A 45 Minute Workshop Outline on Public Speaking with ImpaCCCT

I met Petra from ImpaCCCT when we presented at the first instalment of Disrupt HR this year. She invited me to share my tips on communication and in particular, public speaking to her Best Talents Meetup Group in the Brisbane CBD last week.  And I only had 45 minutes.Phew, such an open topic!  There are so many elements to public speaking. I didn’t really know where to start.  Upon reflection, I’ve discovered a common pattern to the way I work when I’m asked to deliver a workshop or speech.Download a one-pager checklist that I use to craft any type of presentation.I used this one-pager as a focal point for discussion at the Meetup.  This allowed me to give the audience direction, set expectations and also gave them a prompt to ask questions.  What was interesting was how the questions that were asked directed the conversation to things I hadn’t even considered discussing that morning.

How the Meetup Started

Yes, we met in a public space (a café), but that was no excuse. It was 8am and we began by warming up our voices. We all stood up, stretched our arms in the air, sighed, rolled our tongues, sang out some ‘la la la’s’ and introduced ourselves. We then shared what had brought us to the Meetup that morning and outlined details of the worst presentation we had ever seen.Warming up your voice is essential before speaking in any defining moment in your life. If you need tips, watch this video from Julian Treasure: How to speak so people want to listen.

Mastering public speaking - it’s all about the ‘ouch’ moments

After warming up our voices, I shared the Ladder of Learning model. This is one of my favourite Learning and Development models that I use in a lot of workshops.The model demonstrates that the key to any type of Skill Mastery is accepting (and embracing) that you’re going to experience ‘ouch’ moments - times where it’s really uncomfortable.  Think back to the time when you were learning how to drive.  It was extremely nerve-wracking and frustrating - particularly if you were driving a manual car and navigating a hill-start! It felt like mastering the skill of driving would never happen.  Thought, it was worth the perseverance, because the rewards of driving were too great. Driving meant independence and accessibility; graduating to an adult world.It’s the same with public speaking.  We can sit back, comfortably stagnant in the ‘Conscious Incompetence’ zone, or we can choose to invest, practice and tackle those ‘ouch’ moments to graduate to the ‘Conscious’, or even ‘Unconscious Competence’ status when we’re at the front of the room.What does the ‘ouch’ moment look like when it comes to public speaking?

• Saying ‘YES!’ to speak when your immediate gut response is ‘NO!’
• The knots in your stomach the night/week before your big presentation (this is a good signal to buckle down and ensure your preparation is spot-on).
• Attending a Meetup about Public Speaking.

New contexts or environments can sometimes slip us down the ladder 

I’ve learnt that a change in context or environment can force a slip down the ladder.  Again, an example I used was driving. In Australia, I see myself in the ‘Unconscious Competence’ sector - when I drive, I feel like I’m on autopilot.  However, when I traveled to Canada earlier this year I slipped back into ‘Conscious Competence’ where I was actively thinking about every action I took when I was in the driver’s seat. I even had a post-it note on my steering wheel reminding me which side of the road to stay on.It’s the same with presentations. Over our career, we can be comfortable presenting in front of the same audiences and in the same room (‘Unconscious Competence’) and suddenly you’re wheeled in front of the Board.  The stakes are higher and your nerves are heightened - which may have you slipping back into ‘Conscious Competence’.  This isn’t a bad thing - it’s great and gives you more ‘ouch’ moments, which will help you improve over time.  To evolve as a public speaker, look for opportunities that are at the next level and continually challenge you.

What about the most high-stakes environment of all time, the dreaded job interview? 

An environment where the pressure and stakes are at an all-time high is the job interview.A couple of participants attending the Meetup were in job-hunt mode and were quite early on in their careers.  In many job interviews, you’re asked to provide examples of situations where you have demonstrated a particular skill.  We have all been asked a question that starts with, ‘So, tell me about a time when…’.My advice is to start collating story examples early in your careers.  I would use a simple template like this one:[table id=2 /]If you start collecting your life experiences and transcribing them into a simple Google Sheets table, you can weave them into any presentation - not only the job interview. In future when you’re writing a speech you then have a database of some personal anecdotes you can utilise to demonstrate a point.  This is gold.  It’s very tricky thinking of those stories off-hand.You can even start a folder in your inbox called ‘Stories’ and drag emails that remind you of a great story to this folder as an even easier way to start.We spent the remainder of time talking through the one-pager handout which included the following information split into three major categories:

1. Preparation.
2. Crafting your content.
3. Presenting with power - for more tips, view my article Disrupt HR: The Creative Process in 7 Simple Steps

[table id=1 /]Download a one-pager checklist that I use to craft any type of presentation.If you’re in Brisbane, join the Best Talents Meetup group and join us for a monthly coffee and 45 minutes of top content!