Learning in Public - A How to Speak in Public Workshop
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The document outlines a public speaking workshop led by Alan Richardson aimed at helping participants overcome glossophobia and build effective public speaking skills. It covers topics such as preparation strategies, conventional wisdom on public speaking, and practical exercises to enhance confidence and clarity in presentations. The workshop emphasizes that public speaking is a learnable skill that can be developed through practice and experience.
Learning in Public - A How to Speak in Public Workshop
- 1. Learning In Public A "How to" Public Speaking Workshop Sigist September 2017 Alan Richardson www.eviltester.com www.compendiumdev.co.uk @eviltester @EvilTester 1
- 2. Synopsis Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, usually ranks pretty high on surveys of 'what people fear'. And for good reason. We've all attended conferences where the keynote speakers were seriously injured after being hit by a torrent of rolled up feedback forms, or speakers were left bleeding from a rain of plastic name badges thrown Shuriken‑like by the Ninja trained attendees. @EvilTester 2
- 3. Synopsis You can learn to avoid these outcomes, and when you do, you gain a skill that will win you recognition, improve your job prospects and allow you to travel the world talking to fellow testers. @EvilTester 3
- 5. Synopsis In this workshop Alan will provide hints and tips for improving your public speaking. Sharing, from experience, what works for him, and discuss some conventional wisdom on public speaking. Alan will also share a few secrets, and unconventional exercises that he uses to prepare. The Q&A sessions will allow attendees to have their most pressing questions answered. Public speaking is a skill we have to learn in public, but it is a skill, it is learn‑able, and it is a skill that you can learn. @EvilTester 5
- 6. Synopsis Note: this workshop does not involve any embarrassing exercises, group hugs or filming of your presentations on VHS that you can watch when you return home. @EvilTester 6
- 7. Exercise: Question How do we learn to speak in public? A: ? @EvilTester 7
- 8. We Learn Public Speaking by Speaking in Public We do it better when we gain experience. We have to gain experience by doing. Which means... At some point we are speaking in public without experience. Learn from others: books, workshops (like this), your experience (of others). @EvilTester 8
- 9. About the Group What experience levels do we have in the workshop? never spoken? speakers? professionals? politicians? standup comedians? actors? @EvilTester 9
- 10. Plan to cover in workshop conventional wisdom flow through stages of a talk: decision, idea, blurb, submission, commitment, prep, presentation, Q&A, debrief lessons learned and experiences personal decisions of what to do and not do Q&A My plan can change @EvilTester 10
- 11. Exercise: Question What do you want to cover specific topics we need to cover? specific concerns? specific tasks? Remember you can ask questions at any point in time. Any Speaker Confessions from you are welcome as we go through. @EvilTester 11
- 12. Exercise: Introduce yourself in pairs or threes introduce yourself to the other person(s) at the same time do not shout, just talk 30 seconds @EvilTester 12
- 13. Why? not used to doing that hard to think when being talked at internal dialog when presenting negative new ideas tangents planning practice @EvilTester 13
- 14. Exercise: Introduce yourself, after a plan create an introduction in pairs or threes introduce yourself to the other person(s) at the same time do not shout, just talk 30 seconds @EvilTester 14
- 15. Conventional Wisdom ‑ "Just be yourself" "I am not yet able, as the Delphic inscription has it, to know myself; so it seems to me ridiculous, when I do not yet know that, to investigate irrelevant things." Socrates @EvilTester 15
- 16. Conventional Wisdom ‑ "Just be yourself" "He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened." Lao Tzu @EvilTester 16
- 17. Conventional Wisdom ‑ "Just be yourself" we have to know who we are we are a different person on stage bigger charisma confidence persuasive etc. we have to discover that person @EvilTester 17
- 18. You already know how to talk in public Conventional Wisdom What you do not like to see from others What you liked about other talks @EvilTester 18
- 19. Exercise: Question What Conventional Wisdom Do We Know About Public Speaking? A? @EvilTester 19
- 20. Conventional Wisdom Be Yourself Storytelling Entertain Maximum of 5 points in a presentation Only use images on slides @EvilTester 20
- 21. Conventional Wisdom Use No slides Avoid Bullet Points Slides are for the Audience not the Speaker Make Eye Contact "They" want you to succeed It is better to be too short than too long? @EvilTester 21
- 22. On Fear Fear is Natural? Fight or Flight Explanations Is it fear? Adrenalin != Fear Physiology Excitement @EvilTester 22
- 24. Preparation Process Decision to talk Idea Blurb Submission Commitment Prep Presentation Q&A Debrief These are markers for discussion. @EvilTester 24
- 25. Decision to talk Question: Why would we talk in public? @EvilTester 25
- 26. Decision to talk What annoys you? What information do you need to share? What have you done that others have not? What did you learn? What do people not talk about? You need to care @EvilTester 26
- 27. Idea ‑ expand on the decision What is important about the topic? What are your experiences? What do you want to emphasise? What is novel? What worked? What didn't? Titles? Do you still care? @EvilTester 27
- 29. Submission Blurb and Justification Blurb is marketing "I will explain the 7 attributes of good automation" Rest of submission is sales "List the 7 attributes" @EvilTester 29
- 30. Commitment to talk If you are accepted and you say yes Commit @EvilTester 30
- 31. Prep ‑ Build a Time Line Plan deadlines milestones give your talk time to gestate and adapt @EvilTester 31
- 32. Prep ‑ Create an Overview Mindmap Outline Don't have to have structure Build it over time Let the shape form @EvilTester 32
- 33. Prep ‑ Slides / Paper Refer to the blurb, make sure you cover it Split blurb into points or chunks Create slides for points I want I Write slides in Markdown using MARP Make 'nice' a last step find/create images reformat using DeckSet on Mac Powerpoint ‑ use the overview functionality, re‑order slides keep slides short to allow moving around @EvilTester 33
- 34. Prep ‑ Practice and Contingency Planning Practice reduces uncertainty and develops confidence Contingency Planning mitigates risk @EvilTester 34
- 35. Prep ‑ Practice out loud in your head @EvilTester 35
- 36. Prep ‑ Practice Different Styles Adopt different presentation styles as funny as possible as outlandish as possible no jokes as many jokes and quips as you can Super excited slow and steady present from deck, without the deck with different timings @EvilTester 36
- 37. Prep ‑ Practice Record your practice sessions Video/Audio Listen back for 'nuggets' add to speaker notes or on slides Later practices ‑ transcribe (rev.com, trint.com) can amend to create a paper for timing do you need prompts on the slides? @EvilTester 37
- 38. Prep ‑ Practice to convince yourself that: you can do this; you know the material; you can work without slides; you know the experiences you are building on; you can do this. Practice so that you Know what you are talking about and that you can talk about it. @EvilTester 38
- 39. Prep ‑ Contingency slides as pdf copy of pdf and slides on phone on usb in cloud on web on slideshare what else? @EvilTester 39
- 40. Presentation ‑ On The Day presentation run through in the morning have a strong intro have a strong outro know where your room is check your laptop prior to the talk ‑ with the projector be there early @EvilTester 40
- 41. Presentation ‑ The Talk no‑one knows how nervous you are record it yourself you are in charge smile laugh at your own jokes acknowledge things that go wrong @EvilTester 41
- 42. Presentation ‑ The Talk don't apologise if you miss something ‑ no‑one knows respond to the audience signal the end of the talk drink from a bottle @EvilTester 42
- 43. Presentation ‑ Q & A different skill sets slowdown listen to the question paraphrase/repeat the question answer as best you can seek acknowledgement that the answer is understood @EvilTester 43
- 44. Debrief After the presentation, debrief for yourself What worked? What didn't? What did you like? What will you experiment with next time? @EvilTester 44
- 45. What I deliberately do not do (in a talk) Long intro about me and my company Cute pictures of cats and dogs Image only presentations Stand Still Visual, Auditory Kinaesthetic Learning Carry on after I have signalled the end Have scripted interweaving when co‑presenting Padding: e.g. Videos, Audience Exercises, Gimmicks, People on Stage @EvilTester 45
- 46. What Works For Me? Care about the topic Practice Have a structure Identify main points (over time) Record talk when practicing Assume people don't know who I am (or care) ‑ make them care @EvilTester 46
- 47. What Works For Me? Have a Beginning and and Ending Only tell really bad and obvious jokes Give myself permission to go off‑piste Quotes and soudebite‑eqsue slides ‑ easy to retweet Get it down then re‑order Worry about flow later (incrementally build) Twitter handle on each slide @EvilTester 47
- 48. What Works For Me? Slides Have as many slides as I need Some slides are only on for 10 seconds Sometimes I have a different 'public' deck from presentation deck Release slides to slideshare early, update later @EvilTester 48
- 49. What Works For Me? Talk from experience List lots of experience during prep even if I don't use them Know what I did Know what worked Know what I had to learn Know how I learned it @EvilTester 49
- 50. Skills to develop signalling the end of talk getting people to stop talking when you start look at everyone experiment with a 'new thing' at every talk don't overload yourself Q&A is different from presenting @EvilTester 50
- 52. Exercise: Identify what you would talk about In pairs: What annoys you? What do you do that no‑one else does? What does no‑one else seem to get? What have you just done that was cool? What did you just learn? @EvilTester 52
- 53. Exercise: Already got a talk? One short sentence ‑ why should 'they' care? What are the main points? @EvilTester 53
- 54. Exercise: Finish Make notes on something to talk about for 30 seconds Make notes on a "Finish" Groups of 2 or 3 do your talk finish in a way that the group knows you have finished @EvilTester 54
- 56. Speaking in Public Speaking in public is a skill, that you can develop if you care enough about the message that you want to deliver. It is simply practice, and you can do that. END @EvilTester 56
- 57. Learn to "Be Evil" www.eviltester.com @eviltester www.youtube.com/user/EviltesterVideos @EvilTester 57
- 58. Learn About Alan Richardson www.compendiumdev.co.uk uk.linkedin.com/in/eviltester @EvilTester 58
- 59. Follow Linkedin ‑ @eviltester Twitter ‑ @eviltester Instagram ‑ @eviltester Facebook ‑ @eviltester Youtube ‑ EvilTesterVideos Pinterest ‑ @eviltester Github ‑ @eviltester Slideshare ‑ @eviltester @EvilTester 59
- 60. BIO Alan is a test consultant who enjoys testing at a technical level using techniques from psychotherapy and computer science. In his spare time Alan is currently programming a multi‑user text adventure game and some buggy JavaScript games in the style of the Cascade Cassette 50. Alan is the author of the books "Dear Evil Tester", "Java For Testers" and "Automating and Testing a REST API". Alan's main website is compendiumdev.co.uk and he blogs at blog.eviltester.com @EvilTester 60