By Jeff Shaw
Evaluations
The job of the evaluator is to do an evaluation of the speech before you get up on the stage and based on your evaluation direct the discussion around your analysis. Facilitators should guide and direct the speech evaluation – not let the audience run it. As you listen to the speech determine key things that made the speech work and a few ways the speaker could improve it or take it to the next level. Ask a series of targeted questions – don’t simply say – what did you like about the speech? The facilitator must direct the evaluation to ensure solid feedback.
Partial list of areas to consider
Opening – did you understand the purpose and did they engage you
Closing – did it tie everything together and end on an up note / did it simply run out of gas and end
Was the amount of content / subject appropriate for the allotted time?
Flow – easy to follow or did they get off into the weeds
Structure – how was it structured – what made it work well what could be done to improve it
Use of the stage and hand gestures
Did they engage the audience with questions or a poll
Did they make use of stories or humor
Did they rehearse enough or were they winging it. Issues with time?
Visual Aids
Quality of the sides – what do they need to do to get to Tom Hill quality slides
Use of bullets? Did they read text from the slide?
Did they turn and face the slide or did they maintain audience contact
Number of slides – too many too few
Presenting to persuade or sell
Did you trust them
Did you like them
Structure of the pitch based on the anticipated receptiveness of the audience
Was their argument or pitch persuasive?
Running a Good Facilitation
Don’t follow the audience – lead them
Put together your evaluation after they complete their speech during the two minute time for written evaluations:
You might pick three-five areas in which the speech worked well and two ways they could take it to the next level. Spend one minute on each – don’t get bogged down in one area, keep things moving.
To structure your evaluation:
Based on your analysis start with what worked well
Ask questions to bring out the things that worked well – for example
Did you like the use of humor
Was the speech easy to follow
Then areas in which it could have been better – consider using wording such as:
I wonder what would happen if the speaker tried…
Could the speaker have considered….
Was xyz effective
How would you feel if the speaker….
Conclude with the strong points of the speech
Above all remember that you are facilitating the evaluation. You need to direct the audience to give the speaker the most effective feedback. Overly broad questions such as “What did you think of the speech?” should be avoided. You should ask specific questions based on your assessment – as the facilitator you are directing the evaluation. Don’t follow the audience – lead them.