To memorize or not to memorize?
That is the question…
by
Carla Kimball
©2003, Carla Kimball
All rights reserved.
In an attempt to perfectly present what we want to say in an important presentation, most of us are inclined to spend hours planning our talk, writing out the full text, and then memorizing the content word for word. While assuring the accuracy that we long for, this strategy can significantly increase our anxiety and can contribute to the possibility of delivering rather mechanical, lifeless and boring presentations, not to mention the high probability of forgetting our carefully chosen (and well-rehearsed) words. This article uses the example of the development of a highly talented portrait painter to question the all too common practice of writing and memorizing the details of an important presentation.
Several weeks ago I spent a wonderful three hours savoring the Thomas Gainsborough exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The largest exhibit room was filled with life-size portraits spanning a period of about 20 years of Gainsborough’s work. The audio commentary on this room began with a suggestion to compare the technique used by Gainsborough in the earliest portrait with that of one painted at the end of this time frame. He then suggested that with more experience and confidence, Gainsborough was much less precise and detailed. And this was very true. The earliest portrait was exceedingly precise, with the smallest detail of the person and his environment articulated through the paint, but there was little animation in the painting, and it felt rather dull to me. By contrast, the portrait done 20 years later was a much softer but more expressive piece filled with movement and feeling. It was vibrant and alive, capturing both the features and the essence of the subject. While the details were not fully articulated, my mind was quite capable of filling in the blanks.
What I’m struck with is that our attempts at perfection – our attempts at capturing every last detail - frequently have a cost. This applies to speaking as well as to art. When we prepare for a presentation there is often the strong inclination to put the whole talk in writing and then memorize it word for word as a way to ensure that we get every detail right. We want it to be perfect, and so we rehearse and practice and run the talk through our minds repeatedly in preparation.
We now have three options. If we truly want to say it just as planned, then the only thing to do is to read the talk word for word. But the cost of this is enormous – the presentation can become dull and lifeless and we lose all possibility of connecting with our audience. Another approach is to give the talk and refer to our notes repeatedly – but it’s so easy to lose our place that the flow of the talk is lost. Or, finally, we could try to give the talk entirely from memory. This raises a number of potential problems: we could very easily stumble as we struggle to remember the precise turn of phrase that we had so artfully expressed in our written piece; we might get lost and then panic as we try to remember what was the next significant point; or we might completely blank out and not remember anything that we had so carefully planned. No wonder we feel so much anxiety preparing for a talk!
In the years that I have spent giving presentations, I have found that the more I succumb to the urge to practice what I’m going to say before the presentation, the more attached I become to saying something in just that precise way. I find that rather than just allowing the words to flow through me in the moment, I keep having to refer back to what I thought would be a good way to express it. I get so caught up in my thinking that I then become very mechanical in my presentation.
There’s a paradox here and it’s quite counter-intuitive. Our fear of forgetting, of not remembering every last detail, causes us to over-prepare, to write out the speech word for word, and to repeatedly rehearse its delivery. And by doing so, we create the perfect conditions for forgetting. The less we are bound by the words that we write and practice, the more freedom we have to flow with what we know.
This is not to say that we don’t prepare. It is very important that we know our material and that we have internalized it. It is also essential that we clearly think through and organize the structure and flow of the talk.
That said, I have found that I am most effective as a speaker when all I have in my mind is a seed of an idea of what to say and a well-organized plan of where I want to go. When I do this, I am often at my most articulate. In contrast, the more I rehearse precisely what I’m going to say and how I’m going to say it, the more I trip myself up. To go back to the art analogy I referred to earlier, all I need as a guide is a single line of thought, a seed of an idea, to suggest my direction and I can then fill in the details while giving the presentation. If I try to fill in all the details in advance, my talks lose their freshness and can become quite dull.
Just as with the art example, though, there’s a level of experience and confidence necessary to get to the point that we have enough trust to let go of the need to articulate all the details ahead of time. It took Thomas Gainsborough 20 years of practice. The ability to speak without memorizing our talk word for word requires trust and confidence, and this is a process not an end result. I continue to bounce back and forth between wanting to practice and rehearse and trusting that what I have to say will surface at the appropriate time. We need to find places and contexts that feel safe enough for us to try out different “presentation palettes” – to experiment and play with how we prepare and present. And, with practice, we can begin to develop the freedom to be as expressive and engaging as Gainsborough was toward the end of his career.
*******
Carla Kimball, M.A., M.B.A. is a speaking presence coach, workshop facilitator and president of RiverWays Enterprises. Over the past 18 years she has presented and coached on a diverse set of business, stress management and communication topics to thousands of business and service professionals. Client companies include leading financial management, health care, and accounting firms.
Carla offers a selection of regular public speaking presence and presentation skills programs and coaching services for individuals as well as for corporate groups. Carla works from inside-out and helps people become more confident speakers while establishing a strong relationship with their audience.
Carla is a prolific writer on public speaking topics and currently offers a 26 week subscription to The ABCs of Presence in Speaking, Leading, and Life!, a newsletter which presents one article and exercise a week organized alphabetically with a unique perspective on public speaking issues. She has also distilled her approach to public speaking presence into a workbook/audio set entitled the SpeakingPresencesm Toolkit.
Carla is based in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire at the intersection of Interstates 91 and 89 and centrally located to all of New England, including Boston, Western Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine.
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