Master of the word. Rodchenko Igor - Master of the word. Public speaking skills

I ask a client after a regional management meeting: “Why did you say that now?” - “Well, why, to inform, so to speak, to report...” Listen! Does a woman carry water around the village to carry it? Do people sleep for the sake of sleeping, do football players kick the ball around the field for the sake of the process itself?! No, the woman is going to give the cattle fresh water to drink and hopes that the cow will give her more milk in gratitude for such care. People sleep so that the body can rest, to work with a fresh mind, to look better and be in shape. Football players are eager to win and don’t just kick the ball around, but try to kick it into the goal and earn a point, expecting to reach a higher place in the championship. Without a goal, a person does not commit a single action. It’s just that goals themselves can be set effectively or ineffectively. A correctly set goal activates our nature, helps to select the right means to achieve it, gives us a strong-willed impulse, but an incorrectly set one leads us into a dead end, makes us funny, does not allow us to distribute forces and is terribly tiring.
Remember yourself in that ridiculous situation when you need to speak, but you don’t know why. A porridge appears in your mouth, your movements become fussy, your eyes begin to dart, as if you are lying.

Recently I have observed how speakers' performances depended entirely on how they formulated their purpose. I was sitting in the hall of a St. Petersburg hotel for round table. There were about ten of these tables, and each seated eight people. We were waiting for the start of a seminar on the problems of buying and selling a business. The program included speeches by three people.
The first speaker on the list was so well known in the business world that he could afford to come in faded jeans rather than in a gray or blue suit, as did the rest of the participants. However, he looked very elegant.
The speaker came to the front of the stage, leaned his left hand on the podium and spoke. He looked like a Roman patrician, a little tired from dealing with clients. His speech flowed slowly, like tomato juice spilled on the tablecloth. It was clear that the speaker was pleased with himself: he listened to the sounds of his voice, enjoyed the smoothness of his gestures, and sometimes graced softly. And at this time we were quietly chewing: sandwiches with caviar, slices of cheese, tender ham, fruit... And we paid almost no attention to what was happening on stage.

This can happen to any experienced speaker who has tasted success. The desire to please the public turns into an end in itself. Such a speaker becomes an actor who plays himself, allowing us to watch this performance. But, playing a role, he does not see what is going on in the hall. The speaker's attention is focused on his own experiences. Meanwhile, the audience leaves the theater...
I call such speakers "peacocks".
Their goal in performing is to please, receive a portion of admiration, and show off. At this moment, their attention is focused on their own actions, and the result is a loss of contact with the audience.

…When the moderator announced the second number from the list, an employee of a well-known law firm came up to the stage. He clearly formulated the task of the speech for himself: to convey information to the audience.
What does a responsible speaker usually do when he wants to convey a message? He focuses on the text. The main thing for him is not to forget anything. If he can't sight read, he will read from the screen. He never looks his listeners in the eyes - he is afraid of being distracted and losing his thought. Staring at a spot on the floor, he talks and talks and talks. As a rule, quietly, so as not to disturb yourself from a concentrated state with unnecessary emotionality.
What does the audience usually do for such a presentation? These people are probably listening, perhaps recording. But more often they struggle with sleep. When the purpose of a presentation is to convey information, the outcome depends entirely on the audience's willingness to listen.
I call such speakers "woodpeckers".
Their purpose is to voice a prepared text; they work as radio receivers. The result of this approach is monotonous speech, superficial contact with the audience, loss of time control, lethargy and a constant fear of making mistakes.

...And then Viktor Afanasyev, a representative of the Ready-Made Business Store company, came onto the site. And it was as if a fresh breeze blew. The speaker was calm, smiling and looked each of us straight in the eyes. At least that's what I thought. He paused and spoke. Those who ate stopped chewing, those who slept woke up. The whole hall was attentive. Victor spoke for exactly twenty minutes. After the applause, questions started pouring in. Another ten minutes later, the moderator had to intervene to call a break. Victor was immediately taken into a tight circle by inquisitive listeners...

What is the secret of his success? In a precisely set goal. When I approached him and asked about the purpose of his speech, he answered very simply: “I want them to use my services and come to my company.”
I call such speakers "eagles".
Their goal is to reach our hearts and move us to action and decisions. They provide maximum contact with the audience and are capable of improvisation because they are not tied to a piece of paper with text. They are active, courageous, use humor and never hide behind the podium.
So…
The goal should not be realized in me (“I want like it"), not in the process itself ("I want tell oh..."), but in my listeners. A correctly set goal shows result what I want to achieve with my speech. This kind of goal can be formulated as follows: “ I want to..." Instead of an ellipsis in a notepad, you should write down the result that you want to achieve.
For example, “I want listeners to accept my point of view on this issue” or “I want them to sign a contract.”
So very simple sentences. The topic creates the boundaries, the idea denotes the essence of the content, and the goal directs all your actions towards a specific result.
In addition, I will say that the goal can be strategic or tactical. The first guides your activities in the long term, sometimes for several years, and many performances are simply invested in its achievement as if in a box, the second is tactical. This is the result that you must achieve during a specific performance. Don't confuse them - your pants can burst from the desire to achieve a strategic goal in one performance.
Speaking of bursting pants...

All short boys have a hard time at school. I myself was second from last during the formation. Therefore, on a date with the beautiful Galya Kopchuk, whom I secretly loved, I had to go as a friend of her gentleman. Of course, Seryoga was a real macho: tall, with black curls, a large nose and bright lips. While they were talking near the entrance door, I sat on a bench and dreamed. You know what I mean. True, I had one thing that distinguished me favorably from many of my friends: real bell-bottom trousers, tightly fitting the buttocks and flaring down to the size of small sails. It was considered fashionable back then. Not everyone’s mother could sew such chic clothes. For proper bell-bottoms, special officer fabric was needed.
And then one day I wore them to school. It was a risk, I broke the rules, but the game was worth the candle.
Parallel 10 "A", where Galya studied, was hanging out in the gym. The girls sat on the bench and kept secrets. Seryoga and I entered and moved straight towards the shells. Seryoga was great at pulling himself up - that’s what he did at that moment. And I headed to the high jump stand. I replaced the usual 1.45 meters with 1.55 and took a running start. The flared legs clapped to the beat. The bench froze. It smelled like caramel. A push, a scream, a crash... Applause. I gained height, but now I could not rise. And I realized that a disaster had occurred. The color flooded my face.
Seryoga came up and mockingly asked what was the matter. He almost neighed when I answered, but, seeing my eyes, he took off his jacket, laid me on my back, picked me up and carried me. All the way to the medical room, where the paramedic sewed up a quick fix my trousers. And the other guys thought that I just twisted my ankle.
Soon Galya agreed to go to the cinema with me. And Seryoga fell in love with someone else.

4. To whom?

It is unlikely that it will be possible to answer this question in one sentence. Maybe because it's the most important question out of five?
Any person, a group of people, an entire country has a culture that most accurately expresses their values. How people dress, what buildings they live in, how they eat, sleep, talk - all this is culture, and it can be different. There are closed and open cultures, “male” and “female”, authoritarian and democratic... And for me, one of the most important signs of a culture is its monologue or dialogism. This sign is manifested in everything: in people’s behavior, in the norms and rules of communication, in creativity and, of course, in oratory.
I grew up in the USSR, in a thoroughly monological culture. When I remember lessons at school or lectures at the institute, speeches by Komsomol leaders and delegates to party congresses - those obvious examples of living rhetoric that I observed, I sadly understand that, with rare exceptions, they communicated with me from top to bottom. No one was particularly interested in my personal opinion; it could be expressed in the yard, in the pub, in the kitchen, but not in public. There, behind the podium, someone else's words should have been spoken in someone else's language.
A person of a monologue culture does not need a listener and argumentation; a slogan, an empty phrase, is more important to him. He is a slave to the habit of reporting information, the same “woodpecker” I wrote about above. It is more important for him to say the text than to receive a response to it. A monologue speaker necessarily has fear. public speaking, he doesn’t know how to debate - he starts screaming at the top of his lungs, without even wondering if anyone can hear him. He himself does not want to listen to anyone, because he is self-centered and does not need other people's opinions.
This culture did not go away with the disappearance of the Land of the Soviets. She passed on to the next generation. I myself have absorbed many of her traits. And only in last years The sprouts of a new culture began to emerge - the culture of dialogue. Of course, it existed before, was the basis of Russian pre-revolutionary life, but was destroyed by the Bolsheviks. She sailed away on a ship in 1927, was shot on Solovki, froze to death in Kolyma and fell silent along with the bells thrown from the Diveyevo churches.
In this culture, it is not you who is speaking and not the prepared text that needs to be spoken, but what extends further, behind the body and the text, what thanks to you the other person understood, what he realized, felt, accepted. It doesn’t matter how he treats you - critically or friendly, it is important that he does not remain indifferent. Let him sit with his mouth closed, but there must be a process of comprehension and empathy going on in him. The result of a good speech is always the merit of both parties: the speaker and the audience. In dialogue, cooperation arises, but without cooperation there is no result: understanding, desire, action. In a monologue the game is on one gate. One speaks, and the others pretend to listen. When a culture becomes monological, it dies.
How does this reasoning relate to the fourth question on the list? Yes, very simple.
The question “Who?” formal for a representative of the monologue culture. What difference does it make to him? It's always the same. Whether he is a German, a Frenchman, a hard worker or a professor, he doesn’t care. This is a key feature of such a culture: an inability to react, an inability to be flexible, an unwillingness to listen and understand the audience.
There is a paradox in the dialogue. In it, the speaker is primarily a big ear, and not a tongue. Therefore the question “To whom?” is essential to being a truly effective speaker.

Understanding the Audience: Intelligence

Despite the fact that real understanding of listeners comes already during work, a preliminary assessment of the future audience is necessary.
For what?
1. To know how interested people may be in what you are going to say, and, if necessary, make changes to the content of the speech.
2. To understand how or in what language to talk about it.
3. To prevent aggression, boredom, and misunderstanding that arise when existing barriers of perception are not taken into account - differences in age, position, experience, culture.

The speaker’s spell: “I want to know you so as not to be afraid. I want to know you so that I can be truly useful. I want to know you so that I can leave as a friend, not an enemy.”

Once I was lucky to observe the work of one of the best guides in the Land of the Soviets. This happened on the island of Valaam, and the man’s name was Evgeny Petrovich Kuznetsov, or, in his own way, Jacques. He was stocky, with a Norwegian beard, gray eyebrows and a nose like a bruised potato.
On Valaam in the summer there is a crowd of tourists and pilgrims. In the evening, the guides receive their instructions, and in the morning they are already standing in a group on the pier, waiting for the mooring of the next ship with a hundred or two guests. What was Jacques doing while his young colleagues were cowering in the blowing Ladoga wind? He headed to the deck of the ship and disappeared among the tourists. Five minutes later, Evgeny Petrovich already knew who was on board, where they were from, what happened on the way, how they had dinner yesterday, how long they stood in the fog, etc. Armed with this information, he returned to the guides and calmly smoked while waiting for his group.
I listened to his excursions twenty times. I don’t remember that at least once he began his communication with the group in the same way as he did before. Not only the words of greeting changed (he always included some researched fact from the “biography” of the group), the intonation of his voice changed. With the Astrakhan ones he was not the same as with the Vologda ones; with the hard workers he was completely different than with the Moscow professors. The approach to people changed, but Jacques himself remained himself - he just knew how to be different. Thanks to this flexibility, he seemed like his own person to everyone. He was loved and listened to with great attention.

So, the better we know future listeners, the more accurately we can act.
Intelligence begins with a question, answering which will ensure your success in any audience. It goes like this: “What do they want from me?”

I was once sitting at a conference dedicated to the fight against raider takeovers. Air conditioners hummed, speakers muttered something inaudible, and listeners fell asleep. It was approaching lunchtime. Feeling the delicious smells, the people began to busily collect their briefcases and headed for the exit. Suddenly the moderator jumped onto the stage and made an announcement, upon hearing which the audience was dumbfounded. It turned out that one of the speakers - the director of a printing enterprise - had to leave and therefore asked to be given the opportunity to speak now, and not at 16:00, as was scheduled in the program...
A man in a gray suit came up to the podium and calmly began: “Colleagues, we fought off the raiders for three years. I’ll just tell you what works in this situation and what doesn’t.”
He spoke for half an hour, and then answered questions for the same amount of time. They didn’t let him go, completely forgetting about lunch. Why?
He talked about what was really interesting to the audience, about what people wanted to hear and what they paid a lot of money for.

The speaker's job is to understand the audience's interest and change his speech to take it into account. If it works, the speaker will definitely become an audience interesting .

How do you know where your audience's interest lies? A good salesperson asks questions to discover the buyer's preferences and suggest the ideal choice.
When preparing for a speech, you can ask around someone who knows your audience well. If there is no such person, ask these questions to yourself, honestly putting yourself in the place of your listeners. For example, questions could be as follows.
Does the audience care about the problem that I address in my speech?
What benefits do they expect to get from my presentation?
What aspects of the topic might interest them primarily?
What problems close to the one under consideration are of interest to the audience?
The answers to some questions may be incomplete or inaccurate. Moreover, they may turn out to be completely negative. And it’s good if you manage to understand this in advance. It would be great if, for example, to the first question (“Does the audience care about the problem being raised?”) you get the answer “No.” It is much worse to understand this already during the performance. And this way you will still have time to make changes and develop the topic differently - so that no one remains indifferent.
Be careful in assessing the audience, be aware that it only marks boundaries and directions.
However, it is not enough to find out the audience’s interest; there is still a lot to understand. Here is a table that I usually use when preparing my speeches. The questions in it are grouped in three areas:
general characteristics of the audience;
group motivation;
level of preparedness of students.
Depending on your area of activity, you can create your own questionnaire based on this sample.

Audience rating

The information you receive in this way is necessary to clarify the content of speech, the level of complexity of the language and choose the appropriate behavior strategy. The speaker must be able, without betraying himself and keeping in mind the goal, to show flexibility, to be able to adapt his speech, his manner of speaking depending on those who are in front of him.
You can limit yourself to the three areas indicated in the table, but if you dream of true friendship with the audience, you need to penetrate the world of your listeners: look into their homes, sneak into their kitchens and see what they eat for breakfast, see a TV program with highlighted programs and films, listen to the telephone chatter of their wives, see what these people read at night - and whether they read at all. There, in the broth of values, ideas, stories and gossip, you will find the most interesting examples and comparisons for your speech.
I'm talking about a preliminary study of the environment that unites future listeners, the culture in which they exist. After all, nothing wins over an audience more than demonstrating genuine interest in itself.

Once, while speaking in Surgut, I casually said that the monument to the pioneers in their city was jokingly called the “monument to the pioneers” (as a taxi driver told me on the way) - and this was enough to cause merriment in the audience. Communication immediately became informal, which is what I wanted.

When you begin to study your future listeners in advance, you thereby show respect for them, and respect, in turn, becomes the basis for normal, and not fearful-aggressive relationships. The only thing that can hinder this work is the habit of postponing everything until later or lack of time.

I’m unlikely to forget a story that happened a long time ago, when I still didn’t have a personal secretary or a communicator. Negotiations with two potential clients were scheduled within one hour of each other. Since the companies' offices were located in neighboring buildings, I expected that I would easily have time to present my program in one place and agree on cooperation in another, nearby. The first company was an insurance company, and the second was engaged in construction engineering. I had no time left to prepare. Already in the car, I opened the newspaper “Business Petersburg” and was pleased to find a whole tab dedicated to the insurance business.
When the coffee arrived, I remembered one of the articles I had read and was pleased to mention the problems facing insurers and related this to the need to train employees. Sizzled like it was written. The HR director listened to me attentively, nodded, but entered into the conversation cautiously and was silent about her insurance business. At the very least, we agreed to continue negotiations, and I hurried to the second meeting. And on my way out, I saw a huge company logo above the secretary’s desk, and the word “engineering” immediately caught my eye...

An experienced traveler knows that even carefully collected information about the route will not eliminate surprises. Similarly, preliminary information about listeners does not guarantee 100% coverage of their interests and preferences. “Gyulchatai” will show his face only when we meet. When you see the audience, when you say the first words, when you hear the breathing of the audience, only then will you understand who you are dealing with. This is why you should never compose an introduction in advance and force yourself into a certain behavior. The situation may not be what you expected. Information collected in advance is always very useful, but it should not prevent the speaker from acting as circumstances require.
This is how much work it can take to answer the question “Who?” It is possible that you will have to write a whole page in your notebook. Meanwhile, the next question awaits.

5. Where?

“Existence determines consciousness” is the only phrase from the course on dialectical materialism that I remember. At the lectures we talked in low voices about the films of Tarkovsky and Fellini, about Remarque and Dostoevsky, about the play “The Story of a Horse” with Evgeny Lebedev in leading role. We had a lot to discuss while a modestly dressed woman in old-fashioned glasses monotonously read about unity and the struggle of opposites. Sometimes I turned to the huge window, the kind that only exists in palaces, and looked at the Neva. She, apparently deceased, was heavily carrying thousands of cubic meters of cold Ladoga water into the Baltic Sea. On the gray five-story building opposite was the familiar slogan “The Party is the mind, honor and conscience of our era!” Lonely trams rolled along the Kirovsky Bridge, rattling and ringing. It was a simple and understandable world to me. A few years later it collapsed. The borders have opened. Immediately after college, I went to Denmark alone to act in films. Via Helsinki and Stockholm. From the Leningrad train I walked on foot to the ferry going to Sweden. At the entrance to the seaport I almost broke through the too-clean glass with my forehead entrance doors. So clean that I simply didn't notice them. My, still Soviet, orientation did not work in a foreign world.
There is an undeniable connection between a person and the space in which he talks, walks and sleeps. The same lecture, given, for example, in a university assembly hall or in one of the ordinary classrooms, sounds differently. Our behavior changes depending on the environment. A city dweller walks and wanders down the street, relaxed, smiling at the sun, and then he goes down to the subway, crosses the line separating open space streets from the dungeon squeezed on all sides, and his behavior changed noticeably: his step became shorter, but faster, his head was bowed, and his gaze roamed under the feet of those walking, his elbows were spread apart to protect from the crowding... Then he rose to the surface, entered the temple: he steps quietly , looks meekly, speaks in a whisper. The nature of space influences the structure of our behavior.
The speaker, knowing this, should have a very good feel for the place where he will have to speak. A few minutes will be enough to walk around the stage while no one is there, or sit in the hall. Get used to the space, feel its influence and integrate yourself into environment, in order to then manage it.
What if the speaker ignores space? For example, he screams, makes noise, walks from corner to corner in a small room, but in a huge hall, on the contrary, hides behind the podium and speaks quietly? Dissonance arises. The listener feels uncomfortable and may show his dissatisfaction with aggressive remarks, off-topic questions, or noise.
You can master the space as you go, but this inevitably leads to a waste of energy, constraint or unnecessary fuss.

A funny incident happened to us at the Trainings exhibition in 2006. Those who work in the training market know this event very well. It takes place in Moscow, and when I was there for the first time, the exhibition pavilions were located in the World Trade Center. I remember that company presentations took place in bright, cozy rooms, the audience sat decorously in rows, and the trainers talked about themselves, standing behind the podium and showing slides.
Two years passed, and the company decided to go to this exhibition with a presentation. We came up with an intriguing topic and decided that it would be better not to talk about ourselves, but to demonstrate our exercises and various proprietary working techniques. Of course, we planned to involve the audience in the action as much as possible. We found out all the details from the organizers, we even received the floor plan by mail. Of course, we noticed that the exhibition has moved and the pavilion is now located in the Expo Center. We left the hotel about three hours before the start of the presentation and caught a taxi. We spent more time traveling through traffic jams than on the flight to Moscow with all the registrations. We arrived at the Expo Center when there were only fifteen minutes left before our exit.

Public speaking skills

Legendary training by Igor Rodchenko

Organization of training:

05.12.19-06.12.19

10-00 - 17-00, Thursday-Friday.

22,000 rub.

Cost if paid two or more months before the start - 20 tr., if paid one or more months before the start - 21 tr., if paid less than a month before the start - 22 tr.

Igor Rodchenko

To speak well in public, you need to do more than just know where to put your hands and what to say at the beginning. You need to try to change yourself in the public space: learn not to depend on assessments and critical comments, learn to think out loud and not recite a memorized text, learn to see the audience and manage their attention. In this program, we work to achieve real, qualitative changes in the public behavior of participants and at the same time master the most effective techniques that can be immediately used in practice. This approach allows you to achieve tangible results

from the history

For the first time, a two-day training called “Master of the Word” was held in St. Petersburg in 2005. Since then, several thousand people have been trained in this program both in Russia and abroad. In 2010, this program was recognized by the Delovoy Petersburg newspaper as the best for teaching public speaking. In 2013, based on the experience of conducting this program, the publishing house Mann, Ivanov and Ferber published the best-selling book “Master of the Word. Mastery of public speaking."

For whom?

This program is especially useful for senior and middle managers; leaders public organizations And social groups; people striving for development, who are ready and want to get results and do it under the guidance of a true master.

tasks

In this training, each participant will understand their strengths and weaknesses and learn to work with them, master various ways preparation for a speech and will work on techniques for interacting with listeners in order to be able to hold their attention throughout the speech. He will learn the most effective techniques for overcoming fear and responding to difficult questions and trolls in the room.

Program

First day

Criteria for assessing public speaking and individual diagnostics.

First presentation and tips for working with slides.

Typical speaker mistakes. Algorithm for preparation with limited time resources.

Levels of preparation for public speaking:

Working with the content of speech (identifying the main idea, setting the correct goal, determining the boundaries of speech).
Organization of space (laws of precise behavior).
Managing emotions and overcoming fatigue (the cause of fear and the ability to overcome it, secrets of managing emotions).

Performing exercises, warm-ups, problem solving and individual performances followed by corrective feedback.

Second day

Audience assessment: power resource and balance of power.

Techniques for making contact with the audience, tasks for the speaker, examples of successful actions, finding your own techniques.

“Working with your hands”: instant correction of the speaker’s behavior.

Creating a map using basic techniques for managing audience attention.

Techniques for neutralizing negativity in the audience.

Speech strategies: logical models in organizing speech content as a tool for maintaining attention.

Argumentation techniques.

The final part of the speech: how to answer questions from the audience.

Feedback with the designation of development zones in post-training and recommendations.

result

You will perform better.

participant reviews

“Wonderful training, which wonderfully discusses and examines general things through specific ones. The most useful topics for me were logic in speaking and working with objections. Very good technique working with video recordings"

Alexey Kharchenko, freelance producer

“I'm pleased. I liked the dynamics of the training, it positive attitude. I saw my “growth zones” and gained confidence, despite the stressful nature of the training topic for me.”

Khovansky Alexander, director of Apartment Center

“Very good training in public speaking skills, and effective speech in general. I saw that my problems were typical and therefore solvable."

Tolstoy Vasily, Principal Software Engineer EMC

“Great training. Dynamic. In addition to useful techniques, tools and practice, there was the opportunity to observe the trainer himself. I’ll take a lot of things into account in my training activities.”

Olga Dobrusina, head of personnel service, Leroy Merlin LLC

“High level of preparation, complete immersion in the topic. The result exceeded expectations, since there are no techniques, there is attitude. This is the first time I have seen a coach work at such a high level, when the coach is not only a consultant, but also an assistant.”

Savina Lyubov, training manager LLC Prisma

Igor Rodchenko

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by the Vegas-Lex law firm.

Yegorka, who prevented me from writing this book

Preface

A month ago, one of the participants in my training answered the question “Who likes to speak in public?” suddenly answered: “I hate speaking in public.” There was no panache in his words. Half of the first day he rolled the nodules on his cheekbones and yawned nervously. But training is training, it works like a trap. Unbeknownst to himself, the guy got involved. Believe it or not, he turned out to be the best according to the results of the three-day training. His final work received a storm of applause. He hated performing because he couldn't do it. It didn't work because he didn't know how to do it. When he understood exactly how to do it, he could. This guy believed in himself, and now there is no stopping him. He felt joy.

There are many pleasant moments in life. Do you know how much pleasure I felt when I watched the sunrise on the Brazilian beach in Trindade? The ocean slammed a two-meter wave along the sandy edge - like a woman rinsing clothes on the river and hitting them on the wooden flooring. The Milky Way flowed in the pinkish sky and faded before our eyes. The sun was rising - not crawling, not crawling out, but solemnly rising to its full height. I laughed with delight!

And this is just one happy moment out of thousands of others that life has shared with me. But I will tell you that the pleasure that a person gets who knows how to think and speak in public, who is able to be himself and not be afraid of anything when dozens of eyes are directed at him, who knows how to catch the breath of an audience and lead them with him, is a pleasure beyond anything. you'll exchange it.

Someone will say: “Nonsense! Not everyone can!” No, gentlemen! For all my professional life I have never met a single person who is unable to speak in public. Moreover, it is often enough just to tighten the nut or tighten the chain, turn the steering wheel in the desired direction and go.

This book is about bolts, handlebars and nuts. It's about how to prepare and speak in public. At least once. And experience joy.

We will try to go from preparation for the performance to its completion. Step by step. Sometimes I'll tell some stories simply because I'm bored of writing user manuals. Of course, it will be great if you find the opportunity to attend training with us at the IGRO company, then you will do much of what I write about under the guidance of specialists and understand something better.

Chapter first

Basic speaker training

Once, many years ago, speaking to a huge audience in Nizhny Novgorod, I found myself in a terrible situation. I didn't have enough material. I knew the topic superficially, but I was sure that with my experience, and having also read several articles on the plane, I could easily hold the audience for two hours. When I went on stage, the lights in the hall were turned off and several spotlights were pointed at me. In the circle of yellow light I found myself alone. He started cheerfully, but after half an hour he died down and began to howl, wave his arms in despair and repeat what had already been said. After another fifteen minutes, the same thought struck me as Ostap Bender did at the chess club in the city of Vasyuki: “It’s time to get my claws out!” Clutching my heart, I whispered into the microphone: “Sorry... I feel bad...” Compassionate listeners rushed onto the stage, and I, dragging my right (for some reason) leg, was taken backstage...

Since then, I have understood forever: a speaker must be ready for anything, and first of all, for his own speech.

Training consists of basic and target levels. Karl Marx would call them base and superstructure. The first involves constant improvement of one's abilities. The second is devoted to preparing a specific speech. I'm sure most new speakers prepare for their presentation. They have no other choice. Some do it right, some do it wrong. But the more experienced the speaker, the less time he needs to create a speech and the more often he is able to speak improvisationally. Basic training helps him in this, which a beginner lacks.

The concept of basis is based on knowledge, experience and training.

1. Knowledge

Chinese military strategist Jie Xuan taught: “Dig into the nature and destinies of man in order to comprehend the secret of the art of military leadership. Read the ancient books to thoroughly learn the methods of action of the troops. Study the images and numbers of the universe in order to have complete knowledge of the rules of army organization. Perform all duties yourself in order to understand the command and control of troops. Research different items to become knowledgeable about equipment. In your idle hours, think about immaterial things and make plans..."

We must know more than others, be completely interested different things in addition to our narrow specialty: sports, fashion, opera and art cinema, fiction and the latest discoveries in the field of biogenetics. For this there is the Internet and magazines, bookstores and coffee shops. They exist just for us.

My friend Zhenya Kuznetsov once told me: “The main quality of a good storyteller is curiosity.” There are so many interesting things around, everything that can be useful to us when preparing a speech! Just don't be an omnivore. No need to clutter your head with cheap junk. I'm talking about choosing information thoughtfully. It's worth spending time just on good book, good magazine, good movie.

As Marcus Fabius Quintilian taught: “For the formation of the mind and style, the quality of the books read is much more important, not their quantity.”

Choosing a good book or article is no different from choosing shoes. You need to try it on and try walking. Other people's reviews or recommendations don't matter. You need intuition and your own taste. You take a book off the shelf or open a magazine and read a few pages. If it doesn't work, put it back. That's all. You didn’t buy the book that you need today. at Sorry. Just trust yourself more than advertising. Reading is an entire art, so I recommend that you definitely familiarize yourself with Sergei Povarnin’s brochure “How to Read Books” and Mortimer Adler’s work with the same name, recently published in Russian translation.

Speaking of the benefits of reading fiction for a business person. I once read in the magazine “Secret of the Firm” an interview with Olga Slutsker, the owner of the World Class network of fitness clubs. She talked about how at some point she suddenly caught herself thinking that it was difficult for her to negotiate - there were not enough words. A friend advised me to read Leo Tolstoy at night. The problem was thus solved.

Don't stop reading! After all, the language dries up when we limit ourselves to only viewing the news feed and leafing through books on business. Our language needs deep rivers of the best texts so that the vocabulary does not become scarce and we can speak freely and easily. Talk about different topics.

This is what makes good speakers. They have something to say. They have knowledge.

2. Experience

Someone said that the most useful thing in life is your own experience. “Never be afraid to take on what you don’t know how to do. Remember, the ark was built by an amateur, professionals built the Titanic.”

Experience is dynamic, it has the ability to be compared and transferred. Yes, it is vitally important for a speaker to speak in public - the main thing is acquired during speeches, but you cannot limit yourself to them only. Gain experience everywhere. Learn to compare and draw parallels. For example, with sports. Nothing resembles interaction with an audience like boxing or wrestling. And if you do something like this or just watch tournaments on TV, you will gain the experience necessary to perform effectively during public speaking. The same can be said about any other life situations. Take a normal conversation with a colleague. What did you do to convince him? Did it work or didn't it work? How did your hands behave, what happened to your breathing, to your face? Which words were heard and which were not? Experience gives understanding, and from understanding comes right action.

There you are specific example. I am writing these lines during the Summer Olympics in London. Yesterday the Russians failed to take first place in team wrestling in artistic gymnastics. They are not speakers, but an attentive viewer will take the awareness of the incredible relationship between the speakers as part of their skill. If you have to give a report in a line of other speakers and the previous one failed his speech, then be prepared for the negativity to be transferred to you. This happens partly due to the specific perception of listeners - they do not have time to readjust, partly due to monkeying, which, unfortunately, is characteristic of our nature. Many of us, as a rule, unconsciously pick up on someone else's mood and fall under its influence, beginning to behave accordingly. This is why an experienced speaker must be able to work “against the wave”, must feel the general rhythm and easily change it, and an experienced event organizer puts a strong player first on the list so that he sets a good rhythm.

Any experience, of course, requires critical thinking. When on a TV show the heroine shows a bag of so-called chain letters and says that she has been sending money for five years in anticipation of the promised prizes, then what we have before us is not “experience, the son of difficult mistakes,” but accumulated stupidity.

The speaker accumulates useful experience. Both life and professional. This is the foundation of his success.

3. Workout

Remember the story of Demosthenes, who studied oratory?

When the future genius of eloquence was seven years old, his wealthy father died. Guardians were appointed to manage the inheritance. Instead of preserving and increasing wealth, they robbed the child: they destroyed the will, took possession of the property, and squandered the money. The years passed, the boy grew up, and the desire to punish the offenders only grew stronger. IN Ancient Greece such problems were decided by the court. All he had to do was bring an accusation and make an indictment himself. The Greeks valued eloquence above many other virtues and, when deciding on punishment (six hundred citizens made up each of the ten panels of the Athenian court), they believed that if a citizen managed to convince them with his speech, then he was right. Demosthenes decided to use the services of eloquence teachers. He turned to Isey, the head of a famous rhetoric school, for help and spent three and a half years rewriting other people’s speeches. Finally I made up my mind and summoned the offenders to court for the first hearing...

Demosthenes did everything he could to improve the situation and gain success in the rehearing: he endlessly multiplied the arguments; strengthened my health with morning and evening exercises; walked around with a handful of stones in his mouth, thinking that this would help him correct his “defects of fiction”; I even shaved half my head so as not to shirk my studies. In the end, he appeared in court again (his hair had already grown back) - and... again a deafening failure! The vile guardians laughed with joy, while Demosthenes, in tears, walked along the seashore away from the place of his shame.

But fate unexpectedly smiled at him. The old actor Satyr was walking towards him. They said hello. The satyr was curious about the reason for the tears and, having learned it, asked to read Homer aloud. Demosthenes struck a pose and recited. The actor laughed and read a passage from the Iliad himself, so much so that Demosthenes, amazed, could not say anything - the Satyr’s reading was so expressive. Having become a student of an old actor, Demosthenes mastered the main secret of eloquence - the effective word. He learned to subordinate every movement, every sound of his voice, every nuance of intonation and the content of every speech to his intended purpose.

In theatrical practice, such training is called training or drill. It was not for nothing that Demosthenes was trained by the actor. I don’t know what could be more useful to a speaker than the techniques and training plans developed in the practice of theater over the past centuries. Who else in our country has dealt so thoroughly with a person in the public space? Where will you find the same holistic system for the development of voice and body plasticity, attention, will, imagination? That is why I advise all speakers to read books such as “The Actor’s Work on Oneself” by Konstantin Stanislavsky, “Gymnastics of the Senses” by Sergei Gippius, “The Amazing Gift of Nature” by Zinaida Savkova, “Technology of Acting Art” by Pyotr Ershov.

From the books listed, you need to take exercises and practice. Of course, it is always better to do this under the guidance of a specialist, but if there is no such thing, then what, sit and wait for the weather by the sea? No, it's better to try it yourself.

Chapter two

Five questions - five answers

Now imagine that in a few days you need to perform... This means that it’s time to start preparing (I call this kind of preparation targeted). For preparing a specific speech.

No need to panic. Relax, go outside, go to the nearest cafe, order yourself a cup of coffee or mint tea, sit, smoke, if you smoke, open a notebook (I personally find it more convenient to carry Moleskine notebooks with me) and write in a column with a simple pencil five questions:

These are the main questions, we will return to them, write down, supplement or redo the answers to them, because preparing a speech resembles a stream that can change its depth and direction of flow, and not a quantum standard of length, unchanging, like corruption in Russia.

By the way, while you finish your coffee or tea, I’ll tell you a story about moleskine.

When I studied at school, and then at college; naturally, we didn’t have any such notebooks. Little did I know that Ernest Hemingway, who in those years meant something to me, loved to write in it. For example, he taught me how to drink, because after reading “Fiesta” and “The Holiday That Is Always With You,” I couldn’t help but try mixing some vodka from my parents’ bar with Buratino lemonade and throwing in a piece of ice, chopped off with a knife in the freezer . Of course, two classmates were invited to an apartment on the outskirts of a Baltic town, whom I sat on the sofa, covering their legs with a blanket. I remember this evening as the most romantic of my life, although afterwards we all felt sick for a long time from drinking.

I haven't been apart from Uncle Ham for several years. In my mother’s album I kept a note that I scribbled in the tenth year, when I was in the hospital with meningitis: “Dear mom, dad and Genka! Take me away from here, the temperature is already 37.5, which means you can get sick at home. I'm dying here. I get seven injections a day, and it hurts a lot. And today they injected as many as eight. If you can’t pick it up, then give me the shaped cookies and the book “Islands in the Ocean” by Hemingway. I love you". That's what Ernest meant to me as a child, who loved to write his notes in a pad of yellow paper with a hard cover so that he could comfortably hold it on his lap. The first such notebook was given to me by a blue-eyed girl whom I loved. She knew how to make gifts. You know what that means. She rejoiced when giving something, more than the person to whom she gave it.

Now let's start answering the questions. You need to write your answers in short, understandable sentences, while thinking about each word.

1. About what?

The question “About what?” - this is a question about the topic of your future speech. You can talk about anything, but in order not to torture the audience with an endless stream of words, you need to limit yourself to the topic. Imagine that you, as a specialist, for example, in leadership, have been asked to speak at a conference. And what exactly will you talk about?

“I will talk about leadership!”

“Great, what exactly will you talk about?”

“Well... what about... about, so to speak, leadership... uh-uh...”

Maybe it makes sense to narrow the topic, limit the space of speech? After all, if the topic is defined, for example, as “Could a leader be cunning and ruthless?” or “Eight Qualities of a Modern Leader,” then both the author and the listener will become much clearer about what they are talking about.

When St. Petersburg was being prepared for the celebration of its 300th anniversary, I was vacationing in Jurmala and somehow got into conversation with a nice old Latvian woman who was selling in a small bookstore. “Why,” she asked, “do you Russians always grab onto big things? Here in St. Petersburg you are restoring squares, entire avenues, but the entrances are probably dirty. It's always like this with you. You need to get your house in order, and then deal with the areas.”

When you take on a broad topic, as a rule, you don’t know which side to approach this enormous thing from, you feel insecure, like a beginner whose manager has given him the task of doing a good job, but hasn’t told him what to do specifically. The narrower the topic, the easier it is to speak. It’s always better when a sea of meaning sparkles in every phrase, and not when the whole meaning and the listeners drown in the sea of words.

Now, out of curiosity, I specifically went to the public presentations website ted.com and looked at announcements of the latest talks. As a rule, their topics are already stated in the title. You read and immediately understand what will be discussed:

“Your 200-year plan”;

“Extraction of minerals from sea water”;

“How to air condition a stadium”;

"Why X means unknown";

"A New Look at Oil Spill Cleanup";

"What we didn't know about the anatomy of penises";

"Will our children be a different kind of people";

"Ideas that ignited the Arab Spring."

When thinking about the topic of a future speech, be sure to find out how much time you have to speak. Approximately 70-80% of all the presentations I listened to at conferences, business meetings and meetings lasted no more than 20-30 minutes. I think it’s worth correlating the chosen topic with the regulations for the speech. Otherwise, you will either have to jump around and mumble your speech, or speak at such a speed that most listeners simply will not perceive you. Either way it won't be good.

It is always better to say less, but more clearly. Like in that joke where Zyama owed Iza money.

Izya asks his son to write a letter demanding repayment of the debt. The son brings a multi-page text beginning with the words: “Dear Zinovy Markovich! Would you be so kind as to...” “No,” says Izya, “we need to rewrite it more concisely.” The son brings the second option: “Zinovy Markovich! Dad asks when you will return the money to us.” "No no! - says the father. “This is also very long, let me write it myself.” And in the end, Izya replies with a telegram: “Zyama! Your mother!

Write down the exact topic of your speech in a notebook: what exactly you will talk about. And move on to the next question.

2. What?

Oddly enough, but to the question “What do I want to tell future listeners?” You also need to answer in one sentence. If it works, consider that half the job is already done. Then you will think about the content, figure out what to say in what order, but first it is important to decide on what I call the “grain of speech” - its idea. It is important to formulate that main, “royal” thought from which the entire presentation will grow, to lay a stone at the foundation of the building on which it will stand firmly. Formulate it simply and clearly, first of all – for yourself.

Elder Ambrose of Optina said: “Where it’s simple, there are a hundred angels.” The main idea of the McDonald's company, for example, can be compressed into two words: speed and availability. Change this thought - and the entire hamburger empire will immediately change, or rather, crumble. The idea of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” can be expressed in one sentence: “Everyone is guilty before everyone else.” A novel hatched from this thought.

When an actor creates a character, he first of all tries to find that feature that will determine the entire character of the role.

Remember the old serial film “Shadows Vanish at Noon”? There was a mean character there, superbly played by Boris Novikov. The whole idea of the character is in his nickname: Buy-Sell. I read somewhere that when this nickname was found, all the actor’s plasticity and his manner of speaking instantly lined up. Such a petty, cowardly swindler that he would sell his mother for a penny.

A good speech should have its own idea. For example, in a speech on the topic “Analysis of the market for training services” at a conference of providers, the idea could be: “The market has significant development prospects” or another: “The crisis is over and the situation has stabilized.” Your task is to develop this thought. It is the idea that will determine the content of the speech, because you will select only those facts that are relevant to it. Just as an ear grows from a grain, the whole tree of your speech will grow from an idea.

When I work individually, the client and I sometimes spend a lot of time trying to accurately determine the grain of the speech in one sentence. Without this, empty talk is bound to arise. And when we succeed, my client becomes precise in his words and ready for improvisation, because, knowing the key idea, he will no longer get lost in the sands of words. And - this is very important for those who work with complex audiences - a speaker who knows exactly what he wants to say is difficult to lead astray. He may stumble, but he won't fall.

I remember there was an incident. We prepared a group of key specialists for public hearings. The talk was about a project for the renovation of urban areas. There was heaps of material, but as soon as a person came out and started talking, it immediately became clear that he had no point of support. They talked a lot, confusedly, and any question from the audience immediately confused them. There was no confidence in the words, there was no clear position. When, through joint efforts, we formulated the grain “Our project is necessary for the development of our beloved city,” everything immediately fell into place. The arguments were lined up, interesting examples emerged, and confidence emerged.

I then watched how the hearings took place. The situation was extremely difficult, but the guys understood the main thing that needed to be conveyed, so they easily picked up the topic, discussed with the audience, and actively improvised.

It may seem to you that it is not always so easy to determine main idea. Well, what is the idea of a year-end report? There’s a lot of different thoughts, facts, assessments, we’re talking about everything there! However, it is not. Open your Bible and read the first verse. Our planet, all life on it, the fate of every person, all the incredible complexity of existence began with one Word. If you want, consider this a metaphor. Who cares? This metaphor is appropriate for a speaker.

And the year-end report should have its own idea. For example, something like this: “Our company has become a market leader” or “The year was difficult, but we persevered.” Even if you never voice this idea, it will permeate all your graphs and diagrams and create a sense of harmony in your listeners, and not the feeling of a suitcase full of clothes, which you don’t understand when opening, whether to the beach or to the garage.

If the topic limits the space of speech, then the idea sets the vector of movement and helps to compose the baggage of words.

3. Why?

That's why I'm writing this book? And I have nothing else to do. I'm sitting on my parents' veranda country house near Riga and tapping on the keys. I can’t run to the beach - my leg is broken (I slipped in my own kitchen). So I’m writing, stringing together words. This is exactly how we perform.

Remember yourself in that ridiculous situation when you need to speak, but you don’t know why. A porridge appears in your mouth, your movements become fussy, your eyes begin to dart, as if you are lying.

Recently I have observed how speakers' performances depended entirely on how they formulated their purpose. I was sitting in the hall of a St. Petersburg hotel at a round table. There were about ten of these tables, and each seated eight people. We were waiting for the start of a seminar on the problems of buying and selling a business. The program included speeches by three people.

The first speaker on the list was so well known in the business world that he could afford to come in faded jeans rather than in a gray or blue suit, as did the rest of the participants. However, he looked very elegant.

The speaker came to the front of the stage, leaned his left hand on the podium and spoke. He looked like a Roman patrician, a little tired from dealing with clients. His speech flowed slowly, like tomato juice spilled on the tablecloth. It was clear that the speaker was pleased with himself: he listened to the sounds of his voice, enjoyed the smoothness of his gestures, and sometimes graced softly. And at this time we were quietly chewing: sandwiches with caviar, slices of cheese, tender ham, fruit... And we paid almost no attention to what was happening on stage.

I call such speakers "peacocks".

Their goal in performing is to please, receive a portion of admiration, and show off. At this moment, their attention is focused on their own actions, and the result is a loss of contact with the audience.

What does a responsible speaker usually do when he wants to convey a message? He focuses on the text. The main thing for him is not to forget anything. If he can't sight read, he will read from the screen. He never looks his listeners in the eyes - he is afraid of being distracted and losing his thought. Staring at a spot on the floor, he talks and talks and talks. As a rule, quietly, so as not to disturb yourself from a concentrated state with unnecessary emotionality.

What does the audience usually do for such a presentation? These people are probably listening, perhaps recording. But more often they struggle with sleep. When the purpose of a presentation is to convey information, the outcome depends entirely on the audience's willingness to listen.

I call such speakers "woodpeckers".

Their purpose is to voice a prepared text; they work as radio receivers. The result of this approach is monotonous speech, superficial contact with the audience, loss of time control, lethargy and a constant fear of making mistakes.

...And then Viktor Afanasyev, a representative of the Ready-Made Business Store company, came onto the site. And it was as if a fresh breeze blew. The speaker was calm, smiling and looked each of us straight in the eyes. At least that's what I thought. He paused and spoke. Those who ate stopped chewing, those who slept woke up. The whole hall was attentive. Victor spoke for exactly twenty minutes. After the applause, questions started pouring in. Another ten minutes later, the moderator had to intervene to call a break. Victor was immediately taken into a tight circle by inquisitive listeners...

I call such speakers "eagles".

Their goal is to reach our hearts and move us to action and decisions. They provide maximum contact with the audience and are capable of improvisation because they are not tied to a piece of paper with text. They are active, courageous, use humor and never hide behind the podium.

The goal should not be realized in me (“I want like it"), not in the process itself ("I want tell oh..."), but in my listeners. A correctly set goal shows result what I want to achieve with my speech. This kind of goal can be formulated as follows: “ I want to..." Instead of an ellipsis in a notepad, you should write down the result that you want to achieve.

For example, “I want listeners to accept my point of view on this issue” or “I want them to sign a contract.”

This is how very simple sentences appear in your notebook. The topic creates the boundaries, the idea denotes the essence of the content, and the goal directs all your actions towards a specific result.

In addition, I will say that the goal can be strategic or tactical. The first guides your activities in the long term, sometimes for several years, and many performances are simply invested in its achievement as if in a box, the second is tactical. This is the result that you must achieve during a specific performance. Don't confuse them - your pants can burst from the desire to achieve a strategic goal in one performance.

Speaking of bursting pants...

All short boys have a hard time at school. I myself was second from last during the formation. Therefore, on a date with the beautiful Galya Kopchuk, whom I secretly loved, I had to go as a friend of her gentleman. Of course, Seryoga was a real macho: tall, with black curls, a large nose and bright lips. While they were talking near the entrance door, I sat on a bench and dreamed. You know what I mean. True, I had one thing that distinguished me favorably from many of my friends: real bell-bottom trousers, tightly fitting the buttocks and flaring down to the size of small sails. It was considered fashionable back then. Not everyone’s mother could sew such chic clothes. For proper bell-bottoms, special officer fabric was needed.

And then one day I wore them to school. It was a risk, I broke the rules, but the game was worth the candle.

Parallel 10 "A", where Galya studied, was hanging out in the gym. The girls sat on the bench and kept secrets. Seryoga and I entered and moved straight towards the shells. Seryoga was great at pulling himself up - that’s what he did at that moment. And I headed to the high jump stand. I replaced the usual 1.45 meters with 1.55 and took a running start. The flared legs clapped to the beat. The bench froze. It smelled like caramel. A push, a scream, a crash... Applause. I gained height, but now I could not rise. And I realized that a disaster had occurred. The color flooded my face.

Seryoga came up and mockingly asked what was the matter. He almost neighed when I answered, but, seeing my eyes, he took off his jacket, laid me on my back, picked me up and carried me. All the way to the medical room, where the paramedic quickly sewed up my trousers. And the other guys thought that I just twisted my ankle.

Soon Galya agreed to go to the cinema with me. And Seryoga fell in love with someone else.

4. To whom?

It is unlikely that it will be possible to answer this question in one sentence. Maybe because this is the most important question out of the five?

Any person, a group of people, an entire country has a culture that most accurately expresses their values. How people dress, what buildings they live in, how they eat, sleep, talk - all this is culture, and it can be different. There are closed and open cultures, “male” and “female”, authoritarian and democratic... And for me, one of the most important signs of a culture is its monologue or dialogism. This sign is manifested in everything: in people’s behavior, in the norms and rules of communication, in creativity and, of course, in oratory.

I grew up in the USSR, in a thoroughly monological culture. When I remember lessons at school or lectures at the institute, speeches by Komsomol leaders and delegates to party congresses - those obvious examples of living rhetoric that I observed, I sadly understand that, with rare exceptions, they communicated with me from top to bottom. No one was particularly interested in my personal opinion; it could be expressed in the yard, in the pub, in the kitchen, but not in public. There, behind the podium, someone else's words should have been spoken in someone else's language.

A person of a monologue culture does not need a listener and argumentation; a slogan, an empty phrase, is more important to him. He is a slave to the habit of reporting information, the same “woodpecker” I wrote about above. It is more important for him to say the text than to receive a response to it. A monologue speaker necessarily has a fear of public speaking, he does not know how to debate - he begins to shout at the top of his lungs, without even thinking about whether anyone can hear him. He himself does not want to listen to anyone, because he is self-centered and does not need other people's opinions.

This culture did not go away with the disappearance of the Land of the Soviets. She passed on to the next generation. I myself have absorbed many of her traits. And only in recent years have the sprouts of a new culture begun to emerge - the culture of dialogue. Of course, it existed before, was the basis of Russian pre-revolutionary life, but was destroyed by the Bolsheviks. She sailed away on a ship in 1927, was shot on Solovki, froze to death in Kolyma and fell silent along with the bells thrown from the Diveyevo churches.

In this culture, it is not you who is speaking and not the prepared text that needs to be spoken, but what extends further, behind the body and the text, what thanks to you the other person understood, what he realized, felt, accepted. It doesn’t matter how he treats you - critically or friendly, it is important that he does not remain indifferent. Let him sit with his mouth closed, but there must be a process of comprehension and empathy going on in him. The result of a good speech is always the merit of both parties: the speaker and the audience. In dialogue, cooperation arises, but without cooperation there is no result: understanding, desire, action. In the monologue, the game goes to one goal. One speaks, and the others pretend to listen. When a culture becomes monological, it dies.

How does this reasoning relate to the fourth question on the list? Yes, very simple.

The question “Who?” formal for a representative of the monologue culture. What difference does it make to him? It's always the same. Whether he is a German, a Frenchman, a hard worker or a professor, he doesn’t care. This is a key feature of such a culture: an inability to react, an inability to be flexible, an unwillingness to listen and understand the audience.

There is a paradox in the dialogue. In it, the speaker is primarily a big ear, and not a tongue. Therefore the question “To whom?” is essential to being a truly effective speaker.

Understanding the Audience: Intelligence

Despite the fact that real understanding of listeners comes already during work, a preliminary assessment of the future audience is necessary.

1. To know how interested people may be in what you are going to say, and, if necessary, make changes to the content of the speech.

2. To understand how or in what language to talk about it.

3. To prevent aggression, boredom, and misunderstanding that arise when existing barriers of perception are not taken into account - differences in age, position, experience, culture.

The speaker’s spell: “I want to know you so as not to be afraid. I want to know you so that I can be truly useful. I want to know you so that I can leave as a friend, not an enemy.”

Once I was lucky to observe the work of one of the best guides in the Land of the Soviets. This happened on the island of Valaam, and the man’s name was Evgeny Petrovich Kuznetsov, or, in his own way, Jacques. He was stocky, with a Norwegian beard, gray eyebrows and a nose like a bruised potato.

On Valaam in the summer there is a crowd of tourists and pilgrims. In the evening, the guides receive their instructions, and in the morning they are already standing in a group on the pier, waiting for the mooring of the next ship with a hundred or two guests. What was Jacques doing while his young colleagues were cowering in the blowing Ladoga wind? He headed to the deck of the ship and disappeared among the tourists. Five minutes later, Evgeny Petrovich already knew who was on board, where they were from, what happened on the way, how they had dinner yesterday, how long they stood in the fog, etc. Armed with this information, he returned to the guides and calmly smoked while waiting for his group.

I listened to his excursions twenty times. I don’t remember that at least once he began his communication with the group in the same way as he did before. Not only the words of greeting changed (he always included some researched fact from the “biography” of the group), the intonation of his voice changed. With the Astrakhan ones he was not the same as with the Vologda ones; with the hard workers he was completely different than with the Moscow professors. The approach to people changed, but Jacques himself remained himself - he just knew how to be different. Thanks to this flexibility, he seemed like his own person to everyone. He was loved and listened to with great attention.

So, the better we know future listeners, the more accurately we can act.

Intelligence begins with a question, answering which will ensure your success in any audience. It goes like this: “What do they want from me?”

I was once sitting at a conference dedicated to the fight against raider takeovers. Air conditioners hummed, speakers muttered something inaudible, and listeners fell asleep. It was approaching lunchtime. Feeling the delicious smells, the people began to busily collect their briefcases and headed for the exit. Suddenly the moderator jumped onto the stage and made an announcement, upon hearing which the audience was dumbfounded. It turned out that one of the speakers - the director of a printing enterprise - had to leave and therefore asked to be given the opportunity to speak now, and not at 16:00, as was scheduled in the program...

A man in a gray suit came up to the podium and calmly began: “Colleagues, we fought off the raiders for three years. I’ll just tell you what works in this situation and what doesn’t.”

He spoke for half an hour, and then answered questions for the same amount of time. They didn’t let him go, completely forgetting about lunch. Why?

He talked about what was really interesting to the audience, about what people wanted to hear and what they paid a lot of money for.

The speaker's job is to understand the audience's interest and change his speech to take it into account. If it works, the speaker will definitely become an audience interesting .

How do you know where your audience's interest lies? A good salesperson asks questions to discover the buyer's preferences and suggest the ideal choice.

When preparing for a speech, you can ask around someone who knows your audience well. If there is no such person, ask these questions to yourself, honestly putting yourself in the place of your listeners. For example, questions could be as follows.

Does the audience care about the problem that I address in my speech?

What benefits do they expect to get from my presentation?

What aspects of the topic might interest them primarily?

What problems close to the one under consideration are of interest to the audience?

The answers to some questions may be incomplete or inaccurate. Moreover, they may turn out to be completely negative. And it’s good if you manage to understand this in advance. It would be great if, for example, to the first question (“Does the audience care about the problem being raised?”) you get the answer “No.” It is much worse to understand this already during the performance. And this way you will still have time to make changes and develop the topic differently - so that no one remains indifferent.

Be careful in assessing the audience, be aware that it only marks boundaries and directions.

However, it is not enough to find out the audience’s interest; there is still a lot to understand. Here is a table that I usually use when preparing my speeches. The questions in it are grouped in three areas:

general characteristics audience;

Group motivation;

Level of preparedness of students.

Depending on your area of activity, you can create your own questionnaire based on this sample.

Audience rating

You can limit yourself to the three areas indicated in the table, but if you dream of true friendship with the audience, you need to penetrate the world of your listeners: look into their homes, sneak into their kitchens and see what they eat for breakfast, see a TV program with highlighted programs and films, listen to the telephone chatter of their wives, see what these people read at night - and whether they read at all. There, in the soup of values, ideas, stories and gossip, you will find the most interesting examples and comparisons for your speech.

I'm talking about a preliminary study of the environment that unites future listeners, the culture in which they exist. After all, nothing wins over an audience more than demonstrating genuine interest in itself.

Once, while speaking in Surgut, I casually said that the monument to the pioneers in their city was jokingly called the “monument to the pioneers” (as a taxi driver told me on the way) - and this was enough to cause merriment in the audience. Communication immediately became informal, which is what I wanted.

I’m unlikely to forget a story that happened a long time ago, when I still didn’t have a personal secretary or a communicator. Negotiations with two potential clients were scheduled within one hour of each other. Since the companies' offices were located in neighboring buildings, I expected that I would easily have time to present my program in one place and agree on cooperation in another, nearby. The first company was an insurance company, and the second was engaged in construction engineering. I had no time left to prepare. Already in the car, I opened the newspaper “Business Petersburg” and was pleased to find a whole tab dedicated to the insurance business.

When the coffee arrived, I remembered one of the articles I had read and was pleased to mention the problems facing insurers and related this to the need to train employees. Sizzled like it was written. The HR director listened to me attentively, nodded, but entered into the conversation cautiously and was silent about her insurance business. At the very least, we agreed to continue negotiations, and I hurried to the second meeting. And on my way out, I saw a huge company logo above the secretary’s desk, and the word “engineering” immediately caught my eye...

This is how much work it can take to answer the question “Who?” It is possible that you will have to write a whole page in your notebook. Meanwhile, the next question awaits.

5. Where?

“Existence determines consciousness” is the only phrase from the course on dialectical materialism that I remember. At the lectures, we talked in low voices about the films of Tarkovsky and Fellini, about Remarque and Dostoevsky, about the play “The Story of a Horse” with Evgeny Lebedev in the title role. We had a lot to discuss while a modestly dressed woman in old-fashioned glasses monotonously read about unity and the struggle of opposites. Sometimes I turned to the huge window, the kind that only exists in palaces, and looked at the Neva. She, apparently deceased, was heavily carrying thousands of cubic meters of cold Ladoga water into the Baltic Sea. On the gray five-story building opposite was the familiar slogan “The Party is the mind, honor and conscience of our era!” Lonely trams rolled along the Kirovsky Bridge, rattling and ringing. It was a simple and understandable world to me. A few years later it collapsed. The borders have opened. Immediately after college, I went to Denmark alone to act in films. Via Helsinki and Stockholm. From the Leningrad train I walked on foot to the ferry going to Sweden. At the entrance to the seaport, I almost broke through the too-clean glass of the entrance doors with my forehead. So clean that I simply didn't notice them. My, still Soviet, orientation did not work in a foreign world.

There is an undeniable connection between a person and the space in which he talks, walks and sleeps. The same lecture, given, for example, in a university assembly hall or in one of the ordinary classrooms, sounds differently. Our behavior changes depending on the environment. A city dweller walks and wanders along the street, relaxed, smiling at the sun, and then he went down into the subway, crossed the line separating the open space of the street from the dungeon squeezed on all sides, and his behavior noticeably changed: his step became shorter, but faster, his head bent, and his gaze roams under the feet of those walking, his elbows are spread apart to protect him from the crowd... Then he rose to the surface and entered the temple: he steps quietly, looks meekly, speaks in a whisper. The nature of space influences the structure of our behavior.

The speaker, knowing this, should have a very good feel for the place where he will have to speak. A few minutes will be enough to walk around the stage while no one is there, or sit in the hall. Get used to the space, feel its influence and integrate yourself into the environment in order to then manage it.

What if the speaker ignores space? For example, he screams, makes noise, walks from corner to corner in a small room, but in a huge hall, on the contrary, hides behind the podium and speaks quietly? Dissonance arises. The listener feels uncomfortable and may show his dissatisfaction with aggressive remarks, off-topic questions, or noise.

You can master the space as you go, but this inevitably leads to a waste of energy, constraint or unnecessary fuss.

A funny incident happened to us at the Trainings exhibition in 2006. Those who work in the training market know this event very well. It takes place in Moscow, and when I was there for the first time, the exhibition pavilions were located in the World Trade Center. I remember that company presentations took place in bright, cozy rooms, the audience sat decorously in rows, and the trainers talked about themselves, standing behind the podium and showing slides.

Two years passed, and the company decided to go to this exhibition with a presentation. We came up with an intriguing topic and decided that it would be better not to talk about ourselves, but to demonstrate our exercises and various proprietary working techniques. Of course, we planned to involve the audience in the action as much as possible. We found out all the details from the organizers, we even received the floor plan by mail. Of course, we noticed that the exhibition has moved and the pavilion is now located in the Expo Center. We left the hotel about three hours before the start of the presentation and caught a taxi. We spent more time traveling through traffic jams than on the flight to Moscow with all the registrations. We arrived at the Expo Center when there were only fifteen minutes left before our exit.

Hall No. 2, marked with a red square on the plan, turned out to be not the quiet, cozy room, the image of which was gathering dust in my memory, but a fence made of screens slightly taller than a man. Rock music and folk songs boomed from the speakers, the noise of hundreds of customers and the laughter of cheerful waitresses in the cafe next door rang in my ears. It was possible to speak only into the microphone; there was no talk of demonstrating exercises designed for communication between the participants; they could not be heard.

We had to adapt on the fly. We pulled out the presentation with great effort, but gained invaluable experience.

Now, if I cannot see the performance venue in advance, then I ask you to send photos of the future venue and ask a dozen questions. I advise you to pay attention to such “little things” as:

1) area of the hall;

2) the shape of the hall;

3) seating chart for students;

4) furniture and objects in the hall;

5) lighting sources;

6) acoustics;

7) technical means;

8) climate;

9) regulations, break times;

10) what will happen before and after your speech.

Is it possible not to know all these details? In principle it is possible. Usually, there are no deviations from the standard conditions familiar to everyone, and any speaker will be able to quickly get used to the new environment.

However, careful preparation helps to focus the energy on those for whom it is intended, and not on the piano that suddenly finds itself on the stage between the speaker and the audience.

Once you have information on each point, you will be better prepared to speak.

Hall area

Let's divide the standard platforms for any speaker into three categories depending on their size. Small hall - up to 40 m2, medium - from 40 to 100 m2 and large - from 100 to 1500 m2 and even more.

In the small hall the speaker is viewed like a fly through a magnifying glass. He can't hide. Therefore, special care is needed in everything related to appearance. A crease on the sleeve of a new shirt, a sloppy haircut, reddened eyelids, dirty shoes, an extra pound after vacation, a stain on a sweater - all those little things that you didn’t pay attention to will be noticed by your listeners. Do you need this?

I remember I once came to the presentation of a book by a famous trainer. A large man, he visually occupied half of the entire space allotted to him in a small class. The master worked expressively, actively gesticulated, raised his hands and did not speak, but almost shouted. I liked the content, but it was not easy to listen to. After about fifteen minutes, the speaker began to sweat... I like it when a policeman goes to the cinema wearing a shirt held down by suspenders, and his armpits are wet to the waist - I continue to chew popcorn, thinking about the hard work of a man, but when someone in two steps away from you, you sweat and dark spots quickly spread across the light fabric, it becomes difficult to live.

In a small hall, it is more comfortable for a speaker to sit than to stand. It's hard for listeners to perceive us when we literally loom over them. In a limited space, the amplitude of movements also changes - you should move in short transitions of two or three steps with obligatory stops. You need to work with your voice softly, quietly, while maintaining the fullness of the sound, that is, pronouncing every sound without visible effort. In a small hall, it is better to moderate your ardor, act calmly, not throw away your emotions generously, and gesticulate with restraint. The fact is that in such a space the speaker can quickly feel comfortable, confident and begin to accelerate or overact. “Dizziness from success” sets in: a melody appears in the intonations, gestures become pretentious, at such a time the speaker seems to be playing a role from a dramatic play. When the audience is frozen and listening, it is difficult to maintain simplicity and naturalness of behavior. Listeners begin to reject such a speaker. If you notice this inappropriate strumming and pathos in yourself, immediately slow down and come to your senses.

In a small hall, it is better to use a television panel or interactive whiteboard, not a screen with a projector. Otherwise, the image will be too large, and there will inevitably be problems with the shadow, because there are fewer opportunities to get away from the projecting beam. In the case of such a hall, I consider a flipchart to be the optimal visual support tool.

Middle hall loved by many. This is the golden mean. Here, the emotional drive of a large room is easily combined with the natural, almost homely simplicity of behavior characteristic of small rooms. The middle room is best suited for showing slides, but it is also possible to work in it with a board or flipchart - only the letters should be much larger, and the marker should be at least a centimeter thick. If the voice allows, the speaker can speak without a microphone, but it is easy to switch to a microphone - this will not surprise anyone. The speaker has enough free space to move in different directions, stand or sit. He can touch the listener on the shoulder and immediately move away a few meters. The average hall gives us many advantages, and the only thing that will prevent us from taking advantage of them is a lack of experience.

In the big hall you will most likely be performing from a stage. The choice of position depends on the nature of what is happening. Standing behind the podium is only permissible during official and special events. The less formalism, the freer the behavior, the further away from the podium and closer to the audience. Sometimes the speaker even jumps off the stage. This is an interesting technique, but in this case they can no longer see you from the last rows. This move can be used, for example, to shake hands or offer to answer a question for someone in the front row, but, like any technique, it must be used prudently.

Today, the open round table format is very popular, and its participants sit on stage in chairs. This emphasizes the informal nature of the meeting. On the screen we see an enlarged image of the speakers, which compensates for the static nature of their behavior. We can look at the details: facial expressions, fine motor skills. This is an interesting, modern type of performance, just pay attention to how you sit. I remember well the picture from the economic forum in Davos. Our fathers collapsed, their legs spread apart, like men after a bath. Not aesthetically pleasing. Take the example of the Europeans. At the same forum, they sat either cross-legged or knees together. They sat neatly like this, and their socks were long - they hid their pale legs well.

Hall shape

It is much more difficult to work in an elongated, narrow room than in a square one. You will be drawn to jump over the front rows and direct your speech into the distance, “to Kamchatka.” Or, on the contrary, you will start talking to those who are sitting closer, and forget about those further away. We need to distribute attention! Prepare in advance for the fact that you will need to work like a shutter: send forward, return back, then fiddle a little in the middle.

In a hall that stretches wide, there is a danger of losing those who sit on the edge. You can immediately identify a professional by the way he works with edges. A beginner always speaks from the center at one point, while an experienced speaker easily maintains contact with those who are sitting in front of him and with those who have chosen a seat at the exit.

It is very difficult to work in round rooms, especially if, to demonstrate equality and democracy, you are seated on a swivel chair right in the center of the room, and the audience is located around it. It seems like he belongs among his own people, but for some reason his back is always turned to someone.

In a hall of any shape, the main task of the speaker is to establish interaction with the audience. Everyone should see him, and he should see everyone.

Seating chart

It’s not good when there are more chairs or armchairs than there are listeners. If possible, ask to remove some of the furniture in advance. In a large hall, try to seat people in such a way that there are no voids in the space between groups. The ideal option is for an assistant to help students take their seats according to your plan. More often you have to independently ask already seated guests to change seats. You should not order them or ask them for this service without explaining the reasons. It is much better to take into account the audience’s interest in receiving quality information to justify your request. For example: “Gentlemen! If you don't mind, please move to the center of the hall. You will hear better." Say this in a friendly but confident tone. Give a little time, encourage with a gesture and only then start working. You are the master in this house! Manage people. Organize them in the space so that both they and you feel comfortable. If you are shy, you will pay for your modesty by redoubling your efforts to keep your listeners in the zone of attention.

If the speaker himself cannot influence the seating plan of the audience, he must take into account the influence of certain positions. The most common scheme: one opposite everyone.

On the one hand, with this seating option, it is easier for the speaker to control the audience, since he, as a rule, is on an elevated position and, thanks to this position, dominates, and on the other hand, there is space between the speaker and the listeners, which separates them and can interfere with the creation of a warm, friendly atmosphere . This is why this seating plan is popular for lectures, formal meetings and sessions, that is, speeches that require distance between the speaker and the audience.

Another option: group work at a round table or in a circle.

Here the speaker includes himself in advance in the group of listeners, perhaps deliberately refusing the role of a sole leader. Working in such an audience requires skill. The focus of eye contact is wide. You need to learn to interact with everyone, that is, turn your body and head, focus your gaze on one or another participant, but not spin around like a top. A standard mistake is to address only those sitting opposite or on the right hand.

This format is good for organizing a general discussion and creating an informal atmosphere. Although my experience suggests that this seating method is not very comfortable for many. Therefore, it makes sense to start working in a broken circle, when the leader sits down at one of the edges. After getting to know each other and having a short conversation, you can propose closing the circle. This technique is always effective.

I often had to work with the next seating arrangement.

There are about 50–60 listeners, but they are deliberately gathered in small groups of eight to ten people. It is not easy for a speaker to manage such an audience because the listener's focus is constantly shifting to what is happening at his table. This feature should be used rather than fought against - it, for example, allows people to discuss certain topics within groups. A speaker in such an audience can enter the space of the hall and move between tables, reaching the last ones. When seating in rows, we rarely resort to such movements, because it forces listeners to either turn around to see us or look into the resulting emptiness in front of them. In addition, the situation is so reminiscent of school that some begin to reflexively hide their purses and notes when the “teacher” approaches. But in a hall with group seating, the attention vectors of those sitting are directed in different directions, and for some it will be more difficult to look at the stage; they will have to turn their heads. When the speaker moves around the room, everyone can see him.

There are other seating arrangements for listeners. Our task is to assess the balance of power and take advantage of opportunities. If it suddenly turns out that the listeners are sitting awkwardly, but it is permissible to move them, you need to not endure, but act. He who endures for a long time plants buds.

Furniture and objects in the hall

One of the speaker’s bad assistants is the chair. How easy is it to cut off your legs? Hide behind this piece of furniture. We will see exactly half of you. It's good if it's the best. The speaker, like the beauty on the cover of a popular magazine, must demonstrate himself in every detail. The audience not only listens, but also watches you, receiving part of the information about you, your attitude to what is being said, through the channels of visual perception.

The body is the speaker's assistant. An active position is manifested in an active posture. If we hide behind a podium, table or chair, we deprive the audience of the pleasure of seeing us and find ourselves forced to spend twice as much energy to win over listeners. There is even a professional term - “talking head”: when the speaker involuntarily begins to compensate for the “absence” of the body with overly active facial expressions and articulation. Today, a plywood podium with a coat of arms and a conference table covered with a heavy tablecloth remind me of the times of my youth, when the speaker muttered something under his breath, isolating himself from everyone with this specially built protection, and people in the hall chatted cheerfully, not paying attention to the report. Times change. We want to communicate with the speaker, and not just with each other, we want to see him responsible for his words, and therefore not hiding from our gaze.

Of course, there are so-called conventional speeches, when, according to tradition, we find ourselves at the podium or the podium table. You shouldn't break the rules. But more often, this kind of obstacle is simply an anachronism, a bad habit. It’s not for nothing that experienced speakers try to leave this refuge as soon as possible, and experienced organizers have long ago replaced the podium with a transparent music stand, and instead of tables, they left only chairs on the stage or completely cleared the space. Observe traditions and follow circumstances, but do not follow bad habits. Let there be no barricades between you and the listeners.

Light sources

Once in Nizhny Novgorod I had the opportunity to work in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows. One of them was located just behind the place intended for my speech. Late in the evening, my assistant and I checked the hall, prepared the materials and left. We returned at nine in the morning and I started working. However, a strange feeling immediately arose: I looked into the audience, saw people, but did not feel a response. I guessed what was going on when I invited one of the listeners to the site. The sun rose high, and its light fell through the uncurtained window so that the figure of the speaker turned in the eyes of the audience into a silhouette from a shadow theater. Neither eye expression nor facial expressions were visible.

This is one of the reasons why it is preferable to work in rooms with artificial lighting. In addition, when showing slides, it can be dimmed - this is more difficult to do with the sun.

It may happen that you are invited to perform on a stage illuminated by spotlights. No matter how many people are in the hall, you will only see vague outlines of figures. Under these conditions, it is very important not to turn into an actor and not to play while being “behind the fourth wall.” Try to address your listeners directly, communicate with them as if you see everyone clearly. Move your gaze from one end of the hall to the other, keep the first and last rows. Don't strain your eyes, just imagine that you see other people's eyes looking at you and talk to people.

Acoustics

If your voice allows you to work without a microphone, don't pick it up. The microphone distorts your timbre, sometimes makes noise and scares people. It’s difficult to move with him and awkward to gesticulate. Of course, there are models that do not need to be held in your hands - the transmitter hangs on the belt, and the clip is attached to the collar, wave your arms as much as you like - but I am a man of the old school, and therefore my verdict is this: a speaker is not a pop singer and not entertainer Can you do it without a microphone? Work without a microphone. If not, humble yourself and practice manipulating him. Here are some useful tips.

Be sure to test the microphone before starting work. If it is mounted on a stand, adjust its height. The optimal distance from the lips to the membrane is 15–20 cm, but much depends on the quality of the microphone itself. There is no ideal distance, you need to try.

If the microphone is weak and you bring it close to your mouth, then try to ensure that the membrane faces the corner of your mouth, that is, move it a little. This will reduce the “spitting” effect when pronouncing the sounds “p” and “f”.

Often the microphone begins to shake in your hand. Pay attention to how you hold it. Trembling occurs as a result of excitement and is aggravated by tension from incorrect hand placement. The shoulder must be free, and for this the arm must be lowered and the elbow must not be held suspended. Do not clench the microphone itself into a fist, but carefully clasp it with all your fingers.

You need to work with the microphone, and not be slavishly dependent on it. This is a musical instrument that, if used correctly, will strengthen and improve the sound of the voice, but if used incorrectly, it will ruin everything. You can and should move around with it, lower it and raise it, carefully turn it on and off, you can move the microphone closer to your lips or away from them, adjusting the sound volume.

Sometimes the microphone starts to whistle. Lower it down and take two or three steps to the side - after that you can continue working. It makes that noise when you accidentally point it at a speaker on your speaker system.

Use your free hand to gesture; do not wave the microphone.

Try not to put the microphone in the wrong hands, for example by giving the listener the opportunity to answer a question. I witnessed how the microphone went for a walk around the hall and the speaker lost control of the situation.

As a rule, in Russian premises the acoustics are at their best, but even an old woman can have a blast. There may be “pits” that muffle the sound.

This happened, for example, at one of the charity concerts in a small hall on Nevsky Prospekt. The presenter fell into the trap, thinking that she could be heard clearly, but the sound flew upward, and we, sitting on wooden benches in several rows, had difficulty making out the words. And only when cries of “Speak up!” were heard from all sides, the girl realized the mistake and grabbed the microphone. This is exactly the situation when it becomes necessary.

It always makes sense to check the acoustics in the hall in advance, speak a few phrases at your usual volume level in order to assess how well your voice will be heard at different ends of the hall. Ask someone to help you - stand in different parts of the room and listen.

Technical means

The main rule: never trust someone else's technology. If it is not possible to use your own projector or your own computer, be sure to test the performance of someone else’s in advance. However, it’s also worth checking your technique before the performance. You should always have a second set of cords in stock. If you have to perform with someone else’s equipment, and you do not master the art of controlling it, then carefully write down the entire sequence of keystrokes and switches on and off, and also remember all the connections.

One day we worked in a hotel with a group of top managers from a famous bank. The technology was up to par, the amplifiers alone were worth it! A local specialist set it up and showed how it works. We used both slides and videos. Everything went well, but in the evening, when we were no longer there, someone turned off the power to all the equipment and disconnected the wires. And the next morning Saturday happened, and finding a technician turned out to be very difficult...

Climate

Air conditioning is a useful thing, but it can be dangerous for us. Air-conditioned air dries out the throat, cool streams on a hot day are fraught with acute respiratory infections, and the noise of these units will periodically distract the audience. At the same time, there is nothing worse than working in a stuffy classroom. Listeners will be unable to fight the ensuing drowsiness. Therefore, it is always worth ventilating the audience in advance and allowing the air conditioner to work before the start of the performance. If the room gets hot, don't hesitate to call an unscheduled break. Not only will you please smokers, but you will also help all listeners keep themselves in working condition.

If, on the contrary, it becomes too cool in the hall, be prepared for active action.

I watched one of the speakers at international conference, held in St. Petersburg in a huge and cold university hall, he did not hesitate to invite doctors and candidates of science to stand up and repeat after him several simple movements. The participants warmed up, smiled, and the speaker successfully finished his speech in a warm, almost homely atmosphere.

Regulations, break times

Your speech should not last longer than the listeners are willing to pay attention to it. It's always better to finish a minute before someone sneaks a glance at their watch. If the rules for speaking are precisely established, then violating them means committing a crime. Listeners themselves may ask you to tell something else, but never continue on your own, without asking. If you don’t have enough time, end with the phrase: “I will be happy to continue our communication next time, but now I will briefly summarize my speech” or “In my speech, I said the main thing, and I am ready to answer questions from those interested about the details of my proposal.” break." Repeat the main idea again, finish your speech and leave the platform to applause. Never complain about lack of time, do not offend the organizers by directly or indirectly accusing them of stinginess, and do not reproach the previous speaker who stole fifteen golden minutes from you.

If you have no sense of time and you know that sometimes you lose control of it, ask the organizers in advance for help: have them seat a person in the last row with an A4-sized sheet of cardboard on which you can write the number of time remaining - five or ten minutes. At the right moment, this person will raise the sign - and you will have time to finish on time. The only problem in this case may be a situation where your assistant will be so captivated by your performance that he will forget about everything in the world.

Don't be shy about looking at your own watch. You don't sit at the table with your neighbors invited to dinner. Still, it’s better if you look at the clock and not the people in the hall.

What will happen before and after your speech?

If your speech is not the only one on the program, it is useful to know who will give what message before and after you. This will save you from unnecessary repetitions (in case the topics turn out to be too similar), and will help you come up with a bridge from one report to another. Be careful in evaluating predecessors. We have such a national disease - giving a kick to someone who has already left. How do you like this connection: “In my speech, I will not ramble on and on like the previous speaker, but will tell you the main thing”?

There are several ways to connect your speech with the previous one. For example, with the help of a compliment to his predecessor: “Vladimir Ilyich brightly and unexpectedly revealed the topic under discussion. I will try to supplement his reasoning with my ideas,” or using contrast: “You spoke about the weakness of our government, I will talk about its strength; you reproached us for our inability to solve problems, I will tell you about the problems that were solved,” or emphasizing the significance of what was said: “The conclusions made by the previous speaker make us think seriously about the reasons for what happened. My report is devoted to analyzing the situation.” If you skillfully join the speech the audience has just heard, you won’t have to sway for long and push off from the shore; your boat will already be pulled by a wave of someone else’s energy. The real problem can only be the feeling that the previous speaker was head and shoulders above. In this case, the last thing to do is to announce this to everyone: “It is very difficult for me to speak after such a magnificent speaker as Lev Davydovich. I’m afraid you won’t find my speech as interesting.” It’s better to focus your energy on your own performance and not lose heart. In the end, no one promised that everyone would be equal - someone will always be the best. It's worth admitting that.

In a competitive program, you can take into account in advance exactly how the audience will perceive you: favorably - after your partners’ speech - or warily - if your opponents have gone ahead. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. I will talk about the peculiarities of working in a complex audience a little later, in the section on interaction with listeners.

By answering the question “where?” and assessing the features of the venue for your future performance, you can take a lot into account and avoid unpleasant surprises. However, this preparation will not relieve you of the need to respond to changes that may occur. Snow sometimes occurs in June, and rain sometimes in January.

So, the first stage of the path to performance has been completed. It could take several days or several minutes. In any case, one sheet of your notebook should be completed. Just like me.

Here is a live example of preparation for a performance that took place in May 2012.

Before you take the next step, you need to give your thoughts a chance to rest in your head. All stages should be separated by a pause. As my plastic and stage movement teacher Kirill Chernozemov said, “art is not a horse, you don’t need to drive it.”

Chapter Three

Inventing content

This chapter is about the informational preparation of a speech, or, as the ancient Greeks said, “the invention of content.” The goal is to create text that fits the topic, accurately expresses the idea, and helps achieve the goal. For me, this is the most boring section in all the rhetoric textbooks I have read. I admit that due to the visceral melancholy that I experienced while plunging into the world of complex sentences, I was only able to read to the end no more than three. A textbook written simply and engagingly is a rarity these days. It seemed to me that most of them were created not to teach me to understand and speak, but to turn rhetoric into a boring and incomprehensible subject for most, incidentally providing the author with another scientific title.

By the way, when a person has nothing substantive to say, he will definitely create fog. Either he will begin to pile up meaningless reasoning, or he will begin to hide behind unnecessary terminology. I will never forget how I read books on cultural studies while preparing to take exams for graduate school. Some of them I literally looked through with the dictionary, and when I finally understood what I read, I was angry because of the time I wasted. By God, everything that was printed on a whole page easily fit into two simple sentences.

End of introductory fragment.

Jie Xuan. Military canon in one hundred chapters. – M.: Europe, 2011.

Marcus Fabius Quintilian. Twelve books of rhetorical instructions / Trans. from lat. [incomplete] A. Nikolsky. Parts 1–2. – St. Petersburg, 1834.

www. e- puzzle. ru

Text provided by the publishing house http://www.litres.ru/pages/biblio_book/?art=6187053

“Master of the word. The Mastery of Public Speaking / Igor Rodchenko”: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber; Moscow; 2013

ISBN 978-5-91657-861-4

How to make public speaking useful, meaningful and memorable? It is very important for a speaker to speak so that he is listened to and heard.

With the help of this book, you can prepare just such a speech. It contains answers to many “eternal” public speaking questions: what, where, when and how to speak, how to formulate a topic and write a speech plan, what arguments to use and how to attract the attention of listeners, how to overcome your own fears and become more confident.

The book will be useful to everyone who speaks publicly and teaches.

Igor Rodchenko Master of the word. Public speaking skills

Yegorka, who prevented me from writing this book

Preface

Someone will say: “Nonsense! Not everyone can!” No, gentlemen! In my entire professional life, I have never met a single person who was unable to speak in public. Moreover, it is often enough just to tighten the nut or tighten the chain, turn the steering wheel in the desired direction and go.

This book is about bolts, handlebars and nuts. It's about how to prepare and speak in public. At least once. And experience joy.

Igor Rodchenko

Master of the word. Public speaking skills

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by the Vegas-Lex law firm.

Yegorka, who prevented me from writing this book

Preface

This book is about bolts, handlebars and nuts. It's about how to prepare and speak in public. At least once. And experience joy.

Chapter first

Basic speaker training

Since then, I have understood forever: a speaker must be ready for anything, and first of all, for his own speech.