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Of all the many places and spaces in which you could give a speech, which would you prefer?
A packed concert hall with dim lighting, a stationary microphone, and your image blown up and broadcast on several huge monitors
A church basement in a circle of roughly twenty other people who are sipping coffee and wearing jeans
The stairs of a courthouse in the middle of December, speaking to a group of politically like-minded activists
As you can see, all of these locales come with various positive and negatives facets based on you and your own personal proclivities. The concert hall might be the most attractive location for someone who's well-versed in public speaking, while a newbie would prefer a small, casual group as outlined in the second scenario. Many speakers would shy from the third option, simply because of the potential for inclement weather.
After all, there's nothing like informing people about the dangers of global warming while struggling to keep the snow out of your eyes—and mouth.
While it might not be at the forefront of your thoughts when preparing a speech, the place in which you'll be speaking has a lot to do with how successful you can be. Because every different location offers its own benefits and detriments, it's a best practice just to be as informed as possible before entering a public speaking situation.
And to be frank, any space—no matter how well equipped or personally comfortable to the speaker—can foster a hostile or disinterested audience. Fortunately, we've got some details from a professional on managing space and hostility with grace and ease.
Scott Berkun's kind of our personal hero right now, if we hadn't already made that clear in prior units.
KNOW YOUR PLACE
As we mentioned briefly in Lesson 1, having a good notion about the physical space in which you're going to give a speech is an essential part of adequately preparing for the event.
Every possible place one can give a speech—from a lecture hall to a street corner—is going to have its own set of challenges, and a good speaker won't only be able to identify said challenges, they'll use them to their advantage.
Take a few minutes to read the article, "Speaking Contexts That Affect Delivery."
In this, we'll get all of the following:
Using lecterns (ahh—something to hide behind!)
Speaking in small or large physical spaces
Speaking outdoors
Using a microphone
Audience size
These topics should all look at least vaguely familiar, so no surprises here. Make sure you take a look at the "Key Takeaways" and even consider the "Exercises" at the very end of the article.
While we're certainly not going to force you to go watch a speech in an outdoor setting, it's something to consider if you're serious about improving your public speaking skillz.
AUDIENCE: TAMING THE BEAST
It's time once again to pull out the Berkun.
We're going to be reading a chapter from Confessions of a Public Speaker. Chapter Four, "How To Work a Tough Room," is going to give us some valuable insight into the importance of knowing how to speak in varied physical locations.
Naturally, Berkun offers loads of personal examples—and some seriously cringe-worthy circumstances—for our reading delight, so make sure you read the whole chapter.
As you go, think about and even note on the following queries:
What can you do if the space in which you're about to give a speech doesn't match the size of the audience?
How can you overcome environmental factors that might affect your speech?
What types of cues from the audience can help you to feel on track, as a speaker? As an audience member, how can you assist a speaker in feeling validated and comfortable?
This chapter's about fourteen pages long, but it's light reading and we imagine you'll beast through it in no time.
CPS ch 4.pdfRESISTANCE IN ACTION
Before we wrap up this lesson, let's check out a couple of very short videos that discuss how to deal with a tough audience. The first video comes from the founder and president of Prestige Leadership Advisors, Joe Yazbeck, and is simply called "Managing a Difficult Audience."
Yazbeck describes what happens when a speaker puts up resistance to a challenging audience, and tells us about something called the "Teflon effect." Go ahead and watch this video now.
Finally, check out "Public Speaking Tips: How to Handle Difficult Audiences," from speaker, author, media trainer, speech coach and certified speech pathologist Diane DiResta. DiResta came up with what she terms the "3D Strategy." Intrigued? Excellent. Watch and learn.
Concluding Thoughts
Concluding Thoughts
In this lesson, we've touched on a number of important ideas and public speaking strategies. Prior to this lesson, you may not have given much (or any) thought to how the space in which you're speaking can influence your entire presentation. We've no doubt that this will consistently be a consideration going forward. In fact, you'll probably have the annoying habit of looking up from the menu and saying things like, "Huh. This Olive Garden wouldn't actually be such a bad place to speak. Nice acoustics."
Additionally, you're not equipped with at least a handful of strategies that you can employ when faced with a troublesome, bored, or contentious audience. Even the best public speakers on the planet run up against problems with the group to whom they're speaking—it's going to happen to all of us at some point. Knowing how to go with the flow and introduce humor into our speeches can help lessen the overall impact that negative audiences might otherwise have.
You can't win 'em all, but you can sure make the process easier on yourself.
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