The perils of public speaking
(Let’s see if I can make all this week’s posts nostalgia-based.)
My uni course (Bachelor of Computing — Information Systems) included some business-oriented subjects, and I remember studying and practicing public speaking.
I don’t remember specifically what lessons I learnt from it, though I suspect like much in the course, the knowledge sifted into my mind in subtle ways and has been useful since then. (Though I’m not convinced PSY192 — psychology and sociology — was much use at all.)
I do remember that I really hated giving presentations at uni, and I suspect I wasn’t very good at it.
It’s still not my favourite thing to do, but hopefully I’ve improved.
Things I have learnt with more recent practice:
I’ll glance at the audience every so often to make sure they’re not falling asleep, but try not to focus too intently on them. That is, I’ll look in their direction if possible, but stare at their foreheads if they’re close by, or into an empty spot in if not.
(In this respect it’s quite different from radio or TV.)
I prepare notes, but not detailed notes. More like dot points, prompts to remind me what to talk about, but not a script. I can’t deliver from a script well — it’s likely to sound too monotonic monotonal. Everybody’s different with this I suppose. And of course not using a script means I have to know what I’m talking about.
For some indoorsy things there’s the option of a slide presentation. At uni this was done by using transparent plastic and an overhead projector, with marker pens (or a printer that could handle printing onto the plastic). These days it’s Powerpoint, but I endeavour not to overdo the animations, or the number of slides. Don’t put every single point up there, just the major ones — you don’t want the audience fixating on the slides instead of what you’re saying. The slides themselves can be the prompt for speaking from, instead of separate notes.
(At the last presentation I did, in front of hundreds of people, I goofed initially and assumed someone else was controlling the slides. Then it was pointed out the remote was sitting on the lecturn, right in front of me.)
If one has a choice, I’d probably include slides. It makes me less nervous by giving people something to focus on rather than me. And it reinforces points that people might not catch when given purely verbally.
At rallies and other outdoor events, it can be a little harder, as obviously you can’t use slides. I’ve sometimes found I veer off my notes a bit. Oh well — again, if you know your stuff, you can do that, and come up with some ad lib rhetoric that keeps the crowd happy and provides media sound bites.
(Why would you bother holding a rally if no media have been invited? You don’t want to just speak to fifty of the faithful who already believe in your cause, you want to speak to a million who you can influence.)
Ultimately when speaking publicly you do need a balance between style and substance. The best material can fall flat if delivered badly.
What speaking tips to others have?
I don’t know if any of you lot have ever been to something where I was speaking. If you have, what tips do you have for me?
Flashback to 1993
My old uni buddy Brian recently emailed through a copy of a photo from graduation day at Monash Uni, from 1993.
It was at the main Clayton campus, which we rarely actually went to in our student days, though I do recall one memorable session in the campus radio station recording a demo tape of us being comedy DJs with Nick Marvin (then student newspaper editor, now CEO of the Perth Wildcats NBL team) which, to my knowledge, never got broadcast.
Brian and I started uni in 1989. Our degree — Bachelor of Computing (Information Systems) — at Caulfield campus was meant to be three years, but Brian did Honours, and I… uhh… well, I failed a core subject in second year, and thus was a year late finishing. But I got to do some extra electives as a result which taught me some really good stuff I’ve since used in my IT career.
So we both finished in 1992, and by the time graduation day rolled around, we were colleagues, fresh-faced graduates in a small team somewhere inside the machine of corporate Australia, and travelled down to Clayton for the day to put on the gowns and silly hats and get our degrees.
Being the serious young men that we were, in the learned grounds of the campus, we took a few minutes to thoughtfully ponder what the future might hold.
(Thanks to Rae for digging out an old pic and inspiring this post.)
Right now
Right now I’ve got no blog post written for today, so here instead is Van Halen’s Right Now (1992) — one of my most favourite ever music videos.
I wouldn’t like the song half as much if it wasn’t for the video.
(Better quality copy here which can’t be embedded.)
Here’s another old music video that I like which also tries to do something a little deep with its imagery: Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s Jammin’ Me. (Note the visuals referencing Apartheid, now happily long gone, graphics from the old Amiga computer, and the Apple/Steve Jobs reference in the lyrics.)
News spreads fast
Seen on Elizabeth Street at lunchtime:
They’re special posters for the opening of the Titanic exhibition at the Melbourne Museum.
Tags: Herald Sun, Media, Melbourne Museum, Titanic
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Stuff I’ve learnt from Radio National
Often when I listen to Radio National, I’ll learn something I didn’t know before. In this case, I was listening to Saturday Extra last week.
Cutting power consumption?
One item talking about electricity efficiency noted that enormous amounts of money are being invested in distribution networks, instead of being spent on measures to cut consumption (and thus GHG emissions) so you don’t need to upgrade distribution (or at least not as much).
GERALDINE DOOGUE: In the Lend Lease proposal… they say for every dollar spent on demand management, studies have shown the need for investment in energy infrastructure is deferred or reduced by $6.50. …
TOM CAWLEY (Energy Efficiency Council): In California what they’ve done is spent a lot of the money that would be spent on the electricity infrastructure on energy efficiency. And it’s easy to do in California because the power companies are vertically integrated. That is that the same company owns the power station, owns the power lines, and owns the retailers. We don’t have that situation in Australia…
GERALDINE DOOGUE: Keith Orcharison, who’s been a very prominent commentator over many years, writing in Business Spectator last week wrote something I think most of us wouldn’t know: that there will be forty to fifty billion outlayed in the next four to five years on distribution and transmission network systems. …
TOM CAWLEY: There’s no business case for the distributors to spend money on energy efficiency. There’s no structure for them to do that. … The other problem here is that with energy efficiency, you’re talking about [spending] at the point of use. Now, if demand keeps growing, then they need to keep spending money on infrastructure to deliver that energy. The idea is that if we can spend that money at the usage point, then we can reduce the demand.
So basically the electricity industry is structured in such a way that they can’t do the sensible thing and spend those billions on making electricity consumption more efficient; instead they have to assume demand will grow and so all that money goes into building capacity to distribute more power.
That’s just silly.
The mining “super tax”
Who coined the phrase “super tax” in its current context (that is, a proposed 40% tax on “super profits” on the mining sector)? According to a search of Google News (hardly the most scientific method, I know) It appears to have been Joe Hockey, shadow treasurer, quoted in an AAP report on April 24th.
With a nickname like that, it’s no wonder the mining companies joined in.
But it was interesting to hear the Financial Review’s Laura Tingle talking about it — both the negatives and the positives, which haven’t really got an airing:
LAURA TINGLE: The resources we’ve got in the ground are a finite item, they’re owned by all of us, and therefore when people go to buy them, you should try to get a return to the taxpayer for that…
There is a very potent argument to say… well, even if it does slow the pace of resources development a bit, that’s not a bad thing because we’ve got infrastructure problems, skilled workforce problems flowing from the resources boom in the rest of the economy, and it helps even-out the level of activity across the economy, so you don’t have interest rates rising, you don’t have the exchange rate making the rest of business uncompetitive.
(The issues around infrastructure were echoed the other day on 774 when the editor of The Weekly Times, I forget his name, noted that rail transportation of grain had dropped markedly, in part because so many grain hopper carriages are elsewhere serving the mining industry instead.)
And Tingle made the point that the government’s done an absolutely hopeless job attempting to tell people what the benefits are, so it’s not surprising that the Opposition and the mining companies have dominated the debate.
It’d be nice to see this debate become a little less one-sided. It’s hard to gain an informed view when one side is completely dominating.
Lord Jesus Christ hit by a car
No, really.
‘Lord Jesus Christ’ struck by car in Northampton
…
Police responded at around 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday to investigate an incident where a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle while he was in a Main Street crosswalk, Savino said. The man was hurt, but conscious, and handed police his identification, Savino said.“He was identified from a Massachusetts ID card, so that is his legal name,” Savino added. The card listed his name as Lord Jesus Christ, Savino said.
…The hospital said no one named Christ was a patient there today. Efforts to find a home phone number for Christ were unscuccessful.
It’s not hard to see why this was considered newsworthy, at least in the Quirky News department.
The Boston Globe couldn’t track him down, but the CBS News did manage to interview him.
Given Christ’s Very Large haircut, the car driver (who was in the wrong) must have really zoned out not to spot him.
(Found via Probably Bad News)
Understandable reaction
A Melbourne “miracle baby” who escaped death when his pram rolled into the path of an oncoming train has celebrated his first birthday.
No doubt, the baby was incredibly lucky not to be killed. If you haven’t seen it, check out the video — it’s just amazing. I hope the train driver, who I would think must have been traumatised, has also recovered.
But this paraphrased quote from the mother caught my eye:
Despite the positive outcome, Shweta has not taken her son near a train station since the accident and is now learning to drive.
– The Age
It’s an understandable reaction. Such a traumatic incident would have anybody wondering how they could possibly avoid such a situation in the future.
But the implication here is that driving is somehow safer than catching a train. It isn’t. Not by a long shot.
While what happened to Shweta and her son must have been an absolutely horrific thing to live through, as I’ve written before, driving is far more dangerous than rail travel: about 5 times as dangerous, whether measured by passenger kilometres or passenger hours.
(Indeed, passenger rail fatalities are so low that the debate of safety on trains is concentrated almost solely on personal safety and crime.)
How to replace a 2000 Astra car key battery
My car key remote went flat.
This is a major pain when one is used to the joys of remote key locking. Having to go to the door with the keyhole every time and fumble to get the key into it — bleuch.
I assumed that like most things in the world of cars, I’d have to take the key to a dealer and get some kind of specialist to open it up and replace it with a non-standard Holden battery not generally available to the public, all costing a small fortune of course.
I shouldn’t be so cynical.
A little Googling found the solution (with various steps in a couple of different places, so I’m compiling it all here for future reference). It was as simple as:
1. Carefully wedge open the key with a screwdriver
2. Ease out the old battery, and put in a new one (watch battery type CR3032)
3. Put the key back together
4. Resync the key with the car, by turning the key in the ignition (so the lights, radio etc comes on; no need to actually start the car) and press the button on the key. The locks will trigger.
Done!
Tags: Astra, batteries, cars, keys
16 comments
