The power of stories and practicing decision making



At the Oct 28, 2013 meeting of Saint John Toastmasters we had two speeches, one from the advanced manual on humorously speaking, and one from the first communication manual.  We often refer to that first manual as the ‘basic manual.’   Coincidentally both speeches were about animals.    Each speech provides an opportunity to exercise a skill, and the speaker chooses the topic, and prepares and delivers a speech to exercise that skill.   

Our first speaker Jeff was working on organizational techniques and he told us about how he preferred dogs, but married a cat lover, and has come to build a better relationship with the family cat.   A pleasant, entertaining seven minute speech, well and simply organized.     

Our second speaker Jennifer told us about her former fear of dogs, and how she learned to adapt when her fourteen year old son wanted a puppy, and only a puppy, for his birthday.    Her objective was to simply deliver a humorous speech and she did.    

While we don’t have a strict pass/fail environment, I believe both speakers met their objectives well, and both speakers received some perspectives for improvement or other approaches from their evaluators. 

Both speakers used personal stories well.    In real life, it’s not often we need to talk on subjects we’re not familiar with, and they chose familiar subjects and experiences.    There is much written these days about the power of stories in speaking, and in sales and marketing.    Jonah Berger’s excellent book Contagious:  How Things Catch On devotes much time to the power of stories and narratives.

We also spent about ten minutes debating a motion.   We often practice parliamentary procedure as this provides a formal structure for group decision making.   I enjoy the discipline of parliamentary procedure.    In my business career I often found myself relying on the principles during meetings (e.g. one idea at a time, the minority has a right to be heard, the majority has the right to decide), while definitely NOT using the formal language (that’s out of order, we require a seconder, etc). 

All in all a very good meeting at Saint John Toastmasters, club #1479 of our 14,000 clubs in 116 countries. 

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