Speaking Without Notes

In Front of the Lectern

Carl H. Hendrickson, DTM

The ancient Greeks and Romans would speak for hour after hour without notes. But many Toastmasters, novice and veteran alike, cannot leave the comfort zone of the lectern or do away with their crutch – their notes. But, by knowing a few memory “tricks,” each of us can give flawless speeches in front of the lectern without notes.

Early Greeks and Romans used the Loci System, memorization by association. Each item in the forum where they spoke would be a memory tool. This will work for South County Toastmasters. Each speech should contain no more than five parts, several less. We have the opening, up to three main points, and the closing.

Using the Loci System, identify a constant item in the meeting room to associate with each part of the speech. An easel always is present, as is the presiding officer of the meeting, the evening’s Toastmaster, the lectern, and the flag and flagpole. Your opening thus is the easel, points one, two and three are respectively the presiding officer, the Toastmaster, and the lectern, and the flag and flag pole represent the closing.

In a recent humorous speech, I spoke of my wife’s unmentionables, meaning four letter words that I could not use around her, such as bake, cook, iron, and wash. However, “unmentionables” also could be undergarments. If this is your opening, think of the easel with undergarments draped over them. Another recent speech by a club member was on cleaning up the environment – going green. Assuming this is point one of your presentation, picture the presiding officer sitting with a green face. If you want to conclude by motivating the members to go out and purchase an item or a book, you could picture the flag waving “bye bye.” Using the Loci System, the speech is easily broken down into no more than five parts and each part is associated with an item in the meeting room used in a ridiculous manner for ease of remembering.

Once the five speech parts have been determined, you link one to the other. Nothing ruins a good speech like having the presenter move from the opening to point three and missing points one and two. There must be a logical progression. As an example of linking, here are five words or phrases that can be linked by last word to first word of the next: (1) egg, (2) eggshell, (3) shell macaroni (4) macaroni and cheese, and (5) cheese pizza. (1) Egg makes one think of (2) eggshell, which leads to (3) shell macaroni, then to (4) macaroni and cheese, and then to (5) cheese pizza.

Memory aids are helpful. Picture five homes sitting along a sandy beach. You have the five great lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. Picture a handsome hulk of a man, no, not Carl Hendrickson, but Roy G Biv. You now have a memory aid for the seven primary colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Each can step out of his/her comfort zone, to the front of the lectern, and speak without notes by utilizing the Loci System and memory aids. Try it!

Remembering Participants’ Names

Thanks to Robert Graham (robert@grahamcomm.net) for these tips.

Few things can bond and establish a connection with a group like learning everyone’s name quickly.

I routinely do this with groups of up to 15, and the look on their faces, when 10 minutes into the workshop
I can call everyone by their first name, is priceless. Here’s how to do it:

1. Obtain a participant list ahead of time and read through the
list out loud several times.

2. During the beginning of your program (this works best in
small workshops), have each person share their name, what they
do, what they would like to learn from our session and any
other personal details they would like to include.

3. As each person is speaking, say their name (to yourself) a
few times and make any associations that are helpful. (I once
worked with a guy named Clark who looked a lot like Superman.)

4. In addition to listening to each person’s introduction,
silently recall the names of each person who has spoken
already.

5. As quickly as possible after the introductions, begin using
their names when calling on people.

6. For extra credit, as they reveal things about themselves
(personal details, passions, family information,
accomplishments, guilty pleasures), write them down. That way
at a break or lunch, you have an immediate conversation
starter about them: “So what was it like to grow up in Dubai?”
or, “When did you graduate from UCSB?”

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Note from Tom – I’ve seen the entertainer Kathy Griffin walk around with a yellow notebook before her
speaking gig talking to the audience and writing down notes about audience members.