Participants

Anyone

Procedure

1. The best way to practice public speaking is to do it.
2. Help a learner find a place where the skills can be practiced outside the organization. There will be other benefits as well.
3. Start with these suggestions:
   • Local community colleges are always looking for someone to teach a class, such as coin collecting, genealogy, golf, or whatever the learner's hobby happens to be.
   • High schools welcome people who are willing to come in to talk about their careers. Contact school counselors or high school business education departments.
   • Local youth organizations or clubs, such as the pony club, 4-H, Junior Achievement, YPO, Big Brothers/Sisters, Young Entrepreneurs, and others also welcome people who are willing to come in to talk about a variety of topics.
4. Once a learner gains experience outside the organization, a natural next step is to deliver a presentation about the experience.

Variation

A learner could run for office in an organization. It could be a professional organization, hobby group, reading club, sports club, civic organization, charity group—whatever resonates with the learner. All officers need to speak up at meetings to deliver reports.

Case Example

A wholesale manufacturing representative wanted to be a leader in his organization. Although he belonged to the debate team in college, he disliked every moment of it. He knew to accomplish his dream of being a leader required him to be more comfortable and skilled as a speaker. He joined the local chamber of commerce as a representative for his organization. When they were looking for individuals to provide leadership and team skills to youth in the city, he begrudgingly volunteered. He was successful in starting the program. To establish the program, he networked with organizations around the world, including EmprendeAhora.

EmprendeAhora is a leadership and entrepreneurship training program giving university students from rural Peru the necessary tools and empowerment to open their own businesses, generate income, and create local employment. The program trains the best university students from all over Peru in leadership, democracy, market economy, and business planning. EmprendeAhora lasts for three to five months (90 classroom hours), and the program is divided into three sessions consisting of classes; business plan coaching; lectures by successful entrepreneurs, leading academics, and political leaders; educational trips to large companies; and workshops led by young leaders from Lima. To graduate and receive a certificate, students are required to organize their own leadership and entrepreneurial workshops in their communities for high school or university students in order to share their knowledge and values from the program. Another requirement for completing the EmprendeAhora program is creating a business plan.

The manufacturing representative taught classes, coached students, and led workshops, all of which gave him many options for public speaking in Peru and in his hometown.

Participants

All learners

Procedure

1. Encourage learners to join an appropriate professional association.
2. Discuss how membership in the association will become a resource for skills and knowledge. Encourage the learners to attend local meetings and conferences.
3. Ask them about what they have read in the association's publications and how they use the association's website. If they get involved, it is a guaranteed way to learn and grow.
4. The learners will meet people with whom to network. If the association doesn't have the answer to a question, the new network of professionals will be able to lead the learners in the right direction. Joining an association is an opportunity for learners to affect their own destiny and to invest in themselves.

Variation

There are no substitutes for joining a professional association. However, if you must consider a variation, learners could subscribe to industry or professional association publications in order to keep up with what is happening in the industry.

Case Example

A trainer, new to the profession, attended her first national conference for ATD (Association for Talent Development). She was astounded at all the resources available and the thousands of things she did not know about the profession. She knew her learning had just begun.

Participants

Anyone

Procedure

1. There are many ways to decide which are the top movies of all time: by genre, by highest earnings, by vote. Listed in the Case Example are the top movies based on the number of Oscars they won.
2. Give the learner a copy of the Academy Awards nominations and winners. Suggest that the learner rent one of these movies and decide what made it the best. How did the directors, producers, and cast achieve what they did?
3. Suggest that the learners compare what they do on the job with what the cast and production crew do to reach Academy Award status. What could the learner do differently to reach Academy Award status?

Variation

A similar comparison could be made with the learner's favorite sports team, a Nobel prize winner, or a design or building project.

Case Example

Participants

Anyone

Procedure

1. Use Google or some other search engine to learn more about the organization where the learner works.
2. Have the learner search the company's name on the Internet and then respond to questions such as the following:
   • What did you learn about the company?
   • What surprised you about the company?
   • What is the reputation of the company?
   • What did you learn about the company that helps you understand what is driving its business?
   • What did you learn about the company that influences your next steps?
3. Ask the learner to create a plan that addresses anything that was uncovered that needs correcting or changing.

Variation

If your company is local, search the local newspaper's archives if they are not available on Google.

Case Example

One October a state forest ranger searched online for the parks at which he worked. He was surprised to see the negative comments over the past summer about a lack of places to put garbage. When he checked with his boss, he found that the agency knew there was a problem but no one had time to address it during the summer months. He asked his boss if he could take this on as a special project and put a plan in place for the following summer.

Participants

Anyone

Procedure

1. Staying current on city, state, and federal government affairs and how they may affect the industry and the impact they may have on the business is more important the higher up the corporate ladder a learner climbs. It is never too soon to start.
2. Suggest that a learner invite a friend who works in a different company, and perhaps even a different industry, to attend a city council meeting with you.
3. After the meeting ends, the learner can suggest that they stop for a beverage and discuss the implications of the decisions that are in process for your city.
4. Ask the learner after the council meeting what implications the learner saw that could affect either the company or the industry. Note that even something like building a new school that doesn't appear on the surface to affect the business, most likely will. A bond referendum may need to occur, property taxes may increase, or the sales tax may increase. All of these affect the business and its customers.

Variations

• Instead of visiting a city council meeting, the learner could simply review past council meeting notes.
• A visit to a state or federal lawmakers' meeting could be substituted.

Case Example

A woman who worked in the claims department of an insurance company headquartered in the woman's state capital took this exact advice. Two years later, she ran for a position on the school board. Her school board experience was a dynamic and exciting learning experience.

Participants

Anyone

Procedure

1. Using the best biography list given below or your own recommendations, select a book.
2. Study the book for what you can learn about the leader and use what you learn in your life by asking questions such as the following:
   • What do you value the most about this person's life?
   • What is the person's most admirable quality?
   • What was the most surprising thing you learned about this person?
   • How has this book inspired you to do something differently?

Variation

Select your favorite person from history or business and read a book by or about this individual.

Case Example

Here is a list of several biographies and autobiographies that are mentioned on many lists, in no particular order:

• Malice Toward None: Abraham Lincoln, by Jack E. Levin
• Churchill: A Life, by Martin Gilbert
• Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
• Killing Patton, by Bill O'Reilly
• Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
• Mandela's Way, by Richard Stengel
• The Clinton Charisma, by Donald Phillips
• A Portrait of My Father, by George W. Bush
• The Oprah Phenomenon, by Jennifer Harris
• Ben Franklin, autobiography
• Benjamin Franklin, by Walter Isaacson
• Richard Branson, autobiography
• Helen Keller, by Leslie Garrett
• Gandhi, by Primo Levi
• Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, autobiography
• Amelia Earhart, by Tanya Lee Stone
• Thomas Edison, by Matthew Josephson
• Mother Teresa, by Kathryn Spink
• Martin Luther King, Jr., by Marshall Frady
• Eleanor Roosevelt, autobiography
• John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life, by Robert Dallek
• Thomas Jefferson, by Jon Meacham
• His Excellency: George Washington, by Joseph Ellis

Participants

Small group of people who have ties to the organization's suppliers

Procedure

1. Depending upon your position, you may need to discuss this learning activity with someone in senior leadership prior to scheduling the activity. Have a small group plan to meet with a key supplier. The purpose is to learn more about the organizational drivers that are affecting your supplier today or that they anticipate will affect your supplier in the future. External drivers may include economic, customer, market, regulations, public perception, or human resources. Internal business drivers may include systems changes, technology, shareholder, financial, leadership, structure, or cultural shift.
2. Create a list of questions such as these to initiate the discussion:
   • What are the key drivers that are affecting your strategy today?
   • What drivers are you concerned about in the future?
   • How critical are these differences?
   • What impact will these differences have on you?
   • What impact might they have on us as one of your customers? What can we expect?
   • How can we help you? What role do you want us to play?
3. Summarize your discussion and share your discussion with your supervisor.

Variations

• Invite your supplier to your organization.
• Request a tour of your supplier's plant.

Case Example

A small group of employees from a clothing retailer that specializes in casual clothes visited suppliers of the cotton that is used in its clothing. These suppliers are special; they supply the cotton used in clothing made with “Supima” cotton. Supima cotton is grown exclusively in the United States. Only the top 3 percent of America's cotton crop earns Supima status. The name “Supima” is a contraction of “Superior Pima.” It was coined in 1954 by American growers who wanted to safeguard the quality and reputation of pima cotton. Because it takes a hot climate with limited moisture to yield the fibers, Supima cotton is supplied by only about 500 growers in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The group of employees wanted to learn more about the process of growing this unique cotton and to learn if the growers were concerned about weather or pests that might harm production. They also wanted to learn how they could strengthen their relationship with the suppliers.

Participants

Anyone

Procedure

1. Create a personalized way to meet with your employees more often. Finding a way to do this outside the office encourages a greater flow of conversation.
2. Typical opportunities are breakfast before the start of the workday or after work, perhaps establishing the meeting one to two hours prior to the end of the day.
3. If “office hours” will be held in the afternoon, announce the plan in the morning of the same day. If you plan a morning meeting, invite everyone the day prior to “office hours.”

Variation

If you have virtual employees, invite them along, too—virtually. They can go to a different restaurant for breakfast and either call or Skype your organization.

Case Example

Scott is the director of corporate strategic communications. At least twice a month he announces that he will have office hours at a specific place at 3:00 p.m. or so. The location is within walking distance and always the same to keep things simple. His employees know this is a time for both catching up on what others are doing in the department as well as to hear the “inside scoop” about the company.