Refining a Speech Using Feedback from Others

Presentation for Business Communication

Part 1: Transcript for Video Presentation

The future of training is now here! Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining me this morning. I hope you all are enjoying your breakfast—and thanks to everyone who brought something to share. Now let’s get to why we’re here and what the future of training entails.

As you know, we are making changes to our training approach by incorporating digital media into the way we present and share information with our trainees. Web-based tools have a lot of appeal for all ages and can help us to overcome obstacles of time and space—so we are going to take advantage of them and use them to advance our own training power.

What we will be doing today is going through a demonstration of how these tools work, so that you can get to know them, understand, and be able to present them to your trainees. Some of these tools you will already be familiar with. Some will be new to you.

Before we begin, I’d just like to share with you my own personal experience with these new tools. I was fortunate enough to try them out recently and so I did a little run through with my family. First, I made a video introducing myself and then educating them on the necessity to keep a clean house. Second, I conducted a live video chat session with them using the Skype too in order to answer questions. Finally, I administered an online assessment and graded their comprehension of my video. It was a lot of fun and we all had a good time. These tools are easy to use, and you will master them in no time—so don’t worry about a thing. And I’m sure you’ll enjoy using them as much as I have.

Our new media tech offers us the ability to 1) make and share video tutorials, 2) host web-based training sessions, and 3) conduct web-based assessments. What does this mean for you as trainers? It means that you will be using the video recording tool to record lessons for your trainees. This will be useful in case someone is sick or in case a trainee cannot make a session. It also allows us the opportunity to do training online. It means we reduce the number of scheduled training sessions and let our trainees get the session in their own time.

We will also be learning how to host web-based sessions, which means using Skype to connect live with trainees so that you can take questions remotely during a certain period of day. Finally, we will be learning how to conduct web-based assessments. This means using the media to give and grade tests to make sure trainees have comprehended the material.

For the rest of this afternoon we will be going over these new tools. If at any time you have a question, jot it down on your notepads and I will be answering all questions at the end once the presentation is finished. Let’s get started!

Part 2: Reflection and Feedback

The approach I took to plan for the presentation was to put myself there in the room and envision the scene. I knew we would all be sharing breakfast before beginning so I wanted to make a comment about that and reinforce a positive mood by thanking those who brought something to share. I also wanted to give a good impactful opening statement, which is why I made the declaration that “future of training is now”—I wanted to get everyone’s attention with that, because people are always trying to look ahead to see what comes next. I wanted to show that this right here is what is next, so stop trying to look around. I wanted all eyes and ears on me.

I then proceeded to think about the three main points I would want to make in the presentation. What was the presentation for? What was I aiming to do? I went back to my proposal and looked at what I sent in the email. The main points I would need to address were listed there. They were:

1) Explain how to make and share video tutorials

2) Explain how to host web-based training sessions, and

3) Demonstrate how to conduct web-based assessments.

These were the main points of the training session, and so I thought it would be important to identify them at the outset. That way everyone would know what we were going to attempt to do that morning.

I rehearsed for the presentation by starting off with the opening statement. I wanted to ingrain in my mind where I was and what we had just done. So I practiced that part over and over again. Once I had it down, I moved on to the next part, which focused on the why we were there aspect, what we were going to do, and then why we were going to do it.

Finally, I practiced my presentation in front of my family because I wanted to see how I did with a real audience. I accepted their feedback afterwards and made some adjustments to my delivery based on what they said. Then, after dinner, I made the presentation again and this time their feedback was more positive as they said they could see that I had made the correct adjustments and that I was really focusing on the audience this time.

Suggestions for how I might better prepare in the future are to:

1) Highlight main points and memorize those instead of trying to memorize an entire speech.

2) Use cue cards to help remember the supporting points for each of the main points. Use these only as reminders that can be briefly scanned. Do not—I repeat—do not use them to read from.

3) Keep making eye contact with the audience, but don’t be weird about it. Make eye contact just like you would do in conversation. You don’t stare the other person down like you are in a duel. It should be familiar and easy—not aggressive or uncomfortable.

4) Invite the audience to ask questions at the end so as to keep them engaged.

Feedback I received on my verbal communication from the Discussion Board was that I had a good approach in opening the verbal communication and that I made a good opening statement. However, some felt that it could have been stronger. I don’t know how it could have been stronger though, considering the subject of the speech and what it was focusing on. I thought I gave the strongest opening possible based on the topic and what would be following.

Another piece of feedback I received was that while I started off strong, I bogged down in the middle. The main reason for this was that I was focusing too much on my words and trying to remember specifically what I wanted to say. However, as there were main points to remember I had to do this.

Finally there was feedback on my tone. They thought my tone could have improved and been made to seem friendlier. After all, if I am giving a presentation to people I know then there is no reason to act like I am a stranger to everyone. So for that reason I could stand to use friendlier tones and connect more with the audience in a more pleasant manner.