Speak easy.

“The more pain I put myself in now, the easier it is on race day. I love race day.”

Keely Hodgkinson

 Hearing Keely say this, I was reminded of conference speaking and the subject of rehearsal. For me when it comes to successful speaking, there are two types of work

There’s the ‘cosy’ work, call it the preparation. This includes writing the script, producing the slides, writing an article. All warm comfy stuff, tapping away at a keyboard, choosing images and tinkering with ideas.

But rehearsal is pain. It takes physical effort. It keeps me honest by testing my preparation. It’s an act of bravery to see whether what I’ve written actually sounds good when it’s spoken. And if it fits the brief, the audience and the time limit. Because it might not. And often it doesn’t, which means diving back into preparation.

 No wonder I try and find reasons to skimp on rehearsal. Here are some of my favourites. See if you recognise any of them:

“It’ll be alright on the night”: But what if it isn’t? If you rely mostly on hope, it’s likely you’ll end up rehearsing in public, you’ll feel worse than if you’d felt the pain of rehearsal. By feeling the burn before you step on stage, and in private, you can use it to improve your performance.

“If I over-rehearse, I’ll sound stilted and robotic”. Fair enough. But that’s not a good reason to not rehearse at all. It’s about doing the right amount. The place to stop is when you feel familiar enough with your material that you’ll be able to deviate and return, and respond to the room. When you sound good, and when you’re inside the time limit, you’re ready to run.

“We must be ready because we prepared well.” You may be well prepared but without rehearsal you’re not ready. No amount of extra preparation will help you when it’s time to open your mouth. Burying rehearsal in preparation makes your race day harder than it needs to be.

If you’re coming round to the idea that rehearsing might be ‘nice pain’, here are three ways to make it work for you:

• Rehearse as you will perform it: this builds your muscle memory by getting you familiar with the physical. Arrange a lectern for yourself. A waist high surface that you can rest your notes on will be fine. Hold a small piece of wood to represent the clicker and click forward when you move slides. And imagine the delegates and scan the room as you will when you’re live.
• Rehearse for time: check that you’re going to finish 5-10% inside your allocated speaking duration. And check your pace, don’t speed up to bring it in on time. Edit your words instead.
• Rehearse for performance: rehearse out loud, and three times. Hear yourself move from reader, to speaker to performer (or closer to). You’ll feel comfortable with the words. You’ll start to notice emphasis, pause and gestures. Check they are where you want them to be.
• Bonus Tip: If you’re short on time, an economy version is to rehearse your first two minutes, 5 times. And the rest of your session twice.

For organisers

Here are three ways to encourage and support your speakers to rehearse as they will perform it:

• Share early with your speakers the arrangements of the staging. Whether there will be a lectern, confidence monitors, clicker, screen positioning, where speakers will wait and how the delegates will be seated.
• Invite speakers to a table read: this will coax your speakers towards rehearsal. You are gently making them accountable. This can be done on a video call.
• Give them access to the stage beforehand: when the stage is set up give speakers a window to come along and see it for themselves. Let them go up on stage and speak the first minute of their session. 

I train and speak for a living and have done for the last 10 years. Rehearsal has always been where the hard work is for me. And I suspect it always will be. Sometimes I have to drag myself there. But I always feel better afterwards.

And when I hold my feet to the fire beforehand, I love race day! (just like Keely).

About the author:

John Scarrott is a Communication Skills Trainer and ICF PCC Coach. He supports associations to add value to their events by offering training that enhances the performance of their speakers, chairs and facilitators. Find him at AAE , where he provides training, and on YouTube.