'Bring-on-the-worst': a role play activity to build resilience
Developing skills to successfully manage public speaking fear
What do you think would happen if all the variations on what we fear most about public speaking was made the center of attention? And then, if we worked our way through them, one by one, what would be the outcome?
Would we run screaming for the hills? Or would something else happen. Something magical.
Here’s a role play activity I call ‘Bring-on-the-worst’. In essence it’s resilience training for fear filled public speakers and the results can be extraordinary. I’ve outlined the core activity and two variations.
Feeling the fear & the spiral of negativity
You will know the expression ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’. You will also know it means facing up to and acknowledging whatever it is that is challenging you. The thing making you feel frightened. Scaring you silly.
For many that challenge is public speaking—standing up in front of people to talk. It’s being the undivided focus of attention. Having all those eyeballs looking, all those ears listening. And all those minds thinking things which, we are convinced, are critical of us. We assume they think we’re incapable. That we’re making a fool of ourselves and that we should stop speaking immediately because every word we say is making it worse.
Once a downward spiral of negativity starts spinning it’s tricky to stop. Its momentum pushes it on.
One humiliating experience can be enough to create an indelible impression which is reactivated and heightened whenever having to speak in public comes around again. Unchallenged, it can rapidly become overwhelming.
Challenging fear
Here’s one way to put the brakes on – to slow and halt the downward dive and to show the speaker how they can actively control their responses to something going sideways like, for instance, dropping their note cards or somebody laughing loudly in the wrong place.
It’s a powerful exercise which, to be effective, needs to done well before a presentation deadline and repeated relatively regularly to establish a new pattern of behavior.
Bring-on-the-worst (resilience training) role plays
The goal of this activity (and its variations) is to take the power out of any of the most feared things happening to us while we are speaking. Its magic lies in actively seeking each of them out ahead of an important public presentation, and rehearsing handling them effortlessly and effectively.
For instance, if we freeze and temporarily can’t remember what comes next, instead of the situation becoming worse and worse as we stumble about hopelessly, we stop. We don’t panic. Instead, we take a deep breath, pause while we internally count slowly to three, and in doing so give ourselves a chance to recover before continuing.
Who is this activity for?
I’ve used it successfully with students of middle-school age and upwards.
What’s needed to play it?
You need a largish space in which you can have multiple small groups working at once.
A large white board and markers.
Version One
This is the introductory whole class teacher-led version.
Part one:
Begin with an explanation establishing the reasons and benefits for tackling public speaking fear head on. Then ask what scares them most. Write their answers on the whiteboard.
If they’re reticent, sharing a brief story of your own could help to get them started.
As an example, here’s one from me.
I am 15 years old, very shy, tall for my age, and acutely self-conscious. Our English teacher has set creative writing exercise, and we have to read our pieces, one by one, to the whole class. The walk to the front of the classroom is agony. Some of the boys snigger seeing my embarrassment. I can scarcely read what I’ve written because I am so anxious. Neither can I look anywhere other than at my notes or the floor. I mumble, blush and stammer.
I was terrified of being the focus of everyone’s attention and being judged. Now what about you? What scares you most about public speaking? Let’s hear it, and let’s write them all up where everyone can see them.
You’re not looking for solutions yet – just the fears.
If you need to, prompt. What if they laugh in the wrong place? What happens if I lose my place? Or what happens if building fire alarm goes off?
Stop when you think you’ve got everything that could realistically happen covered.
Part two:
Break into small groups of 3 – 5.
Have all groups working simultaneously. This will help people feel less self-conscious and conspicuous.
Each group nominates a speaker to begin. The speaker stands as if giving a presentation.
Next, another person in the group gives the speaker the fear they have to deal with – e.g. people can’t hear you because you are speaking too softly.
The speaker begins talking very softly about anything at all – how they got to school that morning, their favorite dinner, the weather... It even could be a repetition of ‘blah’, ‘blah’, ‘blah’. The other group members begin fidgeting as if they are straining to hear.
After 30-45 seconds, the speaker stops.
The question for the group to answer is how speaking too softly can be positively handled?
One person may say by speaking loudly. Another may say by asking if everyone in the audience can hear them easily and using the answers they get to increase their volume. Yet another may recommend using a mic.
The speaker trials one or two of the suggestions for about 30 seconds each and evaluates them.
What do they think of the recommendations they have been given? Will they work? Is one better than the others?
Part 3:
The speaker nominates the next speaker and the person who nominated the fear to tackle, nominates the next person to choose a fear for the new speaker to work worth.
Repeat until each person in the group has a turn being the speaker.
Part 4:
Bring everyone back together for a feedback round. Ask what fears were covered and what the solutions were. Which solutions seemed more workable and better than others? How could they be effectively rehearsed to avoid panicking?
Bring-on-the-worst version two
This is whole class activity, requiring enough lead-time for the students taking on the speaker roles to have familiarized themselves thoroughly with what they are being asked to do.
Ask for 3 or 4 students to take the fears mentioned most frequently when your class did version one and demonstrate how they can be handled successfully in front of the class. They will need to speak for at least between one-two minutes. The first minute is to set the scene and establish the fear. The second is to show how it can be successfully met.
To make the experience more useful ask the audience to respond to what the speaker is doing. For instance, if the fear is not being able to make eye contact, then allow/encourage the audience to switch off – to stop listening. Then as the speaker begins to make eye contact encourage them to show they’re paying attention. Perhaps they’ll sit up straighter. Maybe they’ll smile or nod their head as they follow what the speaker is saying.
Feedback
When each student concludes their demonstration have a feedback round and include the speaker. How did they feel about what they did? What would they do differently? What did the students watching learn? Could they see themselves using what they saw?
Version Three
Offer the opportunity to experience what it’s like to deal successfully with the challenge they fear the most in front of their class to any student who wants it. If there’s a rush of people wanting to do it schedule two or three at a time to avoid the exercise losing its impact through seeing too many speakers in one session.
Follow each speaker with a brief feedback round.
This activity is part of a bundle of exercises I am in the throes of preparing for teachers to help their students find the strength they need to stand and speak with confidence in front of others. It includes the one in last week’s newsletter on time lining. The goal is a complete resource: activities, guidelines plus printables, similar to my ebook of public speaking games.
If you have suggestions for material you’d like to see please tell me. And your feedback is most welcome.
Aroha nui, *(The link goes to the NZ Maori Dictionary. You’ll find the definition: ‘much love, with deep affection’, and an audio clip of the words.)
Susan
PS. If you found this beneficial, feel free to share it and click the ❤️ button so more people can discover it on Substack. 🙏Thank you.
PPS. Have your tried ‘Permission to Speak Badly’ with your students? It’s a perfect companion exercise to this one, and a whole lot of ridiculously silly laugh-out-loud fun.