GYCZ Ski Day. Ego Gets in the Way

On Friday, March 17^th I enjoyed a glorious ski day at Poley Mountain (https://www.poleymountain.com/)  in nearby Sussex, New Brunswick.  The sky was clear, the temperature hovered around the freezing mark, and the sun was strong. Often when the sun is strong and temperatures relatively warm, the snow conditions deteriorate quickly and become slushy, but conditions this day were still very good when I left at 1:45 p.m. It was a dream ski day.  So much so that I shared some photos on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp5oW0BO2yp/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

Learning to Ski and Ego

The next day I bumped into a friend, Matt, at a coffee shop.  I had seen him Friday from afar in the ski lodge.  He had also enjoyed the great conditions at Poley. We chatted about ski experiences, and I mentioned that I had lived in Sussex, the ski town, for four years when I was in my 30s and that’s when I learned to ski. He had learned while he was very young. I found in my 30s that I was quite slow to learn, and I’m convinced that the main reason for that is my ego got in the way of my development.

For example, I remember one day when I was on the hill, quaking in my skis, my legs aching, and gripping a small spruce tree to steady myself while I avoided pointing my skis down the hill and just giving it a go, learning to control my speed, and learning to ski. 

While I stood there pulling on that poor little tree, a group of kids roared down the hill past me laughing, screaming, and flying past without even the aid of ski poles. They were having a great time and learning quickly. They were unconcerned with my plight.

Two of the kids fell. They laughed uproariously, and then continued down the hill to catch up with their friends.

I didn’t want to fall in the snow. And worse, I didn’t want people I knew to see me fall and then see me struggle to get back on my feet. Getting back to upright, on a slope, wearing skis, is an accomplishment in itself.

In time, I did learn to ski well, but not as quickly as I could have had I pushed my ego out of my way.  

Ego in the Way of Skill Development

I reflect on my development as a skier because I believe that ego gets in the way of much adult learning, for example with the skill of public speaking.  Many people feel they are supposed to be competent and confident at preparing and delivering speeches. Most of these folks have achieved other significant successes, but avoid public speaking of any sort.  I view public speaking as a skill, just like skiing is a skill.

Few professionals need to be competent skiers, but most professionals should have reasonable public speaking skills. I’m sure there are some people who are naturals at public speaking, but for most of us, it’s a learned skill developed through observation, some acquisition of knowledge and techniques, practice of the skill, and supportive feedback and coaching.

If this resonates with you, I encourage you to contact and then visit a local Toastmasters club (www.toastmasters.org) and observe the learning atmosphere.  There is no obligation to join and I expect you’ll be impressed with the structured, yet friendly and supportive experiential learning environment. 

How To Prepare a Long Duration Speech

 

Recently I published a post about crafting a basic speech in just five minutes.  This is helpful if you need to make a presentation with little or no notice. It happens, especially if you are known for some level of expertise in your organization. You can read the post here https://gycz.blogspot.com/2022/10/how-to-prepare-speech-in-five-minutes.html

After publishing that post, I received some e-mails asking how to prepare for longer presentations. I do like receiving questions or seeing comments posted to the blog page.  I’ll share my approach for longer speeches.

A Series of Short Speeches

It can seem a daunting task to prepare a presentation that lasts twenty minutes, or forty minutes, or perhaps longer, however, a helpful way to plan for a longer presentation is to think of it as a series of smaller, well connected short speeches. My sweet spot is twenty to forty minutes so I tend to guide requests to this range, and this works for most meeting planners.

Planning with Bubbles

When I need to deliver a longer presentation, I begin planning by creating a bubble diagram, which is a creativity technique. Here’s an example of a bubble diagram https://bit.ly/3tjX5GD

I use a bubble diagram to visually capture all of my possible material on one page.  While I use the bubble technique, some people are more familiar with other creativity techniques, such as the fish bone technique. A key for any creativity tool is to capture ideas without judgement, to creatively generate ideas, or in this case to creatively capture possible content, or talk points. To be clear, when documenting these talk points, I avoid editing and judging with thoughts like ‘this doesn’t belong.’  Initially I want to quickly and non-judgementally document all possible content, and let the creative juices further inspire other ideas that might not be immediately obvious when staring at a blank page.

Creating a Bubble Diagram  

To begin generating ideas I place a circle, a bubble, in the center of the page with the core theme, for example “Speech Development.”  Then I start placing related ideas in surrounding bubbles, for example, “organization,”” use of notes,” “define purpose,” or “ relevant stories.”  Then I usually break some of the related bubbles into smaller components, for example referencing some specific stories. 

After a first version of the bubble diagram is complete, I put this away for at least 24 hours.  Later when I review it, I always have new ideas, and new content with a bubble or two to add.

Capture All Possible Talking Points  

My purpose in performing this exercise is to satisfy myself that I’ve captured all, or virtually all, of my knowledge and possible talking points on the page. That gives me confidence that I have lots of usable content for a longer speech.  I also use this approach when I coach people on speech development.

As I review the diagram, I consider each bubble and assess whether each point is substantial. My measure of substantial is that I could speak to each point for two minutes or more.  

Purpose Drives Content

The next step is the most important.  I ask myself ‘what is my purpose in speaking to this specific audience on this day?’  What exactly do I want the audience to understand, or to do differently. Purpose drives content.  This forces me to give consideration to the expertise level of the audience, and why they’ve invited me to speak.

What to Keep, What to Use on Another Day

Once I’ve defined my presentation purpose, I can choose the bubbles that support my purpose. At this point, I usually have to set aside some material I really would like to use, but that does not support the purpose of my speech. Once content is selected, then I can experiment with sequencing the ideas, and refining my speaking points.

Conclusion

This is a short introduction to my method of preparing longer presentations. There will always be discernment in defining purpose and selecting content.

Practice, Practice, Practice

If you wish to excel in public speaking, you will need to practice.  Public speaking is a skill, and skills require practice.  The best athletes in the world practice basic skills regularly.

My key practice venue is my Toastmasters club. I have been a member of Toastmasters since 1987 and I remain for many reasons. One is to regularly practice these skills including 2-minute impromptu speeches and 5–7-minute speeches.  Public speaking is a skill and skills require practice if you expect them to be sharp.

 

How To Prepare a Speech in Five Minutes

Have you ever been asked or told to make a presentation with little lead time? In my business career there were times when I was strongly requested to make a presentation in very short order.  I had a lot of experience at work and in Toastmasters so I developed a simple approach to these situations.  You might find the approach helpful.

Every speech should have structure, kind of a table of contents that helps you organize your ideas, and then for the audience to follow along. It’s my practice near the start of a speech to tell the audience the structure, and as the speech concludes to remind them of the structure. Even if your speech is almost entirely a story, you can apply a helpful structure such as lesson learned, story itself, how to apply the lesson in other situations.

Past-Present-Future

My starting point for most presentations is past-present-future. This is a simple routine for me.  If you struggle to even start preparation for a presentation, begin with past-present-future. Your product may evolve, but you’ll be off to a great start.  

With this structure, the time frame doesn’t matter. The time frame could be this morning, now, later today. It could be last quarter, this quarter, next steps. It could be 1967, current results, improving current results. It could be how we got here, current situation, options for progress.

Having a plan for impromptu or planned speeches provides speakers with confidence which will be apparent to audiences.  Such structure is helpful to audiences as well as they will hear and interpret the organization. We like organization.  People may disagree with your message, but they’ll feel the message was well delivered, because they heard structure.

Other Structures

There are many other structures available, but in my opinion, none are as simple and intuitive as past-present-future.

For your consideration, another structure is A-I-D-A, for Attention-Interest-Desire-Action. Another is O-B-A for Opening, Body, Conclusion, which I find is far too rudimentary. 

 

Practice, Practice, Practice

I have been a member of Toastmasters since 1987 and I remain for many reasons. One is to regularly practice these skills including 2-minute impromptu speeches and quickly prepared 5–7-minute speeches.  Public speaking is a skill and skills require practice if you expect them to be sharp.