But beyond tooting my own horn, it occurred to me, while watching the other speakers, that a Toastmasters Speech has its own unique style. It is part performance art, part motivational appeal and part moralistic sermon. There’s no rule saying it has to be that way, but winning speeches generally contain a moral lesson or message of some sort and tend to be physically demonstrative and emotional in tone.

Some new Toastmasters I have met, mostly those coming in to learn business or sales presentation, question the value of learning such a style. It’s not directly applicable to what they need to do in business, they say.

I always counter that by pointing out that there are no tires on an American football field. Yet football players often train by running through rows of tires. It would seem a pointless exercise, training for something that will never happen in a game situation, but of course, that’s not why they do it.

They run through the tires because it trains them to stay balanced, to place their feet precisely and to lift their feet when they run. It trains them in the type of skills that ARE directly applicable to successfully running through the jumble of flying limbs and falling bodies that litter the field during the average play.

That’s what Toastmasters does too. It trains speakers to speak with power, flexibility and precision. It trains them to use their faces and bodies to reinforce their spoken message. It trains them to control or eliminate nervous mannerisms that undercut their authority. It trains them to think about what, specifically, they are trying to communicate and how they can most clearly and effectively structure the words and ideas. It trains them to be disciplined, to stay on message and not go on pointless, unproductive tangents. It trains them to stand in front of a crowd, of any size, with composure and confidence.

It trains them in precisely the skills that are directly applicable to delivering a disciplined response to a media inquiry, to presenting a scripted sales demonstration with an air of spontaneity, to explaining a complex technical problem to the suits in management or to rallying the troops in times of uncertainty.

Those are the skills that will make you stand out from the pack and put you on the fast track to the top.

This from the blog of R. L. Howser, who competed in the Toastmasters All-Japan Speech Contest championship and will be traveling to California for this year's finals. I confess to the same doubts about contest speeches, but I really appreciate what Howser says about the value of Toastmaster training and I know it has worked for me in many ways and on many levels, most recently as a lab in which I redeveloped the ability to speak after a stroke. What about you? Do you still see the importance of running through the tires?

via @OliviaMitchell

We’re in the aftermath of a financial crisis — and there’s overwhelming evidence (pdf) that recovery from financial crises is almost always protracted and difficult. There’s no way one should have expected everything to be fine until the Lehman failure lies years in the past. In fact, the return of job growth we’ve already seen is ahead of schedule compared with the historical average.

And one thing is clear: the financial crisis occurred on Bush’s watch. To demand that everyone let Bush off the hook for where we are now because 16 months have passed under his successor is to defy the overwhelming evidence of history.

I wish we saw more like this. I'm usually amazed and angered when I hear the (predictable) Republican jabs at the Obama administration. Seems to me the Republicans took eight years to run the economy into the ground. The new administration is expected to turn it around on a dime?

You're standing over the stove, adding some more garlic and basil to your marinara sauce.  You dip in a spoon and pass it over for a taste to your spouse, partner, puppy, roommate, best friend, or stranger off the street upon whom you try out new recipes.

And you ask the most critical of all survey questions: So?

And based on their feedback you tweak the sauce until it is ready to serve.

It used to be difficult to share prototypes of products or drafts of documents with others, but that's no longer the case.  Yet too often we still work like the Wizard of Oz, toiling away behind the curtain and only revealing the final product to our loyal subjects.

That should change.

We ask people to test drive a new web site design, so why don't we ask them to test drive the proposed schedule for the upcoming leadership conference?  As part of a volunteer task I accepted, each month ASAE's Associations Now magazine staff sends me a 5-minute survey assessing the appeal of various article titles and descriptions.  It's a fun creative break for me, it hopefully provides useful input to the editorial and design teams, and it makes me rethink some of the language I use in my own writing efforts.

Technology makes it easy to share works in progress and to rapidly get feedback from a broad range of people who ultimately with vote with their feet and their wallets on the value of our creation.  Web sites abound that no nothing more than offer consumer reviews about products.

The old adage is that people support what they help create. Being asked to provide input is a small invitation to be a part of the creative process.  As author Patrick Lencioni has said, "Weighing in is often the prerequisite for buying in."

So let's draw on others' unique perspectives, invite their perceptions and feedback, and refine our efforts accordingly.  We're asking for their voice, not their vote, so the ultimate choices you make about a program or service aren't necessarily tied to the feedback you receive.  What input you get, however, is likely to positively inform the final choices you make and how you introduce any changes or new initiatives to your stakeholders.

Jeffrey Cufaude has given me more good ideas with his Wednesday What If feature than I can remember. I've got an opportunity this year to serve as a technology advisor to the District Governor in my Toastmasters district. Here's a great reminder before I even get started of an effective way to make change, at least to get started.

I think Colleen’s right. If you want to be a speaker, you can go to Toastmasters meetings and learn how you are supposed to hold your hands, the right way to make eye contact with the audience, and so on. But I think it’s better to live an active life and figure out what you’re really passionate about. Then, talk about that.

Point taken...

Announcing worldwide-meet-the-tribe-of-Linchpins day on June 14, 2010. In as many as 500 cities worldwide, here's your chance to find some folks just like you.

One of the first linchpins I ever knew was my 3rd grade teacher. His daughter was born on flag day, and for some reason, I've never forgotten that. So in her honor, it's Linchpin day on June 14.

Here's a simple, fast and free way to find other Seth fans in your community. Meet other people who talk about this blog, read the books and want to make an impact on the universe. Find people who ship.

This one-time worldwide meetup lets you either volunteer to run your local in-person, non-virtual, face-to-face group meeting (in a bookstore, cafe or greenhouse) or merely join one. The page is simple. Find a city or add one. If the city needs an organizer, volunteer if you like. It's very lightweight, free and it might just work.

Chemistry happens when people interact...

Have fun!

... Are you interested in organizing and/or participating in a linchpin gathering within D27? I know we have fans of Seth Godin within Toastmasters. These are people who fight the typical lizzard-brain responces of merely paying dues and simply showing up at their clubs' meetings. Linchpins matter. Linchpins get things done.

... Who are the folks within our district that keep it going (present company excluded for I know how much you've contributed to extending Dr. Ralph Smedley's dream).