speakers are programmed for subsequent meetings.

Open the seminar
10 minutes
Give a speech about how you have found the manual valuable as a way to prepare your speeches. Select a manual assignment to speak about and explain that they will be working on this assignment later. Any assignment in the CC manual is suitable, however in this sample workshop I have chosen Organize Your Speech. In preparation for speech contests, Research Your Topic, Persuade with Power or Inspire Your Audience may be more appropriate as they suit the speaker who has already completed 6 speeches.

Don’t read the assignment to the club, rather use statistics, testimony, examples, stories or anecdotes, Visual aids and Facts as Assignment 2, Organize Your Speech suggests. Yes, this is a manual speech that demonstrates that you can apply what you are asking others to do.
Start with an outline of the structure of all speeches in all of the manuals – objectives, executive summary, assignment content, “Your Assignment” summary and the evaluation guide.

Then outline the five topics that you have selected, using the guide in the assignment. For assignment 2, the manual recommends
· Discussions you've had with friends or coworkers
· Magazine or newspapers articles that attracted your interest
· Your expertise on certain topics - real estate, writing, personal computers, etc.
· Everyday experiences - shopping, commuting, family relationships.

For the purposes of the workshop, it will be better if the topics are well known to the members.

You might pick one or two current controversial local or national issues on which they may choose to present a speech in favor, one against or one showing both sides of the argument.

Add one or two generic topics – raising children, living with teenagers, work-life balance, commuting and transport, tourism or education are often subjects that it easy to find resources for and which most members will have something to say. You might suggest a past, present, future approach – either talk about the history of the topic, or what it was like in a particular era, for history. One aspect of the current status for the present and either one suggested strategy or vision for the future. Try not to be too specific with the topic, to allow the members to tailor it to their knowledge.

You may also pick one or two Toastmasters or communicators topics. Perhaps leadership falls in here too. What I hope to gain or what I have gained from Toastmasters could be options. What I like to hear in a speech, what makes me follow a leader or the most impressive speaker or leader I have seen, heard or met could be an interesting topic for many members.

Then point out the features of the assignment, without reading or explaining them. Show how Assignment 2 deals with topic selection, preparing an outline, opening body and conclusion, but don’t explain the content. This would be outside the scope of a five to seven minute speech

Assign workshop pairs
Members will work in a pair – speaker and evaluator-mentor. You may assign these based on experience or seek volunteers. The choice should be based on your knowledge of the club.

Members may work with their normal club mentor, particularly if you want to reinforce this aspect of the Toastmasters program. Alternatively you may assign other members to provide an alternative learning experience. Avoid assigning all of the more experienced members as mentor – evaluators. Mix them around a bit. Some of the newer members may learn more by watching the experienced members prepare, and all members will have valuable insights, irrespective of the lengthy of their membership.

Provide resource material
Normally members will have access to their own resource material to prepare their speeches. In the workshop setting they can still use their own knowledge and opinions, but these can be enhanced by resource material that you provide. Have a selection of relevant web page downloads or news articles that the pairs can use to add the statistics, testimony, examples, stories or anecdotes, visual aids and facts the assignment recommends. You don’t need a copy of each item for each member. Just have a selection available so that they can use them to research their topic.

Prepare the speech
30 – 45 minutes
In pairs, members prepare a speech on one of the topics using the guidelines provided in the assignment.
One member of the pair will be the speaker. The other will be the mentor –evaluator.

Deliver selected speeches
5 – 7 minutes each
A selected number of members deliver their newly prepared speeches, as ina normal club meeting.

Evaluations
Speakers are evaluated, as in a normal club meeting.

Workshop review
Members are asked to review the workshop. The form on the next page can be used for this. It may also be useful to evaluate the seminar using an assignment from an advanced manual.

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Feedback form

Preparing a Manual Speech

Presenter

1. Was the information valuable to you

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2. Was the presenter clear, and effective communicator and easy to understand

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3. Was the content relevant to the topic

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4. Was the time allotted suitable for the subject covered

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5. Was appropriate use made of presentation aids and techniques to promote understanding

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6. What was your overall level of satisfaction with the workshop?

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Which information will you use first? When? How?

How can we make this better?

Please write any additional comments on the back of this page.

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Evaluations

In May 1999 Arif was preparing for an evaluation contest and sought ideas on what makes a good evaluation. The thread was Evaluation Contest. These tips can be used equally effectively in routine evaluations in the club.

Arif had already these factors in mind:

1. How well did the speech convey the message to the audience?
2. Did the speech have a good intro. , body, and a powerful conclusion?
3. Speaker's eye-contat?
4. Speaker's body-language?

Terry suggested when pointing out areas needing improvement, be sure to suggest ways to make those improvements.

Joe recalled his time as a target speakers in a contest when more important than anything else, a good evaluator builds the self-esteem of the speaker. Emphasize your feelings as well as mechanics. Were you inspired or motivated by the speech? Did the speech make you feel good or did it anger you? Avoid trite phrases such as, "I look forward to hearing your next speech.

Joy added Vocal variety is something to listen for, as well. Incidentally, regarding eye contact, I have noticed that most speakers favor one side of the room with eye contact. You might watch for that, especially if the speaker is especially good, and you're having trouble coming up with suggestions.

Denis suggested
Voice: vocal variety, projection, pace, pauses as being appropriate to subject and setting.
Movement and gestures: appropriate and again big enough for a bigger setting. think about stiffness or any sign of apparent nervousness. Did movement add or detract from presentation.
Eyes: Did speaker connect with all the parts of audience or did speaker lose part of room -- again based on size of audience.
Avoid any tendency to repeat the speech, and winning evals I have heard do find suggestions for even the best speech and speaker!

He also recalled the conflicting feedback he recieved as a rtarget speaker in a contest
The first evaluaor said; "I like your eye contact, you really connected" , second evaluator said: "try not to stare at people during your speech"

In another eval contest, one evaluator said of test speaker; "I loved how you worked the stage and involved whole audience, later evalator said, " you were all over the stage and made me lose track of message"

So, remember we all see different things differently.

In December 2004, Chris sought ideas for an Evaluation Workshop.

The most common mistake Mark sees is in thinking that the evaluation is about finding what's wrong with the speech. This leads very nice, but well meaning, members to say, "I can't find anything wrong." This is pleasant, but unhelpful. Other members, who are not afraid to point out flaws, wind up giving scorching evaluations. This is both unpleasant and unhelpful.

The evaluation is, in my opinion, about finding where the speech can be improved. For some speakers, there were be a struggle to decided which two or three points to raise. For other speakers, it will be a struggle to find two or three points. However, I firmly believe that all speeches can be improved.

Focusing on how the speech can be "better" also ties in to the incremental progress approach in Toastmasters. For someone who reads from a verbatim script, the "better" suggestion is to use notes. For someone who relies heavily on notes, the "better" suggestion is to memorize an outline. We wouldn't normally go from a person reading their Icebreaker speech to completely discarding the lectern in Speech #2. We usually ease members into more advanced concepts and techniqes.

For the very advanced speaker flying with notes, who suddenly goes blank and spends many painful seconds trying to get back on track, the "better" suggestion is to have the notes available. There's nothing in the slightest bit wrong in the occasional use of a well prepared note.

In April 1999 the thread was Effective Speech Evaluation, and the biggest mistake Denis sees is the evaluator repeating the speech. The evaluator should only repeat enough specific points to highlight a point of praise or a suggestion of improvement. This repetition should happen sparingly.

The club should get in the habit of always stating member goals and project objectives, just before speech. This will help focus the speaker and the evaluators and get everyone on the same page.

Jenny words all the positives in a way that gives the speaker the credit and makes it seem like this is a permanent, far-reaching trait. Conversely, the negatives should be worded in a way that doesn't assess blame and makes it seem like a temporary trait.

Examples:

Positive: You spoke so eloquently and gave us such wonderful word pictures, as you always do. Negative: This speech was not as well-organized as usual. (instead of "YOU were not organized", or worse, "YOU are NEVER very organized")

Positive: You have mastered the art of gesturing! (a very permanent thing)
Negative: Try (add your tip here), and the signs of nervousness will be invisible next time. (temporary, won't be there forever).

There's nothing wrong with saying "This was a good speech" - but why not give the speaker the pride of personal accomplishment by saying, "YOU gave a good speech".

At the same time, there's no white-washing the negatives; it's just a way of wording them so that the sharp sting is dulled and there's hope of improving the next time. After all, if you were told "You have a nervous mannerism", it would seem like a permanent, hopeless problem - why make the effort to change? Instead, by saying, "Ear-pulling happened during times of nervousness - here's my tip for controlling nerves...", you acknowledge the problem, indicate that it's temporary and offer some hope for fixing it in future speeches.

An added caution - don't lie or make up stuff! If you've never heard this speaker or if this speaker, in fact, ALWAYS makes the same mistake, you can hardly say "This is not your usual way". Use your best judgement, and try not to sound like you're using a "technique".

In July 2005, the heading was Evaluating.
Nigel suggested telling the speaker how you connected with the speech and how it connected with you, without having to give your own story. "I enjoyed your speech about car racing because that has been a life long ambition of mine". Point out some good points about the speech "You gestures were great, for example when you said "zoom" and used your hands to relate the speed of the car". Try and pick a point where the speaker improved from the previous speech. "I noticed you used notes on your last speech, but this was without notes and it seemed like it was more natual because of that".

Pick one or two points to improve on and why. "I would like you to use more pauses in your speech. "Rather than ready, set go, try ready........set........ GOOOOOOOOOO to give a more dramatic start to the race". I would also like to see you move from behind the podium so you can connect more with your audience".

Finally, give another good point, a reinforcement. "Your vocal variety has improved greaty over the last few speeches, and I'm really looking forward to your next one".

Try to avoid commenting on the content on the speech too much. Your job as an evaluator is to examine the delivery, but be sure to follow the guidelines in the manual to make sure the speech achives the goals that are set out. Basically, did the content fill the requirements.

A few days before the meeting, find out who you are supposed to evaluate and ask them what they would like you to look out for specifically. Find out which manual speech they're doing so you can check the requirements rather than have to do it during the meeting.

John S offered some ways that I am likely to start an evaluation, but in each case they are in response to the speech, not prepared before hand.
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Your comments on yak racing took me back to a childhood visit to Mesopotamia, but I think that the way you brought the subject to life was more vivid than my memory of the actual trip. I liked .... (but only if the speech topic was about yak racing - or adapted to suit the actual speech and your actual experience - this is the only time your experience is mentioned. Too often I have heard evaluators expounding their greater knowledge)

I've often wondered where the quote of the week people get their pithy sayings from - nicely encapsulated phrases that say it all in 10 seconds. To me, your statement .... deserves to be on an http://www.quotations.com/. (which may or may not exist.)

I've never believed in evaluations where the expert (me) tells the student (you) what you did wrong. To me it is a chance to watch closely and decide which of your techniques I can incorporate in one of my future speeches. Well tonight I got three: the way that you ...., your use of ..... and .... (particularly useful when evaluating an experienced speaker - but all Toastmasters have experiences, just different ones. You can tell that to www.quotations.com)

Thank you for the inspiration. (or laughs, or information) What made it inspirational to me was .... And then end with something like: Again thank you. Tonight, I have decided to do something about it.
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In each case, I hope I would convey the impact that a speech had on me, an important part of evaluation.
But never try to upstage the speaker with your greater knowledge, even if it is valid.

Mark believes that a good evaluation is really a two to three minute motivational speech. You want the speaker to be deeply inspired to make changes and also to be eager to give their next speech. It is your time to shine, but not to outshine!

Use all the good speech techniques you've learned in Toastmasters and elsewhere. They say that in giving a powerful presentation it's all about the audience, that's every bit as true for an evaluation. Use the methods that will reach your audience.

Anthony rephrased that to "remember that a good evaluation is really about providing productive and useful feedback to the speaker.

As your evaluation skills develop, you will find that an evaluation also provides you with an opportunity to present a speech (the evaluation) that is good practice and a learning opportunity for future evaluations and speeches.


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The names "Toastmasters International", "Toastmasters" and the Toastmasters International emblem are trademarks protected in the United States, Canada and other countries where Toastmasters Clubs exist. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.