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Have you ever grieved to see decent, gifted, hard-working people
humiliated in public by jackasses? Have you been one of them?
In 1984, a toxic gas leak in Bhopal, India killed nearly 3000
people. The tragedy was terrible. So was the seeming incompetence
of so many high Union Carbide functionaries, who were paraded
before the camera. They appeared never to be able to get their
stories straight.
As Reid Buckley watched these decent men squirm and fumble, he
thought how unnecessary that humiliation was. He began testing
a workshop to teach executives how to express themselves with
poise under duress. The result four years later was the opening
of the Buckley School.
- Absolute candor:
people pay to know exactly why they fail to communicate as public
speakers or one-on-one.
- Total sympathy:
we have all been there, we have all suffered from similar nerves
and other problems.
- Tact: nobody
enjoys being made a fool of; all instruction is gentle.
- Patience: some
people are not natural verbalizers, but everyone can be taught
to be better than he or she was.
- Personalized
instruction---one-on-one, hands-on---seeking to dig out of each
student what is idiosyncratically his or her special talent:
there are no templates in public speaking, what's right for
one person may be wrong for another.
- Practice: students
are on their feet speaking, because the only way to learn is
to perform.
- Nothing short
of excellence: entreat, beseech, coax, beg, blandish, implore,
exhort, cajole, badger, compel students to surpass themselves,
because only by reaching for the stars can anyone hope to scale
the heights.
Drawing from lessons
Mr. Buckley has learned through forty years of professional speaking
and debating, the curriculum uses active polemical confrontation
as a teaching tool. For many, this is their first experience preparing
a case they must defend, and the Buckley School faculty provide
materials, strategies and support. Almost without exception, conferees
find that team camaraderie and competitive fire combine to elicit
the finest speaking performances of their lives.
At the Buckley School, students receive intensely personalized
instruction. Hands-on coaching by Mr. Buckley and his faculty
helps students identify and correct problems on the spot. Mr.
Buckley believes that persuasion begins in powerfully marshaled
thought, and thus great speaking begins with good writing. Though
practice in extemporaneous speaking is part of the curriculum,
the Buckley School encourages speakers to work from prepared texts
and shows them how to craft and rehearse speeches.
Located in Camden, South Carolina, the Buckley School offers not
just a different method of teaching but an unexpected environment
for training. Camden has long been a winter destination for the
Thoroughbred horse set and a home to the Buckley family. Classes
take place in an historic house on Camden's main street. Conferees
join Mr. Buckley for cocktails and drinks at some of the town's
Revolutionary War landmarks. Here, Conferees are removed from
the hustle of the corporate world and can devote themselves to
the demands of the Buckley School in a gracious Southern setting.
Assistant Treasurer of Shurgard, Inc
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