President's Tip of the Week

Why Click?
(3/9/09)

Because the bell is just so much more obnoxious! Seriously… it continues to ring for at least a second or two after you press the button. Now, is that really necessary?

Come to think of it, is the ah-counter clicker we use in our club really necessary?

This is a question that was first asked at our club several years ago. When I first joined Gilbert Toastmasters, we did not use the clicker. Imagine the scenario… it was your second time participating in Table Topics. At the end of the meeting, the ah-counter reported that you used a few different fillers a total of 9 times during the 90 seconds you spoke. Now you’re thinking, I barely remember anything I said, much less that I used any fillers. Did that report truly help you?

Here’s the two word explanation for why we use the clicker in our club: negative reinforcement. If you’ve ever studied B.F. Skinner or Behaviorism, you’ll be familiar with this term. We use it in our club in the form of the ah-counter clicker. The click results when we use a filler and the way to remove that aversive stimulus is to not use the filler. Frighteningly, our human brains work similarly enough to pigeon and rat brains such that this negative reinforcement works.

Our brains process these clicks subconsciously in steps. Let’s say I’m a new speaker; this is the process I might go through: I probably start out not even realizing I just used a filler. *Click* The click lets me know otherwise and I might even be in denial initially. Then after a while, I am blissfully unaware I am about to use a filler, but do recognize that I did so just after. *Click* Some time later, I might be at a point where a second or two before I used the filler, I knew it was coming but seemed helpless to prevent it. *Click* Finally, my brain instinctively knows I’m about to use a filler and… oh! my brain was able to compensate and I finished my sentence click free!

This process may take months for a person to go through. And that is not to say that person will never use a filler again, they’ll just be fewer and farther between.

For you ah-counters then, help your fellow Toastmasters expedite this process by providing that immediate feedback. Keep your thumb on the clicker and be ready to help them progress to the next step.