Week 35: Talking too Fast

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?”

Rumi

Some trainers, despite having sound content knowledge, fail in their presentations, because of their over speed in delivery. Once they start, they go on talking. Thoughts do not flow from them but are poured by them. One can see the rush of thoughts. One can feel the anxiety in the speaker to send out everything they know.

When such trainers are taking their session, trainees may get all the feelings of passengers in vehicle driven by a very rash and negligent driver. Such trainers don’t stop, don’t take break. They don’t even give a pause. They don’t give time to the audience to comprehend the information given by them. 

Such speakers have only two goals: “One is to begin and the other is to end.” They try to fill in what all they know, in between the two. They are not bothered to know what exactly is required to be delivered. Their tension is all about “how much of information I can place before the trainees?”

It is more about quantity than about quality. They do not work on the ‘need assessment’. They do not make a sincere effort to know the capacity of the receivers. They try to expand the objective of the session, sometimes of the training also. They are more focused on conveying everything they know or assume to be knowing about the subject. They want to impress upon the audience that they are equipped with abundance of  knowledge. 

Many a times they are focused only on delivery of information. They suddenly get to read or know some information about the topic, or remotely connected with the topic under consideration, may be just few hours before the session, or in the training hall, or on the previous night, and yet, they try to deliver that information to the trainees. They do not work on it, they do not try to understand it or internalize it, but they compel themselves to transfer the information to the trainees very recently acquired by them. They collect some points  from some articles, texts, net etc., and try to connect the dots and deliver. If confronted by the trainees, they start giving explanations, justifications, without any logic, reasoning and understanding of the concept.

They tilt their head many a times. They shake their bodies. Number of movements of hands goes on increasing. They walk on the stage with anxiety from one end to the other. Many a times trainees are seen enjoying the shadow of such trainers on the wall of the training hall. Often trainees can hear the sound of their movements. The volume of voice goes on increasing. Sometimes, it becomes shrill. Often the trainees get a feeling that the trainer is screaming. At times they struggle hard to gasp their breath. At times even the sound of their breath also gets heard. Trainers can see how fast such trainers are breathing. At times saliva falls from their mouth. In their haste to write something on the board, the easel falls down. They remove their spectacles often and in their anxiety wear the same upside down.

Every single thing they do catches the attention of the trainees. But nothing the trainer has said gets into the mind or heart of the trainees. Some of the trainees get stressed. They start getting a feeling “why are we unable to understand what the trainer is telling? Is our level of comprehension so low?” Some may get a different feeling and may start questioning themselves ‘who asked this trainer to come and stand in front of us with such anxiety stress and tension?’

Reasons for the tragedy

1. “Trainer not having control over his/her urge to talk”
2. Trainer not having control over the speed of delivery.
3. Trainer not concerned about remaining connected with the audience.
4. Trainer not having mastered the required skills of communication of a trainer.

SOME SUGGESTED STEPS

1. One can start reading aloud, a passages from any book, or from the notes on any topic related to mediation, using appropriate pace and pause. Request someone to hold a card with letters “SLOW” written in bold. Request that person to show the card whenever the reading is very fast.
2. The same process can be adapted, while the trainer gives a presentation before the co-trainers. One of the co-trainers will show the card to the trainer who is speaking too fast.
3. Work on learning the importance of punctuation, pace, pause, break, silence etc.
4. Work on segmentation (one of the four quarters of presentation).
5. Work on time management.
6. Work on the principle of ‘rule of three’, and identify what is the best one can present within the available time, without being under pressure of any kind.
7. Understand that ‘communication is more about connecting’.
8. Focus on delivering only what is required to be delivered.
9. Watch video recording of presentation and as an observer find out the flaws.
10. Request lead trainer and co-trainers and some trainees to give their fair feedback.

“The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven’t thought of yet.”

Anna Landers

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(All copyrights reserved by the author S.Susheela)