Professor Elam

Marines are now required to obtain a tan belt  rating in martial arts combat.  To make the exercise even more realistic, the Drill Instructors exhaust them physically (running, jumping, calisthentics) before the qualificaiton, read simulation battle, begins.  There is a reason for this.  Street fighting in Baghdad is liable  to happen only after

the Marine runs out of ammo
the Marine loses his knife
the Marine is dazed from an IED explosion
it is a desperate moment of kill or be killed with someone who has turned from friendly to foe in a matter of seconds
Such incidents may well involve an improvised weapon like a piece of glass, a pipe. or a scrap of  2 x 4
Except this won’t be a humorous scene from  a Jackie Chan movie, this is for real

Where am I going with this?  Toastmasters, the organization that focuses on making one a better speaker, has a weekly contest called Table Topics.  The participants have thirty seconds to prepare a two minute talk on  a topic literally pulled from a hat. 

A recent article, click on the hyperlink to read it, from Inc Magazine asks, Can you explain your company in thirty seconds?  Such exercises are often called an ‘elevator pitch,’ can you explain your idea in the length of time you might encounter someone on an elevator?

My point is that the  Marines and Toastmasters and Fast Company all have the right idea here. Often we are judged not by a well prepared formal speech, but by our ability to, as the Marines Say

Encounter,
Improvise
Overcome

And do so in short order when those about us have lost their bearings, remember the Rydyard Kipling poem IF?   In high school the speech/debate coach used a bell to interrupt us when we stumbled using an uh, ah, er, in our talks.  Yes it was irritating and embarassaing, but  like martial arts fighting with improvised weapons, it made us better speakers.  We consistently placed among the top three schools at tournaments.  That is my objective for you, I want you to be prepared to speak and stand out from the crowd. You will not learn how to do that by reading a book about making speeches, you will learn that by being called on in class and expressing yourself in a coherent fashion.   Now certain members of my pas t classes have found this to be an affront to their delicate sense of self esteem. We are here to improve your ability to project yourself  adn taht is what we will focus on.

So, put your ego and self esteem in your pocket, let the games begin, we will be particularly focused on this activity in ACCT 3405 Professional Development.