Breaking The Subject Down

Addressing an audience is considered by some as purgatory, an experience that can literally traumatise individuals from the very moment it is mentioned. For a storyteller like me, it is an opportunity that I genuinely relish. As an ex-serviceman, I was introduced to this skill a very long time ago, indeed it formed a crucial part of my military training, and I am so grateful for that. It assisted me immensely throughout my career in the Army, and even more so in industry.

Training in the Army can sometimes be fairly brutal in its delivery, and might be seen as bullying by those that don’t understand what is behind a particular approach. The results though are often quite amazing. At 16 years of age I was a relatively quiet youngster and can honestly say that standing up in front of a group of people and delivering a clear, cohesive presentation over a 15 minute period was beyond me; moreover, it would have terrified me. The means by which this was addressed during military training was to ask individuals to stand up, without warning, provide them with an object such as a pencil, and tell them to talk about the item for 15 minutes. During this time, you would learn how to break the subject down, to talk about the constituent parts, how it had been grown, machined, had lead inserted, where the lead came from, whether it was painted, how it was sharpened…it’s amazing how quickly 15 minutes passes. This type of exposure provided confidence in terms of having to think on your feet, engage the audience, fill the allocated slot, answer questions and the like. Overcoming the initial fear is a large part of mastering oral communication.