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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: TEACHING EFFECTIVE SPEAKING
The introduction to this chapter covers the basic skills fundamental to individual business
presentations. Later sections of the chapter cover graphics and group presentations, and Chapter
Ten addresses the special considerations involved in meeting management. But it is our experience
that students benefit greatly from standing up and speaking to their peers early in the course. This
enables them to receive feedback on their own strengths and weaknesses as communicators, and can
help them measure themselves against the general communication strategies and principles
addressed in the cases.
What follows suggests some approaches to speaking exercises. How this is conducted will depend on
the size, scheduling, and logistics of your particular course. In our view, students should present to
their peers at least three times during the course. Usually it’s impractical to have every student speak
to all her or his classmates that many times. An ideal training session requires each student to deliver
One practical paradigm for working at least three speaking opportunities into your course:
Initial speech (early in course): Deliver an informative presentation to your subgroup, without
props, a podium, or graphics. While this doesn’t represent the most common business speaking
situation, it allows the student to focus on her or his essential strengths and weaknesses as a
presenter. Each speaker should receive as much feedback as possible, including response forms filled
out by peers in the audience and a private videotape-review session with the instructor. Feedback
should focus on audience sensitivity, clarity, concision, use of evidence, structure, and the key
elements of delivery: eye contact, vocal pacing, tone, memorability, use of space, posture, and
gestures. Three or four minutes should be enough to accomplish this exercise. Possible topics
include:
1. Describe a business problem you’ve encountered in the workplace and how it was resolved.
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Second Speech (mid-course): deliver a persuasive presentation to your subgroup. Podium and
graphics are optional. This provides an opportunity to introduce students to role-playing, which is an
essential element of any case discussion. Possible topic:
1. Define your audience’s role, then persuade them to adopt a new product, policy, or attitude.
In this case, feedback should focus on the agenda set for the students in the first speech plus how
well they’ve employed the techniques of persuasion discussed to date in the course. Have they
explained the benefits of their proposal, acknowledged and neutralized reasonable opposition, and
given each element of their audience motives to support them? Students who have trouble finding an
appropriate topic from their own experience can speak on a case covered previously in this or
another course.
Third Speech (late in the course): Deliver a team presentation designed to sell a product or service to
an audience of potential clients or investors (graphics required). Feedback should focus on all the
course.
Each of these assignments can be modified according to the scheduling realities of the course, and
the potential synergies with other elements of the curriculum. But the key elements of success
include:
1. Feedback from peers, both immediately after the speech, and in writing. It can work well to
have several students speak, and then have the audience provide responses. This enables the
instructor to highlight positive examples of introductory strategies, argument building,
persuasion, audience sensitivity, structure, and delivery. It also provides some `cover’ for
the embarrassed or frightened student.
2. Debrief students as much as time will allow. Usually, students will be much more
responsive to constructive criticism on their speaking than on their writing. In part, this
3. Make sure the audience stays involved. Provide them with clear instructions on what to
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4. When reviewing a videotaped performance, let the speaker be the critic. Insofar as possible,
encourage her to play the role of audience: Pause the tape a number of times during the
review and ask questions such as: “Audiences make a quick initial judgment of whether a
5. Many students will say they felt nervous during a given presentation. The truth is, it doesn’t
Teaching BUSINESS PLANS
Preparation
This exercise creates the opportunity for a group presentation, which can educate students on both
the synergies and frictions that can erupt in such a common business situation. While most of the
chapters in this book have concentrated on corporate situations, this exercise puts the students in the
position of entrepreneurs. Some suggestions:
1. Have a group of students present an entrepreneurial proposal to other students who are
playing potential investors.
2. Assign students in groups of four or five. After they‘ve read their business plan, meet with
them before the presentation to help them map out their strategy and assign roles. These can
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5. Follow the presentation with at least a ten-minute question-and-answer period, and
encourage the presenters to be prepared for the tough ones.
Execution
Generally, the instructor can manage three group presentations in a two-hour session. This may even
allow a brief period at the end of the class for the audience to compare presentation styles. In doing
such a comparison, avoid asking “Who did the best?” and concentrate instead on “What approaches
appealed to you the most, and why?” If you’ve scheduled such that the audience has seen more than
one presentation at a time, it works well to ask them: “Which of these companies are you most likely
to invest in?”
Videotape the presentation, then debrief the presenters. Some questions:
1. Did we come across as a coherent group?
2. Did we show we believe in our plan?
Evaluation and Feedback
Grading a group presentation is tough; what has worked best for us is to give two equally-balanced
grades, one for the individual performance, one for the group as a whole. Students will sometimes
visit the instructor to explain that while they know they didn’t do well personally, they actually did
most of the pre-work for the group. Ask them why, and encourage them to consider how they would
cope with this very common situation in corporate life.
One way to attain extra richness in this exercise: Assign groups of four or five students in the
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