The previous two broadcasts used driving as a metaphor for explaining the two major errors I've observed in people speaking in public - namely insufficient thought giving to structure and planning, along with inappropriate breathing technique when actually performing.

Both broadcasts triggered quite a few emails from you and so I'm following up this week with a codicil to collect together the commentary and questions raised.

What about moving versus standing still?

This is a question that's often asked, "Should I walk around when I'm on stage, or stand still?"

There are several points to consider in answering - however, the basic point to grasp is this:

All movement on stage transmits a message

Given the above, the question you have to keep asking yourself as you go through the planning process for your performance is, "what message do I want to be transmitting right now, (and right now, and right now, etc)?"

One of the most effective ways of using movement of stage is to anchor particular points you want to make to particular places on stage. If you use this method, then you'll automatically adopt the good practices of:

• Standing still while delivering key messages, making it easier for you to directly face the audience and make eye contact with them.
• Using the periods of movement between key anchor points as segues for linking the points you want to make.

Movement also allows you to lay out on stage a time scale that's easy for the audience to follow. For example, if you were telling a story about the development of a company, you might want to say, "...in 1975 we did blah, blah, and although this was very good, we didn't really have our major breakthrough until 1986 and we're still using this basic technology today..."

There are three time-points to be positioned on stage; 1975, 1986 and today. For a western audience, you would lay them out like this:

• 1975 would be stage right
• 1985 would be stage centre
• Today would be stage left

The critical point to remember is this:

Stage positioning has to be correct from the audience's point of view

Members of a typical western audience will read from left to right, therefore you must present and position data in a manner that starts from their left and moves to their right. This may appear to be the opposite way round for you when you're on stage. In the above example, 1975 was presented from stage right, which is the audience's left. This may seem a small - and maybe insignificant - point, but excellence is created from detail. History is full of concepts, the poor executed of which denied them the opportunity to prove their worth. For example, when speaking in Iran earlier this year, I had to reverse the above layout, as Farsi is read from right to left, (apart from the numbers, which are left to right).

Finally, a note on "hands". There's a great fear of hands and public speaking. People seem concerned that either (a) their hands will drop off or (b) they will increase to five times their original size. Extensive research has shown that neither happens. Generally speaking, I believe it's worth keeping hands out of pockets, unless you want to generate a specific message with some other form of body language. Also, it's worth remembering that anything you do in terms of anchoring material on stage with your body position can also be done with your hands. In fact, using your hands to the left and right of your body to differentiate between two key points can be very powerful.

That's it folks for this week - as usual, your comments welcomed and appreciated, particularly with reference as to what you'd like to hear about. I do get quite a few e-mails by the way, and I read them all, so please don't feel shy about getting in contact.

Best wishes for the coming week.

Chris Davidson
Editor, Professional Speakers Journal
editor@professionalspeakersjournal.com