January/February 2018

Leading Insight
How to Design and Build Your Next Speech

BY SHOOTS VEIS, P.E.

About a decade ago, a friend asked if I would put together a presentation to deliver at an engineering conference. They wanted me to provide a session on public speaking because, at the time, I was serving on the city council while keeping up my day job as an engineer. Getting a chance to make a presentation on public speaking by engineers was serendipitous because it was a topic that was attracting my interest. In my role as a city council member, I, and the rest of the council, were repeatedly subjected to poor presentations by engineers. I happily said yes, prepared for the presentation, and delivered a well-received speech at the conference.

After the presentation, the topic of public speaking for engineers would not leave me alone. Engineers provide incredible value to the people and projects they serve; however, that value is often realized only when they can effectively communicate their expertise to an audience. While I was on the city council, we had many engineers speak to us and many times it did not go well. Council members would struggle with what was supposed to be accomplished and what role they played in the project. I found myself interpreting engineering jargon for the other members of the council so we could make good decisions. I am a fan of engineering and good public policy. When engineers are unable to communicate with policy bodies, it can lead to bad public policy where no one wins.

One of the best aspects of engineering is accomplishing great things with a team. If you are building a road or a building or any complex system, you can’t do that alone; it takes teamwork. And teamwork takes communication. You can have the greatest engineering design in the world, but if you can’t communicate it to a wider audience or team members, it is no longer the greatest design in the world. A communication gap can lead to projects being delayed, changed, or altered in ways that did not necessarily produce the best project from an engineering perspective.

Ultimately, I used my original presentation on public speaking for engineers to write a book called Public Speaking for Engineers. The difficult part of writing a book about public speaking for engineers is knowing that engineers like their information based on logical, scientific information, and public speaking is more of an art than a science. With that knowledge, I wrote a book that would help the engineers who want to improve their public speaking by correlating the public-speaking process to the engineering process of planning, designing, and delivering.

Engineers who communicate well with their audience understand they must plan for a presentation. They start by accounting for the elements of a good presentation: knowing the audience, the objectives of the speech, the setting, and the time frame. After developing information on these variables, the next step is to design a presentation that will help the speaker convey the information. When speakers fail to plan the design of a speech, failure to communicate is sure to follow. Good public speakers know much more is involved in reaching their audience than “winging it.”

The final element of good public speaking is improving speech delivery. This includes improving the speaker’s skills to ensure he or she is using the most effective communication methods during the presentation, using strategies that enhance the presentation for the audience, and developing the habits that provide for continual improvement. Good public speakers are not born, they develop out of a lot of practice. Anyone can become better at public speaking if they pay attention to developing their skills.

I know that engineers can do a better job of public speaking, and when they do, everyone benefits. Engineers who communicate well with an audience are prized team members and provide value to their clients, employers, and projects.

Shoots Veis, P.E., is the author of Public Speaking for Engineers: Communicating Effectively with Clients, the Public, and Local Government. As a senior project manager for Northern Engineering and Consulting, he focuses on municipal engineering assignments involving water and wastewater systems, land development, permitting, and project management. He served for five years as an elected member of the city council in Billings, Montana.