A man walked up to a newly crowned dart champion and said, in full hearing of everyone in the pub, “I bet I can beat you in the game of dart”. The Champion was taken aback by the audacity of the claim and the crowd hushed into silence in amazement
“You only need to give me a handicap. As soon as you throw the dart I will blindfold you and will only let you see again when the dart had been removed. We each will have three darts.”
Flushed from his recent victory the Champion said “You are on!” The room was abuzzed with pundits laying hasty bets.
With his first dart the Champion aimed for the triple 20. As soon as the dart left his hand the challenger blindfolded him and thus he was unable to see if his aim was true. Then he was given the second dart and was subjected to the same blindfold treatment. Not knowing what his first score was the Champion was confused. By the third dart he had lost total confidence and shot way out of the dart board. The challenger went on to make a modest score and won the bet.
The fact is that in all our endeavours we need the guidance of feedback to give us the necessary information to make adjustment for improvement.
However, evaluations which are given at large tend to focus predominantly on the areas of weakness, and also can be too comprehensive. Consequently most people fear evaluations and criticism, even constructive ones. It is a case of too much analysis giving paralysis. Consider the case of a novice tennis player being harangued by an amateur coach. “Racket back, turn your shoulder, eyes on the ball, bend your knee, lock you wrist, etc.” That is way too much information and the poor player would just freeze.
Toastmasters is an educational organisation for self development through its primary activity -- public speaking. The process of giving feedback to the speaker in Toastmasters is called Evaluation. The Toastmasters Evaluation places strong emphasis on highlighting the strong points of the performer while the negative aspects are given sparingly.
The recognition of the good points of the speaker makes sense because many a times the speaker tends to fail to recognize his own strengths. And when being made aware of the fact the speaker will have the confidence to build on them for his future tasks.
When being sparing in pointing out the areas that need improvement the evaluator is practicing “progressive teaching”. In Toastmasters the members follow a course in public speaking training, starting a series of 10 speeches in the Basic Manual and progressing through scores of specialized speeches in the Advanced Manuals. Therefore it is not necessary (and indeed it would be counter productive) to point out each and every shortcoming of the speaker in one go. The poor fellow may be so overwhelmed that he would just stop trying.
The principle belief of Toastmasters is that people “learn by doing” Thus a key objective of a Toastmasters Evaluation is to motivate. So the Evaluation will have a liberal dose of positive comments, and the negative parts when given, are couched in such encouraging language that the receiver will motivated to try again as soon as possible. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”.
“You only need to give me a handicap. As soon as you throw the dart I will blindfold you and will only let you see again when the dart had been removed. We each will have three darts.”
Flushed from his recent victory the Champion said “You are on!” The room was abuzzed with pundits laying hasty bets.
With his first dart the Champion aimed for the triple 20. As soon as the dart left his hand the challenger blindfolded him and thus he was unable to see if his aim was true. Then he was given the second dart and was subjected to the same blindfold treatment. Not knowing what his first score was the Champion was confused. By the third dart he had lost total confidence and shot way out of the dart board. The challenger went on to make a modest score and won the bet.
The fact is that in all our endeavours we need the guidance of feedback to give us the necessary information to make adjustment for improvement.
However, evaluations which are given at large tend to focus predominantly on the areas of weakness, and also can be too comprehensive. Consequently most people fear evaluations and criticism, even constructive ones. It is a case of too much analysis giving paralysis. Consider the case of a novice tennis player being harangued by an amateur coach. “Racket back, turn your shoulder, eyes on the ball, bend your knee, lock you wrist, etc.” That is way too much information and the poor player would just freeze.
Toastmasters is an educational organisation for self development through its primary activity -- public speaking. The process of giving feedback to the speaker in Toastmasters is called Evaluation. The Toastmasters Evaluation places strong emphasis on highlighting the strong points of the performer while the negative aspects are given sparingly.
The recognition of the good points of the speaker makes sense because many a times the speaker tends to fail to recognize his own strengths. And when being made aware of the fact the speaker will have the confidence to build on them for his future tasks.
When being sparing in pointing out the areas that need improvement the evaluator is practicing “progressive teaching”. In Toastmasters the members follow a course in public speaking training, starting a series of 10 speeches in the Basic Manual and progressing through scores of specialized speeches in the Advanced Manuals. Therefore it is not necessary (and indeed it would be counter productive) to point out each and every shortcoming of the speaker in one go. The poor fellow may be so overwhelmed that he would just stop trying.
The principle belief of Toastmasters is that people “learn by doing” Thus a key objective of a Toastmasters Evaluation is to motivate. So the Evaluation will have a liberal dose of positive comments, and the negative parts when given, are couched in such encouraging language that the receiver will motivated to try again as soon as possible. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”.
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