Question

Helen is an experienced public speaker and has been practicing medicine for over 20 years. She is at a regional physician’s conference, and has just been asked without any prior warning to stand up in front of hundreds of doctors to describe a very complicated medical procedure. What should she do?
a.
quickly decide on the main points she’d like to address and how to transition from one point to the next
b.
excuse herself and hide in the bathroom until the conference is over and everyone goes home
c.
script out her speech on a napkin before she stands up in order to read it word for word
d.
carefully prepare notecards and rehearse a few times in order to be flexible and seem more natural

Answer 1

The answer is: A. quickly decide on the main points she’d like to address and how to transition from one point to the next

Answer 2

The best she can do is: A) Quickly decide on the main points she'd like to address and how to transition from one point to the next.

In this way she will be organized and won't confuse or repeat any topics. As she is an experienced public speaker she won´t be that nervous and she probably has a determined procedure on making speeches. Although she was not prepared for this speech in particular she has been practicing medicine for several years so the medical procedure that needs to be explained is probably something familiar. In other words, she has the information and the experience to give the speech, she needs organize that information in an efficient way.

By excusing herself and hide, she will only evidence her lack of capability in that subject. Writing the speech on a napkin is not professional and lets remember that she doesn't have time as she is asked to speak at that moment. The notecards is a good idea but, again, she doesn't have the time to write or practice.