White-Canvas Day

"This is a communication session in a corporate setting. The company is a software development company with about 20 staff. It is a new company but is already famous for its creative solutions in the software applications.  The person speaking (me) is the CEO of the company and these are the employees."

A very good evening to all of you. Thank you for attending our quarterly employee communication session, and tonight, I am afraid I bring with me some discouraging news. Our company's productivity has been on a steady decline since the start of this quarter and by the time the books closed for this quarter, we are at an all-time low. I have called for an emergency meeting with the heads of department, and we discussed, debated and developed certain measures that need to be set in place to stop this, and turn the situation around.

There are many factors that cause the drop in productivity, but today we would like to tackle just one very important aspect, that is the loss of concentration. We all know that as software developers we need the "flow"... The flow of thoughts when our creative juice runs... We commonly call these moments “in the zone". For all of us to be effective creative productive workers, we need to enter this state of flow for several hours during which time, our productivity will skyrocket and we come up with the most creative codes that produce the award winning software that our company is well known for.  As such we spared no effort in minimizing noise disturbance around here, and have tried to provide the calm, quiet, conducive environment for our software developers to get into the zone to produce good quality work.

However, in the last few months our department heads have observed frequent disruption of work among us, and we believe that these disruptions have substantially contributed to the poor and sometime illogical programming that causes a lot of rework, retesting and reconstruction of the whole software. This delayed our production schedule and caused our company valuable time and resources. Thus we need to stop such disruption of work at all costs! In order to stop these disruptions we need to know the source of it, and I believe we do. Emails, ladies and gentlemen, emails! They are the culprit!

How many times you have to stop in the middle of a sentence when the "you have mail" notification pops up from our email? How many times you tell yourself “I can quickly reply this email and then get back to my programming", only to realize that you have already spent 3 hours on it before you get back to your flow of programming? Guilty? Guilty? Even I, guilty as charged. Yes I am not spared of this email victimization, and I submit to you I know your pain!

I would like to announce, with effect from today, the company is going to propose a “white-canvas” day once a week. This is a day where our IT department has been instructed to shut down our email system. Only the mail system will be shut down for a day, and everything else you need for your work, such as programming software and applications will be up and running as usual. This is the day where we can tore ourselves away from the enchanting “reply” button and start doing some really value-added work. This is the day where we all can feel free to indulge in our creative zone without the disruption of the annoying emails.

Scary? Can’t believe anyone of us can survive without email for a day? Allow me to assure you, yes you can! White-Canvas Day can work and will work better for all of us! Think of all the benefits of not being compelled to check emails? It is like a chain in your mind that suddenly gets unlocked and slipped off to the floor. We are now free to stay in our creative zone without being disrupted. We are now free to schedule face to face meetings to brainstorm and bounce off ideas from one another. We are now free to fill up the white space in our mind with brilliant, ingenious ideas and finally be able to give it rainbow colors to help boost our creativity.

White-Canvas Day will not only remove the unnecessary email disruption, it will also allow us to increase our productivity by having to work on only one task at a time. Contrary to what we all believe, multi-tasking is not the way to greater productivity. Studies have shown that – our brains can’t do even 2 independent things that require conscious thought, especially if those two things involve different goals. When you multitask, your mind move sequentially from one thought to another thought, and it takes time for our brain to do the switching.  Therefore, let’s use our brains the way they are meant to be, one task at a time. Give it 100% and do it well.

Now, I understand that some of you may still be doubtful. And so did I, when the department heads proposed White-Canvas Day to me. The immediate thought that came to my mind was - “how unproductive! Now I have to go talk to someone instead of sending him an email.” I am sure the same thought crossed your mind too! But think of it this way, emails has since eons ago replaced our face time with our colleagues, and reduced our precious human touch to mere words on the computer screen. It is now time to get up, go to someone and say “hey, let’s discuss.” And trust me, you might actually find it refreshing to discover the joy of human interaction.

My fellow colleagues, I hope tonight I have presented to you a compelling business case for change that stirred your hearts to embrace our proposed White-Canvas Day where emails are banned for the benefit of all of us – better concentration, 100% devotion to one task and increased interpersonal face time. I know it could be a huge step for all of us to take, but I am willing to take this step. Who will join me?

Thank you, TMD.

This is an Advanced Project from the Speech by Management Manual - Communicating Change. This is a hypothetical situation with a realistic setting. The hardest part of the speech was to coin an appropriate name for this 'day', and it was changed from white-space to white-canvas at the last minute. Evaluation - the whole scope of the change was not communicated clearly. Was it once a week and was it to last one whole day?

 

Friendship Table Topics

The famous American professional boxer, Muhammad Ali, once said "friendship is not something you can learn in school, but if you have not learn the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learnt anything." Anyone can make a guess, who is Muhammad Ali's best Friend? It was Joe Frazier, a fellow boxer during his time.

Fellow toastmasters and guests, we have come to tonight’s table topics’ segment. I am your table topics master for tonight, and in line with tonight's theme of "friends", we are going explore friendship and especially our very own best friend in our lives. The table topics segment is open to members and especially guests for a chance of impromptu speech. This helps us to listen, analysis and think on our feet. Good training in a fun way.

Each speaker will be given a topic to speak for 2 mins. At the end of 1 min there will be the green card, 1.5 min the orange card and after 2 min the red card. At 2:30 mins there will be a bell to tell you the time is up.

I have here with me 10 special quotations about friendship tied to the ends of a friendship band. So, when you come up here, you will first share with us who your best friend is. Then you will pick one of these quotation and your topic would be "Sarah and I are best friends because ....". The time will start when you are ready to speak. So, who shall go first? Don't worry, I guarantee that none of the quotes are more than 10 words long. 

This is a table topics segment following the theme of "Friendship" for a toastmaster club's meeting. The outcome - not enough time to do even 4, and I was graded downwards for 'wasting' time on the introduction?!

Be A Star!

How many of us this morning, can honestly say that they have never told a lie?

I am glad that I see no hands raised. This shows that while we could be a liar at some point in time in our lives, we are absolutely honest at the moment.

My fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen, from young we have been told not to lie because lying is bad. But our sinful nature unfortunately, prefers to lie, so that we can get away with things easily. As we grow older, our conscious and moral values tell us that we really should try to avoid telling lies, and so we did. I am sure we did, to a greater or lesser extent. However, does this then cause us to tell more truth? Nope, unfortunately, we still avoid telling the truth, for fear of constraints, confrontations and consequences.

This is especially so in a situation where we need to provide feedback to the people around us. We just find it hard to be honest in providing feedback, especially if it is negative. However, we need to understand that the spirit of providing feedback is not about pointing out the flaws. Yes, in the course of our feedback on someone or something, we may have to touch on things that could otherwise be done better, because we need to be honest and stating the facts. Instead of using feedback to criticize, we could turn it around to motivate that someone to improve instead.

So how can we effectively provide feedback that does not condemn but construct? By simply being a STAR J Use to STAR approach to help us – S/T stands for Situation or Task, A – Action and R – results. Essentially, this approach helps us to focus on the key points so that our feedback is effectively delivered. It also ensures that the background or context is explained clearly, states only the facts and demonstrated the impact or results, which set the stage for the action plans which both of you can proceed to jointly develop. This is what we called a specific and complete feedback.

In addition to being complete, our feedback should also be balanced…. With praises. We need to give credit where it is due and by accentuating the positive, we increase confidence and trust, and demonstrate our support & encouragement for better results.

Allow me to demonstrate these principles of giving feedback. My good friend Carolyn here has kindly agreed to help me with this role play. Carolyn is tasked with the project of our special Christmas event, a table topics workshop.We are now in the Exco meeting talking about the progress of this event.

Me: Carolyn, for our December Christmas Table Topics Workshop, we have 5 mini presentations that needed good speakers to deliver them. I see that you have taken the effort to contact various speakers for these presentations, and you have successfully secured them on that date. Well done, we have now successfully finalized the program. I am totally impressed with you speed and efficiency.

Carolyn: Thank You. I am happy we finalized the program as well.

Me: On the other aspect of the events, such as the venue, the food and the equipment that we need for this workshop, you have yet to secure them. As such, we are unable to start our publicity for this event because we have not finalized the venue. Carolyn, this is part of your responsibility as well. Could you share the challenges you faced and suggest some solution to this problem?

Carolyn: My apologies, I do not have enough time to look into these aspects yet, and it would be good if I can get someone to help me.

Me: No apologies needed Carolyn, we all know you have put in a lot of hours into this event already, and it is understandable that there would be things that are still not done and you needed help. Let’s list down some action plans with appropriate deadline in order to complete this task.. And why don’t we ask another Exco member to help you with this as well? Do you think it would work?

Carolyn: Thank you for being so understanding. We can certainly set out the action plans and with additional help, I am sure I can complete them in no time.

Me: That’s great! Let’s get on with it then

(Thank you Carolyn, for the role play)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have demonstrated 2 scenarios of providing feedback using the STAR approach by explaining the situation/task, action and results. In addition, in the first scenario, it is a positive feedback coupled with praises and appropriate recognition. This builds trust and motivation… prepping the scene for the second, not so positive feedback. The key to the second scenario is to put the issue in a most positive and least threatening way, yet not losing any facts. On top of that, I also demonstrated understanding towards Carolyn’s difficulties and encouraged her to provide solutions, thus creating a win win situation for both of us.

So let’s all be a STAR today, and make someone a STAR by providing positive and motivating feedback. So the next time, we can all safely declare that we will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God!

Thank you, TME.

This is an advanced project - Appraise with Praise, that was delivered to a panel of evaluators at an advanced projects meeting. The main comment from 3 evaluators - the role play is too simplistic. It could have been made more realistic by having heated arguments. 

My own take on this - role play's too hard and time consuming to prepare as part of a speech, better to leave it in training workshops instead. 

Uplift the Spirit

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today
To-morrow will be dying.

My fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen. This is a poem from Robert Herrick. The most famous of that line “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” was used in the film starring Robin Williams. Anyone can remember this movie? It’s Dead Poet Society. In that movie, Robin Williams used one term “Carpe Diem” to inspire and motive his students to seize the day, gather ye rosebuds while ye may, before we all become food for the worms and by that time, it would be too late.

My dear friends, tonight, can I shamelessly borrow from Robin Williams and say, “Carpe Diem” my dear friends, “Carpe Diem”. Yes, Seize the day, but for what? We are all toastmasters, that’s why we are all here tonight to attend our chapter meeting. We are benefitted so much from being a toastmaster, yes? Who can honestly say, “I am a toastmaster, but I really don’t think I gained much out of it.” No, you simply can’t. I can’t. I know  I can’t because I have indeed benefited so much out of this program.

The very first improvement we all see in us taking on the toastmaster journey is the increasing confidence when we speak. 
a.       Confidence

-         In the past, I never really think that people would actually be interested in what I present. However, as I worked through my speeches from the very first ice-breaker to the latest inspirational speech, I shared about my hobby of travel, photography and choir, I found out that people are actually interested in what I have to say.

-         This is of cos a combination of the content and delivery, and the toastmaster program gradually build up such essential skills for us. From helping me to focus on my subject to practicing the appropriate body languages to give an interesting delivery, these are done in an easy step by step manner to gradually build up the skill.

-         As our stage presence grew, we gained a lot of confidence in the ability to stand in front of people and speak.  I recall I have to fight butterflies in the tummy and jellied legs everytime I stand in front. I am sure at one point in time we all have that same feeling, even now. That might never go away completely, but at least now we are better at controlling our nervousness.

      

      The second aspect of growth that I believe we all experienced, is the intellectual growth. Creativity. We are driven to think out of the box, twist and turn our ideas, thoughts and especially the English Language. 

       b.      Creativity

-          In the past, I have never considered myself as engaging or humorous, but guess what? That changed completely after I started the toastmaster program.

-         Humorous – I also made a great discovery – I am actually quite funny! Does anyone here have the same experience with me? Well, we are not stand up comedians, cos we cannot be deliberately funny. But we can be accidentally funny with the play of word usage and interesting rhetorical devices.

- By far the greatest benefit out of our toastmaster journey, is something we can all relate to, better communication, improved interpersonal skills and your very own unique sense of humour. Who in this room can deny that? We all agree that the toastmaster program is indeed an excellent way to be better at communication and leadership.

- In fact the toastmaster program has a long history of making great speakers. Toastmasters International was founded in 1924 by Dr Ralph Smedly. Her Vision: To empower people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams. Through our member clubs, people throughout the world can improve their communication and leadership skills, and find the courage to change, and make difference in others' lives. - Today, we have at least 200,000 members around the world, all going through this program to become more capable of communicating and leading.

Today, this very day, I would like to start a movement and I hope you will all join me in this movement. That is to share with our friends the goodness of being a toastmaster, to help them see that they can be a better communicator and leader through this program.

Carpe Diem my friends! Are you with me on this movement? If the toastmaster program has changed your life, let’s go and help change some lives out there. Truly, they need us! People out there need us, to tell them how wonderful this program can be, to us, and especially to them.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may! And spread the good news to all whom you know. Share with them your experience, your gains and your personal growth. Ask them to come and join you in this amazing journey to experience it themselves. Urge them to get on this journey that will transform them from a good to great speaker, and from a great speaker to an excellent distinguished toastmaster!

Carpe Diem my friends! Carpe Diem!

Evaluation - as with all inspirational speech, there needs an element of emotional stirring, which this speech lacks. What I could have focus on, was the part where Toastmasters International was formed and how it helped the youth of that time.

Speaking Of the Cuff - Personality Profiling

Advance Project from Speciality Speech - Impromptu Speaking is by far the most difficult to prepare speech I have done so far. It involved the evaluator choosing at random 5 topics. After much thinking and selection, I settled with the following 5. These are topics which I have some knowledge about, in the event that my mind goes blank, I can still think of something intelligent to say about the topic.

- Being a toastmaster - How it has benefited me

- Adopt or Buy? The current stray dog situation in Singapore

- Personality Profiling – How to read a person like an open book

- Back to nature – Why I love hiking in the mountains

- The art of communication - useful tips for instant success

 

The difficult part is, these are unrelated topics and they requires a lot of brain power to memorize the speech, all 5 of them. This is precisely why this project is called impromptu. It was meant truly to be one - a researched topic but not a fully written speech.

At the demo meeting to a corporate group of people, this is probably not the best speech to prepare. Could have some simple and/or sales related type of speech. However, I decided to press ahead. It was fortunate that topic 3 was picked, the easily of the lot since it is by itself a very structured approach, plus the fact that I did this speech in P2. Since it is suppose to be impromptu, I wasn't planning to memorize all 5 topics (not possible!) but more of the points highlighted to guide me through.

After the delivery, some toastmasters found out this is my first advanced speech, and they were surprised that I would choose one of a most difficult project to kick off my advanced communicator journey :)

1.     Personality Profiling – How to read a person like an open book

There is a famous saying that goes: “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood.” ― Ralph G. Nichols

Good Evening President and fellow toastmasters.

Today I would like to touch on a topic that is close to the hearts of each of us – To understand and be understood. In my profession as a human resource practitioner, I had the opportunity to be exposed to various personality tools that would help me to understand a person’s character and work style very quickly. Such tools are commonly used as a quick analytical method of deciphering the complex personality of a person. One such tool is the DISC profiling that is very easy to understand and useful to size up a person’s work style. 

The DISC personality profiling tool, advocated 4 typical patterns of human interaction – Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance, hence the acronym DISC. The first pattern – Dominance, demonstrates a personality that loves a challenge and is what we call a high D person. Such a person is a very bottom line driven person. He is very results oriented, and therefore he can come across as forceful and direct. How would we know if a person is high D, you might ask? Firm handshake and steady eye contact; fast speaker and does not quite care for details.  Such are the behaviors of a high D person. To communicate with such person, it is therefore important to get straight to the point and give him the bottom line. No beating around the bush if you wish to cling the deal. 

In contrast, the second behavioral pattern – Influence, is a more outgoing, persuasive, moderate temperament as compared to the high D pattern; what we call a high I personality. If I am a high I person, I would have a very friendly disposition, with warm handshake and striking up a conversation with small talks almost immediately upon meeting you.  They can sometimes become a little too intimate on a first-name basis at the first meeting. As they are usually crowd pleasers, they can quickly become the center of attention in a party. So if you want to do business with such a person, you gota first be a friend to him before you can talk business. 

The high ‘S’ person – the third profile – Steadiness, is our sentimentalist. A high S person is very reserved and controlled. Instead of hordes of acquaintance, such a person likes to build a close relationship with a relatively small group of intimate friends. A high S person gives people a warm feeling, a sense of security and will lend you his listening ears anytime. One interest behavior of a high ‘S’ person is the labeling of personal effects, and in office, their very own pens. High S people are sentimentalist; they take care of each and every one of their possessions and can be extremely protective of it.  So the next time you find a pen with a name written on it, please return it to the owner, for all you know, the owner may just have sleepless nights thinking of this lost pen of his.

The last personality – Compliance is a most studious of the lot. A high C person is a sucker for details, facts and guess what? Rules! A high C person is methodical, as an eye for details and is probably your most humble, loyal and hardworking employee in the company. Stable and order, rules and procedures, theories and facts are the guiding principles of a high C person. A very good example of a high C person is.. me! I live by demonstrated facts, proven theories and precise details, and at work, I need a To-Do list to start my day, without which I will feel directionless and be at a loss. I cannot do anything else unless I have this list on hand. 

Time permits – Give an example of the insurance agent trying to sell a policy to 4 different type of personality. Let me demonstrate -To a high D, a CEO – “Sir, I have compared all policies and done my calculation, this policy here is the most cost effective and the highest return. So you should just buy this.” To a high I, a teacher – “my friend, we have known each other for a while, trust me, I have done all the ground work for you and this is the policy to buy. Our friendship matters to me, and I don’t mind if I get less commission on this, it truly benefit you.” To a high S, a financial controller – “Sir, think of your family, your wife and your 2 young children. You need to provide for them and protect them as best as you can. This is it, this is the policy to buy. To the high C, the HR – “Look, let’s run through all the small print, then I will brief you on the government’s financial guidelines, and then you will clearly understand why this policy is the best.” Either way, so long as you understand your client, you can sell almost anything!

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I hope I have given you a flavor of 4 major profiles of people and understand their style. To understand where they are coming from, we can then tailor our communication towards their style in order to be better understood by them. And that, it key to a successful communication. 

Thank You. TME.

Bits and Pieces of Me

Project Speech 10 - Delivered at my home club during chapter meeting. For a 'graduation' project, it was successful as an account of my toastmaster's path. However, as a speech that is inspiring, it fell short of its objective. That is the greatest regret in my journey towards Competent Communicator.

September 19 is a very significant day in history. In the year 1985 on this very day, an 8.1 scale earthquake shook Mexico and caused the death of 12 thousand people and another 40 thousand injured. In the year 2006 on the every same day, the Thai military staged a coup in Bangkok, and caused a political change that shook the whole nation. In the year 2011, September 19, a clueless lady walked through that door and participated in a Toastmaster event that eventually changed her life. That clueless lady, is me. Yep, it is not earth shattering like an earthquake, neither is it an international incident that shakes the nation; but it is still just as significant to me because that day, I  made the decision to sign up for the membership and became a toastmaster of this club.

One year hence (actually 2 days short of one year), I stand before you, a changed person after going through 9 speeches. Tonight, my fellow toastmasters and guests, on the occasion of my 10^th and last speech for the Competent Communicator manual, I would like to take a moment to share with you this amazing journey and some of the most memorable experiences I gain through the past one year. And I hope my sharing tonight will inspire you to join me in this toastmasters' journey.

We are all here for a purpose, and my purpose from day one was quite clear to me – to learn how to speak in front of an audience and eventually become a polished speaker. I knew that the Toastmaster program is a series of speeches with increasing difficulty to help us achieve our goal in a gradual and structured manner. And so, my first memorable experience was the most difficult task of actually preparing for these speeches.

Now, it is not like I have not speak in front of an audience before, I do presentations at work all the time, but, presentations to me is routine, I simply have to read out whatever that is written on the slides and I absolutely do not care if you listen to it at all, it might even be better if you sleep through it. That would mean no questions for me J. However, these Toastmaster speeches are a totally new ball game. How do you expect me to speak for 5 mins without slides or notes or any materials? I am not naturally a chatty person and I can’t just rattle off like that! I don’t think fast enough on my feet so surviving on only a few random thoughts in my head is absolutely not going to last me 5 long mins! And so it started, whenever I have to deliver a speech the next day, the night before is the most agonizing! I have to, absolutely have to type out my speech word for word, yes word for word! It is hardwork for me as it is something that I would naturally do. I don’t keep a diary, I can’t even get the grammar right in a sentence, and now I have to write out a full speech? And that, is not the worst part! 

The worst part is when I switched on the computer, opened a fresh word document, and… nothing happened! Many a times, I simply do not know what to say in my speeches! Oohh… to come up with the content of the speeches was an agonizing experience! Now for P1 – the ice breaker, it is relatively easy, you are supposed to talk about yourself so I shared about my childhood love for fantasies. The topic is given, problem solved, quite easily done. But, when I came to P2, that’s where I made the first mistake. I used a technical subject – the personality profiling tool – for my speech, and that was a disaster! With no slides to help me and too much content, the audience simply could not follow me! Lesson learnt – keep it light with manageable content delivered in simple terms. So, from P3 onwards, I decided to change strategy and talk about things and events that happened in my life, thinking that it would also help me to better memorize it, afterall those events did really happened to me. Sounds like a good plan, except that, I am usually a very private person, not someone that would tell my life stories to just anyone easily. However, somehow, as though I was spellbound, every one of my subsequent speech is a bit of me that is shared and left behind. In P3 and P9 the topics are related to my 2 lovely dogs whom I held so dearly. For P4 and P6, I shared about my travel experiences to the nearby countries, something that I enjoyed doing very much. When I delivered my P5, my choir just had a successful full house performance at the art house and that became the topic of my speech.  Ah, when I did my P8 and P9, it was simply great fun. I finally get to use presentation slides! But by now I was already a total convert. Sticking to my winning formula of sharing personal anecdotes rather than technical stuff, I decided to share my photography experience, and I get to show-off some of my best photos.  As I looked back at those stuff that I shared, I have no regrets. It has been great fun sharing a bit of me and left behind a trail of beautiful memories.

My toils and sweat while writing out the speeches eventually paid off. They turned into many 5 glorious minutes for me, knowing that I did my best and delivered the speech as it was intended, with my heart and soul. The satisfaction and sense of achievement is absolute, not to mention the adrenaline rush that I get everything standing at this very spot, battled my own nervousness. 

Yes, adrenaline, ladies and gentlemen, forget bungee jumping or sky diving if you are the kind that goes for the occasional adrenaline boost. Come to toastmasters and start delivering your speech, and every time without fail, I felt my legs are turning into jellies and my tummy’s full of wide butterflies! Someone measure my blood pressure now, it has probably shot through the roof! In my honest opinion, the toastmasters program expects a superman out of each of us.. imagine having to curb our urge to dash out of the door, we still have to ensure the right body language with right gestures and facial expressions, and the clear eye contact for every.. one.. in the room. That’s not all, you also have to pepper your speech with pauses, weird rhetorical devices such as “Onomatopoeia” and ensure the right volume. Hey, there are some people that simply could not multitask! But, look at me now… not that I have mastered all these, but I am now more conscious of what I say, how I say it and definitely the impact of my speech. Now, if anyone sleeps at my presentations at work, they had better watch out. I am more conscious of my audience responses and I adjust my words and mannerism accordingly. Absolutely no one, can deny that the toastmaster’s training has transformed me from a clueless lady and a stronger speaker. Truly, this has been the greatest benefit to me so far. 

So ladies and gentlemen, we are all going through this amazing journey together and I believe each of us will benefit in various ways. I for one, will certainly continue to work at it, for I can see all the good that happened to me so far. Now that I am already in this program, I am certainly going to get the best out of it, and so should you! Start your own toastmaster’s journey today, and I can bet you, you will not regret it.  In the words of my beloved friend and mentor, Carolyn, she once said to me “my dear, this, is only the beginning.”

Thank you, TME.