Why Most Speaker Skills Training Fails

There’s a Valid Reason Speakers Detest Skills Workshops: They’re Terrible.
Survey speakers about their skills training: the most common responses you will hear include statements like these:


“Maybe somebody else needs this, but I don’t!”

“It was a complete waste of time!”

“This is insulting!”

“Are they actually trying to teach me how to talk?”


The inevitable failure of these events is as predictable as the tide:
A roomful of infuriated speakers rushing for the doors, looking to complain to the person responsible for wasting their time. Observe these events and you will notice a clear pattern:

• About eight minutes of overused content spread over 59 minutes of labored instruction and “over-talking”
• Facilitators with manufactured enthusiasm mistaking energy for usefulness
• Half of the speakers regularly checking their watch, reading the paper, or dosing off
• The other half of the speakers contending with the facilitator or the slides, questioning and challenging the contents of the presentation

Speaker Skills Training Doesn’t Have To Be Like This.