Problem
I was at a meeting of public speakers recently and was in two minds about whether a speaker had done well or badly. When I heard his speech I thought it was brilliant. He was asked to choose a character and tell a story whilst acting the part of the character.
I was at a meeting of public speakers recently and was in two minds about whether a speaker had done well or badly. When I heard his speech I thought it was brilliant. He was asked to choose a character and tell a story whilst acting the part of the character.
He chose to be Santa Claus, complete with a wonderful outfit, and told a humorous story, with a series of engaging slides about the health problems and job disadvantages of being Santa Claus.
His speech was funny. It was original. You can imagine my surprise when the evaluator conceded that the speech was well researched with the numerous funny slides, and entertaining, but did not follow the objectives which were to be in character, in effect, being an actor, convincing us for a moment that you were the character, rather than just reading out the speech.
This happens a lot in Toastmasters. You have a speech you want to give, or get an idea when you first read about the objectives, then you hope that you will be judged on the speech, not the objectives.
I used to think that the point of the objectives was to teach you a new technique. If you had not learned all of it, but only fifty percent, the only person to lose out was the speaker. So long as the audience enjoyed the speech, never mind. I agreed that a speech project demonstrating vocal variety which had none, had not fulfilled the objectives. When I did the vocal variety project, I picked a subject to fit, accents around the world.
Then I got to think about how you would be in real life. Supposing you were a salesman in a shop selling washing machines and you were told to tell the customers about washing machines. If you are demonstrating a food cutting machine, and are an actor, you might indulge in a lot of banter with customers while you do the cutting, ending with offering them free samples of food and asking them to buy the cutter, or blender, at the special one day only now or never price. That speech has to end specifically, after the entertainment, with the sales pitch and the call to action.
Now let's talk about a more common situation, the average seller of washing machines in a department store. The boss says, "your job is to sell washing machines." that's the brief. If the customer doesn't know which product the salesman is selling, and is entertained to a bit of character acting and jokes, but never a call to action, the boss will be cross. The salesman has not filled the requirement.
A similar situation of mismatch occurs in a restaurant. The customer wants the order the way he likes it. The chef says, "No. This is the way we do it. Today's offer is scrambled eggs. Your kid wants boiled egg. You asked for boiled egg. Too bad. I don't take orders from customers. I do what I want."
Who is eating and who is paying? The customer. The boss or restaurant owner has the brief or objective, customers on seats, food on plates, happy customers pay money.
If you are employed as a speaker, your job is to find out what sort of speech the boss thinks will sell. When the customers turn up, the speech has to fit the customers.
When visiting a foreign country, you have to find out the usual house rules. What time are the opening and closing? What is the dress code? Is it just a guideline and flexible, or is it all or nothing?
You may think that a shopping mall is a public place. But in the UK a restaurant is private property.
You may be asked to leave and the restaurant owner doesn't have to give a reason. (He's better off not giving a reason. Telling a drunk that he is drunk will probably lead to arguments, escalating insults and possibly fights.)
Let's go back to the speech. If you joined a speech training programme just to make friends, you might be happy to muddle through. If you joined to learn how to make speeches which are understood, useful and welcome to all kinds of audiences, to people from all over the world, speeches given all over the world, then stopping to read the instructions, thoroughly twice, and to follow them, is a useful lesson.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
His speech was funny. It was original. You can imagine my surprise when the evaluator conceded that the speech was well researched with the numerous funny slides, and entertaining, but did not follow the objectives which were to be in character, in effect, being an actor, convincing us for a moment that you were the character, rather than just reading out the speech.
This happens a lot in Toastmasters. You have a speech you want to give, or get an idea when you first read about the objectives, then you hope that you will be judged on the speech, not the objectives.
I used to think that the point of the objectives was to teach you a new technique. If you had not learned all of it, but only fifty percent, the only person to lose out was the speaker. So long as the audience enjoyed the speech, never mind. I agreed that a speech project demonstrating vocal variety which had none, had not fulfilled the objectives. When I did the vocal variety project, I picked a subject to fit, accents around the world.
Then I got to think about how you would be in real life. Supposing you were a salesman in a shop selling washing machines and you were told to tell the customers about washing machines. If you are demonstrating a food cutting machine, and are an actor, you might indulge in a lot of banter with customers while you do the cutting, ending with offering them free samples of food and asking them to buy the cutter, or blender, at the special one day only now or never price. That speech has to end specifically, after the entertainment, with the sales pitch and the call to action.
Now let's talk about a more common situation, the average seller of washing machines in a department store. The boss says, "your job is to sell washing machines." that's the brief. If the customer doesn't know which product the salesman is selling, and is entertained to a bit of character acting and jokes, but never a call to action, the boss will be cross. The salesman has not filled the requirement.
A similar situation of mismatch occurs in a restaurant. The customer wants the order the way he likes it. The chef says, "No. This is the way we do it. Today's offer is scrambled eggs. Your kid wants boiled egg. You asked for boiled egg. Too bad. I don't take orders from customers. I do what I want."
Who is eating and who is paying? The customer. The boss or restaurant owner has the brief or objective, customers on seats, food on plates, happy customers pay money.
If you are employed as a speaker, your job is to find out what sort of speech the boss thinks will sell. When the customers turn up, the speech has to fit the customers.
When visiting a foreign country, you have to find out the usual house rules. What time are the opening and closing? What is the dress code? Is it just a guideline and flexible, or is it all or nothing?
You may think that a shopping mall is a public place. But in the UK a restaurant is private property.
You may be asked to leave and the restaurant owner doesn't have to give a reason. (He's better off not giving a reason. Telling a drunk that he is drunk will probably lead to arguments, escalating insults and possibly fights.)
Let's go back to the speech. If you joined a speech training programme just to make friends, you might be happy to muddle through. If you joined to learn how to make speeches which are understood, useful and welcome to all kinds of audiences, to people from all over the world, speeches given all over the world, then stopping to read the instructions, thoroughly twice, and to follow them, is a useful lesson.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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