Speaking with Conviction: Melinda Henning

Melinda Henning is a communication consultant. She came and gave a half-day workshop for our group on Speaking with Conviction.

Since most of my previous speaking experience is with "academic" settings (especially conferences) the "advocacy" style of speaking is new and challenging to me. Rather than trying to plow through as much as you can in an assigned time slot and using Powerpoint to project details, in advocacy settings, it's much more about forming a connection with the members of the audience, conveying a simple message, and having a desired outcome.

Her preparation process is comprised of 7 steps:

1. Audience
2. Message
3. Action
4. Points
5. Proof
6. Packaging
7. Props

In addition, she gave helpful guidelines on stance (feet shoulder width apart, hands at sides), movement (if you move, move at least 3 steps, and do so in conjunction with the points that you're making), eye contact (with each audience member, maintaining gaze for the full thought/sentence, moving amongst people, but not in order) and gestures (big, with upper arm away from the body, reinforcing your points, and one hand at a time).

We each worked on a 2 minute speech which we gave a few times to either one other person or a small group. It was tough to keep all of the different things in mind, but it did seem that any one that was a current focus did get better. Now if I can just fit them all together....