ON-THE-SPOT: Workshop #2
STILL ON A HIGH from our recent educational and fun-filled Workshop #1, two of my ON-THE SPOT (OTS) members shared with me that while they had enjoyed the opportunity to practice at the first workshop, they would have loved to have been able to break the (metaphorical) yoke in a little less ‘public’ environment. Yes, we were still a little hesitant about practicing in public. But, to be fair, our Guest Speaker did in fact warn us that behaviour could not be changed in just one presentation (remember Blog #4??!😉). He was certainly right…it would take a bit of internalizing and more importantly…PRACTICE.
But at the time the request was made, having a second workshop was not a part of the project design and in fact was not required for my project to be considered complete. It was at this point that I began to allow the vision of the program itself to lead our path and actions. I reminded myself of the vision I had written down for ON-THE-SPOT at the start of the project:
Participants in this program will improve their level of confidence & reduce fear or discomfort doing table topics and impromptu speaking.
It hit me like a tidal wave,… that if this was really my vision then obviously I needed to do whatever my OTS members requested to improve their comfort level 🤷🏾♂️. Furthermore, as the person who needed the most practice in the group I had somehow managed to conveniently leave myself out of the agenda in the previous workshop session🙄🤦🏻♂️. So this was my opportunity to really be a part of the group. If I did not do this, then this project surely would have been my most impressive avoidance tactic achieved to date. Yes, Workshop #2 was a definite GO!
It was December 20, 2020 and with 5 days to go to Christmas, I was almost sure no one would show at the scheduled zoom meeting. Surprisingly seven (7) of the members logged on and brought their own set of creative Table Topic questions to pose at their counterparts. But this private set-up meant no evaluators which is critical to improving in speech practice. I had an idea…I would launch polls with ratings ranging from 1 through 10 after each person’s TT response. The OTS crew would give group anonymous ratings which would be revealed before moving to the next speaker. We were our own evaluators!
But before jumping into the practice session, we analyzed a table topic response by a Toastmaster from another country who had won best TT speaker at our club meeting, by answering a question about a specific Jamaican National Hero. The only thing was… he was not Jamaican! How did he do it? It was clearly not just luck-it was clear something was happening here and required investigation. So, the OTS crew members analyzed his speech and pointed out several things done right as he stayed on topic but skillfully engaged the audience with what he did in fact know about heroes and orators in general.
It was clear that when he was done the audience was so flattered and impressed by his call to action that they might not have even remembered the question itself. Fluency, stay on topic, engage the audience…NOTED!…(but much easier said than done). More and more, it was becoming clear that these impromptu speeches were just shorter versions of planned speeches- they needed structure…a beginning/intro, a body, and a close. Now we had something better to think about when the question was being asked/repeated!
After our thorough analysis of his remarkable response, we launched into our own practice session. The group did not seem to notice or even care as I fumbled over the questions they posed to me. This indeed was a safe space. 14 questions and 14 polls later we had completed our session. We all left that session feeling more energized about the program. Practice, practice, practice!
One of the things highlighted in the “after” survey as being found most useful by the members was that after these sessions each member was sent a video clip (only of their own practice speech) with feedback on what I noticed had improved and what could be worked on. Because those who cant do, TEACH 😁😅! Also, the group had agreed we would always be working on something in each practice speech or session…such as avoiding looking up (towards the ceiling), using crutch words (calm down my “AH Counters”!🤭😌😏) or other habits.
Blog #6 is on its way!
Click HERE to see blog #6 (the next blog in this series)
Click HERE to see blog #4 (the previous blog in this series)
