Winging It

Improvisation. Something everyone knows how to do. Some are better at it than others, but everyone is capable of it. After all, who goes through daily life knowing exactly what is going to happen, when, and what they must do in preparation for that? People improvise when they have a conversation with someone else. They improvise when they make moment-by-moment driving decisions. Whether people are aware of it or not, they are improvising all the time. It’s a constant thing.

And then there is improvising during a presentation. That is a whole different matter. Case in point: today I gave a 3-minute “speech” at the Global Focus Luncheon at church after the service. This wasn’t the first time I’d done that. I also gave a short (probably 1 minute long) speech last August when I came home from Tadoule Lake. This was a little different because, while there were 3 of us presenting, each one was right on the spot for their whole talk. Daunting perhaps, but I’ve done some performing in my day, so I figured I’d be alright.

It was part laziness, part inability to focus yesterday, and part confidence in my experience (both in Mexico and in speaking), that contributed to my choice to not write down my speech beforehand. I was a little nervous about that choice. After all, all the speeches I’ve ever done in the last few years (except for the short Tadoule Lake talk), have been written out entirely beforehand, and have been with me up on stage. So this was definitely pushing the limits of my comfort zone.

It was definitely a different experience, not knowing exactly what I was going to say before I said it. I basically just thought through the main points beforehand, and trusted my memory and my ability to think of my feet to fill in the details. I think it was a good decision. It made for some personal growth, I suppose.

And if you’re wondering, the speech went well. I spoke clearly, kept my head up, through in a touch of humor, and didn’t really lose my train of thought ever. It certainly was never awkward, thankfully. I think I was sweating a bit though. And wearing that blazing green Mexico shirt, it may have started to show a bit. But nobody commented on it, and nobody looked at me weird (or at least, I didn’t notice if they did). Thank goodness. Another thing I realized is that when your speech is unscripted, you can use what other people said right before you and run with it in your own speech. I think that’s pretty cool.

Finally, when the speech is unscripted, the talk feels more like telling a story, or having a conversation, than giving a speech. I think that makes it a little more personal or authentic. And that’s always cool. That’s not to say that written speeches don’t hit the point home. (Mary-Beth did a fabulous job with everything written down.) Lord knows I’ve used that tactic many times.

So yeah. That’s pretty much what I learned about winging it through today’s experience. It was pretty cool.

-Bernier