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Wednesday 28 October 2015

The art of good evaluation distilled

This post is brought to you per courtesy of Island Bay Toastmasters, and more specifically Gary Basham.

At our last meeting he facilitated a group discussion on evaluations.

The purpose was to establish a set of "must-have" elements that when combined would form a good evaluation.

The reason behind the mini-workshop was to provide people who were inexperienced at receiving and giving evaluations a solid foundation to work with. The core question to be answered was; "What do they need to know?" The goal was to generate a list of take-away points which could then be used as an ongoing reference.

The result was a fascinating, dynamic, and engrossing look at exactly what was important in the art of evaluation worthy of sharing.

The art of evaluation brainstorm on whiteboard - Island Bay Toastmasters Club.
The evaluation brainstorm
 I've summarized the main points.

Why evaluate?


Evaluation provides feedback allowing a speaker to hear how his/her delivery was experienced. Without it we work on supposition and assumption. A Toastmaster's evaluation shifts assessment from an internal subjective response to an external, structured and hopefully, reasonably objective one.

A good evaluation reinforces and extends what we are already doing, or learning to do, well  and recommends aspects that could benefit from fine tuning. It is a powerful tool - a vital part of learning to be a better speaker.


What should be in an evaluation?


It should focus on the content of the speech; its structure, delivery and suitability for the audience. It should NOT be a retelling of the speech itself.

It also should be in the 3rd person rather than directly referencing the speaker. This removes the "personal" from the evaluation and additionally opens it to include the whole audience. It gives us all an opportunity to learn.

An evaluation is always of the speech, and never the person.

An acknowledgement that these are the evaluator's opinions. They are not facts. Statements need to be owned. Eg. "I think..." "I feel..."


How should an evaluation be structured?


An easy and good way is to follow the objectives outlined in the manual for the speech delivered. Has the speech met them? Where? How?

The Commend, Recommend, Commend model is proven as efficient and effective. It provides a palatable platform to give (and receive) recommendations without speaker on the receiving end feeling overwhelmed by how much they have to learn.  We feel so much better about ourselves if our strengths are acknowledged, as well as our challenges.

Recommendations should be specific, doable and come with examples that the speaker can use as a starting point to improve. Example: I think xxx would benefit from doing diction exercises. They would help speech clarity. There's a series of tongue twisters here that will provide hours of fun.

Even if the speaker is accomplished the evaluation should include something they can tweak to enhance their presentation - however small it may be. And as noted on the whiteboard "don't sugar coat".

Commendations also need to be anchored in specific detail. Comments like "That was marvelous" may be flattering but they're meaningless unless they're attached to an example. Eg. I particularly liked your use of a rhetorical question as an opening. It hooked the audience in -sat them up and made them listen.

How do people learn to evaluate well?



  • Observe and learn from more experienced speakers. Having excellence modeled is very effective.
  • Conduct an educational and invite experts to share their wisdom.
  • Provide feedback to the evaluators through the General Evaluator role on what was good and what needed fine tuning.  


Where do people find more information on giving evaluations?


Toastmaster's International has articles on them and Googling the phrase 'Toastmasters evaluations' will pull up a wealth of responses. I particularly like this one from Andrew Dlugan: The Art of Delivering Evaluations  which has ongoing links into more useful material.

What are the benefits of giving evaluations?


We are learning important and valuable leadership skills - the ability to express an opinion and back it, while supporting a person (the speaker) respectfully.

In summary


The session was a valuable reminder about one of the core attributes of the Toastmasters' programme - a part that makes it very special. In learning to evaluate well, we also learn to take criticism well, to respond usefully to challenges and to genuinely encourage others to extend themselves.

Thanks Gary!

Sunday 25 October 2015

Table topics - the power of three

Rob Julian

Continuing the words of wisdom on impromptu speaking from our experienced speakers - here's Rob Julian.

Previously we heard from:

We hope what they've got to say helps and inspires you!


Rob says

Before your turn comes to speak, breathe in and out deeply at least three times. It will help relax you and ensure you have plenty of air in your lungs before you start speaking. You don’t want to start your first statement with a squeaky voice.

  1. LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE TOPIC. It will be stated twice. You don’t want to start speaking and then half way through realise you have forgotten what the topic was.

  2. REPEAT THE TOPIC SLOWLY, PORTENTOUSLY, AND MEANINGFULLY, as if it was the most significant and perceptive statement anyone has ever heard. Like:

    "ARE – WE- REALLY- RULED –BY – TECHNOLOGY?"

    It is surprising how meaningful this sounds and it does give you time to think up your opening statement. Which is
    • Either you agree with it – the safest stance; or
    • It is a load of nonsense – risky but effective if you can pull it off. But then you are not in the contest to come second or third.
       
  3. GO FOR ‘THE POWER OF THREE’. As in ‘I will outline three reasons why the statement is true (or a load of garbage)’. Then frantically think of what the three reasons could be. By the time you mention them, the red light will come on and you must IMMEDIATELY summarise.
One further point, if you are going for the PAST-PRESENT - FUTURE technique, make sure you make it clear that this is what you are doing. The judges may not realise it and think you are straying from the topic.

On the joys of judging ...


And speaking of judging, be aware that the Impromptu Contest is somewhat of a lottery, If you don’t win then it is obvious that the judges were a pack of incompetents with an IQ not much larger than their shoe size, and who wouldn’t recognise a good speech if they were hit over the head with one. On the other hand, if you do win, it is surely as a result of superior intelligence, ability, and charisma. Namely, yours.

Go for it.



About Rob

Rob Julian DTM. Came runner-up in the District Impromptu Speech Contest at the Silver Jubilee in 1987, the same Convention where he won the District Prepared Speech Contest. In those days the Impromptu Contest was 5/6/7 minutes, which Rob says was actually easier than the present 1/1.5/2 minute limits. There was time to work your way into the topic. He won the Division E Impromptu Contest in 2010 before the split, when there were 11 Areas competing. The Impromptu Trophy is unfinished business since it is the only District Contest he has not won.

Friday 16 October 2015

Table topics tips - Gael Price

Continuing our trilogy - Impromptu Speaking Help - here's the second installment featuring Gael Price.

Gael is a member of Te Aro Toastmasters and our current Division E Director. She won the Division E Table Topics Contest in 2012.

MC Phil Anderson and MC Gael Price - Northern Lights Ball, Wellington
Gael (R) joins the Night King (L) aka Phil Anderson to MC their work place mid-year ball

Gael's three tips are ...


1.  Reach a conclusion early in your speech.

Once you've settled on your main argument, it's usually easy to keep adding points in support until your time is up. If you dither and weigh up options then you'll likely run out of time to strongly support your preferred option, meaning you may come across as indecisive or unconvincing.

2.  Enjoy the power of pause. 

A big pause makes your audience wonder what could be coming next. Sure, you may be wondering the same thing, but they don't know that - and you're getting all that thinking time for free while they snap to attention and wonder what the pause is about.

3. Relax and let your mind wander. 

Free-associate. Don't worry too much about where you might be going. If the start of a sentence occurs to you, chances are you'll have an ending for it before you're halfway through actually saying it. Remember your mind works way faster than your mouth, so let it!



Thanks Gael!

In the final of the series we'll have Rob Julian's tips. Of course if you'd like to add your comments, please do. They're welcome!

Monday 12 October 2015

Division E Conference - contest results and photos

The Division E Conference, featuring the Humorous and Table Topics Contests, was on Saturday 10th October at St Catherine's College, Kilbirnie.

We heard some fabulous speeches from some equally fabulous people! Thank you everybody; contestants, audience, and all the various officials and helpers who came together to make the event enjoyable, and possible.


Owen Winter Chair Toastmasters Division E Conference, Wellington
MC Owen Winter

The table topics contest



The contestants seen here, holding their participation certificates, preparing to answer interview questions from the Contest Chair.

Table topic Contestants Toastmasters Division E, Wellington 2015
L-R: Mitchell Bidois, Dionne Needham, Kevin Plant, Rose Austen-Falloon, Peter Scholtens, Aaron Hodder, Kate Roberts, Contest Chair Amanda Hillock
And the winners were ...

Table topic winners, Division E Wellington 2015
L-R: Kevin Plant (3rd), Peter Scholtens (2nd), Rose Austen-Falloon (1st), District Director Carol Mitchell, Contest Chair Amanda Hillock
Rose goes on to Blenheim to join other Division winners in the national Table Topics Contest at the TM Convention 6th-8th November.


Special Awards



There were several special awards given: best club website (won by Cook Strait), two for 25 years membership, plus these pictured below:
EJ Willmott, Ian Lankow Division E Conference Wellington 2015
EJ Wilmott past Area E7 Director receives the Division Area Director Award for service from past Division Director Ian Lankow
Advanced Wellington winners of Colin Perfect Award Div. E Conference 2015
Advanced Wellington win the Colin Perfect Award for the club with the most members at the conference.

Toastmaster of the Year Award


Rachel Barnett
This very special award went to Rachel Barnett (Progressive Toastmasters) for the above and beyond can-do, will-do assistance she gave to Area E3, including taking on Director duties while its then Director Billie Searle was overseas.

*Posted late with apologies for the omission.






Other special events


Judy Love (DTM) gives Division Director Gael Price's opening address because she was on an Outward Bound Leadership Course 


The Humorous Speech Contest



The contestants, holding their participation certificates, being interviewed by the Contest Chair.  

Humorous Contestants Division E Wellington 2015
L-R:  E2 Alastair Finlay, E1 Kath Cherrie, E7 Ella Kahu, E3 Billie Searle, E10 Deepshikha Vyas, E6 Marie Wright, Contest Chair Rose Wyse
And the winners were ...
Humorous Contest Winners 2015, Division E, Wellington
L-R: Alastair Finlay (3rd), Billie Searle (2nd), Ella Kahu  (1st), Carol Mitchell District Director, Rose Wyse Contest Chair



Ella goes on to Blenheim to join other Division winners in the national Humorous Speech Contest at the TM Convention 6th-8th November.

Many thanks to Russell Turney (Island Bay) for the photographs.
* To view ALL the photos Russell took (and there are many of them - too numerous to share here) please click here. This will open a shared google drive page displaying two zipped folders of photos. To open either of the folders click on them. Next click the white download arrow (top centre of your screen). This will download the images to your own computer. Now you can view them, one by one. Happy browsing!

Blenheim awaits!

The Division conference is over and our champions are making their preparations to travel to Blenheim, to compete at the next level. Will you be joining them?

What is District convention?

Convention is when all the Toastmasters from one District come together to learn and celebrate each other's achievements. All of New Zealand is one District - District 72. District 72 holds two conventions each year, one in November and one in May.

This November, convention is in Blenheim; in May we go to Rotorua, and the following November it's Invercargill. Convention is a great excuse to see the country!

What happens at November convention?

Each November we hold our national Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests. The nine Division-level winners in each contest will compete to determine the ultimate District champion.

But that's not all - convention is a full weekend of events, featuring educational workshops, social functions, and the semi-annual business meeting.

Who should attend?

All Toastmasters are welcome at convention! Everyone, from new members to club presidents and beyond, will find plenty to learn and lots of great networking opportunities. A convention as handy as Blenheim is a great opportunity to attend easily - it hasn't been this close to Wellington since 2013.

Check out the convention website for registration information (but book your accommodation first - accommodation in Blenheim is very tight already).

I'm already registered! What do I need to do before I go?

Talk to your club President about your club's votes for the business meeting. Every club has two votes, which can be carried by the President and Vice President Education, or assigned to another club member who is attending the business meeting. If you're the only person attending from your club, it's important that you get those votes assigned to you before you go - if there aren't enough club votes present, the meeting can't go ahead.

You can download voting documents from the meeting website. These need to be signed by your President and VPE and returned by email before 3 November.

If you're attending the business meeting, have a quick look at the meeting documents beforehand. You don't need to print out copies of everything, but try to familiarise yourself with the agenda and papers that will be discussed. There won't be any copies distributed at the meeting.

What should I expect when I get there?

Say hello to everyone you meet, ask them about their home club and how far they've travelled. Everyone is friendly and looking to meet new people. My favourite conversation starter is to ask people what they've learned at convention so far - chances are they've attended a session you missed, and by chatting to them you can learn all about it too.

Remember that convention is very full on! Make sure you have a few snacks in your bag for those long sessions between breakfast and morning tea, and don't expect to be able to escape from the convention centre, even for a short walk - you'll most likely be busy talking to people from start to finish each day.

I can't attend! What do I do?

Keep your eye on Facebook and Eat Your Crusts for updates! If no one is attending from your club, make sure you return a voter registration form with the club's apology before 3 November. Every club is invited to the business meeting, and it's polite to send an apology if your club can't make it.

See you there (whether in real life or here on the blog)!

Friday 2 October 2015

Impromptu speaking help

Hands up if you recognize any of these -

You stood up to speak and ...
  • pulling a few words together became as difficult as herding cats
  • your heart rate shot through the roof
  • your mind chose that moment to empty itself completely. Totally blank. There was nothing there. Nada. Zip. You experienced an instant case of lights on but no one home.

It's for you we've pulled together the thoughts and suggestions of three very experienced impromptu speakers. These are folk who have survived and gone on to thrive in the fine art of impromptu speaking, winning table topic contests at Area and Division level.

Image - Jonny Goldstein
Image credit: Jonny Goldstein Flickr
In the next few posts you'll hear from Dr Stuart Marshall, Head of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University, Gael Price, our current Division E Director and Senior Economic Analyst at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and Rob Julian, DTM.

They were each asked to give their 3 top tips.

Stuart Marshall  says ...




I was associated with Harbourside Toastmasters, but I’m no longer a Toastmaster at the moment due to competing work and community commitments. I’ll be back with the organisation one day!

I won the Division Contest in 2013, and sometime around 2006.  (I've forgotten exactly when, sorry.)



My top 3 table topic tips


If I analyse how I did table topics, it generally involved:

1. Committing to a topic

Sometimes it’s not that people don’t have any ideas on how to respond to a topic, but the problem is that they have too many ideas/options, and become paralyzed. 

My strategy was always to go with the first approach that came to mind, and commit to that approach. 

Quite a few times, I’d realize thirty seconds in that what I was saying was not going to result in some sane and serious conclusion. Rather than back-tracking though, I would just commit to the absurdity, and follow that absurdity to its logical conclusion. Surprisingly, that resulted in some of my most successful speeches.  You can find some strange insights in the absurd. 

Two minutes is such a short time, that you simply can’t afford to pull back or back track.

2. Depth rather than breadth

A two minute table topic can’t be filled with seven different sub-topics and neither can you expect yourself to be able to deftly tie them all together in a way that the audience will understand, at least not often. 

The key is to fill out the two minutes, but do it with adding depth to two key points, rather than trying to rattle off a sequence of bullet-pointed items in the hope that something sticks. That also goes back to the issue of committing to the topic. 

Stay with a sub-topic.  Explore its edges, but don’t dance from one point to the next unless you’re an extremely experienced juggler and think you can weave them all back together in a sparkling conclusion. That final step is usually beyond even the most experienced speakers.

3. Listen, learn and then evaluate

You listen to many more table topics than you deliver, so assessing what you hear is key in learning what does,  and doesn’t work for an audience. 

When I evaluated speakers, I rarely took notes while, (or even directly after), they were speaking. That may sound odd, but a table topic or a seven minute speech is something that should stick with the audience a fair while after the delivery. 

The vast majority of your audience, either in or outside TM, won’t be taking notes which is why as a speaker you need to leave them with something that sticks in their mind, and not on their notepad. As a listener or evaluator if something was particularly memorable about a speech (good or bad) it’ll stand out in your mind after the presentation, if you were actually listening. 

You need to separate out what stays in your mind naturally, and what minor quirks you felt compelled to write down.  If you have to rely on your notes to identify a fault or a good aspect in your evaluation fifteen / twenty minutes later, was it really a major fault/aspect? 

If I did take notes at all during the speech, it was a record of what the speaker was trying to achieve at a specific point in time. From that I could construct a set of speaker intentions that mapped to strategies they were attempting, and my recollections of the success (or failure) of those strategies. 

A record of their intentions was useful, as it helped me identify similar instances in my own speeches. It helped me decide whether the strategy was useful to follow or to avoid. 

Stuart's closing words on the topic
 

Lastly, I had a fairly bad stutter when I was younger, and table topics was an important step towards gaining the confidence to lecture in my life as an academic. It was scary then. It’s scary now, but the scariness is no longer an impediment but a source of energy instead.

It goes without saying that the more you do, the more comfortable you become. The trick is never to want to be too comfortable, but to always be enough, to make it up on stage.

The other key thing with table topics is that it is about trusting yourself to speak. Trusting yourself that if you open your mouth to engage with a topic that you’ve only just been given, (as is often the case in conversations), then words will come out that can be recognized as English sentences, and that they vaguely make sense!

Thank you Stuart!


Next up we'll have Gael's tips. Stay tuned, and if you get the urge to share a tip on the topic go right ahead. That's what the comment box is for!