Ranjith Venkatesh

Category: Workshop

  • Building a great membership journey

    I had the opportunity to train the Toastmasters officers in the COT (Club Officers Training) last week. I had watched a German theatre piece last Friday and I was inspired by that. It was about 3 women and 1 man living in some apartments next to each other. They get together every now and then and have coffee and cake (Guglhopf) in the inner courtyard. They go through ups and downs in life. They suspend the coffee and cake tradition but make peace with each other and get back to it.

    I believe any Toastmasters club is similar in some ways. We meet up around 12 times in 6 months and follow a routine. These 12 times also kind of decide the future of a member about whether they stay or leave the club. What helps us keep members in the club in a way that they can thrive?

    Why does a new member stay after 6 months?

    • Maybe they made their first speech and are hungry for more

    Why does an experienced member stay after 6 months?

    • Maybe they feel like they are contributing by giving good evaluation speeches and adding value and motivating other speakers

    Why does a member stay after 6 months of being an officer?

    • Maybe an officer who is a Treasurer learns about budgeting with income and expenses and is keen on serving

    Each member has a reason to stay. Can we as officers give them a reason to stay?

    I find that Toastmasters has many pillars that one can build on.

    Communication pillar

    • Build communication skills with different Paths available in Pathways

    Contests pilllar

    • Learn about competing in club level, city level (area), state level (division) and country level (district)

    Leadership pillar

    • Learn and serve as different officers in the club and higher levels with more responsibility and commitment

    And these pillars are possible when the club creates that Social platform that we can build on. Each club has the opportunity to create this psychologically safe place where members can shine as speakers, leaders and contestants.

    When officers can create this strong (social) platform where members have a strong basement to build their pillars (communication, contests and leadership), we know that we have an amazing member journey to offer to each Toastmasters member.

    Links:

    Unser Theaterstück im November 2023 – Milbertshofener Bühne München e.V. (milbertshofener-buehne.de)

    Toastmasters International -Club Officer Training Materials

  • Authenticity, Clarity and Enthusiasm

    Photo by Angshu Purkait on Unsplash

    I recently did a officer training for Toastmasters online on “How to be an engaging communicator” and really enjoyed the active participation of the officers in training.

    We discussed the ACE method for being an engaging communicator. We used impromptu speeches “Table Topics – Toastmasters Talk ;)” to dive in and explore the method.

    Authenticity

    One of the officers talked about his brother and an activity that they did together in his younger years. When the listeners were asked why they felt it was authentic, we heard some interesting things.

    One was his eyes. They were sparkling with excitement while he was recounting something he was doing with his brother. My eyes light up when I remember or recount something I did with my sister.

    Second was his smile. He had a genuine smile when he was talking about his brother. These two things immediately connected us with his authentic self. We opened up to this story.

    Clarity

    One of the officers talked about increasing his club membership fees. He explained why he wanted to improve the quality of the club meeting and how it cannot lie with one or few officers.

    One listener noticed that he had talked about improving quality of the club meetings. However the case for increased membership fee was not clear.

    One listener noticed that it was about working together to improve club meetings. However the clarity on increasing the membership fees was still missing.

    Clarity in our message is one of the most difficult things to achieve. When we can get our message clear and simple we will earn the respect of the listener.

    I have to admit the officer had only seconds to come up with his arguments. Normally you would brainstorm it together with officers and come up with a clear case.

    Enthusiasm

    One of the officers talked about her next vacation. She talked about why vacations were for her about spending time with her friends and less about seeing new places.

    One listener noticed the joy in the eyes of the speaker when she was talking about spending time with her friend. This joy transcends from the speaker and gets to the listener and is infectious.

    One listener also mentioned that he was willing to consider his next vacation to be one to be spent with a loved one or a long lost friend.

    The ACE method helps us use simple tools like “Authenticity, Clarity and Enthusiasm” to get be an engaging communicator.

    Links:

    TM COT | How to be an engaging communicator.pptx (slideshare.net)

  • 1-2-3-4 Content

    I had the opportunity to run a lunch talk for Amiga last month.

    We spoke about a few things:

    • Why LinkedIn?
      • Did you know that 1 out of 8 professionals in Germany use LinkedIn?
    • Why Career Advancement?
      • Grow or become a linchpin (Check out Video on References)
    • Kinds of LinkedIn Posts
      • Focus on Image and Video based Posts (Check out posts using Images and Videos)
    • Creating Content
      • Idea–>Write–>Craft–>Share

    How many of you have Ideas week in and week out but never take the time to put them down?

    “Look at an Event from last week or month that stayed with you where you learnt something or helped someone”

    Something of value to the reader can be created in even 280 words. Sit down and write atleast once a week

    “Write down 280 to 500 words

    PS: 280 words are allowed in a tweet”

    Crafting a message with an image or video gets the attention of the reader who has multiple information sources

    “Use unsplash or other license free websites to get an appropriate image or use own images

    Use license free videos or your own videos”

    Sharing the content of multiple platforms or atleast the platforms that your clients are active in is a good practice

    “Share on LinkedIn as a Post

    If you are on other social media channels you may reuse the crafted message”

    References:

    • EVENTS – amiga (I can recommend these Events for International professionals in Munich looking for opportunities)
    • Ranjith @ LinkedIn (Example posts using Images and Video)
  • Evaluate to Motivate

    Evaluate to Motivate

    The second Toastmasters Club Officer Training in 2018-19 provides educational sessions for the benefit of the club officers.

    I had an opportunity to do an workshop on “Evaluate to Motivate” from the Successful Club Series.

    I had fun preparing and putting together the material for it.

    I took some motivation from Mel Kelly for Evaluation speech templates and Florian Mueck for Feedback formulas.

    We had a fun and interactive workshop with club officers from 4 to 5 clubs from Munich and Rosenheim.

    Here are some pictures and the presentation itself:

      Presentation as PDF: Click here