Presentation and Public Speaking Coaching
When you only have a short time both to share complex scientific information and to call people to world-changing action, every word matters.
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Sector: Environment and Sustainability
Employees: 16 (+5 Contract)
Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
About Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet
The Situation
Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet reached out via the Catchafire platform for support and coaching for their teams’ presentations and public speaking. Informative presentations for the community, area businesses, and other climate and sustainability groups are a major component of their work. They felt that things in this area had stagnated, and they would benefit from some coaching from a seasoned public speaker who had experience training others. Working it into a busy organizational schedule meant that the training needed to be concise and immediately applicable to their work.
I connected with Lauren Weston, the Executive Director of Acterra, via the Catchafire platform. This was my second project with them (the first being media relations strategy), so I was already familiar with their mission and strategy. Through a series of phone calls and email exchanges over several weeks, we discussed the team weaknesses that needed to be addressed, the kind of training that would be most helpful, and a schedule for offering the workshops.
Acterra’s situation required a custom workshop. One major consideration was the team’s need to share complex scientific information related to climate change while also finding ways to keep presentations engaging for audiences. I recommended that the training occur in two blocks of one hour each, offered during the regularly scheduled staff meeting. Because the staff meetings occurred on the first and third Monday of the month, there would be one week in between.
Session 1 covered tips and tools for engaging presentations. This session consisted of a 40-minute crash course in which I compressed an extensive narrative-based framework for engaging audiences into an accessible, easily-applied process. Drawing on Eugene Lowry’s work on using disruptive tension to engage listeners, I outlined a 5-step sequence for guiding audiences from a problem through a solution to a call to action. Following my presentation, we opened the floor for questions.
The Strategy
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Session 2 consisted of two 15-20 minute presentations by staff members and a roundtable conversation and evaluation of each. The presenters and their content were selected by Ms. Weston to include material that is frequently presented or scheduled to be presented in the near future. These presenters had an opportunity in the intervening week to incorporate some of the insights from the first session into their work. For the group evaluation and feedback, I applied a framework I often utilized as a teaching assistant: I began the feedback with three positive things about the presentation, and then opened the floor for additional comments in this area; then I returned to give 2-3 areas where adjustments could be made or delivery improved, with the floor then opened for additional contributions. This approach helps to ensure that the feedback is supportive, and it affirms the work that the speaker has put into preparing and delivering the material while also acknowledging the growing edges. Opportunities were also given for the volunteers to explain their creative choices for how the material was organized, how data and visualizations were employed, etc.
The Acterra team was happy with the workshops, and the leadership was excited by the immediate improvement in some of the presentations. You can see the Catchafire project summary here. This case study will be updated as more follow-up data and insights become available.
Results
“Dr. Alex was so kind and compassionate while working with a diverse team: We all came with various experiences with public speaking and he was able to teach us all, where we were, and add value to our skills! We enjoyed his anecdotes, and related to his teaching style. This was a game changer for us as an organization, and as individuals.”
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