Pavlov showed that conditioning leads to physical involuntary reactions. He recorded that a dog’s salivary glands will react to simple stimuli like a bell or even footsteps when they learn to associate it with food. This sounds like a few men I know and how they react to the opening beer commercial of a football game.
Speakers, what do you feel when you suddenly look out at all those eyes? Apprehension? Anticipation? Strength? Gratitude? Fear? Joy? Wooziness? Love? Energy? Connection, or disconnection? Just as we condition ourselves to certain fears, we can condition ourselves to higher performance.
Conditioning as a speaker involves (at least) several processes. Consider that good speaking starts with good writing. Then, there is the improvement process. Then, the delivery, that time when voluntary and involuntary mental and bodily reactions can, and will, either propel success or impede the moment.
Approaching a speech concept as a writing exercise conditions the thought process. It organizes ideas, identifies gaps, uncovers opportunities, and captures a plan to lead the audience. If you can approach the writing process in that vein, you can train your mind to see the process as a positive experience when creativity can burst forth and be capitalized upon. For some, it's a comfort zone, a pad and pencil doodling, a keyboard on a park bench, where it works for you, note that, and repeat it. When I was going to night school, the television in the next room was distracting. I learned that if I played music pretty loud in my headset to drown out the TV, I could focus better on my algebra issues. I am still conditioned such that earbuds and good music automatically engage me to focus on writing and creating. Once you sense the benefit, the writing process becomes more automatic, more prolific, and of higher quality.
The improvement process is often the drudgerous bottomless pit. It is a danger zone for good works, when we run out of ideas, out of steam, out of people to call on for advice. It’s the cutting room floor. It’s also the time to practice delivering your content out loud, letting the mind and body “hear” the content, and for re-writing. Conditioning yourself to push through this hard phase is a matter of enjoying discoveries. Repeating the improvement process, you’ll learn your own self-study habits; pay attention to your comfort zones, the conditions and feedback processes which work for you. Also, for publication, speeches are posted and become finished works, but for the stage, they should never be considered final because every stage dialogue is dynamic. Re-writing is conditioning that helps develop stage muscles, for the next process.
For delivery, only practice will get a speech into its best form. The mind and body become acquainted with the speech - conditioned to it. Practice is when you can sense and learn to shape content into more powerful words, gestures, timing, and identifies the moments when emphasis can improve connection. For some moments, the body needs to learn the speech and how to convey a story element, how to paint a sky with an arm gesture, how to offer open hands, or how to look dumbfounded (natural for some, but not all). Ideas and variations never stop coming, while sound decisions will stick. Core concepts will grow clearer as subtleties like coming up with one richer word add color and depth. If you practice until you are sick of it, you haven't conditioned enough - try practicing until you love it and know it works. From there, confidence allows flexibility, adaptability, and spontenaity.
Pavlov's experiments explain reactions to conditions. Conditioning for the speaking task can be many things, from harvesting raw ideas to caring for the voice. Ultimately, it's the joy of helping others that triggers the speakers best. We want our faces to light up, our energy to automatically lighten up, and our words to carry - every time, from the moment that foot hits the stage. That’s the moment when we find out what condition our condition is in.
