The Truth About Public Speaking (and the Media) Blog

The Hows and Whys of Lifelong Learning

A brief follow up to yesterday's treatise on the need for lifelong learning: It is important to recognize what style of learning suits you best.

For example, the preparation questionnaire I send to media training participants asks whether they would rather learn something new by watching a video, listening to a podcast or CD, reading a book or article, or having a discussion. This gives me some idea how to begin to structure a lifelong learning program for them. During their workshop, I am monitoring for added clues (both verbal and nonverbal) related to their preferred methods.

If you plan to participate in such a workshop, make sure that future learning will not be ignored. On the rare occasion when a workshop leader recommends added skill development, he or she often stops at suggesting a book or two. But not everyone holds the same learning style. If you, for instance, tend to be more visual, you may learn more readily by viewing videos but dread reading a book. If, on the other hand, you are auditory, podcasts may be for you.

The point here is to stop and consider how you like to learn. It will be more fun and, therefore, you will approach lifelong learning more readily if you are working in a medium for which you have a natural affinity.

Defining Lifelong Learning

To many individuals, lifelong learning means nothing more than free public university courses for senior citizens. This definition needs a tweak.

I am all in favor of extending knowledge for those over 60 years of age. But the lifelong learning process should be viewed in a much broader context. All of us who are no longer engaged in formal education -- which means most people beyond their early to mid-20s -- need to pay particular attention to our own ongoing education, both in a personal and a professional sense. Personal growth I will leave up to you. My concern here is with continued professional growth.

We can no longer rely on our employers providing us all the tools we may need to cope with the ever-changing job market. And we certainly cannot count on them to constantly reinforce our learning with so-called "soft skills" like public speaking or dealing with the press. Even those organizations that spring for a formal workshop may do so only once (a big mistake).

That is why I emphasize the value of lifelong learnaing in every media training, presentation skills, and witness preparation workshop I lead. My clients tell me that I am a proficient educator when it comes to communications skills. Regardless, I cannot magically produce a significantly better spokesperson in a single day. What I can offer is some valuabale messaging advice and some important skills rehearsal. And, perhaps of greater importance, I can begin to set each individual on a course for continued improvement.

Today's world demands education -- both formal and informal -- beyond our college years. That is how we should view lifelong learning.

And You Thought Five Minutes Was Quick

Many experts who have not previously testified before a Congressional committee are stunned to learn they have only five minutes to get their message across. True, there is usually a Q&A session that extends their time for a bit (assuming they have generated enough interest for questions to be directed towards them). And you can supply beaucoup material in the written testimony. But it remains true that five minutes is not much time.

Well, that five minutes can seem like a luxury compared to some local jurisdictions. Every now and then a story pops up about a locality that has placed time limits on citizen participation, most recently in Great Falls, Montana, where the limit at the end of each meeting is three minutes.

It's a tough call for elected officials who want to facilitate public input, but face increasingly long meetings. When I served on my town's Planning Commission a number of years ago, we had a five-minute limit, but the chair was normally flexible. If few people wanted to speak, he would often let them exceed that time frame provided they did not attempt to abuse it (I can only recall shutting down one person -- a developer who proved to be a serial abuser of this privilege).

Be aware of any limits placed on public comments whenever you plan to appeal to your lawmakers or regulators, be they municipal, county, state, or federal.

So What?!

I was reminded of one of the important questions to anticipate from a reporter while attending a presentation last week.

Most of us recall the five Ws:

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?

To be sure, many folks forget to add "How?" to that list. But wait. There's one other question that is even more frequently ignored: "So what?"

If, during your messaging sessions, you neglect to address the "So what?" issue, you could find yourself in a heap of trouble. Yes, any reporter wants the basics outlined by the five Ws (and the one H). But it is absolutely essential that you prepare to explain the "So what?" that goes to the heart of why your issue, project, or product should matter to readers, listeners, or viewers. If you cannot explain briefly why your initiative makes a difference, it is probably not worthy of newsprint or broadcast time.

Let's Play Reporter

Remember the fun you had as a kid indulging your fantasies? Whether you pretended to be a firefighter, nurse, or other occupation (yes, even a cowboy!), you got to figure out for yourself what it would be like to walk in that person's shoes. Why give up the fun -- and the learning -- just because you are an adult?

Before your next media interview, play a mental role reversal game and pretend you are the reporter. I sometimes turn to an exercise when leading media training workshops that allows participants to do just that. This is especially helpful when one or more of the trainees expresses some skepticism about how hard it is to report the news.

Imagine what it would be like to research an issue about which you may know little. What sources of information would you use? Would you first conduct an online search or would you contact experts in the field?

With your research complete (at least for the moment), it's time to arrange interviews so you can get some juicy quotes. How many phone calls do you think it will take to set up that key conversation? Will sources be cooperative or not? In the end, will you be able to meet your deadline?

Once the interviews begin, what questions would you ask? And how would you prioritize them since your interview subjects are likely to be pressed for time? Is there a certain style of questioning you should take? For instance, should you be confrontational or friendly? Take on the role of know-it-all or play it clueless?

Deadlines again come into play once you commence writing -- do you have time to do justice to the issue? Or do you have to settle for the good vs. the perfect? Is that cranky editor breathing down your neck too much of a distraction?

Game this scenario in your mind as you prepare to meet the media. Tap those skills of imagination we all had as kids and use them to benefit your interactions with reporters in your adult life.

Make Summer News, Set Autumn Plans Now

The summertime slowdown is upon us. But that doesn’t mean giving up on your media outreach plans.

Just because the phone stops ringing and your e-mail inbox is a bit less crowded in July and August is no excuse to kick back at the office with a glass of iced tea and a good book. The good old summertime presents the perfect opportunity on two fronts.

First, take advantage of the lull in activity to plan your fall initiatives. If you wait until Labor Day to begin strategizing, you run the risk of falling behind the competition. Start getting your cool weather ducks in a row right now. For instance, decide what media campaigns you will undertake, and allocate the responsibilities. Assign everything from message crafting to spokesperson roles. And set your media training dates now before calendars fill up.

Second, realize that advance planning is not the only step to take during the dog days. Sure, the summer months tend to be slower news times, and reporters, like everyone else, tend to schedule vacations now. But rest assured the nation’s newsrooms are far from empty. Those left behind are often starving for good stories. So feed them.

The odds are your rivals are lazier than you are. If you can pitch even a moderately interesting story idea, it can be fairly easy to earn some hot weather ink or air time.

The Places in Between

Picture yourself in Afghanistan in 2002, approximately one year after U.S. troops stormed the country and knocked out the Taliban. Sounds like a pretty dangerous place, right?

Now picture yourself walking across Afghanistan, vulnerable not just to political vagaries, but to unknown terrain, wintertime elements, and bad food and the ill effects it casts on your body. That was the endeavor undertaken by Scotsman Rory Stewart and reported in his book, The Places in Between.

I admit to knowing little about Afghanistan other than it being a mountainous nation that has been at war for decades and grows lots of poppies for the drug trade. Stewart changed all that.

Here in the U.S. the dispatches we hear from Afghanistan focus on wartime skirmishes. And to be sure, that aspect plays a part in Stewart’s book. But the author paints such a rich picture of the people and the everyday hardships they face, some war-related, some not.

Traveling from village to village, he was able to count on the hospitality of his Afghan hosts. Sometimes with a warm welcome and sometimes reluctantly, they took him in and housed and fed him. He did pay a price for his daily bread (sometimes all there was to eat) and meat—a stomach ailment that left him weak, but still able to continue the trek.

His account of his journey from the city of Herat, near the Iranian border, to the capital of Kabul is an utterly fascinating story. He carried only a walking stick, the clothes on his back, and a backpack with some basic foodstuffs. Most of his trip was done solo, with the exception of times he was accompanied, following local traditions, by guides who walked with him to the next village.

Though warned countless times that the trip was too dangerous, he forged on, refusing rides from well-meaning (and perhaps not so well-meaning) troops and international medical personnel. Stewart did make one concession to safety, choosing to take a shorter but more meteorologically treacherous mountain route and eschewing a better traveled road that could pose more political danger. That resulted in only a few reports of his feeling threatened by Taliban sympathizers, but many passages that detail the need to slog through two-foot deep snow fields.

The Places in Between has little to do with our world of television interviews, new product pitches, and podcasts. It is, quite simply, an eye-opening story about a country—and its people—with which all Americans should familiarize themselves.

De Rigueur for a News Briefing

It is not easy being a White House spokesperson. Witness the grilling Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino received earlier this week when questioned about Vice President Cheney's assertion that he is not part of the executive branch as he attempts to sidestep certain disclosure rules.

Even when faced with a challenging (or, as many would argue in this instance, an indefensible) position, the spokesperson must be ready for such questions and prepared with a line of messaging that addresses the issue. Yes, he or she may choose to bridge away from the questioner's viewpoint, but that strategy also must be practiced in advance.

Unfortunately for Perino, her "You have me thoroughly confused" quote is the sound bite that will live on. See the video on YouTube.

Media Training Inquiries

A quick follow up to yesterday's rumination about the increased need for media training among upper and mid-level managers: Don't let yourself be the type of organization that fails to come up with a logical plan for educating your spokespeople to the whys and wherefores of dealing with the press or public speaking.

Such endeavors need to be approached from an educational perspective. I admit to no little frustration when I get a call from a potential client and the first question is how much does media training cost. In fact, during my 10 years owning Barks Communications, I have found that when the first question is about money, the request tends not to be serious. If, however, the conversation begins with talk of a needs assessment, the organization usually gets it.

Here is my answer when asked up front for costs: I have no idea since I have no clue what your needs are. This is usually met with stunned silence on the other end of the line. I understand my response may sound flippant, but it is honest.

What are some of the questions that factor into planning for a media training, presentation skills training, or legislative testimony training?

• How many people need to be educated? It often turns out that, while a potential client says it wants to train only the president, others also have great responsibility for speaking to the press or before the public yet little idea how to do so.
• What is their level of seniority? Is this a group of experienced spokespeople or newly minted managers who need a soup to nuts primer?
• Why do you believe they need training as opposed to some other type of educational approach? This question often stops people dead in their tracks.
• Have you already developed messages or are you expecting me to do most of it? If organizational messages are airtight, that means I have less to do. If they are scattershot or non-existent, that means some heavy lifting ahead.
• Are you looking for a one-off type of session or a long-term educational relationship? I hate one-offs. Oh, I do them (better me than someone else if the client is determined to pursue this losing approach), but I always explain the pitfalls of expecting any significant improvement in a single day. The learning may stick for a few days, but the long-range benefits will prove slim.

Don't let anyone -- whether it is someone inside your organization or an external consultant -- wrestle you into the position of accepting the need for a stock half-day or full day of training. If they don't ask questions that lead to a discussion of your specific needs, they are not doing you any favors.

Podcasts and YouTube: Are You Ready?

Not so long ago, dealing with the media meant deciding such issues as whether your campaign should revolve around local or national press, print vs. electronic reporters, etc. No longer.

With the advent of new communications tools like webcasts, podcasts, vodcasts, and personal video, more and more individuals find themselves in the public spotlight. On one hand, this creates added opportunities for any organization. Yet it also clearly poses added risk.

The days when only your CEO or vice president of communications talked to the media are over. Sure, they should remain front and center when you launch a major initiative or reach out to big media players. But asking them to deal with all the new communications channels means stretching them far too thin. Hence, the need for directors and managers to become more heavily and more directly involved in your organization's media relations efforts.

That means media training is no longer the exclusive domain of the C-level suite. Any organization hoping for long-term success now must include other upper as well as mid-level personnel in its media training plans.