True confessions of a talkaholic - part one

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In this article, we examine the tendency of trainers, teachers, and speakers to talk so much they become talkaholics. We then look at possible talkaholic cures.

It happens in every village, town, and city in the world. Some member of the community embarrasses the others present. At first, the person is self-contained. But quickly the urge takes control. Once started, he can’t stop. Soon, no one pays attention to him. To each other they whisper, “He’s addicted and can’t help himself.”

Fortunately, there is an organization that can help and a friend who got this addict to one of the organization’s meetings. The addict waited nervously while others spoke. He found, to his surprise that he was not alone. Their difficulties were similar to his.

When it was his turn to speak, he, with great fear, stood up, was welcomed by the group, and declared his addiction. A wave of relief immediately swept over him. There! It was out. He had begun his recovery.

Experts know, however, that recovery is hard. Sometimes it is impossible (once a talkaholic, always a talkaholic). Fortunately for this trainer and all talkaholic educators, speakers and presenters around the world, these support organizations are in every town.

If only it were so. There are unfortunately no train-the-trainers for talkaholics.

With apologies to anyone with a real addiction problem, most trainers, teachers, and speakers are in fact talkaholics. They can’t help it. It is easy to start talking, but hard to stop. And yet …

Music composers know that it’s not the notes that makes the music – it’s the silence BETWEEN the notes that makes the music.

Without the silence, all that is left is a drone. The same is true for presentations. Nonstop talk does not make the point, silence for absorption does. The more said, the less learned. The more information imparted, less detail they absorbed. As indicated in the articles The learners' declaration of rights and That guy should have talked some more, learners clearly want less information.

Less is More
Picture an all-to-common situation. A lost driver asks a stranger for directions to a destination. The stranger is obliging but the description is long winded, overly detailed, and crammed with references to local landmarks. When the direction giver finally finishes giving the perfect directions, the lost person responds, “So, go left, right, right. Right?" Like the driver, the detail is lost.

Science backs this common sense observation. George Miller, in his landmark work The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two demonstrated that the most information a person’s brain can absorb at one time is three thoughts. He discussed the brain in terms of channel capacity and stated that so much information can be transmitted at a time (like an old dial up Internet connection). The detail again gets lost.

Less really is more.

In the absence of a talkaholics train the trainer program, learning professionals can still conquer this addiction. There are legitimate reasons that trainers talk beyond reason. There are also reasonable strategies for surmounting those reasons.

In the next article of this series, we will examine the primary reasons for talkaholic behavior and offer some coping strategies for each reason.