My Vision for AIA Toastmasters as Vice-President, Education

Rhetoric is, specifically, the art of persuasion.  Rhetoric, grammar and logic are the three ancient arts of leaders, and this is the triad on which Toastmasters is built on. Aristotle wrote the first textbook on public speaking, “Rhetorike”, which we call, “On Rhetoric”.

In it, Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion”.  Mastery of rhetoric was necessary to argue the passage of laws, to gain power as a civic speaker, and to motivate the masses towards a goal.  To achieve this means of persuasion, the speaker builds his speech on ethos, pathos and logos.  He had to be credible, which is the ethos; he had to understand the psychology of the audience, which is the pathos; and he had to build a reasonable case, based on logic and facts, which is the logos.

My vision for AIA Toastmasters, is to return public speaking to its ancient roots, and use it as the tool to develop our members.  It is not enough to speak, but we must learn to think, and shape a coherent, cogent argument for or against any position.  As a corporate club, our emphasis should be executive training.  The Toastmasters' slogan is “Where Leaders are Made”.  This is where leaders are made, where skills are enhanced, and people are empowered.  We want to encourage our members to step up, and be the best version of themselves they can be.

The idea is that AIA Toastmasters can produce, a core of speakers who are of the calibre to go on platforms such as Ted Talks, and articulate our vision of personal development, executive growth and management excellence. And if not, we want them to be the best of what they do, from improving their sales, to being better at addressing client concerns, to whatever personal goal they have, personal and professional.

I will, in a separate speech, outline specific goals and milestones on how we will work towards it, and I have the utmost faith that we have that team, that depth of institutionalised experience, that shared vision to reach this goal.  I want us to build something great.  I want us to leave a legacy.  I want us to be remembered long after we have moved on from this.

There are three aspects of our vision that we need to address.  They are management, membership and projects.  This is the triad on which every club is built on, and this is the foundation from which we will build our mountain.

In regard to management, we need to engage the wider management that is AIA, and prove the value of the Toastmaster programmes as intrinsic to executive training and growth.  This allows us to leverage on existing training budget within the organisation to run better programmes.  We cannot depend on membership dues alone, but must explore ways to fund projects by leveraging on existing programmes within and without the corporate structure.  It is our responsibility to give back to the corporate management that has supported us in this, and prove our worth.  That is the primary challenge.  It is important that we are seen as integral for management enhancement, both from Distribution as well as Corporate sides.

In regard to membership, we are fortunate that we have a pool of motivated, mature and hungry people within AIA.  It is our duty to push each and every member who is part of our chapter, and craft a hero’s journey for them.  It is not enough that they go forth and make good speeches.  We want them to ambassadors of the club, and the AIA brand.

Our commitment is to build a structure such that we preserve institutional knowledge by leveraging on the experiences of existing members and former appointment holders.  It will not do, for us, to waste the treasure trove of knowledge that is our people who have completed their Toastmaster journey.  We need to create panel discussions, workshops and unique projects to challenge them, and engage them.

In terms of projects, we want to aggressively push our members to complete their projects by emphasising not the projects themselves, but the intrinsic worth of personal growth that is applicable in all aspects of the personal and professional life.  We want to build their confidence by challenging them.  In that light, aside from speeches, our emphasis will be on collaborative projects that allow our members to tap into their wealth of experience.  This is a showcase, a reward and a means of personal marketing.

Part of this is to work with other clubs at a strategic level, instead of merely borrowing appointment holders.  This requires careful study, but what I propose is to choose two or three clubs at the beginning to collaborate on projects that build on existing pathways to address issues that can be translated to a policy level.  We want to build thinkers, not just entertaining speakers.

In that light, this is our call to action.  We should not be coming forward to keep the status quo, but build on the excellent work and sacrifice of each and every president and their team that came before us, to honour their legacy, and to create our own legend.  André Gide said, “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”  I am not satisfied with new oceans; I want a new world out there.