Slow down…

Some people rush through a presentation for fear they won’t be able to cram everything in during the time allotted to them. If your presentation has been prepared thoughtfully and rehearsed thoroughly, this not only is unnecessary, it’s self-defeating.

Thinking takes time. So give your audience the time to think about what you are saying.

Pause often.

Take a breath.

Look at your audience between passages.

Remember, you are having a conversation, not a speed competition. Let the audience appreciate your remarks, not struggle to keep up with them.

If you have too much information to deliver in a reasonable period of time, rewrite your remarks. Pare them down. Keep content tight and essential. That’s a more effective — and ultimately more satisfying — approach than trying to cheat the clock.

Comments

[Christine]

Just discovered your blog through Tim's altfunction blog, you've got some great stuff to share.

I've been told that i'm a great speaker; i believe that i'm just a big fish in a little pond. What i mean is that i'm a good speaker relative to the many in my company which are not.

I've not had proper training and my mastery of the English language is abominable but i'm passionate - about everything. Of course, gauging your audience is key. I'm one of those engineer/science types, and so is my audience normally. So they love data; seeing lots of graphs, tables and charts thrills them. Then i can just speak to them as if we were all standing around the water cooler.

I'm a bit long winded here, apologies. The point that i'm am trying to get to is that if you are fortunate enough, personality can carry you. Unless you are in a room full of talented speakers, just being yourself and confident about your subject matter should equal a great speech. Lucky for me, i'm an extrovert.

[Tim]

Thanks Scott - great reply to my question - I really appreciate the time you put into answering it. I am responsible for the communications in my team and am looking at ways to help them improve (some are excellent, others less so). The conversation technique looks effective (I haven't had time to try it) because it's simple.

You are on the money with the passion too: if people care about something you really notice. Thanks... off to blog this further ;-)

[scott]

Tim, your observation about rhythm is dead on. Many speakers do not deliver their remarks, they endure them, and thus make the audience endure the experience as well.

For some folks, the path to success is simply one of relentless practice and accumulated experience, much as a pianist goes from banging on a keyboard to expressing nuance and color in music only after years of patient drill and exercise.

The practice, among other assets, builds the speaker’s confidence, which diminishes the fear and dread factors, which in turn enables the speaker to turn his thoughts less to being rejected and more to being in control of the presentation. That feeling of control translates into taking command, a sensation that liberates the speaker to slow down, take meaningful pauses, to perform his words and message like a musical score.

Okay, that all sounds rather obvious, abstract and squishy, I realize. But it is a chain of events that occurs when the speaker allows herself to be open to them. And it does happen. But, not to everyone.

For others, the root issue may involve more fundamental factors such as command of language, syntax and grammar. The notion of punctuating one’s remarks for effect can be an alien one for someone who really doesn’t get the difference between a comma and a semicolon. They get caught up in what they think they know or don’t know, and often when compelled to get in front of audience against their desires, will overcompensate with a presentation that is either over-the-top (in the interests of letting noise speak more loudly than signal) or flat-line boring (thinking that if they take no chances, they cannot make mistakes). Neither extreme is desireable.

Short of putting this person through remedial classes in grammar and vocabulary with which to build up her inventory, one path to a better presentation may be in helping her frame her speaking experience as a conversation rather than as a speech; to adopt the mannerisms and rhythms she might use when telling her coworkers about her weekend or her next project. If it’s a topic she cares about, and she is freed from a burden of too many “rules” about correct speechgiving, she may find that her passion and enthusiasm seep into her words and delivery.

Some people just don’t read aloud very well. So, don’t make them read aloud. Have them tell a story, instead. To do it smoothly and confidently requires a different preparation track – developing talking points and story structure rather than a verbatim script, for instance – but it puts the speaker in a different place that may be more comfortable, more natural. The result may a delivery that is less hurried, less fragmented, less frightened and more cogent and conversational.

I believe audiences grade speakers not by how well they follow rules, but by their authenticity as people sharing information with other people. Some of the most powerful and memorable presentations I’ve ever witnessed came from people who didn’t have a clue how to “give a speech.” They didn’t know about cadence or voice inflection or transitions. Instead, they knew intrinsically how to punctuate their remarks for effect because what they were saying came from a genuine place inside them. Absent a focused program of coaching, instruction and relentless practice, it was the best place they could turn to and it worked.

[Tim]

This looks like a very useful blog.

It seems to me that timing is as much about punctuation and rhythm. Many speakers see the pages or note cards in front of them and can't help but rattle through them, scared that they won't make the finish line. Speakers that establish a pattern and rhythm tend to come across as less rushed and more confident.

Have you any recommendations about how a speech giver can get a rhythm going and prepare it in advance?

[scott]

They indeed are my sketches, Diego. Thanks. I attend at least one luncheon program a week (occupational hazard). A couple of years ago I started doodling in a small sketchbook while listening to the speaker(s)...found it helped me keep focused on the remarks and not daydream. The accumulated drawings seemed like a good fit when I began designing the look of this site.

BTW, I enjoy your site and your message so much I've linked it from mine, as you probably discovered.