Speaking well

Years ago, when I served as a campus CIO in higher education, I had lunch with the university president, as part of a celebration for a large project having just been implemented. He joined us late into the event, and happened to sit next to me. During lunch, our table shared stories and milestones about the project. I noticed the president would occasionally take out a Post-It and jot down a note.

When lunch was over, the president gave a short speech to the collected audience, thanking us for our hard work on the project, and giving his own view of how this project will benefit the university.

And throughout his speech, I noticed he continually referred back to his Post-It note. That was his speech, but he delivered it with great professionalism. Unless I'd been sitting next to the president during lunch, I would have assumed he was reading from a prepared presentation. It was a great example of how to make a great speech on short notice.

Lessons in speaking well

Here are a few tips I learned about giving an impromptu speech:

Tell a story.

Providing the background for a project, putting it in context, can make your speech more interesting. This also helps fill in the initial gap while you put your thoughts in order. "Five years ago, we had a vision to ..." or "When we started this project, our goals were ..." are great starters.

Keep a few stock phrases handy.

If you know these phrases well, you can recite them automatically while composing your next thought. For example, these are often the same phrases you memorize as "elevator discussion points" about your project, to quickly and easily summarize the effort when someone asks you about it on the way to work.

Know your numbers.

While I'm sure this was an unprepared speech, the president was familiar with the numbers and was able to give us a few on the spot. In particular, how much this would save the university in terms of budget dollars.

Find a new "Umm."

This is something I've tried to adopt. Stuck for the next thing to say? The default for most people is to say "Umm", but that just signals that you are searching for a thought. Instead, train yourself to use a different bridge. "For example, ..." and "Next, ..." are good short pauses that won't lose your audience.

Keep it smooth.

A key to giving a good unprepared speech is to maintain your cool, and don't race through your presentation. Give every talking point the time it needs. Signal your ending with "Finally" or "In conclusion" so your audience stays with you.