Table Topics : An exercise in impromptu speaking

How many of you have  stuttered in front of an audience when you were faced with a challenge of speaking impromptu?

If so –  A toastmasters club is the ideal place for you to hone your skills.  Table topics is a part of every toastmasters club meeting.  Here you get a chance to speak on diverse topics picked up by the table topics master.  The topics may be on quotes, news, current happenings, sports, events, education, inspiring topics etc.

Table topics provides you with an opportunity to practice careful listening, quickly preparing a relevant response, and expressing fluent, clear and organized thoughts in a limited time.

A table topics session helps you to:

–Practice on your own knowledge and experience on a topic

— Train your listening skills and present an appropriate response to the question

— Speak in an organized manner

The table topics session offers a speaking opportunity to every meeting participant. Some clubs excuse the Toastmaster of the day and project speakers from this session.  It is a great opportunity for guests and aspiring toastmasters to begin speaking before an audience and control their shyness and nervousness.

The topics usually avoided in table topics sessions are sex, religion and politics.  Having a theme for the meeting helps to break the monotony of standard topics and build a sense of camaraderie among the members.

Guidelines for a Table topics speaker:

.. Keep your remarks to the point of the topic

.. Try to make a sensible, worthwhile presentation that adds to the listeners knowledge

 

Here are some strategies from Richard L Weaver II on Impromptu speaking:

 

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How to think like Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was a  scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.  How could one man have such diverse talents?

Michael Gelb in this book analyses the mind of the genius Leonardo da Vinci.  He maps the key strengths of Leonardo and suggests how we can put these to practice in daily life to unlock our hidden potential and creativity.

The 7 strengths/principles are:

• Curiosità – An insatiable quest for knowledge and continuous improvement

Great minds ask great questions. You can increase your problem-solving skills by honing your question-asking ability. By cultivating a da Vinci-like open, questing frame of mind, we broaden our universe and improve our ability to travel through it.

• Dimostrazione – Learning from experience
Knowledge is really not true knowledge unless we can put it to practical use and understand its application

• Sensazione – Sharpening the senses

Michael Gelb reasons that we are not exercising our senses to their potential and thus we do not enjoy lifes experiences

• Sfumato – Managing ambiguity and change
This quality helps us to embrace change and face challenges in life with poise and equanimity

• Arte/Scienza – Whole-brain thinking
By developing exercises like mind mapping we can take a more balanced approach to life and make good decisions

• Corporalità – Body-mind fitness
This implies understanding our body and keeping ourselves fit and in good shape

• Connessione – Systems thinking
Connessione imples the interconnectedness of everything in nature.  It helps us have a holistic view of situations.

 

The book also gives us a lot of exercises and acitivities to help us to develop these qualities which we all have but do not use to the fullest potential.