The two sides of a Toastmasters session

16/01/2016

Our last session of the year was full of lights and shadows, but also of surprises, emotion and good speeches. The opening, as usual, came together with our president Jelena, whose habitual cheerful mood wished us love, motivation and a positive attitude in our lives. Thank you Jelena, we wish you exactly the same!

Catalina was our Toastmaster of the session and the theme selected by her was “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde applied to Toastmaster's human duality”, an original and well-chosen topic that would allow us to think about our own dichotomies. Following the inspiration of the famous novel, she showed a little bottle with “a magic medical potion” that would let the Hyde part of each participant of the night to get out!

After that, she introduced the technical team of the session: Hugo as the timekeeper, Olga, taking care of the crotches, and Mariyana playing the role of grammarian, who introduced the word of the day: BENEVOLENCE.

Enrique gave his 5^th speech of the Competent Communication Manual, titled “By the face”. He explained us some aspects of how facial traits are related with personality, and gave us some tricks (perfectly illustrated with funny examples of famous people) of how to know more about people character just by observing their facial features. Nevertheless, Enrique reminded us that the most important will always be to get to know people by listening to them.

After that, Rayane came with her 2^nd speech of the manual Speaking to Inform, titled “How much do we know about our big neighbor”. She showed the audience that a lot of times, clichés are not only extremely simplistic but also false. She gave us precious information to eliminate some ideas people still have about Africa (it is not a country but a continent, nor a black or poor land, or a place where people living there are traditional or old fashioned).  She took us to a new Africa, much richer than the stereotyped one.

Then, we had a Xmas present: Kornel Doman, a great actor, came to give us an extra speech, and to explain us, that “less is more”. He told us about the power of silence and how to keep our presentations simple by giving some effective advices: Breathe, be yourself or take a pause at the scenario if you need it. There is no problem about it!

After this present, it was time to evaluate the speeches. Catalina motivated us to work on improving our evaluations reminding the audience that an evaluation can be “too Dr Jeckyll” (so soft that we won’t learn anything as speakers), or “too Mr Hyde” (so hard that we could get unmotivated). Fortunately, both Jelena and Judit, found the middle ground putting out positive aspects of the speakers as well as points to keep on working to improve.

The funniest part of a Toastmasters Session is always the improvisation part. Marc, as Table Topic Master, asked to Ambrós, Laia and Bea to talk for at least one minute about some dichotomies… not an easy task but all of them achieved it without problem.

The session was about to finish, but Catalina still had time for more: She put some objects on a table and asked us to select one, find a different meaning for it, and give it as a present to another club’s member.  A special conclusion for a special night. Finally, our General Evaluator of the session, Sandra, gave us very useful feedback regarding the performance of the session.

Bonus track: The final clasp of the year was the goodbye to the fantastic Committee that, during the last months, has done all the club work efficiently. Then, the new group was presented and welcomed. 

Nuestra gran pachanga

9/12/2015

La sesión del 9 de diciembre ha sido la segunda sesión en la nueva sede en la UB y todo el mundo se sentía ya muy cómodo en nuestra nueva “casa”.

Nuestra presidenta, Jelena, abrió la sesión contándonos que diciembre para ella es un mes de reflexión. Nos contó algunas cosas positivas que le sucedieron este año y nos animó a que hiciéramos un listado de las cosas buenas que nos han pasado también a nosotros, alertándonos que nos sorprenderíamos de que no han sido pocas.

Felipe, Toastmaster de la sesión, inspirado por las elecciones generales de este mes, eligió el tema: Democracia. Nos planteó la pregunta de si era de verdad democracia votar cada 4 años o de si existían otras formas de sistemas políticos que podrían ser con más precisión, más democráticos. Preguntó a su equipo y a los ponentes: “Si tuvieras que elegir un único motivo por el cual votarías a un partido u otro, ¿cuál sería?” Las respuestas variaron desde partidos que acabarían con la corrupción a partidos que instalarían aire acondicionado en las calles (Laia pasa mucho calor en verano).

Beatriz, con su discurso “Impacto emocional” logró que el público se implicara emocionalmente cien por cien en lo que nos contaba. Aprendimos que Beatriz llevaba 19 años en su empresa y compartió con nosotros las fases por las cuales pasó la empresa y el impacto emocional de decir adiós a sus compañeros de trabajo. Si algún día tuviéramos que pasar por experiencias similares, nos aconsejó de ser conscientes de esta emoción y recordar que cuando dejamos un trabajo, lo que nos llevamos con nosotros son las relaciones.

Laia, con su energía y optimismo, nos contó por qué es importante trabajar nuestra marca personal y convertirla en una marca relevante. Nos dejó 4 pasos claros para atraer más oportunidades de negocio, captar  nuevos clientes y ser más conocidos.

1.       ¿Quién soy? – Descubrir puntos fuertes y debilidades personales

2.       ¿Qué hago? – Definir posicionamiento y no ser generalistas

3.       ¿Cómo lo hago? – Buscar recursos únicos, aportar valor diferencial

4.       ¿Cómo lo cuento? – Comunicarlo con un mensaje potente (Como ejemplo nos dio la respuesta de Enrique, quien a la pregunta  ¿A qué te dedicas?, le dijo: “Soy recogedor de billetes de 50 euros”)

Paul nos planteó situaciones que muchos toastmasters han tenido que pasar en algún encuentro social: la inevitable pregunta ¿De dónde eres? Aprendimos las inquietudes de su propia experiencia al haber nacido en México pero habiendo vivido en el extranjero, de sus apellidos de origen de la España del siglo XV, de que sus amigos mexicanos le llaman “el español” pero los amigos españoles le llaman “el mexicano”, de las asociaciones que la gente crea al escuchar una nacionalidad (los mexicanos, por lo que me entero, se asocian a una marca de tomate). Paul utilizó un lenguaje florido y visual para concluir al final que  “Uno no es de donde nace, sino de donde pace.” Nos pidió que evitáramos la maldita pregunta ¿De dónde eres? para no crear estereotipos y a su vez, aceptar que cada persona es “un libro por descubrir”.

Siguieron unas evaluaciones muy potentes de Jorge, Teresa y Rayane y unos “table topics” divertidos preparados por Catalina. Olga, Marc y nuestro invitado Tomás nos explicaron más teorías sobre democracia y nos convencieron de que convertirían nuestro país (y por qué no, nuestro Barcelona Toastmasters Club) en una potencia mundial en 2016.

¡Feliz viernes, ya que nuestra fiesta de navidad será una gran pachanga! (la maravillosa palabra del día)

Olga Coscodan

Our new home

2/12/2015

After a couple of months moving from one place to another, we finally have our new home. And, as our president Jelena said, “I am very excited because our new home is in Barcelona´s University!” A great room and new home for the Barcelona Toastmaster Club.

Georgiana was the Toastmaster for the session and the theme selected by her was “Out of the box”. What does this expression makes you think of? What means for you thinking outside of the box? And to what thinking outside of the box leads, as a result?

Georgiana went on with the agenda for the session and the presentation of the Technical team – the word of the day was HOME – it had to be this word.

Olga C. presented her Ice Breaker, her first speech – “Identity is relative”.  Olga told as that she is from Moldova and talked about the national identity issue in her country and the confusion due to the relation with Russia and Romania. A great history lesson that she shared with us, combined with personal anecdotes. Great first speech from Olga and very enlightening. Well done Olga!

 Merce presented her third speech – “Everybody hated your presentation. Now what?” Merce talked about an experience she had in her new job 3 years ago, when she was asked to do a presentation, in front of the whole company, in English and about herself. She did not feel confident and told us that is was a complete failure. She learnt from the experience and took note of 3 things that helped her to confront similar situation in the future: control your feelings, be open to receive constructive feedback and not being afraid to make changes. We can always learn and improve.

Merce is now an official member of the Club and she can start giving feedback to the speakers. Congratulations Merce!

And the third speech of the day was performed by Rayane. It was her first speech for the “Speaking to inform” of the Advance Speech module - “Read the stars”. Rayane introduced a subject for which people may have completely different opinions, the horoscope. She explained where it comes from, within the astrology and astronomy world, and what are the different parts that need to be taken into account: the sun, the moon, the ascendant and the descendent. She explained that it is a tool that can help you to know yourself better and use it for self-improvement. But, at the end of the day, it is your choice to use it or not. Congratulations on your first advance speech Rayane!

After the speeches, we went through the feedback provided by the evaluators:

-          Laia evaluated Olga on her Ice Breaker, mentioning that she had natural body language and eye contact, she had used a very descriptive vocabulary and had shared personal anecdotes.  

-          Paul evaluated Merce, confirmed that the objectives had been met, using a very descriptive personal story, using the rule of 3 and calling to action in the conclusion of the speech.

-          M.A. evaluated Rayane, starting by saying that she had introduced the topic very well by challenging the expectations, providing an effective structure and proposing to use the horoscope as a tool.

In all cases, the evaluators identified the positive points and also raised those things that can be improved and that always help us to continue growing. In all cases, they provided specific examples of how to improve.

We then started with the Table Topics, guided by Felipe, who reviewed the process to get ready for an improvised speech.

The 3 speakers in the Table topics were real volunteers, this time. Brave people our colleagues. The first one was Catalina, who had to talk about “Mediocre talent shows make half revenues”. Our second table topic was done by one of our guests, Sean, who had to come up with an answer to “Is knowledge more important that wisdom?”  And the last improvised speech was also perform by a guest, Dani, who had to provide 3 reasons to “Why people should listen to his speeches?”

After the table topics, Georgiana explained to us why she had selected the theme of the day. She explained that people are so focused on what they have in their heads that they do not listen. She called to action by telling us to do things differently – we make the line of the box and we can break that line.

The General Evaluator was Gerard, who made a very good summary of the session and provided feedback to the people that were doing different roles during the session. This feedback helps us to improve.

Jelena closed the session with a reminder for the Christmas party that will take place on December 11^th.

By Beatriz