Automate and Simplify

Toastmasters is a pretty well known format for practicing and improving your public speaking skills. In the process you develop better overall communication skills, leadership skills and self confidence. As with anything you get out what you put in, and the format may not work for some people. But I’m suggesting it’s the best self-directed group learning around. And I think if we could harness the power of the Toastmasters format for other learning we would be on to a winner.

A Toastmasters meeting lasts from one to two hours, and has a set fomat. There are a number of roles that people can have, there’s no one person in charge and the roles rotate each week. Each session has people getting up and doing prepared speeches of about seven minutes, and an impromptu speaking section called tabletopics where you speak for two minutes on a topic given to you when you stand up. The session is run by a chairperson and each speaker is evaluated, and also the overall session is evaluated at the end. Here’s a brief overview of the roles.

Chairperson - Controls the session, keeps it to time, introduces each speaker, makes jokes

Speaker - Does a prepared speech from a list of projects designed to target specific speaking skills

Speech evaluator - Does a 3 - 5 minute evaluation of the speaker

Table topics master - Comes up with some impromptu speech ideas and dishes them out during the table topics part of the session

Table topics evaluator - Evaluates the table topics speakers

General Evaluator - Evaluates the whole session at the end

Timer - Times everyone

There are a few other roles, and it varies by club, but those are the basic ones. The idea is that everyone will get up in front of the group and speak every session. Every speaker except the general evaluator gets evaluated. When you join you get given a book with ten speaking projects in it. Each one is a speech of about seven minutes that has a certain focus. The projects focus on things like speech structure, using your voice and doing research. If you finish all ten there are other books you can move on to.

So what makes Toastmasters so effective?

Self-directed

You progress through the projects at your own speed, doing speeches when you can or when you feel like it. Also the meetings are run by the group, everyone has to contribute to a good meeting, and everyone experiences each role. There is no leader as such, it’s a group effort to keep the club going. This gets people engaged in their learning, it’s not a case of turning up to a classroom and having a teacher hand out materials and run you through them. There is the workbook provided with details of the project, and that’s it. It’s a case of just enough to get you going, but you have to put in the rest. The rest really comes from the other people in the group. More experienced members help you out, and each session you watch someone else speaking and then hear the feedback.

Group Learning

There is a learning theory called Vygotskis Theory of Proximal Development (something like that anyway, feel free to correct me). The theory is that when you work as a group you get into the zone of proximal development, where more is capable than if you were by yourself. Essentially you learn the skills and knowledge of the other people, and contribute your own. At toastmasters there are people who have been there for years, so you get to see all the skills you are trying to learn demonstrated. These are the same people who will evaluate the way you speak, and you in turn will evaluate them. You learn from the good speakers, and they learn from the not so good speakers. There’s nothing quite like a stellar demonstration of what not to do from an amateur speaker.

Totally supportive environment

There is a total environment of support. It’s a case of everyone commiting to improving themselves and others at the same time. It’s so critical to the learning process and I believe it stems from the self-direction. It doesn’t fall to one pre-defined person to be the seat of all knowledge, like with a trainer or teacher, so instead everyone shares what they know.

Strict time keeping

There is very little time wasted at a toastmasters session. There is a timekeeper timing each speech and it’s up to the Chairperson to keep the meeting to time. This is considered crucial to the whole meeting. It may not seem as important as it actually is, but you need this discipline. It’s a way of saying that everyone’s time is valuable and that what happens in the session is important. I’ve been to too many meetings, training sessions and classrooms where time is wasted for no good reason.

Ritual

Ritual is a powerful tool for learning. Its probably the most rapid way to get people in the ‘zone’ or the right state for learning. The second you get up to speak you get an applause. It’s a sign of respect from the group, it gets you used to hearing an applause and I believe it helps get you into the zone. Ritual also contributes to the safe environment, you all know what is going to happen and so can focus on your speaking.

Regular practice of key skills

This is a biggie and it’s something I want to bring into my own training programmes. Many of the things we teach managers and business people are skills that you need to practice, not knowledge that you need to know. You can tell someone how to give effective feedback, and then they need to practice that skill regularly. When you attend rugby training, you start of with a warm-up and then do some key skills, passing, tackling and other ball skills. You don’t get told how to pass a ball and then be considered proficient, returning to the book for a quick refresh when you next need to pass a ball. At every session you speak, and at every session you learn. If you look at the way the skills are practiced, it’s close to perfect.

1. You do the skill

2. You experience the application of the skill yourself

3. You watch others using the skill and see the results of that

And you do it all regularly.

Giving and receiving critical analysis

Each session you get feedback on your speaking, what was good and what was bad. And at many sessions you will also give feedback. You also get to watch other people giving feedback. This is a huge part of any toastmasters session, and is one of the most important parts of learning. I haven’t engaged actively in critical reflection enough in many learning activities I’ve experienced. The clear structure of the session, the ritual and the invovlement of all the members of the group makes the evaluation you receive much safer than in other environments.

Skills broken down

Each project follows sound training principles of focussing on only one part of the overall skill of good public speaking at a time. As you progress you bring all these skills together.

What does this mean for us?

It’s a great example of great learning. Toastmasters is a bunch of people developing and growing, using public speaking as the tool. I beleive it sets a great example of a learning environment that works. I’m looking at ways of bringing that style of self determined learning into people’s lives in other ways. I love the way toastmasters gives you just enough to get you going, and no more. There aren’t huge stacks of resources. What they are saying is that you have everything you need, now get going. It’s a pretty deft approach and is hugely empowering for the learner. It also means that as you learn the skills, they are already internalised. You are carrying them around with you, they aren’t represented by a book, or chart that you need to refer to.

‘The things we have to learn before we do them, we learn by doing them. - Aristotle.’