Concept
Rehearsal out loud
Rehearsal out loud is saying the whole thing, start to finish, to a colleague, a partner or a wall, before it counts. Gallo found the most natural-seeming TED speakers had rehearsed the most; almost nobody at work rehearses anything, which is the gap.
Rehearsing in the head does not count, because the head skips the sentence that does not work and supplies the word you will not find in the room. Out loud, you hear the opener that is really a warm-up, the third point that is really two, and the ask you forgot to make. One pass is enough for a meeting; a presentation that matters deserves three. The habit extends beyond talks: a hard conversation rehearsed once out loud arrives with the facts in order and the contrasting sentence ready, which is what makes it possible to stay in the learning stance when the other person reacts. Gallo's most-watched example was practised around two hundred times to sound like a conversation.
A real-life example
A team lead rehearses an executive presentation in the car and hears that her opening is a warm-up and that she never actually asks for the engineer. Both are fixed before the meeting, and the ask is approved.
How to use it
- 1Say it out loud, start to finish, once before anything that counts.
- 2Listen for the sentence that does not work, the point that is really two, and the missing ask.
- 3For a presentation that matters, three passes; for a hard conversation, one.