Is public speaking a performing art?

I’m gonna show you two interpretations of the same composition: 1st movement of piano sonata facile by Mozart.

…

Which one did you like most?

Why?

Tempo, emphasis, rhythm…

Music has its rules to convey the sense of beauty to our ears: movements, tempo (iusto, legato and rubato), rhythm, harmony, dynamics (piano and forte), etc.

And public speaking has its own rules too to convey the message you want to transmit to the audience: structure, body language, voice modulation, pacing and pausing …

So, yes, public speaking is also a performing art.

In music there are good interpreters and bad interpreters. Like Glen Gould and Maria Joao Pires.

The same happen to speakers. You know when you see a good one: Mariano Rajoy Prime Minister of Spain is a bad speaker, David Cameron, of the UK is a good one.

A good speech can

·        draw men to battle, making them fearless in front of the enemy, take this example… (we shall go on to the end…)

·        make them willing to make great sacrifices to defend an idea, or a doctrine, take this example… (I have a dream… 269 million hits)

…

Such is the power of the spoken word…

But, as public speaking abilities are crucial for:

-        a politician, who has to convince the voters to vote for him,

-        a lawyer who should learn how to argue his point before a judge

-        and for a teacher, who should transmit his knowledge to the pupils

They can they be important for you too? Yes, because:

People encounter impromptu speaking situations every day. An impromptu speech can take the form of

-        a job interview:

-Are you the best person for this job, why?

-        Or a sales pitch:

- Why do you think your product is superior to the competition?

-        Or asking a producer to support your project

- Why should I believe we have a hit here?

With enough practice, anyone can develop the ability to present ideas clearly in any impromptu speaking situation.   

What will you learn?

CONTROLLING YOUR NERVES

The next time you are about to give a speech, as your heart pounds, you have butterflies in your stomach and your knees quiver; turn your anxiety into positive energy. Your audience will be impressed with your confidence and listen to every word you say.

ORGANIZING YOUR SPEECH

The words in a well-organized speech work together to obtain and keep the audience’s attention.

BEGINNING YOUR SPEECH

Successful speech openings meet four criteria:

1. Get the attention of the audience.

2. Introduce the topic.

3. Establish rapport.

CLOSING YOUR SPEECH

People will remember the last thing they hear more than any other part of your speech.

PREPARATION AND PRACTICE

The majority of speakers recognize the value of careful preparation and regular rehearsal before delivering a speech.

KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE

Speakers want to share knowledge and move an audience to share their viewpoint.

You may want to give people something to carry home with.

So you are performers. Your performing art is music. But speaking is also a performing art. You are a good musician, but it will help you to manage situations in life like presenting a project or proposing your partner to become a good speaker. Or even convince your partner that you love him or her for ever.

So, yes, both musicians and public speakers are performing artists and learning public speaking abilities may help us all: musicians and public speakers.

Crisis management speech

Situation: The vice-president of a political party has been arrested by the police under charges of corruption; there are 50 detainees in total.

Successful crisis management (according to the manual)

1.    Identify your message

2.    Know what you can’t say

3.    Show concern

4.    Provide relevant information

5.    Be truthful

6.    Do not guess

7.    Admit mistakes

8.    Admit that you don’t know everything

Successful crisis management (according to Machiavelli)

1.    State welfare is responsibility of the Leader

2.    And should be achieved by any means possible, including deceit and intrigue

3.    Leader’s morality  is less important than state welfare

4.    Leader will be judged by results obtained rather than means used

5.    Conclusion: a prudent Leader cannot and should not stand by his words

Here is the speech

Fellow citizens

-    First, I would like to apologize before you, the citizens.

-        I understand that you, the people of this country, are fed up with what we are seeing these days.

-        And I understand the annoyance of the citizens. We certainly had some rotten apples in our basket

-        I trusted my deputy, but he betrayed my trust

-        I made a mistake, but who doesn’t, sometime during his life?

-        Should I know what he was all about, I would have fired him immediately.

-        ‘Cause I am incompatible with corruption.

-        Resign? Would you trust someone who abandons the ship in the middle of a storm?

-        The fact that this scheme has been discovered is a proof that the Judicial System is working.

-        Corruption is everywhere, it happens in other countries too.

-        In this country if you commit a crime, you have to face the consequences for what you do

-        Those who are corrupt should go to jail

-        Justice is equal for all

-        But, till now, we don’t know what really happened.

-        This is something for the Courts to decide

-        In the meantime we are going to set up a parliamentary enquiry and

-        We are going to promote legislation to make enforcement easier

-        As for the rest of the arrested, I didn’t knew them

-        But, this doesn’t mean the all the party is corrupt. It’s just some individuals. 99% of politicians are honest.

-        Nothing to do with my political party, it’s just the individual.

-        All than I can say to you is that we definitely will uproot the weeds

-        And make sure this never happens again

-        As for the opposition, they don’t have the moral authority to criticise us, because

-        They have plenty to be ashamed of

My first kiss

                                                  

Do you remember your first romantic kiss? 

I do.

She was French and I was only fifteen.

There is nothing like a French kiss given by a French girl, I swear! Reject imitations!

A kiss may be like:

• a comma
• a question mark
• an exclamation point

Mine was warm and passionate like an exclamation point.

My first kiss was...was... a heart-quake!

My foundations shook to the ground!

I didn't know how to react in that situation, because nobody taught me how to give or to receive a French kiss.

In the school they teach you lots of useless things, like the Pythagoras theorem, which I never needed, but they don't teach

 you important things like how to French kiss a girl, which I needed often.

Or how to salute people in general.

The only place they teach you how to salute is the Army. The military salute consists of three steps:

• Step one: stand up as straight as possible and keep both arms at your sides, fingers together, pointing to the ground.
• Step two: Raise your right hand, fingers together, and touch the upper part of your eyebrow. Your forearm should be parallel to the ground and the arm at a 45º angle.
• Step three. Hold the salute for fifteen to thirty seconds. For extra effectiveness maintain eye contact throughout the salute.

French kissing would be completely different, wouldn't it? Yeah, war and love are arts apart, aren't they? Instead of three steps, I would give you three advices:

• Advice number one. Don't stand up straight, you need to bend over... or lay down .
• Advice number two. Because kissing is about pushing and thrusting, don't keep your arms at your sides, you'd better grab your partner. Where to touch, up the eyebrow or down the eyebrow is up to you. Suggestion: one hand on the back, the other on the waist... or perhaps lower down...?
• Advice number three. Don't try eye contact; you'll see your partner face completely blurred. And don't worry about time: the longer, the better.

This is what I mean. This soldier probably knew how to properly make a military salute, but, for God's sake, he knew how to give a French kiss!

It was probably a stolen kiss: the military equivalent of the surprise attack

And it was not an air kiss, the one you give to a fellow Toastmaster of the opposite sex not to spoil the ladies' make-up. It was, rather, an air raid.

Yes, if we had been taught how properly kiss people we would be able to negotiate different kissing situations, like the ones we may find this Christmas:

• What kind of kiss should you give to your mother-in-law. Will a smooch be all-right? ;
• What kind of hug should you give to your brothers-in-law: full body, upper body or no-body;
• Whether to double kiss the Queen of England, in the case you are invited to Sandriham to dinner.

So yes, I remember that calm summer night in which our lips touched for the first time.

And you? Do you remember your first kiss?

A phoney story

I’m gonna tell you a phony story about technology. It’s authentic, but

it’s phony, and it's phony because it’s the story of my mobile phone a,

so-called, smartphone.

It’s somewhat old and has some scratches, but it is still smart, just

like, ahem, me. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it

It still smarts from some falls to the floor, but it’s still going strong,

just like, ahem, me.

There are a couple of things I don’t understand about mobiles:

1.- I don’t understand why the call them mobile, because they don’t

move at all. For instance, I throw a ball at them, and.. Come on,

fetch it...nothing…. My dog is more mobile and certainly smarter than

that.

2.- Nor do I understand why they call them cell phones, because it’s

the kind of gadget a prisoner won’t be allowed to take to his cell.

3.- My phone is smart because it has, among other things, very

interesting ringtones. One is very funny to use in crowded elevators,

if you receive a call, in the next floor, yeah, the elevator is empty.

They, phones, come in many models and shapes.

For instance, this is the banana phone, very adequate for tropical

climates. Necessity is the mother of invention, isn’t it? The good thing

about it is that it is edible, which is useful if you are in a deserted

island.

Let me try it

- Eugene, Eugene

- It’s me, Pablo from Toastmasters

- I just wanted to know if the Russians have already withdrawn

their smart missiles from Cuba.

- They did that already

- That’s good

- But, is Fidel Castro still in power?

- O yeah, I understand, the missiles are gone, but Castro is still

in

- I see

Another very useful feature of my phone is the autocorrect, or

predictive text. Yes. Sometimes gets you into trouble, but it’s fine.

For instance, I once texted

Grandma is in the grave

- and my contact asked

- What are you saying?

- Ooops, sorry, garage,

- Oh autocorrect!

Among the most absurd applications, we have:

- The melon meter

You knock on the water melon with consistent pressure and rhythm

until prompted to stop.

The phone will tell you if the melon is ready for consumption

Smart phones are really clever.

Suppose it’s Monday, you have a huge hangover, and you want to

fake an illness.

You type: how to fake symptoms of being ill

And you read;

- Decide what illness are you going to fake

- Start mentioning symptoms the day before you want to fake

sick

- Jog your memory

- Make your face pale

- Pretend you are dizzy and lightheaded

- Act uncomfortable

- Be sluggish

- Act like you’re upset about being sick

- Don’t suddenly get better.

In a parallel universe, right after we'd come to this world, telephone

chips will be implanted in our heads, the way we implant chips on

dogs.

Once the implant is into place, we will be taught at school a set of

gestures like these:

- Riiing, it rings inside your head

- If you have the number in memory, you see who's calling

- To accept the call you pull your ear lobe: Hello?

- To reject the call you push your nose. BRRR

To speak, you do this (thumb & small finger) The earphone is

implanted in my thumb and the microphone in mi little finger.

I have one of those chips implanted, you know? Sorry, I have a call

- Pablo Gómez-Mora speaking, who is calling, please?

- President Obama?

- Yes, I accept. It is not a collect call, is it?

- OK

- Barak,

- Yes, I called you yesterday because my father says you're

bugging my phone?

- He says he is not my father

lick t� E B W � xo� this Land Rover… and I only have one tongue.

- Please, I need the car because I have an ill child and I have to take her to the Hospital.

- Well, I’ll see what I can do. Leave the car there.

- Where?

- There

- But there it does not fit

- (nodding)

- Go, go, go ahead, you got it

Urban gorillas

Coming to this Conference Hall in Seville, I’ve had an encounter with a gorilla.

Coward, he scratched my car!

A gorilla.

Yes, one of those guys who helps you park your car.

A gorilla can scratch your car in two ways:

-      Trying to help you

-      Trying to punish you

Trying to help you with those break dance movements like this:

… (doing the gesture)

You see him and say: this guy wants to communicate with me. You open the window and he says: straighten up, straighten up…

- Come on! Straighten up, what and to where?

There is no language for this purpose

There are three words attached to three gestures:

1.  Straighten up

2.  Turn, turn

And, if it requires precision,

3.  go, go, go

The problem is when he combines them: straighten up, turn, turn, go, go, go. (afterthought)

He stops always in the same way

- go, go, go, you got it

And they also may scratch your car by trying to punish you if you forget the customary 1€ paid in advance.

Someone should talk about the car’s scratches, those little beings; forgotten, neglected.

2.- The other cause of scratches is the phantom column: a column that rises up in a parking when you don’t look, where  you don’t see.

You arrive to the parking, look around and say: I’m alone, nobody has followed me. Wrong. There inhabit a civilization of stocky humanoids which, as the hobbits inhabited the middle earth, they inhabit the garages and build in them new columns when you don’t look, where you don’t see. The columns are just beside your car, they don’t touch it, but if you move forward, you scratch it, and if you move backwards, you scratch it too.

And you say: how the heck have I arrived here! (afterthought)

3.- And then we have the third and most painful way of scratching

Driving your car into a bar, I mean, an iron bar: the invisible bollard, which you don’t see… you hear it.

You don’t see it even when walking, imagine it when driving.

When you are walking, you go like this…

Pum, ay, shit with the pivot, thank God, I didn’t hit myself in the glans.

When I hit myself, I like to enjoy it. I am very angry at people who hit themselves and look the other way. Those people who are walking in the street and suddenly…

…

It’s a difficult situation because you’ve seen they have hit themselves, and they have seen that you’ve seen them.

Hey, you hit it, didn’t you? Yeah, yeah I’ve hit it. Yeah, you did it very hard, didn’t you? Yeah, yeah. (afterthought)

So, if it is difficult to see when you are walking, imagine when driving!

When driving, you see a place to park, gear the reverse and you hear grrrr, ahhh! You look sideways, ahhh! And you don’t see anything, and you say to yourself: must be someone else, fuck him!

And you park fully, grrr, ahh. You want to die and step out of the car with a single idea in your head: please not too expensive! Please not too expensive!

As you approach the scratch, your heartbeat rises and when you are close to it, you make this strange gesture:

(Kneeling… sucking your thumb and … wiping the scratch clean…)

Who do you think you are? God? That you may cure the wounds with your finger?

Do you want to repair metal with human saliva?

If that were possible, the body repair shops will be like a guy with a very big, wet, fleshy tongue.

A guy, who will meet us in his shop, saying:

- When do you want it?

- No, for Thursday it is not possible. Look how full the shop is: I’ve got to lick that BMW, to suck this Land Rover… and I only have one tongue.

- Please, I need the car because I have an ill child and I have to take her to the Hospital.

- Well, I’ll see what I can do. Leave the car there.

- Where?

- There

- But there it does not fit

- (nodding)

- Go, go, go ahead, you got it

Let's abolish capitalism

Does the common good arise from selfishness?

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest” (Adam Smith, first scientific economist, 250 years ago).   

Adam Smith expected that an “invisible hand” would lead the individual selfishness to the welfare of the greatest number of people possible.

This is the basis of the capitalistic system. Also called free market economy, it is a system that tries to maximize the profits and competition.

It encourages egoism, greed and envy.

Those traits are opposed to the values normally acceptable in our daily personal relations, like trust, sincerity and mutual appreciation.

This contradiction divides us deeply as individuals and as a society. Should we be cooperative and help the others? Or should we only care for ourselves and don’t give a damn about the others?

If we pursue our own welfare as a supreme good, then it will be common practice for some to use the others as means for our own ends.

Does a “free” market exist?

It will be free if any economic agent could withdraw unharmed from any economic transaction. But many cannot do so, because they are to a great extent dependent on others. An employer can withdraw from a labour contract more easily than an employee, a lender in a loan contract, more easily than the borrower, etc.

Three common myths about capitalism

1.  There is no alternative to the market economy

2.  Any other system will lead us to poverty or, even worse, communism.

3.  Market economy is the most productive system as history shows; competition is inherent to the nature of the human being.

No economist has demonstrated there is no alternative, ever. Actually cooperation is a better solution than competition. True motivation is intrinsic rather than extrinsic, like it is competition. Best results are achieved when people are enthusiastic about an idea, and they are full of energy.

In competition, because goods are scarce, there are lots of losers. If you set your own personal value in being better than the others, you depend on the others being in a worse position, this is sickening!

The ten crisis of capitalism

1.  Concentration and abuse of power

2.  Disruption of competition and creation of cartels

3.  Manoeuvres to attract capital

4.  Prices often reflect power relations

5.  Inequality and fear

6.  Famines

7.  Destruction of the environment

8.  Consumerism

9.  Deterioration of values

10.                  Suppression of democracy

Proposal: Economy for the Common Good

1.   Polarity reversal in the incentive framework

The new objective of companies is to produce the maximum contribution to the common good, not to make the maximum profit.

2.   Redefine economic success

Today economic success is measured as GDP in the case of a country and financial profit in the case of companies. Both are monetary indicators.

Does GDP indicate if, in a country:

-      are they at war or in peace?

-      is there a dictatorship or a democracy?

-      is income is fairly distributed?

Does financial profit indicate if a company:

-      creates of destroys employment?

-      job quality increases or diminishes?

-      profits are fairly allocated?

-      takes care of the environment?

Financial profit offers information of how a company serves itself, not how it serves the society.

There may be a nexus between profit and common good but it is not necessarily so. A financial profit may exist together with job destruction, sexual discrimination and destruction of the environment.

The ECG will measure success by the social dividend, a non monetary indicator.

3.   The balance sheet of the common good

Will measure what is laid out in the majority of constitutions:

-      human dignity

-      solidarity

-      justice

-      environmental sustainability, and

-      democracy

The balance of the common good measures how the stakeholders (suppliers, customers, lenders, borrowers, employees, society) live these basic values.

In the intersections you find the indicators of common good

-      the usefulness of goods and services

-      labour conditions

-      if production is ecological

-      how clients are treated

-      solidarity with other businesses

-      sharing of profits

-      remuneration of women

-      if decisions are taken democratically

The result will be the assignment of “points”

4.   Reward the search of the common good

The more points on the common good a company gets the more legal advantages it should enjoy. Like:

-      VAT reduction up to 100%

-      Lower tariffs

-      Bank credits in favourable conditions

-      Priority in public biddings

-      Cooperation with public universities

-      Outright aid

 5.   Permitted uses of the surpluses

-      Investments

-      Provision for losses

-      Capital increase

-      Distribution to stakeholders

-      Loans to stakeholders

Capital yields should only benefit those who made them possible with their work. Only persons working in the company should participate in profits in an equitable manner.

6.   Optimum size

Growth in nature is only a means to reach the optimum size. So should it be in the world of enterprises.

7.   Structural cooperation

The ECG is a market economy and is based on private companies and money. So competition is possible, but the more companies cooperate among themselves, the better their balance sheet of the common good will be and their survival possibilities. From the present win-loose system, we’ll go to a win-win system.

8.   Cooperative management of markets

Economy of the common good is a market economy and markets fluctuate. If demand in a sector drops or if there is a sudden surge of the supply, how will it manage this?

In the actual win-lose system, prices will drop and companies will go bankrupt. In the ECG, the affected companies will convoke a “crisis committee” to seek solutions, like:

-      reduce working hours;

-      reduce jobs and retrain workers

-      reduce business and specialize in other fields

-      close business and find jobs for redundant workers

-      merge businesses

-      strive to find other solutions

 9.   Sabbaticals

All workers will enjoy a sabbatical every 10 years during which they will perceive the minimum salary.

10.                    Solidarity income

2/3 of the minimum salary in case of emergency