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As a member of Toastmasters International you will be called on occasionally to participate in a “Table Topic.” This is when a member of the club choose a topic and calls on one or more other members to speak on that topic, on demand, with no advance knowledge of the topic. For many people this is one of the most difficult types of speaking, that is speaking on your feet.

Here’s a recommendation for practicing your ability to speak on demand:

If you’re somewhere where there’s a radio turn it to a talk radio show. I like NPR for this since it usually covers topics I may not be completely familiar with. Listen to the show for five minutes and then turn the radio off. Now force your self to talk out loud on the topic you were just listening to for one minute. This accomplishes a couple of things:

1. You get a chance to practice your speaking again in the safety and seclusion of being by yourself.
2. You have to process the information you heard quickly and formulate a logical train of thought from the topic.
3. It is a quick and easy exercise that helps you practice the introduction phrases and timing necessary to give yourself time to think and talk at the same time.

Give it a try. You’ll be surprised how you struggle in the beginning and how quickly your skills improve. Then the next time you’re called on to give a Table Topic speech, you’ll stroll right up to the Toastmaster ready and willing.

This is the text of a speech I am presenting entitled, “Be Passionate.” It is about volunteerism.

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I’m here tonight to talk to you about passion. Desire. An overwhelming sense of completion that makes you say, “Oh yes…I want to do that again.” I’m talking about about the deep seated satisfaction that comes from…volunteering.

We spend our lives earning a living, providing for ourselves and our families, getting by and making do. Far too many people spend their lives in search of something more. There is a deep seated need within all people to belong to something, no matter how independent they are. Beyond our individuality and our families, we are part of a greater community and as such need to find our place where we can share our time, talents, and treasure. But how? How do you know what cause, what group, what issue will stoke the fires of your passion and drive you to greater things?

First, do you believe what the cause you are investigating is centered on is an absolute good? Do you believe that rebuilding homes in New Orleans, fighting cancer, caring for animals, or something else is an absolute good? For something to feed the fire within you, you must believe in it fully. The reason that volunteerism has such a high attrition rate is that participating in something partially means that it cannot return something back to you and will draw from you only. Over time you run out of fuel for your fire and either move on or lose your interest.

Second, are you willing to attach this cause to your name? When searching for your passion, a powerful litmus test is your willingness to associate your identity with the cause. Are you willing to proclaim for all the world your belief in the fact that the cause is an absolute good? This willingness takes us to the third and most important measure.

Third, if you are willing to share your participation with others, why? There is always the cause-de-jour…the one popular for a time and then supplanted by another. Would you commit yourself to this cause regardless of it’s current popularity? When it’s not cool to walk…will you keep walking? When it’s not cool to care for the animals, will you keep caring? When everyone as forgotten about the levees, will you continue to swing a hammer?

To make a true impact in this world we need to take the talents we have been given, combine it with the time we have in this world, and use them to aid and assist in something greater than ourselves. For many this desire is unrecognized and unrealized. Those who do recognize this desire…this unlit fire within them…and choose to ignite it and fuel it with a cause they believe in find this flame burns on its own. Find something in your life that drives you. Light your fire, fuel it, be passionate.

This is the text of a speech I am presenting tonight for Toastmasters entitled, “Procrastination.”

I struggled for a while with the topic for today’s speech, looking for just the right one. The one that would have punch, passion, and practicality. Longer and longer it took until finally it was almost too late. Then it hit me…procrastination. That’s the topic I’ll cover. We all suffer from it at one time or another. The causes are varied but the result is always the same. Tasks are delayed until the last minute or far beyond when would have been best to address them. What causes this? How can we combat it? Is some procrastination good, or is it always bad?

The definition of procrastination is to defer action; delay: to put off until an opportunity is lost. Ironically it is a verb which implies action. So the act of procrastinating is the action of deferring another action. Ugh. By procrastinating you are expending more effort by the time you have completed the task than if you had just gone ahead and done the task.

So why do we procrastinate? The most common reasons gathered by the “experts” in the field are: fear of failure, fear of success, perfectionism, boredom, anger, lack of skills and information, poor health, distractions, and the task seems to large. Walk through these with me for a moment.

Fear of failure is easy enough to understand. People fear being chastised for failing to deliver what is desired upon the completion of a task and as such are hesitant to start it. This can be combated by having a clear understanding of what the end goal is before beginning the task. You need to know where you’re going before you set out on your journey so you know when you get there.

Fear of success seems counter-intuitive. After all, who would be afraid at succeeding at what they set out to do? The fear is derived not from the actual success, but from a concern the standards that will be set for them in the future will be unachievable due to this current success. “They needed it in two days but I was able to finish it in one…now they’re always going to expect it in one.”

Perfectionism. Perfectionists can procrastinate the start of tasks when operating under the assumption if they do not feel they have the time / resources/ skills necessary to complete the task perfectly it should be put off. It is a challenge for these types of people to understand there is often an “acceptable” level of completion as compared to the “perfect” completion.

Boredom. This is tied most often to the task itself. Cleaning out the cat litter. No interest there…put it off for a while. Phew that stinks now. Now you have a vested interest in getting the task done. Dealing with boring or distasteful tasks can be best summed up with the “Band-Aid” metaphor. Give it a yank and the pain ends quickly. Get the task done and over with and the pain ends quickly.

Anger. This one screams passive aggressive behavior. Your significant other has honked you off in some manner and your response / vindication is…I’ll mow the lawn tomorrow. You know it will get under their skin so that becomes your rationale for procrastinating on the task at hand. Dealing with this has nothing to do with the task, but rather the underlying issue. Go kiss and make up…then get to work.

Many procrastinated tasks in the workplace stem from a lack of skills or understanding. The person responsible for the task doesn’t have the skills or information necessary to complete the task at hand, or doesn’t think they do. In either case the underlying fear of telling someone they can’t do the job prevents them from proceeding while also inhibiting their ability to get the help they need to move forward. This is a tough one. You need to have a relationship with someone professionally who can give you the “permission” to find out what you need. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but in the long run it’s usually for the best.

Poor health is a valid reason to put off a task in many cases, but there is often a base reason to why your poor health is interrupting the task at hand. If you dislike mowing the lawn, it’s amazing how often your back can act up. Be conscious to recurrences of the same excuses that prevent you from proceeding with tasks and see if your health improves when you realize maybe it’s not your back but rather you just don’t like to mow the lawn.

Distractions. I was thinking about moving this to the top of the list. In today’s world there is no limit to the number of distractions trying to steal your attention away from the task at hand. Email, instant messengers, cell phones, radios, TVs, YouTube, MySpace, the thieves go on and on. So what to do? How do you defend your fleeting attention span? Set a time and stop the world. If you have a task you know will take an hour, set aside an hour actively. Make a meeting with yourself. Put it on your calendar. Then set the phone to silent, put the instant messenger on do not disturb, and close your web browser. Focus on the task for as long as you can. When you feel yourself bogging down, give yourself permission for a brief (and I do mean brief) distraction before jumping right back in. Your focus can be enhanced by setting a reward upon completion of the task. Finish updating your checkbook at home and earn yourself a half-hour of guilt free time on Guitar Hero. There’s no shame in bribing yourself.

Finally task size. The old saying of every journey begins with a first step is quite true. Any task, no matter how daunting, can be broken down into smaller tasks that are achievable. Experts like David Allen of Getting Things Done fame espouse the “Next Action” method of defining what is the next thing that will keep the task or project moving forward. This is easiest to explain using a practical example. When planning a birthday party for my middle daughter the goal was to schedule a bowling party. There are a number of steps in making this happen, not all of which were able to be done at the same time. Defining the actions and then identifying the “next action” allowed me to keep the project in motion without feeling overwhelmed. The tasks were identify a local bowling alley, call and schedule the party, send out the invitations. The next action was “get the phone number for the alley.” While this seems like an oversimplified task, it actually is the only thing that would prevent the next action “call the alley and set a date” from happening. It’s small enough to be easily accomplished and can be performed with a high likelihood of success.

Procrastination is many things. For most it is a burden, for some it’s a defense mechanism. There are times it is perfectly reasonable to put off a task until later, but often the delay has little in the way of rational cause. It is not the demon it has been touted to be. It is beatable and manageable. If you’re putting something off, take a second and ask yourself why and deal with that issue first…then get back to work. How else do you think this speech got written?

Micropresentations, microblogging, etc.  These are the new buzz words floating around the education space.  What’s it all mean?  It means…get to the point already.

For far too long we have followed in the traditional mindset that no good idea can be properly conveyed in less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee.  Balderdash!

I’m a proud member of Toastmasters International, a group dedicated to helping people learn how to present and speak to audiences in the most effective way possible.  As part of the regular club activity, a member presents speeches they have written to the club and receives an immediate evaluation feedback.  Why do I bring this up?

We’re not writing for hours, we’re not presenting until people drop from exhaustion.  We’re learning and teaching how to leverage brevity, vocabulary, eloquence, and presence to deliver our message effectively to our audience.

I’d like to challenge the education space to try this.  Be it through podcast, video, whatever your medium of choice, pick a topic and write a presentation about it no more than 10 minutes long.  If it wouldn’t be accepted on YouTube because of length, it’s too much.  Post it somewhere then share the link.  Only by example will we eliminate the carnage of the 90 minute presentation on the 10 minute topic.

One of the cardinal skills everyone should master is the ability to speak on demand.  When we’re asked our opinion or insight on a topic we are passionate about it comes easily, the thoughts and words flowing effortlessly.  When we’re called to the front and asked to speak unprepared we stutter and stammer, flush with fear and self-doubt, and wish the whole ugly event would end quickly.  Developing our ability to speak on a topic on demand can push you away from the wall and make you stand out in the crowd.

1.  Find three thoughts.  Right away your mind should race on your topic and find three thoughts that stand out to you as important.  If the topic is “improving education” the thoughts might be “technical literacy”, “staff training”, “administrative cooperation”.  Grab those thoughts and hold on to them…you’ll need them for the next step.

2.  Weave the story.  Rearrange the ideas in a sequence in your head that you think you can verbally walk a person through.  It might be easiest to try and craft a “storyboard” of a sentence for your speech.  For example you may come up with, “Technical literacy can be greatly improved through staff training which needs administrative cooperation to succeed.”  You’ve now framed your speech in a way you can refer to whenever you get lost in your train of thought.

3.  Draw three pictures.  You need an illustration for each of your thoughts.  Come of with an example, story, quote, whatever can draw the images for your audience to truly grasp each of the thoughts and how they interconnect.

4.  Go for it.  This is off the cuff, seat of your pants, skydiving without a parachute type of speaking that challenges all but the most experienced presenter.  Your audience will be happiest that it is you and not them having to do this, so don’t be afraid of the result.  Take your time, speak slowly (more slowly than you think is necessary would be best) and always, always, always watch your audience’s faces.  They will tell you what you need to see.