“We Americans are a charitable and humane people: we have institutions devoted to every good cause from rescuing homeless cats to preventing World War III. But what have we done to promote the art of thinking? Certainly we make no room for thought in our daily lives. Suppose a man were to say to his friends, “I’m not going to PTA tonight (or choir practice or the baseball game) because I need some time to myself, some time to think”? Such a man would be shunned by his neighbors; his family would be ashamed of him. What if a teenager were to say, “I’m not going to the dance tonight because I need some time to think”? His parents would immediately start looking in the Yellow Pages for a psychiatrist. We are all too much like Julius Caesar: we fear and distrust people who think too much. We believe that almost anything is more important than thinking.”
Carolyn Kane, from “Thinking: A Neglected Art,” in Newsweek, 14 December 1981
Could this be why so many public speakers and business presenters are reluctant to pause and think when addressing an audience? Because it’s unAmerican? Do we feel embarrassed to stop and think about what we are going to say, or how to phrase it so that our listeners are more likely to understand us? Are we so anti-intellectual that a pregnant pause is deemed to be-God forbid-wimpy?
Is it a sign of weakness, or eccentricity, to stop talking and look for the right word, the one as different as a lightning bug is from lightning (Mark Twain)?
I know our hearts are beating fast, that time compresses, and a second of silence feels like a minute of panic. I know that we have much to say, mountains of data to deliver, and little time to say it. But aren’t we forgetting that public speaking and presenting are both poor methods for communicating information, and are much better suited for selling big ideas, getting people to feel something, and building a connection with others?
Taking time to think when you’re on stage makes you more interesting to watch. It gives you presence and gravitas. It fills your body with a mysterious power-electric activity under the skin. We are all in a hurry (I’m in a hurry to write this blog.) But let’s take a moment and think about Kane’s neglected art of thinking, especially when we can do it in public while speaking.
Yes, you should prepare and rehearse. Yes, public speaking is a poor forum for original thought. Yes, it’s risky to think out loud in front of a crowd. But that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about not speaking until you know what you’re going to say: thinking before speaking. I remember taking an acting class from Robert Lloyd, who had worked with Peter Brook and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Robert taught us to reach into ourselves with the inhalation of our breath, and only when our breath found the thoughts, should we speak the words.
I’m also saying that prolonged rapid speech-speech without pauses-is like a page without white space, or without space between words.
Infactspeechwithoutpausingisasannoyingaswritingwithoutthespacebar.
I urge you, all of you, to take your time, and populate your speech with occasional bursts… of silent thought.
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