ON THE SPOT: THE TOUR-ATHON
With two workshops now under our belt, we all instinctively knew what the next step would have to be. NO more drills, it was time for the real deal. If there was to be a clear display of improvement in confidence, then taking on actual (not staged) Table Topic sessions was an obvious (but for some people, quite a daunting) step. We decided to volunteer for Table Topics at other Toastmaster Clubs where the audience was unfamiliar to us.
And the timing was perfect! The pandemic had gifted us new opportunities for the OTS members to visit toastmaster clubs all around the world, but to do so virtually. It quickly became apparent that for any substantial improvement to take place, it was important that members jump in the ‘deep end’ and practice as much as possible, in a short space of time. Accelerated growth by baptism! And so… they did.
Several clubs were asked, ahead of time, to partake in the project by allowing two (2) OTS members to volunteer in their table topics sessions at each meeting. Typically in a Table Topics session both the questions and the persons who will be participating are unknown. However, In this TT Tour-athon, the OTS members would volunteer prior to the start of the meeting. Meaning they would know they would be called on but not know the question they would need to respond to.
This was marvellous because of a number of reasons:
1. Prior to now, most/none of these persons would have volunteered for a Table Topics session. Psychologically this was a complete 180 degree to our previous patterns.
2. Other clubs had expressed usually having challenges getting persons in their own clubs to agree to speaking (showing that other clubs had issues as well) and were more than willing to accommodate our practicing speakers.
3. Volunteering to speak impromptu at other clubs pushed the group to another confidence level and had an ‘entourage’ type of vibe to it.
4. The travelling team was seen as a group of toastmasters who were just practicing; this took the expectation out of the equation which to some extent made it less nerve wracking for us as “young” impromptu speakers.
5. Volunteering prior to the start of the TT session meant that those of US who would usually avoid table topics had no opportunity to do so. It was already decided who would speak.
The group was kept updated by email of all the opportunities that came up for volunteering at other clubs and were also updated afterward on which OTS members presented. We made it clear that the outcome of such sessions was never important except for the very act of volunteering itself. This was a raw numbers game. Practice, Practice, Pratcice. Courage, Courage, Courage.
Nevertheless, inevitably, as persons improved some OTS members were voted as best speakers during TT sessions on their tours:
As we progressed in the project, I realised I, in essence, had been learning a different lesson from each TT question. For example, one question showed me that I did not role play well (“imagine you are a…”), or that I had not considered something personal or specific to me or that I had some challenge expressing it. However, I found I was losing track of these valuable lessons and decided to create a template that I and the team could use as they did their deep dive into practicing. The template was as follows (yes…I am sharing my actual personal logs with you!):
I shared my own personal log with the OTS team and encouraged them to create logs of their own. I also encouraged them to always include (no matter what their feeling was after the volunteering session)…the act of volunteering itself as their number one positive achievement/takeaway from each effort. The learning point noted/derived (whether it is a positive point or improvement points) were just to be the icing on the cake.
The results at the end of the project showed that all participants who had reported an increase of two (2) levels or more in confidence/comfort had all participated in the TT Tour-athon. This implies that travelling to other clubs as practicing speakers was a high impact activity as it relates to improving in this area. The ON-THE-SPOT project finally concluded in a Table Topics Tournament on January 09, 2021. Keep an eye out for blog #7, to see what this Table Topics tournament was like!
Click HERE to see blog #7 of this series (the next blog)
Click HERE to see blog #5 of this series (the previous blog)
