Perry Lives Every Public Speaker's Nightmare

Rick Perry’s debate gaffe last night is every public speaker’s nightmare: what do you do when what you want to say flies out of your head faster than the post-Halloween candy stash disappears?

I tell my students that at times of panic, to pause, breathe, and ask yourself “What am I trying to communicate with this audience?”

The word “communicate,” with its connotations of civility and collaboration, always calms me down. So, after a pause which always seems longer to me than it does to the audience, what comes out of my mouth is, “I guess what I’m trying to communicate is such-and-such…” I find my brain perks up and the words come tumbling out.

If Perry had followed my approach, he might have been able to say, “Well, the third agency will come to me in a moment. The bigger point I’m trying to communicate here is that we need to eliminate wasteful government agencies.”

That wouldn’t have been a total save, but it would have kept the debate moving forward. Memory experts tell us that thinking about something else is the way to remember something, not staying frozen on the missing thought, especially while millions of Americans are watching with varying degrees of empathetic discomfort, hostile delight, or some combination of both.

One thing Perry did right was to forthrightly acknowledge his mistake: “Good thing I had my boots on, because I stepped in something deep just then,” he said, according to the New York Times.

It’s cold comfort for Rick Perry, but anxious public speakers should also keep in mind that this latest slip-up comes on top of a series of misstatements and foot-in-mouth moments.

Ultimately it’s the cumulative effect of poor speaking abilities that is turning off potential Perry supporters—not this one lone gaffe.

Model United Nations & Negotiation Skills

While my experience in Toastmasters at AU has been extremely helpful in improving my speaking skills, it is not my first foray into communications. When I was an undergraduate at Wright State University in Ohio, I participated in another great organization: Model United Nations. In many ways, it helped me learn to communicate long before I had ever heard of Toastmasters.

Model UN is an organization where each person represents a country to solve an international problem. Each delegate addresses the entire committee to make the case for his country’s policies, then negotiates with the other countries until a policy agreement can be reached.

I enjoyed this organization because it taught me one of the most valuable skills in business communications: The art of negotiation and diplomacy. This is especially difficult when the person with whom you are negotiating may not have the same goals in mind. My favorite topics to address were international security issues, precisely because they were the most contentious and most likely to spark intense negotiations among the delegates.

In many other situations, good negotiation skills can result in major successes that may not have been possible otherwise. I found that one of the most important elements of negotiation is the one that people seem to forget the most often: respect. People are much more likely to compromise if they feel that you understand their point of view and respect their goals. While respect may not always be enough to resolve complex differences, it goes a long way. The business world is governed by a different set of priorities than international politics, but this rule applies to both. While this may seem obvious, I have seen this rule of negotiation broken more than any other during my time in Model UN. The results are predictable. As soon as you view your negotiation partners as opponents to be defeated instead of potentially valuable allies, they are much more likely to dig in their heels and refuse to compromise. When instead you start from a view of mutual respect and cooperation, you are much more likely to get more of what you want.

-Jon

Case Competition Update

Unfortunately, the 2010 Kogod Case Competition had to be cancelled due to the imminent blizzard. However, I’d like to share my group’s thought processes and ideas. The most important things to focus on were plausibility and creativity. While it was important to address the obvious, we also tried to develop suggestions that would set us apart from other groups.

The case was about a family-owned corrugated box manufacturer in Morocco, called Box-It. The father, Mr. Abdul, started the business in the 1980s. His son, Hassen, has been working there for three years and is in charge of day-to-day events in the company. He has a harsh management style, but it seems clear that he is slated to inherit the company.

My group (Terra Firma) identified three critical issues in the case:

· Box-It’s financial situation is too confusing to its owners
· There is the potential for expansion that is not being utilized
· The chain of command is unclear

The short version of our recommendations include:

· Contact the customer Box-It recently lost. Inform them that box prices have been reduced from $1.10 to $0.88.
· Mark up prices for Moroccan customers, so Box-It can maintain its desired profit margin after haggling.
· Don’t build recycled paper plant; pay down debt instead.
· Sell the 6 least efficient transformation machines; use this money to buy multicolor, bleaching, and waxing machines.
· Form a strategic partnership with TelePizza, a potential high-volume customer, to make pizza boxes.
· Plan for Mr. Abdul’s retirement at least three years in advance, and agree on a succession plan.

My verbosity makes it impossible to condense our entire case analysis into a single blog entry. Fortunately, I have created a blog for just such purposes. If you are interested in Terra Firma's entire analysis of the case, presentation strategies, and explanations of our recommendations, please click the link below.
Terra Firma - Case Analysis and Recommendations

Any feedback on our ideas is most appreciated.

-Jon

Kogod Case Competition

The Kogod Case Competition starts tomorrow, and I couldn’t be more excited. This will be a great opportunity to develop my public speaking and presentation skills, and I feel that my groupmates are very talented communicators.

The mini-case competition, which was held during MBA orientation week, was a great practice for this. My mini-case group was fortunate enough to be one of the winning teams during that exercise. The most important lesson I drew from that experience is to always be prepared for any question the judges (or clients) are likely to ask you. One of the most effective moments during our mini-case presentation came during the Q&A session. One of the judges asked us where the money was going to come from to pay for our recommendations, and our group quickly shifted to a backup slide in our PowerPoint with a full budget. I think this was more effective than simply including the budget in our presentation would have been, as it showed the judges that we were able to anticipate their questions.

As illuminating as the mini-case competition was, this week’s case competition will undoubtedly be much more difficult. I think this will be my most challenging business communication experience of the school year. We have three days to analyze a case, formulate our recommendations, write a PowerPoint, and present to the judges. While I am sure it will be a great experience and a lot of fun regardless of the outcome, I am in it to win it.

-Jon

Toastmasters Speech #2

I joined Toastmasters International when I started the MBA program here at AU last fall. Toastmasters is an organization dedicated to helping people from all walks of life improve their public speaking skills. I have wanted to become a member for quite some time, but was never able to find the time or a club before I came to AU. For an introvert like me, Toastmasters can help build confidence in one’s speaking abilities.

This week was the second time I have given the featured speech. Unlike most of my weekly speeches, which are impromptu, the featured speech gives me the opportunity to prepare my remarks and rehearse. The topic I chose is a subject that I already know a little about from reading magazine articles on the subject: The self-driving car. I talked about the history of the concept, where the technology stands, and what we can expect to see in the near future.

My main goals were to have a well-organized speech, to stay within the 5-7 minute time frame allotted for featured speeches, and to not make my nervousness too obvious to the audience. I think I accomplished the first two goals quite well, but I need to improve on the third before I give my next speech.

I received some useful feedback from the other members. My introduction was a little weak, and my speech was untitled. These two things confused my audience a little, because the topic of my speech was not obvious at first. Also, I should have paused more; I have a tendency to talk too fast when I am nervous. However, people felt that the subject was very interesting and the speech was well-written. These constructive criticisms will be helpful as I prepare for my third featured speech in a few weeks.

-Jon

State of the Union 2010

President Obama gave his second State of the Union address last Wednesday. My comments are going to focus exclusively on the delivery of the speech itself. Overall, I was disappointed. Obama is normally an excellent orator and I was expecting more.

Obama took the unusual step of not including a sentence starting with “The state of the union is…” I think this was wise, under the present circumstances. The problem with that sentence is that when times are bad, there is no way to finish the sentence to soften the blow. Instead, he chose the phrase “I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight.” It projected optimism without seeming out-of-touch, and was a strong opening to his speech.

The low point of his speech came early on. Some members of Congress were clearly not impressed that Obama's proposed spending freeze wouldn't begin until the following year, leading him to ad lib the remark “That’s how the budget works.” I thought it came across as patronizing, and I'm sure he regretted saying it. While extemporaneous comments can sometimes be useful, the SOTU is not the best format for this.

I thought the health care section was surprisingly weak. He waited until 35 minutes into the speech to mention it. I’m not sure it was wise to bury his signature issue deep within the speech. It sends the message (fairly or not) that the issue is no longer a top priority for him.

The conclusion of his speech was his best moment. One of the most annoying things about SOTU addresses is that the flow of the speech is constantly interrupted by frequent applause. Obama delivered his conclusion in a way that kept the applause to a minimum, allowing him to build up to a crescendo ending in thunderous applause. It was a strong ending to an otherwise mediocre speech.

-Jon

Different Varieties of Fear

In a never-ending quest for family activities that do not involve sitting in front of a screen, my husband, two kids, and I have taken up indoor rock climbing.

Actually, they have taken up indoor rock climbing and I have taken up standing with my neck craned way back yelling encouraging words.

This is because I am scared of heights. I wasn't as a kid, but the older I get, the more scared I am, till the point where I can barely scale a ladder without trembling.

On my first attempt at the indoor climbing gym, I was able to climb up to about 12 feet. (Meanwhile, Jon and the kids went all the way up to the top, easily, and moved on to harder climbs.)

The next attempt I mastered the art of not thinking about all the climbing that lay ahead of me and focusing on the immediate task. This helped somewhat. I think I made it to the 17 foot mark before rappelling down (now that's fun).

The experience was a true visceral reminder of what it's like to be fearful of speaking in public. I try to be sympathetic--I feel sympathetic--but I'm sure I can be awfully glib when I talk to students about not being (too) afraid of public speaking. This is because by and large, I enjoy public speaking!

But next time someone comes to me and describes their fears with a tremble in their voice or a shake in their hand, I'll be able to be even more sincere than usual. "I hear ya," I'll say, and, thinking of my two short climbs up a wall that didn't scare my 6-year-old but had me cowering, I'll really, truly mean it.

And just as with me and heights, the keys are (1) keep trying and (2) don't think too much about what comes next.