Noteworthy Accomplishments (of Note)

May 24, 2010 in Blog, Influence with 1 Comment

Certainly if you only have one point, then keeping your talk organized is going to be a little bit easier.  But I’ve found it’s still a great idea to use some sort of notes to keep your thoughts in order and moving forward. One of the biggest challenges I face as a communicator is the desire I have to over-communicate, to chase tangents.  It’s not a bad thing, necessarily.  We want to provide a fuller picture of what we’re discussing, so we jump from topic to topic.

Notes keep you focused on the simple point you’re making.

How do you decide what kind of notes to use?  I started out using an outline, but I’ve since moved to manuscript (where I type out my entire talk).  I’m more comfortable with the manuscript because – after I’ve practiced several times – I can follow it easily.  Even better, if I have a thought or point I want to express in a particular way, with a certain wording, I have it written (or sometimes bolded) in my manuscript.  If you’re a visual person, try the strategy another friend of mine uses.  He draws a series of pictures that illustrate the flow of his thoughts.

What matters is that you find an easy way to keep your thoughts focused.

Do you use notes?  What are some tips you’ve found for keeping yourself on track and on task when you communicate?
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  • http://pomoxian.com Henry Imler

    My situation is quite a bit different than yours. Instead of giving 1 30 min talk a week, I'm giving 6-10 45 minute talks per week, as an adjunct instructor. But, I am heavily vested in good, retentive communication. For giving occasioned talks, I find your method wonderful. Writing out the whole message gives one the template from which one can deviate.

    In my case, I wasn't able to do all the prep work needed, as I found myself teach four classes for the first time a week or two before they started. However, I will be giving these talks again and again to new sets of students. I don't know if what follows is good or not, but it's what I found workable.

    The first time I teach a class, I draft out pretty detailed powerpoints, the bane of good talks. This allows me to give them a note-taking aide and to almost write out my thoughts as you prescribe above. I hand out printouts of the slides; one easy days, there'll be holes where the students need to fill in important datum and on harder days, I give them everything, because they'll need focus and interaction to keep up.

    When I do talk, I just occasionally glance at the powerpoints - something I don't recommend, but was a necessary evil this last semester.

    The second time through a class, I'll retain the original power points as my lecture notes. Then, I go back through the power points and reduce them down to actual useful and non-distracting power points. Instead of blocks of text interspersed with images and illustrations, they'll have direct quotations, images to be talked about, and major ideas and the students will use the handouts to fill in around those things.

    So, that's what I do, but the aim of my talks are slightly different than yours in that I am imparting a different sort of knowledge, I can interact directly during my talks, and I will be giving these talks over and over again to new students and the volume of talks per week degrades possible prep time.