---Please Read Before Enrolling---

My goal: to create and deliver a valuable and extraordinary learning experience for all who choose to accept the challenge. To help determine if this challenge is for you:

• Attendance, including being on time and staying for the full session, is crucial. If you anticipate conflicts, please do not enroll.
• In order to have everyone give a speech before Spring Break, there is an extra session on 3/12 from 8:30pm-9:45pm.
• Note that speeches begin in class #2.
• This is not a class to assume that starting with strong speaking skills and coasting is an easy road to a 1.
• This class is for those ready to receive feedback. This may include feedback about your ideas, your presence (including posture), and more.

Career Focus

Exceptionally effective leaders must have the ability to communicate clearly, persuasively, and thoughtfully to diverse audiences.

Skillful communication is essential, even if you don’t plan to be on the front lines or give frequent formal speeches. While this course focuses on public speaking, I designed it to also explore speaking beyond the formal podium: disagreeing with the boss, holding an employee accountable, giving a peer critical feedback, speaking on your feet, influencing someone to change their behavior, resolving conflicts, and more.

This class is for anyone ready to take risks, hungry to receive and apply feedback, and eager to improve the quality of their results and relationships.

Course Objectives

The course’s principal goal is to strengthen your capacity to achieve desired results and influence others, by communicating more effectively and authentically.

This course is highly participatory. Through hands-on activities, exercises, and application, participants interactively build skills in key competencies, including:

• Showing up confidently (improving body language and presence)
• Understanding and applying effective frameworks for structuring your message
• Building trust and credibility
• Discussing topics that are high stakes, controversial, and emotionally charged
• Improving storytelling skills
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Resolving conflict
• Communicating under high stress/crisis communication

Course Outline

The class focuses on building skills around critical aspects of communication. On speech days, students deliver a series of speeches and receive feedback from the instructor and classmates. Speeches are videotaped and posted on the course webpage for later review and reflection (only visible by course participants).

Assignments

1) Speaking Assignments:

• Two in-class speaking assignments of roughly 2-3 minutes. Prior to each assignment, students submit a one sentence headline that summarizes what they plan to say, an outline of the key points/takeaways, the name of the student they practiced with, and two bullet points for what improvement they wish to focus on in their delivery.
• One additional speech that students arrange outside of class on their own that is not a requirement of another class. Options include (but are not limited to): speech at a class event, an HBS MyTake, Toastmaster meeting, fundraising event, presenting an award, wedding toast, local club (Lions Club, Kiwanis, Junior League, etc.), K-12 school, community event, orientation, non-profit, and speaking on a podcast. These speeches can be done in your native language. Credit requires submitting a 30 second video of speaking engagement and a reflection on lessons learned.

2) Feedback/Reflection meeting (after Speech 1):

• Watch video of your first in-class speech within 48 hrs. of delivery, review feedback, and identify what you’d like to improve about your next speech.
• Sign up and attend a one-on-one conference with me to review your speech.
• After the conference, review your previous self- reflection, your professor feedback, and your peer feedback and submit two bullets on what you’ll focus on in your next speech for improving delivery. Due: 24 hours after conference.

3) Next steps video (after Speech 2):

• Review the video of your second speech within 48 hours of delivery.
• Submit a short, 30 second video on your “growing edge” – what you want to improve/focus on going forward. Due: 48 hrs. after speech

4) Tough Conversation:

• Hold a significant conversation with someone you are in conflict with—applying the Crucial Conversation skills you learn in class.
• Write a one-page reflection on how it went, what new skills you used, and what you could do differently next time.

5) Practice:

• Practice your speech with at least one other student prior to each speech. Additional practice sessions.

6) Feedback:

• Provide meaningful feedback to peers following their speeches, throughout the course, and in small groups.

7) Weekly assignments:

• Complete additional weekly assignments.

Grading

Speaking Assignments 45%

Weekly Assignments, Tough Conversation: 25%

Class Engagement: 30%

Class engagement includes a variety of opportunities for various learning styles to fully engage. This includes giving substantive written and oral feedback, receiving feedback, arriving on time and not leaving early, engaging in practice, attendance, submitting make-up work without being reminded, turning in assignments on time, engagement in in-class exercises, attending officer hours, seizing opportunities to challenge current skill level, and engagement outside of class.

My grading is not about achieving perfection. I look for thoughtful risk-taking, preparation, feedback seeking, coachability, readiness to play, and intentional level-upping.

I also look for integrity. If you are slotted to deliver a speech in real life—and then email the organizers after the fact that you had an interview, needed more time to prep, or decided you needed a vacation, they probably aren’t going to hire you again. And even if you are sick – you need to give your client or audience ample time to find another speaker, make other arrangements, or cancel the event.

If for some reason a student must miss a class when their peers deliver speeches, they are expected to watch the class video and send feedback via email, cc’ing the course instructor, to each student who delivered a speech that day. This must be done within 36 hrs of the missed class. In the rare instance where a student must miss a section when they are scheduled to deliver a speech, they must arrange a one-to-one switch with another student, to keep a full number of speeches for each speech-giving class.

Use of AI

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) will likely influence the way you work in your future careers. Generative AI can help you learn but it can also hinder your development.

Generative AI can produce false, biased and/or misleading information. You are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of any work you submit.

Do not submit AI generated content as your own. All stories, opinions, and perspectives must be your own. You may not use AI to generate speech drafts.

For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper

Joseph Fasano

Now I let it fall back
in the grasses.
I hear you. I know
this life is hard now.
I know your days are precious
on this earth.
But what are you trying
to be free of?
The living? The miraculous
task of it?
Love is for the ones who love the work.

Attendance and Expectations

Increasing our skills in public speaking requires practice, receiving and applying feedback, and observing other speakers. As a result, students must attend and participate in class to pass this course.

As stated previously, this class is for those ready to take risks, hungry to receive and apply feedback, and eager to improve the quality of their results and relationships. As a result, you will receive feedback. This feedback may be about things quite personal to you—your ideas, your body language, your posture, your presence and more. The expectation is for students to arrive able and eager to receive feedback.

Time requirements for this course are likely to be high.

Attendance at all class meetings is required. Every unexcused absence, or repeatedly arriving late or leaving early, will negatively affect your final grade. Certain exceptions for sickness, religious holiday, or personal emergency will be granted only if you contact the instructor and course assistant via email in advance (not right before class starts). Any other reasons, including missing class because you have another class across the river, or you scheduled a job interview at the same time, or you have a speech elsewhere, is an unexcused absence and will reduce your final grade.

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