Stand and Deliver
Employers and education face similar challenges.
How do you team build when you are faced with remote working and distance learning?
How do you train, equip, reward and discuss and present the issues that face us all, both in the wider economic world of industry and commerce and the next generation soon to step into our shoes and lead the way?
How do you engage and keep everyone on point and singing from that same hymn sheet, – remember those old school assemblies and how that box was ticked? Maybe we all thought the assembly was the first traditional school ‘routine’ to be dropped in a pandemic world. It seems not.
How do you engage and keep everyone on point and singing from that same hymn sheet, – remember those old school assemblies and how that box was ticked? Maybe we all thought the assembly was the first traditional school ‘routine’ to be dropped in a pandemic world. It seems not.
The need to communicate remains; the need to instruct remains; the need to present remains; the need to inform remains. We have all grown used to a certain lack of formality in our working lives and accept that zoom and teams meeting may suffer from the odd dog barking, or cat working its way across a keyboard and how tiring when we view someone’s spare bedroom or dubious artwork. Kitchen envy anyone!
There is always a risk a lectern is going to remind us of government briefings but some people like a little bit of formality. It gives structure, direction, guidance, a focal point, a place to defer to. A place to lean on.
A place to gather your thoughts, hide your notes and your nerves, begin your public speaking career, train your colleagues. Has anyone noticed they play their part in the world of panel games too?
A place to gather your thoughts, hide your notes and your nerves, begin your public speaking career, train your colleagues. Has anyone noticed they play their part in the world of panel games too?
There is a sense of reliability about a lectern.
Maybe the need we have to ‘assemble’ goes deeper. Google the word ‘pulpit’ or ‘lectern’ for example and up come the alternatives, stump, soapbox, dais and podium. All words that interestingly carry a slightly political slant, not a religious one.
One thing is for sure, it’s a product that has stood the test of time, in some shape or form and all budding public speakers will do well to visit Buckley School and take a peak at Reid Buckley’s advice where he likens a lectern to a fort.
One thing is for sure, it’s a product that has stood the test of time, in some shape or form and all budding public speakers will do well to visit Buckley School and take a peak at Reid Buckley’s advice where he likens a lectern to a fort.
The best way to use a lectern during the speech.
“Approach it confidently and grasp it with both hands. It’s yours! Don’t hang on to it as though for dear life, however. Don’t plump one elbow down on it’s surface and lean on it so hard that the audience may be tempted to swipe one’s elbows off just to see if the whole scaffolding of the body will come down”.
Well maybe not but there is useful advice for the shorter presenter, (try not to step on a stool behind your lectern), the tall (don’t stoop and ensure you have the right glasses so you can read your notes), the academic (don’t fuss), the professional (maintain dignity and self-possession). Above all “There is no hurry. When the audience sits bated with expectancy, exploit these few seconds of suspense!”
Well maybe not but there is useful advice for the shorter presenter, (try not to step on a stool behind your lectern), the tall (don’t stoop and ensure you have the right glasses so you can read your notes), the academic (don’t fuss), the professional (maintain dignity and self-possession). Above all “There is no hurry. When the audience sits bated with expectancy, exploit these few seconds of suspense!”
Well words of wisdom for us all to have a wry smile about perhaps but for some younger ones amongst us the assembly and how it’s delivered maybe the most meaningful experience of personal address and encouragement that they receive in the course of a day. Make your message as thought-provoking and meaningful as you can with Wonderwall’s new range.