We’re nearly two months into wedding season and this means speeches. Lots of ‘em. Sometimes you can get away with giving a speech or a toast solo. In many cases, giving a speech requires collaborative team writing and dynamic duo presentations. Doing it well results in an entertaining and touching performance that makes you a wedding hero. It can also unlock a new level of creativity and take your public speaking ability to another level. This article has six tips for collaborative presenting.
Here are John and my tips for delivering a successful and collaborative speech.
Be sensitive to your partner’s style
We all have different styles. Approach the team writing with an open mind and a willingness to create content that will allow your partner to shine. Just because a story or a joke isn’t how you would write it doesn’t mean it isn’t well suited for the speech. At the same time, when it comes to your part (and your voice) you need to be comfortable. For example, John is a fast talker who likes wordplay and cheeky humour. I speak in metaphors and colloquialisms. John had a great idea for our speech and created a structure for it; he also made sure that my parts were in my voice, which made it easy to deliver really well at the wedding reception.
Take criticism constructively
To get to a “good speech” is going to require a lot of edits, cuts, changes and redrafts. It may be frustrating to see what you think is the perfect quote disappear, but sometimes that’s just the name of the game. At the end of the day, the more editing, the sharper the speech will be. Always keep an open mind and if you don’t understand an edit, feel free to call your partner (better than email) to discuss their thinking. Also remember that feedback is a gift that you don’t always need to accept – sometimes you and your partner share a vision that you know you’ll be able to deliver and you just need to do it.
Slow down and let the silence breath
Ever notice how often President Obama pauses when making a point? He’s not pausing because he’s forgotten what to say – he’s giving you time to consider what he said and adding a silent explanation point. Learn from one of the world’s greatest communicators. Use the pause button and use it consistently no matter who is giving the speech. Also, slow down! For 90 % of us slowing down and letting the words sync is critical, because there are good odds you’re motoring on much more quickly than you think you are. Work hard to ensure you are both speaking at the same clip to ensure consistency throughout the speech.
Create content consensus
You might think something is funny and fantastic, but your co-presenter may not be on the same page. Rather than pushing your point, think about how you can make sure they can look their best on stage when reading the speech. You can try to buck them up, but at the end of the day, if they aren’t comfortable with a particular aspect of the speech don’t push it. John really wanted to go deep on one piece of the speech – it involved reading quotes and I felt it was a bit too “inside baseball” – and it was through discussion, some debate, and feedback from several editors that we trimmed that section down and made it more accessible for the audience.
Meet in person, or failing that, talk through your ideas
We all love email and track changes is awesome, but often relying only on digital communication can leave a gap in terms of your meaning and lead to either misinterpretation or (in the worse case) hurt feelings. Meet early to outline the scope of your speech and ideate the themes, stories and ideas you want to include. Then work on the details individually and then come back for a check in on what’s worked. To do an optimal job, make sure you leave yourself a good amount of time. That means starting early.
Perfect practice makes perfect
If you’re giving a speech, practice is critical – Larry Bird wisely said that “practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.” If you practice something with mediocrity you’ll repeat it so. You’ll both have different styles when it comes to writing (not to mention speaking) and the only way the rubber will really hit the road is if you go through the speech multiple times (fine tuning all the way through) to ensure you’re speech is connecting. Odds are through this process, you may come up with new ideas to further hone the speech. When John and I practiced we didn’t just read it to each other over a couple of beers in my living room. We pulled together an audience and delivered the speech exactly as we would at the wedding reception. This is one of the reasons we crushed it.
Creative Commons photo care of Christopher Juhlin