This is text of my P5 speech –Your body speaks! from the Competent Communicator Manual
Toastmaster of the evening, Madam President, fellow toastmasters,visiting toastmasters and guests. A very happy evening.
There is a saying, if you stop learning, you will get old. Learning comes naturally to us. Without it we would not have progressed so far. Learning something new is like creating a new folder in our computer. We create it, open it and put whatever new things that we have learned in it. We then closed it up and use it as reference for next time. I would like to share with you all what are learned about communicating.
Two years back, i was sent by my previous employer to a teambuilding program in Tekam, Pahang. It was a three day program. The program had a lot of indoor and outdoor activities. One of the activities was we had to build a raft and well, go rafting.
Rafting ? I said to myself. All the butterflies in my stomach started to fly. They made havoc in my stomach and then flew to my brain and brain started to fill up with negative thoughts! You can’t do this ! You can’t swim and what if you drown said my brain. The instruct assured me that there is nothing to worry about and that they will be there to help us. I called up my insurance agent just make sure i was covered.
It was time for us to do the rafting activity came. As i said, we had to build the raft ourselves. We were separated in teams We were given the materials and instructions on how to build it. My team and i proceeded to build the raft. After we finished building it, we had to carry it, like this to the man made lake or river. I am not sure what it was. But it had water. We pushed the raft gently on to the water. My team was that it floated ! If didn’t, i wouldn’t be telling this story.
We all got on the raft. I was one the rowers. I sat on the left side of the raft. One of my teammates volunteered himself to be the "captain of the ship". We then slowly rowed to a distance. And then we we’re told to stop. There was going to be a raft race to see which was best team. Once we we’re ready the instructor blew a whistle and the race began. I was rowing as fast and as aggressive as i can. My face intense just like this. My captain was yelling at us to row faster and telling us to go left or right. After all our efforts, fellow Toastmasters we came in, wait for it, last place! My team was very disappointed. I was too.
After the activity, we all gather in the field next to the river or lake, the instructors asked us how was the experience ? The winning team said ‘It was great’ ! but that was because they won. I said this was my first time rafting. The instructor said ‘ now a new folder was opened in your brain’. Then they asked the losing team, us why we lost ? We could not answer. They said we lost because we did communicate. The leader did not communicate well with the rowers and the rowers were not listening. The winning team had good communication. They worked together well. They had success.
That was what i learned that day, fellow toastmasters.The importance of communication. Let’s come back here. In every meeting, the TME has to communicate with all the appointment holders.He has to make sure everyone knows they’re duty. The general evaluator has to communicate with all the evaluators. What happens if they don’t ? The meeting won’t happen, correct ? That’s why the need to communicate well matters.
I hope all of you have benefitted from the story and the lesson i learned about communicating. If you didn’t, you all need to go rafting. Thank you for listening. Back to you Toastmaster of the evening.
I goofed up along the speech (a long pause). Next time i’m not using notes at all. Feel free to comment.
