What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking • Hacker News Board

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#51

Post by philmcc » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 4:49 AM UTC

I would give serious consideration to taking an Improv Comedy class. If you can't, I'd like to share the concept of "Yes, and--"

Invariably something will go wrong during one of your presentations.

A slide will look funny. There will be a weird noise from outside. An audience member will say something strange.

The idea behind "Yes,and-ing" in improv is basically you treat every single thing as if it were planned and part of what you were doing, rather than negating it or ignoring it, which is dishonest and creates a disconnect.

I've given three presentations in my life (all this year) and each time something went wrong I ran with it and the audience responded very positively. My slide about "Internal Leaks" was missing the first two letters. Second time public speaking. Crap.

Instead of negating ("Oh this was supposed to say Internal"), I Yes-And'ed.

"Up next, a very important problem, Ternal Leaks." And I then verbally chopped off the first two letters of the next slides (verbally), my name, my company name, and closed with "Anks, I hope you enjoyed it."

(Yes, it's a little corny, but it breaks the wall between audience and speaker. I find, in life, if you make someone really laugh, even if it's just once, everything else works out.)

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#52

Post by corin_ » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 7:25 AM UTC

esrauch wrote: post #50

nostromo wrote: post #14

"There’s one mistake I consistently see made by speakers both novice and experienced: they’re not excited about their talk." I'm a nervous presenter. The way I used to combat this was with a poker face. No smiles, no laughing, no gestures, monotone voice... I'd do anything not to clue them in to my nervousness. This is a flawed approach for me. People are very forgiving of humanizing nerves and foibles. People aren't…

This is a bit off topic, but according to wikipedia; "Adverse reactions to adrenaline include palpitations, tachycardia, arrhythmia, anxiety, headache, tremor, hypertension, and acute pulmonary edema." I've always thought that a true straight-edge person wouldn't deliberately trigger adrenaline releases. The fact that your body produces it given a particular stimulus doesn't seem to really be relevant to the "goodnes…

Adrenaline doesn't have any long-term health risks, unlike cocaine. If cocaine was safe in the long run, and I found that I didn't get negative side-effects and it helped me do , I'm not sure what the downside would be in me using cocaine.

When I used to be a singer I personally found adrenaline would only come with more important performances (bigger concerts, live radio), never with smaller concerts on recording sessions - I never experienced any downsides, and it helped me do better. If I could have found a way to get an adrenaline rush all the time, I definitely would have grabbed it with both hands.

edit: Given the topic of this actual thread, an interesting side-note is that despite never having problems with music, I'm pretty terrible at public speaking.

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#53

Post by droidist » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 7:43 AM UTC

silverbax88 wrote: post #23

It's tougher to be a solid public speaker than it looks. I've given talks to big rooms, gyms and moderately sized conference rooms. I rarely get nervous but occasionally it hits us all. I do have some notes on watching great speakers in person and learning from my own mistakes. 1. Do NOT ask for a 'show of hands' from the audience. Even some practiced speakers do this. They think that it engages the audience, but it…

Couldn't the "show of hands" just be genuine interest in knowing about your audience? For example say you give a speech on a similar topic once a year and ask for a show of hands; you can see how responses change over the years. You can even share this with the audience as an interesting side note. "When I used to give these talks 5 years ago almost nobody raised their hands, now it's almost all of you" or whatever the case.

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#54

Post by bajsejohannes » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 10:14 AM UTC

An obvious thing that took me a little too many talks to figure out, is to say "Thanks" when you're done. The audience wants to applaude, but the speaker has to initiate it. It always gets weird if the speaker goes to Q&A without it. Do we clap now? Later?

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#55

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 11:46 AM UTC

krschultz wrote: post #20

Great post, especially the concept 'Talks should always be reactionary rather than anticipatory'. A public speaking ancedote for all those that are nervous at public speaking or currently aren't that good at it. My father excels at public speaking. He has done many conferences, TV interviews, company all-hands meetings, regular presentations, etc. He is natural, comfortable, excited, etc. Most imporantly, he can real…

[deleted]

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#56

Post by davidw » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 12:18 PM UTC

Shoomz wrote: post #28

This blog has a ton underlying something I think of each time I go into a large presentation - be a rock star! I realize that's oversimplifying it a bit, but if you think about presenting there are many items that do coincide: know your material in and out, think about your audience, bring the enthusiasm...etc. I realize not every presentation is going to be rock star material, but if nothing else it makes me strive…

... and if you feel you're losing people's attention, biting the head off a live bat is a way to get it right back! Try that next time people are nodding off while you drone on about cloud architecture.

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#57

Post by jberryman » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 12:23 PM UTC

I've always been bad at speaking (all my experiences were in school, so far... Not really "public"). But my one really good presentation happened in college. I'd stayed up pretty late the night before finishing the thing along with a handout we were required to give to the class (also my notes), which I was going to print off in the library before class.

Went to bed and next thing I knew my alarm was buzzing and class had just started. I had time to throw on pants, jog to class and immediately start talking about the French horn; no notes or props. I didn't have time to be nervous or worry, and was just genuinely engaged in the topic and it went great.

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#58

Post by RyanMcGreal » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 12:47 PM UTC

krschultz wrote: post #20

Great post, especially the concept 'Talks should always be reactionary rather than anticipatory'. A public speaking ancedote for all those that are nervous at public speaking or currently aren't that good at it. My father excels at public speaking. He has done many conferences, TV interviews, company all-hands meetings, regular presentations, etc. He is natural, comfortable, excited, etc. Most imporantly, he can real…

> Public speaking is a learned skill.

Yes, absolutely. I used to be an utterly wretched public speaker. In the past several years, after a number of public speaking opportunities, I've improved to the point of being not terribly bad at it. My long-term goal is to become quite good at it.

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#59

Post by silverbax88 » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 1:57 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #35

silverbax88 wrote: post #23

It's tougher to be a solid public speaker than it looks. I've given talks to big rooms, gyms and moderately sized conference rooms. I rarely get nervous but occasionally it hits us all. I do have some notes on watching great speakers in person and learning from my own mistakes. 1. Do NOT ask for a 'show of hands' from the audience. Even some practiced speakers do this. They think that it engages the audience, but it…

> Do NOT ask for a 'show of hands' from the audience. I completely disagree. If you ask people to raise their hands 10 times on inane questions, then of course it's useless. But correctly used, it: 1) Wakes people up and gets everyone in the room focused 2) Gets people aware of the rest of the audience, and "on the same page" 3) Ideally provides a natural segue into how the point of the lecture directly connects to y…

I accept that you disagree, but this is the exact case I'm talking about. It does not create interaction with the audience. That is a myth. I breezed through college lectures because I knew how to fool the professor into thinking I was engaged. One of those ways is to ask questions or respond to 'the hand-raise maneuver'. It works because the speaker wants to turn attention over to someone else and I'd happily bail them out.

Re: What They Don't Tell You About Public Speaking

#60

Post by silverbax88 » Wed, Jun 20, 2012, 2:02 PM UTC

groby_b wrote: post #41

silverbax88 wrote: post #23

It's tougher to be a solid public speaker than it looks. I've given talks to big rooms, gyms and moderately sized conference rooms. I rarely get nervous but occasionally it hits us all. I do have some notes on watching great speakers in person and learning from my own mistakes. 1. Do NOT ask for a 'show of hands' from the audience. Even some practiced speakers do this. They think that it engages the audience, but it…

#1: Yes, yes I am going to modify my speech. Or use the reply to weave in an anecdote, or do something with that info. Otherwise, you would be right, and it would be an exercise in futility. #2: Absolutely. It's better if you can do without, but it's also a matter of how much time you have to prepare, and how dense the material is. If I'm giving a hard-core technical talk for 45 minutes, I'll sure as heck have a few…

Okay, what if you were speaking to an audience on a live national broadcast? Would you ask for a show of hands? What if you were talking to an arena of 20,000 people? Would you ask for a show of hands?