Level 3 Project 3 - Elective - Active Listening

#135

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to demonstrate your ability to listen to what others say.

Overview: At a club meeting, fulfill the role of Topicsmaster. As Topicsmaster, comment on each speaker’s Table Topics speech to demonstrate your active listening skills. For example, you might say, “Thank you. That was a compelling opinion on the benefits of gardening. I understand you feel strongly that everyone needs to spend some time doing something they love.”

Script:

A warm Good evening to everyone once again. Welcome to the most exciting segment of the meeting - table topics! I will give those interested a topic to speak on, I will repeat the topic twice and you get to speak on it for 1-2 minutes and for a maximum of 2 mins 30 seconds.

Now, as a TT master, I usually like to set sub themes and every topic I give would be centered on that theme. For today i have chosen 'proverb opposites'. We are so used to hearing the usual proverbs and sayings like 'look before you leap' or 'the grass is greener on the other side'. So today, let's mix it up and see what all of you have to bring to the table when the topic is out of the ordinary.  I am eagerly looking forward to hearing fun anecdotes from most of you on this theme. 

Alright, let me not waste any more time, let's get started. First call to volunteers of course, do we have any takers?

Good evening and thank you for stepping up and being the first one to talk in today's TT session.

Topic 1:

We all know honesty is the best policy. But your topic today is: honesty is not the best policy.

Topic 2:

Many times if you see nosy people who want to be in on everything that's going around them and they want to know all gossip, they are asked to mind their own business. Someone may tell them curiosity killed the cat. Today, I would like you to convince us how Curiosity saved the cat.

Topic 3:

Whether it's with respect to effort into some task or your finances, investments, you always hear people say don't put all your eggs into one basket. Today, please tell the audience why it's a great idea to put all your eggs in one basket.

Topic 4:

Usually you're asked to treasure the thing that you actually have than going after something better which you may or may not get, rephrased as a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. Can you share your take on why two birds in the bush are worth one in the hand?

Topic 5:

People usually say better late than never. Even in a party if you show up late the response is 'at least you showed up!' Can you share an experience from your life where you felt: better never than late?

Topic 6:

We are asked to not go by the looks of something, to see what's underneath, similar to Clothes do not make the man. I'd now like you to persuade the audience to judge a book only by its cover.

Topic 7:

It is said that barking dogs seldom bite, meaning people who appear threatening rarely do harm. Your topic for today is: Barking dogs often bite.

Topic 8:

Most of the times, actions matter more than simply saying something. Today I'd like to share your experience on how 'words speak louder than actions.'

Thank you all for making this a wonderfully interesting table topics session. Over to you TMOD.

Evaluation:

1. Speak in a way that others love to listen and listen in a way others love to speak to you - I could see that in Sriya's session today
2. She gave appreciative comments to each speaker
3. She started with a grand smile, gave an intro about the TT session and declared a fun theme
4. She prepared well for the project with her sharp observing capacity
5. One recommendation - on the 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' topic, there was no clarity in your response to the speaker's opposing viewpoint. 

Video:

TT Session: https://youtu.be/qMr9TPo2i_c?t=2446 

Evaluation: https://youtu.be/qMr9TPo2i_c?t=4429 

P.S. Also served as Idiom Master for the meeting: https://youtu.be/qMr9TPo2i_c?t=847 

Level 3 Project 2 - Elective - Using Presentation Software

#134

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to introduce or review basic presentation software strategies for creating and using slides to support or enhance a speech.

Overview: Select a speech topic that lends well to a visual presentation using technology. Use the content of this project and your own research to help you develop your slides. Give a 5- to 7-minute speech using the slides you developed. Your speech can be humorous, demonstrative, or informational, and it may include stories or anecdotes.

Script:

Good evening Dear Toastmasters! Today I'll be walking you through how I've learnt to apply the lessons I learnt in photography to toastmasters. Through the lens of a camera, I've trained myself to look at things in different perspectives. Through the real lens which is our eyes I'm learning to observe the things around us, weave them into a compelling story, and captivate the audience via a speech. 

In today's speech I will be using a visual component to reinforce my message. And what better way to use powerpoint slides than when depicting the photographs iIve taken over the years to 'show' you all what I've learnt via photography to apply to in TM speeches? Okay let's get started.

Lesson 1 - Focus on the main subject

As with the pictures you see here, both the flower and twig are in focus. Although there are other items in the background the main one is in focus. The same principle holds when you're giving a speech. Try not to confuse the audience with multiple components such that. They're unsure of what the main topic of ur speech was. It's a good idea to have one topic or one story that your speech revolves around

and then maybe you can interweave other components such as 3 key points, or 1 key message or 2 incidents that tie to each other in the end. By focusing on the main subject, you ensure that you cater to the audience's attention span and also reinforce your key takeaway by doing so.

As with photography, it's all about timing. In the first picture if the ball isn't there in the frame, if the bowler already bowled the ball, it wouldn't have been an interesting picture that tells a story.

In the pic on the right, if I had waited a second longer it would've been too late and the bird would've taken flight. All I would've captured is a plain old rock and a blurred bird! Ask yourself the same wrt speeches. Are you burying the message within a long sentence and delivering it at a fast pace without any pauses? Make sure to grab the audience's attention on the point of your content by delivering them at the right time in the right manner. If you are narrating a story that has some mystery to it, build up the suspense and leave it a mystery till the end. If you spill the beans right at the start or in between somewhere, it will have lost its charm. So remember, it's all about timing.

Next would be to learn from ur experiments. In the pathways level 1 project 2 you give a speech and apply that feedback to another speech. Similarly, for contests if u participate in multiple contests and decide to give the same speech you can learn from the experiments of your previous attempts on what worked and what didn't. In tenth grade i was extremely fascinated with smoke photography and light painting. What did I do? Experiment. What did i learn? One, while light painting may seem mesmerising at first, it doesn't make for a compelling photo because of lack of subject and lack of story

and with these Agarbatti photos, while the smoke is captured decently well, if the spark of the Agarbatti was seen as a speck of reddish orange, it would've enhanced the picture a lot more.

I reiterate - don't be afraid to experiment, but don't forget to learn from the outcome of those experiments and apply those lessons.

Next, try to capture the unseen. In both pictures here, the scene was a crowded place outside the Gateway of India in Bombay. The place was bustling with people, it was chaotic and cacophonous, but I was able to capture the unseen. Two folks, with exasperated expressions, trying to get by in that summer heat by selling an assortment of peanuts as with the man on the left and some sort of bubble toys as with the woman on the right, got mixed with the rest of the crowd. But through my lens, I was able to capture their poignant expressions, which alone tell a story.

Similarly, in your speeches, what is that one thing everyone may easily miss since it's commonplace or workaday but you have put a spin on, captured the unseen and observed something under a different light?

Finally, sometimes less is more. In this picture, the helmet on the field alone conveys so much without needing any explanation. You know by the looks of it that it's a cricket helmet on a cricket field. Interpret of it what you will. Maybe there was a match played there. Maybe someone left that helmet there and forgot about it. Maybe someone left it intentionally anticipating it might make for a good picture. In this slide, all I have is this one picture to explain the message that less is more. The slide too can convey this with just one picture and doesn't need any more.

Follow the same for your speeches. You don't always have to pack hundreds of words or stories or lessons in your speech. Stick to one story and just a handful of takeaways. Try to prune what's unnecessary and by making your speech contain 'less' content so to speak, you will have actually had more of an impact than if you had perhaps packed more to say.

So to summarize, here are the takeaways you can get from this presentation that will, I hope, not only help you in writing and delivering better speeches but also see better through this lens when trying to capture something from the lens of your phone or camera. Focus on the main subject, try to capture the unseen, learn from your experiments, remember that it's about timing, and keep telling yourself that less is more.

With that I conclude this presentation and my speech. Thank you, over to you TMOD.

Evaluation:

1. A picture is worth a thousand stories, in this case
2. There was both an implicit and an explicit message in her speech
1. She connected every photography technique with a speech technique - subject, timing, experiments, unseen, less is more
2. She also gave an analogy for each technique
3. Got to learn how she used these techniques in her speeches
4. She took something she is comfortable with, she loves photography and made us go through that journey
5. Recommendations:
1. 1 suggestion: the amount of effort put in the presentation could've been more
2. Not using a template would've been less distracting
6. Overall, great presentation
7. The implicit message was that we all have something we can learn from and apply to other areas of our lives
1. For me, I learnt about life via embedded systems

Video:

Through the lens: https://youtu.be/u2CORxhjzuo?t=2079

Evaluation: https://youtu.be/u2CORxhjzuo?t=4756

Presentation:

Initial PPT made by me 

Updated PPT with edits suggested by evaluator

Level 3 Project 1: Negotiate the Best Outcome

#133

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to learn about different types of negotiation and the strategies that can be used when negotiating.

Overview: Develop a 5- to 7-minute speech about a past or upcoming negotiation in your life. The negotiation must be one that you have participated in or will participate in. You may choose to reflect on the strategies you used or those that you believe would be the most beneficial in the future. Your speech can be persuasive, humorous, informational, or crafted in any style that appeals to you and supports your speech content.

Script:

“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” This quote by John F. Kennedy resonates with me every time I prepare myself for a negotiation.

Fellow TMs and guests, a very good evening to all of you. Today I'd like to share one instance of when I decided to negotiate and ask for something I believed was rightly mine and whether I got what I asked for or not, we'll get to that towards the end.

August 2016. Time for campus placements. Final week. We were 5 of us. We had to go to an onsite interview in a company. Here the HR had told us that due to shortage of interviewers, a VP and an SVP would be interviewing us, with each of us having exactly one round that would be the deciding factor. It was a little strange since the usual format was to have a panel of interviewers and each candidate going through at least 2 rounds of interviews.

We waited for our turn as we were called one by one. Turned out, I was the last one to be called. By then, the rounds went by so quickly and it was already made known that 4 of them got selected. Hearing this, I was quite hopeful. Finally my turn came. I went in with a broad smile and greeted the VP. He didn't ask me to sit down and answer his questions. All he did was give me a marker, pointed to the whiteboard, and said "Design a login screen". 

I was thoroughly taken aback. What sort of interview was this? It's usually theoretical questions on programming and databases, and coding questions where the interviewer gives you a well-defined problem and you have to write the code for it. What was happening here? I went blank for what seemed like eternity. I took a deep breath and composed myself. For the next few moments which seemed like an hour, i tried to draw and describe the problem to the best of my ability. Because he was a VP, I feared I couldn't ask for a different problem or negotiate in my favour.

Within less than ten minutes I left the room feeling dejected. The HR came to me escorted me to a different room so that she could reveal the news to me in private. Shaking her head, she said that I didn't make it through. I'm usually a shy introvert person who is also a pushover who says okay to things really easily. Or at least I used to be until that moment. I don't know what came over me but I was outraged. I knew I had to fight back for this injustice. Fight for my right. I knew I couldn't give up and walk away that day from this opportunity. I looked her in the eye and said "in my interview I wasn't asked any coding questions." She said "oh really?" I said yes, well, the other 4 seemed to have gotten specific questions on programming while I was asked a random design problem and wasn't even told what the expectations were. there was no back and forth conversation either. I narrated to her what had happened and she seemed a little flustered, probably because of my tone and the conviction with which i said all this. She even tried to say 'no no everyone got only round one of interview. How can I make an exception for you?' I persisted. At the end of it I politely asked "Could I please have another round of the interview? I wasn't asked even a single technical question." After that I stood in silence and continued looking at her in an unwavering manner, waiting for her response.

Now it was her turn to be taken aback. She stared at me blankly for a second and then said, "oh okay let me talk to the SVP and get back." Thankfully, she said yes. I had an amazing round of interview with the SVP where he kept shooting questions and I was confidently and coherently answering each of them immediately and thoroughly, spitting out all the details i had studied. It felt like a rapid fire round, towards the end of which, the SVP looked at me, smiled and slightly nodded, seeming impressed. I came out of that room with my head held high and I knew this time around the HR would be back with good news. And she was. All 5 of us walked out of there with the offer letter in our hand and a big grin on our faces.

Fellow toastmasters, let us learn to fight for our right. ask and you shall get it. never fear negotiation. always try. even if it doesn't go in your favour, i'm sure you'll learn a lot about yourself in that process.  As we learnt from my story, negotiation is the art of letting the other side have your way.

Thank you, over to you TMOD.

Video:

Fight for your right

Evaluation

Evaluation resource

Level 2 Project 3: Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring

#132

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to clearly define how Toastmasters envisions mentoring.

Overview: Write and present a 5- to 7-minute speech about a time when you were a protégé. Share the impact and importance of having a mentor. This speech is not a report on the content of this project.

Script:

Fellow TM and guests, what are we all doing here? Why did we join toastmasters?

For some of us it was to improve our communication for some it was to improve leadership, for most of us here as we heard in the earlier speeches it's a bit of both.

By joining this wonderful platform, on the one hand we have groups of people who want to be good orators and leaders. on the other hand, we have experienced folks who have been with TM for a long time and know certain lessons and tips and tricks that some of us newbies don't know yet.

Wouldn't it be a great idea if a person from the former half could be paired with a person from the latter half i just described?

Well, that's what TM mentoring is all about. It will not only be a wonderful learning adventure i can say, for the newbie speaker but also a wonderful teaching opportunity for the mentor as well, since one of the best ways to learn is by teaching. The mentor can use his or her speaking and leadership skills they improved via TM to coach someone else to build on that path.

In my Toastmasters journey, I was influenced and guided by my mentor. One of the best ways to learn something is also by observing. There's this quote by Marilyn vos Savant. She was listed as one of the people having the highest recorded IQ in the Guinness Book of world Records. She said "To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."

As soon as i became a member in TM, I was assigned a mentor and the first thing I did after connecting with him was to go and observe his speeches. I searched on youtube and although I didn't find too many, the ones i did find were enough for me to understand his speaking style. Simply watching those videos itself was a great learning experience for me. 

The clarity and coherence with which he spoke, the words which were appropriately and amazingly alliterated and rendered rhythmically, and the perfect places he paused for enhanced effect, i observed all of these.

I not only found his TM talks such as the Jerrified speech but since he is a CEO, I also found some keynote speeches he had been called for in various summits. In those speeches too, his wordplay, his structure, flow of thought, and of course his ingenuity all these were something i was inspired by. Apart from this, i also had a couple of phone calls with him where we discussed on my further course of action in TM, how to prepare content for speeches, and how to excel at the leadership roles I take up.

One specific instance that was extremely helpful was when i reached out to him for help on shortening my speech. in my initial level 1 speeches of TM, i knew i used to pack way too many words into my speeches but what I didn't know was which words to remove and how to shorten my speech. For my 'Scrabble as a way of life' speech, I sent my entire script to him and within a day he got back on exactly how I can reduce the content in my speech so as to allow for more pauses. Well, I followed his advice and when I gave my second version of the same speech on another occasion, I was a lot happier with it.

After having such enlightening phone calls and words of advice that I can see through and follow, I cannot wait to be a TM mentor to someone else. I'm sure if learning can be so rewarding, teaching must be an even more enriching journey. For me at work, I discovered more about myself than the person I mentored. I can only imagine it's the same with TM.

One last point I would like to leave you all with is that mentorship is a two-way street. It may be easy to think that the mentor plays a dominant role in the mentor-mentee relationship, but as a mentee or a protégé, what I've learnt is I must take ownership of my own growth and development. I shouldn't hesitate to reach out to my mentor for any TM-related concern or idea that I may have. It is my responsibility to stay curious, ask questions, and actually work towards bettering the entire reason I joined TM for.

Having an awesome mentor means to have someone who is not only open and honest during conversations, but also someone who is thoughtful, supportive, and engaged in your development. I would also argue that the role of a mentee also holds the same significance. I as a mentee must strive to be ingenuous, prepared, inquisitive and learn to challenge myself and step outside my comfort zone to become a better communicator and leader in TM and also extrapolate that to other areas of my life.

I hope we all find or have found amazing mentors in our journey here at TM.

Thank you, over to you TMOD.

Video:

Intro to TM mentoring: https://youtu.be/ufCEyH3w_3g?t=2504

Evaluation: https://youtu.be/ufCEyH3w_3g?t=5328

 

Level 2 Project 2: Understanding Your Communication Style

#131

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to learn about different communication styles and identify your primary style.

Overview: Complete the Discover Your Communication Style questionnaire to help you identify your style. Deliver a 5- to 7-minute speech at a club meeting about your communication style and its impact on your professional and/or personal relationships. If you are uncomfortable discussing your communication style, you may speak about the communication styles you have encountered and how they impact you. Your speech should not be a report of the content of this project.

Script:

Fellow TMs and guests, a very good evening to all of you once again.

In my previous project I had to understand my leadership style. After reminiscing several anecdotes from my experiences I concluded that I didn't have one style. Instead I had a few, which I had to pick and choose from, depending on the scenario. in that process I also got to reiterate that leadership is indeed an action and not merely a position.

With communication however, I don't think it's that straightforward. I often tend to think: "Ah yes I am communicating very effectively because if someone would have spoken to me the way I spoke to them, I would easily understand." Doesn't work that way.

After analyzing some of my conversations I realized that you understand your own style much better when you record and listen to them or if someone else evaluates you and points you in the right direction what they thought went well and what didn't.

If you've observed some of my previous speeches you'd know that I tend to dramatize the wordings and gestures a little bit more and try to enact the things I'm talking about.

For today's speech though, I thought why not try something different? after all, it's about communication. Let's experiment. Why don't I adopt a style that makes it seem as though I am casually talking to a bunch of people in front of me rather than giving a speech? Well, I just hope this works and that the intent is achieved.

Coming to understanding styles of communication we must try to understand other factors too. Apart from knowing yourself more via recording or feedback, another thing is that everybody's level of understanding is different, their background, culture, the things they read about, who they hang out with, everything is different. so we must try to understand that and then decide how to communicate with them rather than simply assuming they're on the same level as us.

Just like the previous project had a questionnaire this project had one too. I felt like one of those facebook quizzes we used to take years ago wherein it'll tell you answer these questions and then magically reveal which friends or disney character you most resemble and stuff like that.

The first style it showed was analytical communication style

the moment I read this you know whom I got reminded of? A toastmaster evaluator! Which role better suits this style?

You analyze someone else's speech and try to scrutinize certain aspects of it like structure, delivery and content. 

Similarly in real life, I try my best to interpret what the other person is saying and play by ear.

Regarding the supportive style - well I can say that I try to make the other person feel welcome.

If it's a new person I'm trying to get to know, I may be a little shy at first but I'll try to listen to something I can build on and support them with.

I of course cannot do it for everything because my contextual knowledge is limited to where I've grown up and the exposure I've had over the years. For example, if you tell me you're from Bombay or if you tell me you're an avid reader I'll have lots of follow up questions because it appeals to who I am.

What I feel is that though I have come across various kinds of people in my life I think I have still been able to strike up a conversation with them that might make them feel welcome. Please note this is just my perspective. I may be wrong.

Next on the list was initiative style of communication it's somewhat similar to supportive. here the only difference is that if I'm sitting in a place where I don't know anyone and I want to make small talk like the time I wanted to make new friends when I joined college, I would start off - hey what's your name? where are you from, where did you grow up, what are your likes, your interests and continue the dialogue from then on.

Once I got to know them and they became my friends, they started to see me slowly switch to the direct communication style. If I wanted some information I would just ask for it

If I had a criticism to make i'd just say it, good or bad. Even today, if I want to confront someone on something it depends actually. Depends on who it is, what it is that I am approaching them for and its consequence and so on. It all depends. However, if you look at the overall set of instances and zoom out to the big picture, I can definitely agree that on most occasions I do adopt a slightly direct style of communciation.

That's all from my side on corroborating on all the styles the questionnaire labelled me with. In conclusion, I would like to say that I joined toastmasters to help improve the way I communicate and I definitely feel I've improved in the right direction in certain aspects while on others, I think we can get that feedback from my evaluator today.

Thank you. Over to you TMOD.

Video:

A casual chat: https://youtu.be/I1VDaZn1EdM?t=1607

Evaluation: https://youtu.be/I1VDaZn1EdM?t=4270

Level 2 Project 1: Understanding Your Leadership Style

#130

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to identify your primary leadership style or styles.

Overview: Consider how your leadership style impacts the people around you and how you can adjust it to more effectively lead people with styles different from your own. Deliver a 5- to 7-minute speech at a club meeting to share some aspect of your leadership style or leadership styles in general. You may choose to discuss your style preferences when working with others, your style and how you can adapt it to situations, or leadership styles in general and how they impact a group.

Speech Title: Discovering Oneself

Script:

Fellow TMs and guests, a very good evening to all of you.

A few years ago, I remember giving a job interview. We had this GD round, group discussion. The topic was about leading versus being a team player. I got excited, immediately jumped on the bandwagon and said yes I'm a wholehearted team player. I do whatever it takes to be collaborative.  <pause>

Then towards the end of the GD I realized that the world is filled with all sorts of leaders and that I’m the only one who said I'm "in a team".

Fast forward a few years later to October 2020, I came across Toastmasters - 'where leaders are made'. A week ago I was in the same GD-like situation. But here, I was forced to know what my leadership style is. How can I know my style if I haven't even led anyone? Would I even have a style? I thought oh okay, they have given a pretty lengthy questionnaire. Answering it based on who I am today, I can at least know where to begin.

Interestingly, the result didn’t show 1 or 2 styles that were the closest matches. It displayed multiple and scored them differently. The results showed innovative, pace-setting, coaching and authoritative styles, among others.

Me? Authoritative? Doesn't sound like it.

But as I read through the descriptions of each leadership style, there were stories forming at the back of my head. You know that feeling when you read something and you instantly relate to it?

I started reading top to bottom: innovative style - 18 points. It says this leader encourages innovative ideas and invites collaborative conversation. Have I ever done this? I could recall one instance at work. I was a junior in the team while the rest of the members were seniors. I wasn't happy with the current set of projects we were doing. As in, I felt we could do so much more given the nature of our product. So i proposed that we as a team have brainstorming sessions for about 2 hours every Friday evening. I set up a calendar invite for 1 month. That's 4 sessions.

Turns out we came up with more than 12 ideas and we could act on 5 of them in the immediate week. As Robert Austin, the author of 'Why Managing Innovation is Like Theater' quotes: "Whenever you have no blueprint to tell you in detail what to do, you must work artfully."

I read through the next style - Coaching

This was easy to relate to. This is not just something I am today but also someone I want to be. It says this leader motivates by challenging the individual but is less effective when those being mentored are adverse to change. I had the opportunity to mentor two interns, one within my team and one outside. The outside person was easier to mentor and till date I'm continuing to mentor her as she converted to full time. I won't say it was difficult to mentor the guy within my team because he was adverse to change.

I will admit that I did not do a great job in empathising with him and knowing where he lacked in technical expertise to get the job done. I knew I wanted to be a good leader and coach but now I know I will work harder to understand more about it. A football coach once said “Leadership is more about responsibility than ability!”

Next on the list was Pacesetting style. A leader who focuses on productivity and motivates by setting high standards of performance, and then leads by example. This time, I not only recalled examples from work wherein I created a "best practices" document and upheld the bar but also at home, where I set a threshold of at least how clean the house should be and motivated my husband to follow the same via leading by example. I'd clean something and then tell him: see this is what it should look like.

As Stephen Covey writes "What you do has far greater impact than what you say."

Lastly, there was Authoritative style.

This leader provides long-term direction and focuses on end-goals. Then I realized oh this is what they meant and not authoritative in a bureaucratic sense. Maybe I haven't had the opportunity to employ this yet, but I feel I am invested in the long-term vision of my team's product. This again, is applicable not just for work, but also in my personal life, where I enjoy asking myself - where do you see yourself in 5 years, 10 years and so on? Working towards future goals is something that motivates me to achieve things today.

Now that I went through these styles and related anecdotes, I could gauge that maybe there is no one style that resonates with me, it was more like i can be a pacesetting leader in one situation but I will need to be a coach in other situations. <pause>

All in all, I’ll leave you with a few things to remember. Firstly, there is no one particular style you can attribute to someone. Even if it's a dictator like Mussolini I think his questionnaire would have still showed him more than 1 leadership style. 

Second, it's not a label attached to you that if one questionnaire says you have so-and-so style that it means you are that. And last but not least, as I said before, different circumstances warrant different methods.

It's up to you to figure out what kind of personality you would want to emulate.

As Henry Ford said “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.” 

Thank you. Over to you TMOD.

Video:

https://youtu.be/dRCpH-L7l5M?t=2430

Level 1 Project 3 - Researching and Presenting

#129

Project Objectives:

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to learn or review basic research methods and present a well-organized, well-researched speech on any topic.

Overview: Select a topic that you are not already familiar with or that you wish to learn more about. 

For this speech, I used dual monitors to show the presentation slides.

Script:

I'm sure you all must have faced this at some point or the other. Picture this - You're sitting on your couch with your close friend watching a cricket match. The bowler bowls and the batsman takes a small step forward before hitting the ball. At that fraction of a moment you're thinking to yourself - oh no this could be a mistake he might get bowled out why would he even try something like this it's too risky.

The batsman swings his bat hard and voila! it's a sixer! Immediately you turn to your friend and say i knew it! I knew it was going to be a six this ball. 

Your friend casually looks towards you with a poker face. Why?

Because he knows that if you really had known this for a fact you would've predicted it before he made the shot. 

Fellow toastmasters and guests, today I’m here to give you a glimpse into the world of psychology. I am always interested in knowing why humans behave the way they do. We succumb to cognitive biases and we hold intrinsic beliefs about various things we believe we don't have and only others do.

What you witnessed above is nothing but the hindsight bias - also known as the "i-knew-it-all-along" phenomenon.

Consider this - your friend got an acceptance into one college and his mom says ah i knew you were going to get in. But actually she had spoken to his dad last week how much she was worried and that she doubted whether he would get in anywhere at all.

In September 2012 psychologists Neal Roese of Kellogg School and Kathleen Vohs from Carlson School researched on this phenomenon and found that humans selectively recall information that confirms what they know to be true and then create a story around it such that it makes sense. While this motivates us to promote a positive view of ourselves, it gets in the way of learning from our experiences. Neal Roese says “If you feel like you knew it all along, it means you won’t stop and examine why something really happened. You can become overconfident about your judgments leading to bad decisions." 

Let's look at another bias:

Someone walks up to you and says: "hey! Want to become a billionaire? Just drop out of college and start a company!"

It worked for Zuckerberg, it worked for Gates, it worked for Musk so it should work for you too, right?

Wrong. Those are just 3 examples among a thousand others that we don't even know about. The media discloses only the wins not the losses so we’re exposed only to the success stories.

This is survivorship bias. It is a type of sample selection bias that occurs when a data set considers only the “surviving” observations and shields us from the rest.

so to avoid this, am I suggesting you to be pessimistic and stop dreaming of a billionaire lifestyle?

No.

Pick up a challenging but realistic goal and give it your best shot.

But be aware that the available anecdotes will be a glorified version that considers only the rare survivors. 

While Elon Musk may be working 100 hours a week, you need to find out what works for you.

Similarly, we are susceptible to so many biases that are inherent within us - for instance - the anchoring effect. It means when we have a base value our brains will automatically compare it with that number. That's how you get 2 different opinions when looking at the same price.

There's another theory called confirmation bias - researchers define it as the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs.

It looks something like this - <ns> You have a theory and you find one small shred of evidence that supports it. So you choose to go ahead with that instead of the majority of information which actually disproves your theory.

Confirmation bias is as though whatever you read and come across says may the force be with you and it supports you wholeheartedly in whatever you choose to believe.

If you see here, some of us may relate because we might have faced something like this right someone tells you about one particular thing on one day and suddenly you feel like that’s all you see everywhere.

Now that we are aware that we have these intrinsic biases, what can we do?

Psychologists recommend the following:

One, we should stop and think of an explanation for those things that didn’t happen but could have happened

Two, we shouldn’t throw out information that doesn’t fit with our story. It’ll help us consider all perspectives.

Three, as i mentioned earlier don’t simply try to confirm what you did by dismissing reason. Try to observe your actions like an objective third-party and last, and this is something i have tried and tested so i can tell you helps - maintain a decision journal. This would help you compare what all you thought before and what actually happened.

Now it’s not like if you follow the above steps you’ll magically get rid of your biases. No.

But it will help you understand yourself better and hopefully improve your future decisions. There’s absolutely no need for you to doubt your abilities because of this. After all, we are humans.

Thank you. Over to you TMOD.

Evaluation:

1. Interesting topic
2. Usually people talk about food, you chose something unique
3. Good research, you provided stats
4. Visual aid with ppt to substantiate your points
5. Recommendations:
1. Your speech could be organized better
2. Examples were random
3. Could've started with common examples
4. Could use more hand gestures

Ah counter - 5 'like's, could prepare better next time to avoid these fillers

'Citation' is important - I read this here, or I found this on this website

Video:

Exploring cognitive biases

PPT

Evaluation resource

Level 1 Project 2 - Speech, Feedback and Evaluation

#128

This project comprises giving a speech, applying the feedback to another speech (could be the same one too), and evaluating someone else's speech.

Initial speech - Scrabble as a way of life

Script:

You've often heard people describing how their passion becomes a way of life for them. For some, it is music, for some it is sport while for some others it is photography. For me, Scrabble is not just a game, it's a way of life.

Fellow toastmasters and guests, a very good evening to all of you. Today, I would like to share with you all how the game of Scrabble has instilled in me valuable life lessons.

When I was young, Scrabble was merely a fun filled board game played with family and friends. I remember the first time I saw that colourful board, filled with reds and blues and greens, containing phrases such as double letter score and triple word score. I started out at the age of five, by playing at home with my father and grandmother, learning the nuances of the game and strategies to balance my tile rack. I then moved on to playing tournament level Scrabble, where I was made familiar with the very first life philosophy - what goes around comes around.

We've all heard several stories about karma. Similarly when playing multiple games over the course of 3 days in a tournament, you may get great tiles in one game and disastrous ones in the next. But what you have to keep in mind is that your opponent will go through the same phase. So, instead of fretting over picking up a series of unpredictable tiles that won't help you score much, you can patiently wait for the tables to turn soon enough.

Life philosophy number 2 - risk-taking. In Scrabble you'll sometimes have to make a tradeoff between playing a move that opens up good spaces for the opponent versus playing it safe but losing out on scoring well. In life too, I've faced such dilemmas. It's easy to say high risk high reward, but if that risk doesn't go in your favour, you lose out on a lot.

One such example is when I decided to go mountain biking in a place called Lavasa. I was in sixth grade at that time, and I thought it would be cool to don a helmet and ride a bicycle on jagged terrain. The uphill journey was pretty smooth, pun intended. But on the downhill path, I lost my balance on a steep slope and fell head first on the slope when my bicycle toppled. Boy I'm just glad I had my helmet on, because the fall was so hard, my helmet cracked! Luckily, I suffered no injury other than bruising my wrists and lived to tell the tale. Coming to the plus side, I have experienced high risk high reward in one area - and that is toastmasters. From being a person who refused to go on stage and if forced, I would talk feebly and hold my knees to prevent them from quivering incessantly, to someone who is able to tell herself you can do this, you've got to do this, I think I've come a long way by taking this risk of exposing myself to speaking in public and having other people watch me. The payoff of course is huge, since I have become braver in tackling uncomfortable situations at work and dealing with conflicts. 

The third valuable life lesson Scrabble has taught me is actually contradictory to the first point I mentioned earlier. This one is 'patience pays...but not always.' 

In Scrabble, when you make a play using all 7 tiles on your rack, it is called a bingo and you receive 50 additional points on top of your word score. Everything counts…

So, while it's good to wait it out in anticipation of probable bingo tiles on your rack and end up scoring peanuts while forgoing good moves, you can't keep up that charade for too long while your opponent progresses in leaps and bounds. This lesson is also one of the reasons that pushed me to join toastmasters. I thought if I kept waiting, I would somehow be able to talk better, portray more confidence, and become a better leader. Wishful thinking, right? But I kept nudging myself to face reality and just sign up to be part of one club somehow by the end of this year. As they say, better late than never!

The final philosophy I'd like to share with you all is on being humble. In Scrabble, just when you think you might want to break out a celebratory winner dance because of being 70 points ahead of your opponent on the last turn, they get a last-chance what is called the golden bingo, finish with that, *and* worst of all, win with a tiny margin of 2 or 3 points over you. This has happened with me so many times when I'm playing Scrabble with my husband, who is actually a chess champion. I introduced him to the game of Scrabble just a couple of years ago, and he picked it up so quickly! Many times when I start gloating about how I'm going to win, he swoops up with the golden bingo and takes the lead. 

So fellow toastmasters and guests, you can see what all Scrabble has taught me, and this is true for other games like chess too. I've only just started learning chess from my husband now, and there are even more and deeper philosophies to be learnt from it, but that's a story for another day. Thank you. Over to you, TMOD.

Evaluation:

1. You grabbed attention of audience right from the start. When you spoke about music as a way of life, it took me back in time and brought back memories.
2. You beautifully moved on to tell about scrabble and there was a good transition into the body of the speech.
3. You spoke about the lessons learnt by using vivid imagery and good vocabulary.
4. You also had good quotes like what goes around comes around.
5. You then moved on to various stories about patience and risk taking and humility.
6. One recommendation I have for you is to make your conclusion also powerful.
1. The opening was great but your conclusion was not as powerful as the opening. Try to tag it back to the title. You spoke about chess in the end. Instead, summarize the lessons you talked about. This is all I have to say. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours I am sure you will rock.

Implemented the feedback to apply to another speech:

Updated script - Scrabble as a way of life

You've often heard people describing how their passion becomes a way of life for them. For some, it is music while for some others it is cooking. For me, Scrabble is not just a game, it's a way of life.

Fellow toastmasters and guests, a very good evening to all of you. Today, I would like to share with you how Scrabble has instilled in me valuable life lessons.

When I was young, Scrabble was merely a fun-filled family board game. I remember the first time I saw that colourful board, filled with reds and blues and greens. For a curious wide-eyed girl like me, this was immensely fascinating!

I started out by playing at home with my grandma from when I was 5 years old, learning the nuances of the game. I then moved on to playing tournament level Scrabble. There I was made familiar with the very first life philosophy - what goes around comes around.

When playing in a tournament, you may get great tiles in one game and disastrous ones in another. But what you have to keep in mind is that your opponent will face the same.

So, instead of fretting over picking up a series of unpredictable tiles that won't help you score much, you can patiently wait for the tables to turn.

Life philosophy number 2 - risk-taking. In Scrabble you'll have to make a tradeoff between playing a move that would help the opponent versus playing safe but losing out on scoring well. 

It's easy to say high risk high reward, but if that risk doesn't go in your favour, you lose out on a lot.

One such incident in my life is when I decided to go mountain biking in grade 6. I thought "okay. Let me prove my mettle and see how adventurous I can get!" "let me ride my bicycle on unwieldy terrain". "genius decision right?" The uphill journey was still okay but on the downhill path, I lost my balance. 

My bicycle toppled, I toppled, my confidence level also toppled, and I fell THUD on my head. Fortunately, only my helmet took the brunt of that fall but I was left with bruised wrists and a bruised ego. 

Coming to the plus side though, I have experienced high risk high reward in one area - toastmasters. From being a person who refused to go on stage no matter what to someone who is able to tell herself you can do this no matter what, I think I've come a long way by taking this "risk" of speaking in public. The reward of course is that my self-esteem has received a tremendous boost.  

The third valuable life lesson Scrabble has taught me is slightly contradictory to the first point I mentioned. This one is 'patience pays...but not always.' 

In Scrabble, when you make a play using all 7 tiles on your rack, it is called a bingo and you get 50 points added to your score. So, while it's good to wait until you get bingo tiles on your rack, you end up scoring peanuts while your opponent scores in leaps and bounds. 

This lesson is also one of the reasons that pushed me to join toastmasters. I thought if I kept waiting, I would somehow be able to talk better, portray more confidence, and become a better leader. Wishful thinking, right? 

I kept nudging myself to sign up to be part of one club anyhow by the end of this year. As they say, there is always a first time for everything. Saying yes to new beginnings and new opportunities will definitely pay off in the long run.

The final philosophy I'd like to share with you all is on being humble. In Scrabble, just when you think you might want to break out a celebratory winner dance because of being 70 points ahead of your opponent,

they get a last-minute last-chance bingo and win with a *tiny* margin of 2 points over you. I learnt the hard way, it’s better to remain grounded till the end rather than watching your expectations come crashing down.

So dear friends, you can see what all Scrabble has taught me. Apart from these philosophical lessons, there are also technical things you can learn like math for example. 

You need to practice adding and multiplying super fast. Why so? Because in a tournament, only after you play your move and announce your score, you can press the clock. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to lose out on points just because you can’t do elementary math in a short time.

Another thing is that there are hundreds of words that you need to memorise so that you have different options to play different words.

Here you can actually tap into your creativity and come up with cool sets of mnemonics to help you remember words. And it’s not as easy as it looks. 

There are 124 2-letter words in Scrabble. I’m neither joking nor exaggerating. Don’t ask me the meanings, but the words range all the way from AA to ZO. Let me share a simple mnemonic on how to remember all the 2-letter words starting with U. 

Just. Remember. Phantoms. 

Every consonant in that word forms a valid suffix with U

UP, UH, UN UT UM and US

Simple! That’s it!

So to summarize all the lessons, I can say that I have been taught to take risks by making the right tradeoffs at the right time, taught to be patient but then again, not for too long, taught the art of humility and last but not least is that what goes around comes around. I have extrapolated these lessons in my life too. 

For instance, I have learnt to be patient with my efforts when learning something new and not expect that I become a subject matter expert within a day. I have learnt via karma to be kind to others because one good turn deserves another. And being humble goes a long way especially when you move up the ladder in your career. I'll always recollect this quote my uncle used to tell me "be nice to the people on your way up because you will meet them on your way down."

With that, I can once again emphasise that for me, Scrabble is not just a game, it is indeed a way of life.

Thank you. Over to you, TMOD.

Evaluation:

What went around as your speech is now coming around as evaluation

I will highlight 3 positives out of the many I observed.

1. Energetic opening

1. Infectious smile

2. Bubbling energy

3. Wide-eyes - could connect when you said it

2. Oozing light in a dark room

3. Organization of speech

1. Scrabble - experience, lessons, 4 lessons

Recommendations: 2

I don't know about Scrabble, could have chosen a simpler game like Chess or Ludo

I guess you had good hand gestures - guess because I couldn't see them fully - partly covered because you were seated

Stand up and deliver so you can gesture well

Video:

Initial speech: https://youtu.be/XkqHuIV3ZPU?t=1562

Speech after feedback: https://youtu.be/6A_MHeTCEFU?t=799

Notes:

I also got to re-deliver this speech in one of the JTPs - judges training program. I reached out to my mentor, who gave excellent suggestions on how I can reduce the content so as to allow for more pauses.

You've often heard people describing how their passion becomes a way of life for them. For some, it is music while for some others it is cooking. For me, Scrabble is not just a game, it's a way of life.

Fellow toastmasters, good day to all of you. Today, I would like to share with you how Scrabble has instilled in me valuable life lessons.

When I was young, Scrabble was merely a fun-filled family board game. I remember the first time I saw that colourful board, filled with reds and blues and greens. For a curious wide-eyed girl like me, this was immensely fascinating!

I started out by playing at home with my grandma from when I was 5 years old, learning the nuances of the game. I then moved on to playing tournament level Scrabble. There I was made familiar with the very first life philosophy - what goes around comes around.

When playing in a tournament, you may get great tiles in one game and disastrous ones in another. But what you have to keep in mind is that your opponent will face the same.

So simply wait patiently for the tables to turn in your favour.

Life philosophy number 2 - risk-taking. In Scrabble you'll have to make a tradeoff between playing a move that would help the opponent versus playing safe but losing out on scoring well. 

It's easy to say high risk high reward, but if that risk doesn't go in your favour, you lose out on a lot.

One such incident in my life is when I decided to go mountain biking in grade 6. I thought "okay. Let me see how adventurous I can get!" "let me ride my bicycle on unwieldy terrain". "genius decision right?" The uphill journey was still okay but on the downhill path, I lost my balance. 

My bicycle toppled, I toppled, my confidence level also toppled, and I fell THUD on my head. Fortunately, only my helmet took the brunt of that fall but I was left with bruised wrists and a bruised ego. 

Coming to the plus side though, I have experienced high risk high reward in one area - toastmasters. From being a person who refused to go on stage no matter what to someone who is able to tell herself you can do this no matter what, I think I've come a long way by taking this "risk" of speaking in public. The reward of course is that my self-esteem has received a tremendous boost. 

The third valuable life lesson Scrabble has taught me is slightly contradictory to the first point I mentioned. This one is 'patience pays...but not always.' 

There will be times when you end up scoring peanuts in anticipation of a high scoring move while your opponent scores in leaps and bounds every chance. 

This lesson is also one of the reasons that pushed me to join toastmasters. I thought if I kept waiting, I would somehow be able to talk better, portray more confidence, and become a better leader. Wishful thinking, right? 

I kept nudging myself to sign up to be part of one club anyhow by the end of 2020. Saying yes to new opportunities will definitely pay off in the long run.

The final philosophy I'd like to share with you all is on being humble. For instance, wait till the game is over before starting to celebrate your possible win. 

So fellow toastmasters, you can see what all Scrabble has taught me. Apart from these philosophical lessons, there are also certain tiny technical things you can learn like math. Calculating your score quickly will help you save time. Another lesson would be to come up with creative mnemonics to help you remember hundreds of words that you learn while preparing for tournaments.

In conclusion, let me summarize all the lessons this board game has enlightened me with.

One, I have been taught to take risks by making the right tradeoffs at the right time, taught to be patient but then again, not for too long, taught the art of humility and last but not least is that what goes around comes around. I have extrapolated these lessons in my life too. 

For instance, I have learnt to be patient with my efforts when learning something new and not expect that I become a subject matter expert within a day. I have learnt via karma to be kind to others because one good turn deserves another. And being humble goes a long way especially when you move up the ladder in your career. I'll always recollect this quote my uncle used to tell me in this regard "be nice to the people on your way up because you will meet them on your way down."

With that, I can once again emphasise that for me, Scrabble is not just a game, it is indeed a way of life.

Thank you. Over to you, TMOD.

Level 1 Project 1 - Icebreaker Speech

#127

Icebreaker speech - Paradigm Shift

Script:

I recently heard of a book named personality isn’t permanent, written by a psychologist. Its title reminded me of how different I was as a person 15-20 years ago and the kind of person I am today.

Fellow toastmasters and guests, a very good evening to all of you. Today I’d like to share with you my transformation from a shy introvert girl at the age of 4 to a not-so-shy, not-so-introvert anymore woman at the age of 24. 

Being the only child, I was the centre of my attention among my parents, my neighbours and my cousins. We lived in Mumbai with my grandparents. Isn’t growing up with grandparents fun? New stories every day! I’ve learnt so many new things from the stories my grandma would tell me from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchatantra and Aesop’s fables.

When I was in school, apart from my friends, I also cherished the company of Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha, Tintin, and my favourite, Enid Blyton books. 

As a young voracious reader, I loved language and words. Not surprisingly, I played Scrabble at an advanced level right from the age of 5 and have won many accolades.

An interesting contrast was when I wanted to engage in a physical sport and I enrolled in my school basketball team, where I represented my school at the district level. Being a team sport, I learnt the discipline of training and practising together with the other girls in my team.

Somewhere around the 12th grade, deep down, I felt I needed to be more outgoing. So, I made up my mind to pursue engineering in a college outside my home city. It was a bold decision for both me and my parents, but i saw it as a way to develop myself and become independent. I was thrilled to bits when I got admission in computer science at BITS Pilani in Hyderabad. 

That was one of the best decisions I ever made. It was an inceptive stage of my life. The first time I entered the campus, it was as though a new person emerged out of me - the extrovert Sriya. Waiting to explore. Waiting to experience. Waiting to experiment. It was a complete paradigm shift. 

That girl who hesitated to speak to new people was now talking to lots of new folks AND making new friends? What!? 

My best friend Shirin would get tired of walking with me all the way from the hostel to the academic block for attending classes not because of the distance, but because I would start chatting with several people along the route. 

In the spirit of experimentation, I volunteered to be part of different clubs and departments. Because I liked languages, I joined language clubs such as English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, and my mother tongue Telugu. I also discovered my penchant for photography and worked my way to becoming the head of the department. 

I also played inter college table tennis and, winning tournaments helped me boost my confidence to the next level.

I thought my transformation was complete and permanent. But then came placement season. I realized parts of me still needed development. I didn’t do too well in interviews because I would clam up and not express myself effectively. Fortunately, we also had opportunity for doing internships, and I landed at Amazon Chennai as a software developer.

I worked hard to give it my all to get a job offer. 5 months later, Lo and behold!  I rejoined as an employee in July of 2017, and I decided I’d strive to do well not only at work but also in other aspects. 

What am I talking about? I decided to test the extent of how confident I had become and went ahead and asked this guy Akhilesh whom I knew and liked for about couple of months out on a first date. Well what do you know - he said yes! And he kept saying yes to many such dates with me after that, and even today, we go out on 'dates' as husband and wife.

Finally coming to this year, I’ve continued experimenting in the lockdown period. I started 3 blogs, one on finance and investments, one on book summaries and a casual one. I’ve also tried to develop my culinary abilities and tried my hand at baking. I also got some time to introspect and figure out what truly makes me happy. 

One of the major milestones for me this year was obviously joining Toastmasters. It was something I had been putting off time and again because the shy girl in me kept saying I couldn't do it. There was no way I’d be able to give a speech in front of so many people staring at me. Boy I’m just glad I could prove the old me wrong. And so wrong.

I’m happy to have finally broken the ice, not just for my toastmasters speech, but in life as well, between the new me and every opportunity coming my way.

Thank you for listening. Over to you toastmaster of the day.

Video:

Participated in the ice breaker contest and was declared the winner: https://youtu.be/97ZzWkgWmyc?t=1403 

And I got to give the speech again in the 600th milestone meeting as well: https://youtu.be/shXsH5YaZKI?t=659

My Toastmasters Journey

#126

I stumbled upon a Toastmasters magazine back in 2019. At the time, I dismissed the idea. One fine day in the latter half of 2020, I stumbled upon yet another magazine, this time for some reason I decided to take it seriously. I read every article in that issue cover-to-cover and I was mesmerized by the experiences people shared. And so it began...

In the first week of October, I entered my registration details on the Toastmasters.org website. I didn't know much about 'clubs' back then so I chose a random (what I thought to be random at the time) one in Chennai which held meetings on Saturdays. Soon enough, I got a call, spoke to the concerned person and decided to take my very first step in my Toastmasters journey - I attended my first meeting as a guest.

I had zero expectations, all I had in mind was to attend that one meeting to see how things were conducted and that's it. Out of the blue, I was called to speak on a table topic. Being a person who does not like being put on the spot (surprise surprise, I don't like surprises!), I simply refused to speak. Despite being cajoled to try a couple of times, I persisted "I don't know what to say, I can't speak." Immediately, I shut off my video and continued to listen to the rest of the meeting in that manner, feeling thoroughly embarrassed and kicking myself for not standing up to the challenge and speaking.

After that day, I attended 2 more meetings as a guest and I did try my hand at table topics. Though it was quite a disaster - my speech was filled with 'ahs' and 'ums', I was happy with myself that I at least said yes to trying. October 24, 2020 - I paid my membership fees and started actively participating in each and every meeting, taking up roles, giving regular speeches, and helping out with other initiatives such as contests and newsletters.

This April would mark one year since I started this blog :) It was a 30-day challenge on City Connect. What a year it has been! I decided to use this month to post all the Toastmaster-related artifacts, my speech scripts and videos I have given in my club so far, and I'm not treating it as a challenge per-se, but I hope to regain my consistency by posting regularly.

Cheers!