We learn to communicate better by practicing the silence

How to beat the stage fright? How to balance different segments of one’s own identity in formal or informal situations – how to find the right equilibrium? How to maintain focus during public speaking and how to prepare for it? These are just some of the questions we received answers to on Saturday, February 5, at the second workshop within the “Creative Mentorship” educative program. 

The communication and presentation skills workshop was led by Relja Dereta, an alumnus and longtime educational associate of the program.

Through a dynamically structured way of working and many interactive exercises and activities, we achieved the main goal of the workshop – we got acquainted with the basic principles of communication and presentation skills as well as awareness and improvement of key aspects of communication of each of us.

Below, we will share with you some conclusions from the workshop that we think may be useful to you:

 

– Preparation, preparation, preparation!

Although we are confident in our power of improvisation, and it seems to us that public presentation is something that we enjoy and do naturally, it is still very important to dedicate time to prepare to be confident in our presentation and to avoid the possibility of not conveying what we wanted.

 

– Always keep in mind the audience or the person across from you.

What is her prior knowledge of the topic you are talking about? Is the moment of your speech the moment when the audience is ready to hear and receive new information? Try answering these questions during the preparation for the public appearance

 

– What is the goal of communication?

It is significant to determine what we want to achieve. Do we want to interest someone in the topic we are talking about? Do we want to hear what the other person has to say, or do we just want to practice our public speaking?

 

– Inhale – exhale

It is essential to take care of breathing and pauses when speaking. We can practice silence in everyday situations, ask for feedback from people around us, or we can record our speech or oral presentation, and then listen to it in order to present it the best way possible.

Now, we are looking forward to other educative workshops within the project and surely will be looking for opportunities to practice what we learned.