Earlier this year, I gave a talk at another university. Much later, I encountered the head of the department that I visited, and he apologized for missing my talk, explaining that he'd been out of town that day. He said "I heard your talk was very good", a nice thing to say, but not necessarily sincere, just a common pleasantry. But then he said something that surprised me. The very next thing he said was:
Was it?
I was surprised and just said something inane like, Well, I hope so. I got a lot of good questions. I enjoyed it blah blah blah.
Then he said I really did hear that it was good. OK... so why ask me?
Anyway, that was strange, but it made me think about how we feel about the talks we give, and whether this feeling (positive or negative) has anything to do with how most of the audience felt about the talk, at least during the times when they were awake. Of course there is going to be a range of responses in any audience to any particular talk, but I think we can still get a general sense for whether a talk went well or not.
I know people who always feel terrible after they give a talk, even if the talk was great (in my opinion). For some, the experience is such an anxious one, that is is difficult to enjoy the experience of giving a talk, even if the talk is interesting and presented well. I hope that for most people, this anxiety fades with time and experience giving talks.
Other people will give a range of responses when asked (by a friend or close colleague) how they felt about their own talk, depending on their perception of how the audience was responding. You can give very similar talks to two different audiences, and in one you feel like you totally rock, and in the other you feel like your talk fell flat. And sometimes you don't really know and just have a general sense that the talk went pretty well, but you don't really know.
The same talk can be a different experience in different places because there may be differences in your presentation style, your energy level (perhaps related to whether cookies and coffee were served just before the talk), and/or time of day (or day of week or month of year etc.). However, the experience is also greatly affected by whether the talk was on a topic and at a level that was appreciated by a significant number of people in the audience. I mostly use the number and type of questions during or after my talk as a guide to whether the audience is interested and if my talk is making any sense at all. I haven't found the facial expressions of the audience during a talk to be a very useful guide. And I am not offended when some people fall asleep, as long as most people are awake.
So: How do you feel your talk went? I think it is a strange question to ask someone you don't know well, but it is an interesting question to discuss among friends and colleagues.
Was it?
I was surprised and just said something inane like, Well, I hope so. I got a lot of good questions. I enjoyed it blah blah blah.
Then he said I really did hear that it was good. OK... so why ask me?
Anyway, that was strange, but it made me think about how we feel about the talks we give, and whether this feeling (positive or negative) has anything to do with how most of the audience felt about the talk, at least during the times when they were awake. Of course there is going to be a range of responses in any audience to any particular talk, but I think we can still get a general sense for whether a talk went well or not.
I know people who always feel terrible after they give a talk, even if the talk was great (in my opinion). For some, the experience is such an anxious one, that is is difficult to enjoy the experience of giving a talk, even if the talk is interesting and presented well. I hope that for most people, this anxiety fades with time and experience giving talks.
Other people will give a range of responses when asked (by a friend or close colleague) how they felt about their own talk, depending on their perception of how the audience was responding. You can give very similar talks to two different audiences, and in one you feel like you totally rock, and in the other you feel like your talk fell flat. And sometimes you don't really know and just have a general sense that the talk went pretty well, but you don't really know.
The same talk can be a different experience in different places because there may be differences in your presentation style, your energy level (perhaps related to whether cookies and coffee were served just before the talk), and/or time of day (or day of week or month of year etc.). However, the experience is also greatly affected by whether the talk was on a topic and at a level that was appreciated by a significant number of people in the audience. I mostly use the number and type of questions during or after my talk as a guide to whether the audience is interested and if my talk is making any sense at all. I haven't found the facial expressions of the audience during a talk to be a very useful guide. And I am not offended when some people fall asleep, as long as most people are awake.
So: How do you feel your talk went? I think it is a strange question to ask someone you don't know well, but it is an interesting question to discuss among friends and colleagues.
I think you can tell a lot from the questions. But. Here, after job talks the attendees stay on to discuss the candidates and provide feedback to the search committee and several times I have been thinking "that wasn't a very good talk" to "that was a disaster" my colleagues have been very enthusiastic. So there isn't neccessarily consensus in the audience anyway.
ReplyDeleteone reason the department head asked you that question may have been to determine whether you handle any difficulties with a troublesome questioner. Once I was in a department where a colleague who would try to eviscerate every guest speaker. The rest of the audience would cringe when he would raise their hand. (And no, his questions were not insightful.)
ReplyDeleteIn that instance, the department head eventually assigned this colleague the task of managing the lecture series. The colleague quickly realized it was uncomfortable to be rude during a seminar and then interact with the speaker for the rest of the day.
I don't think it was a strange question at all. He was simply talking one colleague to another and sharing the common knowledge that some presentations go better than others.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a strange question, but that's not really the point of the post. It's just a jumping off point for discussing how we feel about our own talks.
ReplyDeleteI usually assume a strange question means he slightly mangled the question.
ReplyDeleteI'd answer it as though he asked "Did the talk (and projection equipment, and intro, and question session) go well?" and "did you enjoy it, was there good discussion about the material after the talk?"
More likely than that he wanted you to grade your own presentation skills.
Same thing after a class lecture. Sometimes on top of the world, sometimes on the bottom and the questions from the audience determine the direction
ReplyDeleteI usually can tell when I give a good talk: lots of questions that seem friendly and curious about what I'm talking about. Heads nodding at key points.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel I gave a not-as-good talk. It may be a not-as-questioning audience, which I know varies from place to place (the culture in different schools and conferences varies a lot regarding asking questions during talks). It may be when I realize I'm less than clear explaining some key point. Sometimes I fumble answering questions.
Anonymous at 6:52-that was a brilliant move by your department chair. i will have to file that away in my "future bag of trick". I realize that this post in not germaine to FSP's question but I just wanted to add that.
ReplyDeleteI hate most of the talks I give. But when I ask people they say I give good talks. I guess it's simply that feel like I could do better. Recently I gave a talk at a conference right before lunch. I hated it and got only one lame question, felt awful. But it was right before lunch and a number of strangers came up later and complimented my talk. So my sense is that how I feel reflects my own emotions during the talk. And even the questions don't necessarily translate into a reasonable evaluation of the audience's perception.
ReplyDeleteI am one of them: feeling awful even if the talk was great, always questioning myself and thinking about what I could do better. My perception of the performance is somehow getting better (closer to reality) with age (and experience) but it also depend on the environment (questions after the talk, interested faces, any later feedback...). And I hate when someone says "nice talk" just as social convention, but of course I appreciate comments like "you seemed so confident", "you could persuade the audience" and so on.
ReplyDeleteAs a postdoc, I once gave a talk to a well-attended departmental seminar about my thesis work on a day that my supervisor couldn't make it. The next day, he asked me how it went, and I said that it had gone quite badly. His response: "Do you think that because Famous Professor So-and-So fell asleep? Don't worry - he always does that."
ReplyDeleteIt can be difficult to gauge your own talks, especially when you don't get any real feedback from the audience. Audience questions don't necessarily tell you much about your performance. And some people will tell you the talk was good, when it wasn't, to spare your feelings.
ReplyDeleteIt really helps to videotape yourself--you would be surprised at the things you do and say that you're not aware of. Students who persist in ignoring advice about giving presentations are finally convinced there's room for improvement when they see themselves on tape.
An interesting follow up question to your question would be, "Are you male or female?". I think you will be surprised at the results (or maybe not).
ReplyDelete