Let's talk about rehearsal. Again.
Because I think we've got the main reason for doing it wrong.
Why rehearse? Or practice a presentation?
The common answer, and one I use myself, is because we want to ensure that we perform or present the very best we can.
What’s less frequently asked is what’s driving the desire to do well? I think it’s an important question. I also think there are three possible answers or points of view, that they overlap, and that we are wrongly, and overly, preoccupied with one of them.
Rehearsal for self-preservation
The thinking goes the more practice we do the more familiar we are with the content we want to deliver. Therefore, the less likely we are to reach a precipice – one of those yawning black gaps that gets deeper and wider as we struggle to find the words we want. Then whoops, suddenly we’ve fallen over its edge and down into the overwhelming despair of ‘I’ve forgotten what comes next’. Followed by panic. Followed by more panic, and then, get-me-out-here shame.
Similarly, we address our body language while delivering our speech: how we look, the clothes we wear, and the props or visual aids we use. And again, it’s in order to avoid the possible public humiliation of being seen to be less than effective, which we know is an irresistible open invitation to criticize, censure and ridicule.
That’s one point of view. It’s mostly about fear and self-preservation: me – me maintaining status, authority, and credibility in the eyes of others – the audience.
What it misses out entirely are two more: considering rehearsal from the point of view of the audience, and from the point of view of our material.
Rehearsal for the audience
If we rehearsed with an audience uppermost in our minds, what would that change? Would it shift a preoccupation with ourselves – our feelings, our thoughts, our fear, our possible breakdown and public humiliation?
What would happen if we said, I am rehearsing because I want to make sure I am the best prepared I can possibly be in order to give you, my audience, the very best presentation I can? Because you deserve the best.
Why?
Because you are giving me the honor of your undivided attention.
Because you are giving me a slice of your life – a segment of all the time you have on this earth – time you’ll never have again.
Because you have come specifically and purposefully to this place at this time to see and hear what I have to share.
Because you have placed your trust in me that I will meet your understandable and reasonable expectations.
Could that be enough to motivate us to thoroughly rehearse? Because we value, respect and honor our audiences? Because rehearsal equalizes an unwritten social contract? That an audience comes prepared and ready to listen. And that a presenter comes prepared and ready to deliver what they expect to hear.
Rehearsal for the content
Let’s shift the focus again and consider the content – that which is being presented.
If we think about the most effective way to deliver it, in order that the audience receives it the way we want them to, ‘me’, ‘I’, is no longer our principal concern.
‘I’ am now of lesser importance. What I think or feel is secondary to finding the right way to share the material. I have become the carrier, the conduit. I serve the story, and through serving the story, serve the audience. My focus is now on ensuring I am a fit vessel to do the job well.
On a practical level that means working on all the delivery skills that come together and combine to support effective presentation: breath work, articulation, enunciation, vocal variety – pitch, tone, pace, and pause, and body language.
Thorough, honest rehearsal – not ‘the slap-dash’, ‘once-over-lightly’, ‘she’ll be right kind’, addresses and respects both the content and your audience.
When that’s in place, the sense of having to continually fight to keep fear at bay, lessens. Because, actually, it’s not all about us. And it never was. (Something it’s taken me a long time to learn! ☺)
What do you think?
Susan
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A thoughtful piece about rethinking our motivations to give a great speech. Thanks for sharing this perspective.