AI Meeting Coach Guides Me to Slow Down

Do I talk too fast?

AI says I talk too fast, at least for a recent meeting I hosted.

People have also given me helpful feedback that I present too fast at events--it’s a real known issue. But I never got numbers until now.

My Speaking Speed Was Measured

I spoke at a whopping 203 words per minute according to Zoom’s AI Companion feature for one team meeting that I hosted November. My peak speed was likely even higher.

Normal conversational speed is between 120-150 wpm. Per this SpeakerHub article, a sample of TED talk speakers speak between 130-180 wpm, with Steve Jobs speaking quickly at 160 wpm.

My average talking speed during the team meeting exceeded well above those ranges at 203 words per minute!

Even for my routine team meeting where I’m not presenting to the public like at a TED talk, I still need to be mindful of my speaking speed.

Better Habits for Better Communications

Effective communication doesn’t necessarily mean talking slower all the time though. It’s more about applying variety to engage the audience. When I was in Toastmasters, we were taught to:

• Vary the speed, the volume, the pitch, the cadence of our sentences.
• Even add intentional dramatic pauses of silence. Yes, silence—gasp!

Apparently, my learned habits for preparing public speeches didn't transfer to me running my routine team meetings!

I admit I habitually watch or listen to audio books, podcasts, and YouTube videos at 2x speed. It’s hard to go back to 1x speed when time is such a limited resource, especially here in the rush-rush SF Bay Area tech scene. For better or for worse, I'm now accustomed to listening and speaking at 2x speed.

I'm glad that Zoom's AI gave me quantifiable feedback to help me make adjustments. Numbers!

My Zoom AI Meeting Coach Stats

Let’s break down what Zoom’s AI feature reported back to me for my routine meeting, along with its recommendations:

• Talk-listen ratio: 45%
  I was hosting the meeting, hence I talked a lot. It appeared I let others speak 55% of the time. Zoom gave me a green check mark anyway.
• Longest spiel: 4:34 minutes (recommended: 2:30 minutes max)
  This spiel was probably when I gave a report about a previous event. Regardless, I'm sure it doesn’t take much before other meeting participants feel like they’d want to press a button for 2x speed or to fast-forward my talk so they can speak too.
• Filler words: 3.46 words/min (recommended: 0.6-3.0 filler words per minute)
  Since I was speaking about 30-50% more words per minute than the ideal range, then my number of filler words per minute went above the recommended range too. Filler words are words like “ah” and “um” which don’t add any value. Silence is better than filler words.
• Talk speed: 203 words/min (recommended: 110-160 words per minute)
  I spoke at a rate much faster than Zoom’s recommended range. Even in a familiar team meeting, participants should have an easier time to follow concepts when conveyed at a comfortable speed.
• Patience: 0.57 seconds (recommended: 0.5 to 1.5 seconds)
  Zoom recommends waiting “0.5 to 1.5 seconds for the customer to respond.” Yay! At least my patience was within Zoom’s recommended range.

The Zoom AI meeting coach gave me the above stats for my routine meeting. I think I can do better.

How I'm Doing Better

Fortunately, for practicing my separate public speaking event, the Zoom AI gave me much more reasonable stats below. My talk speed of 147 words/min was definitely in the comfortable range for audiences. Also, having only 0.46 filler words per minute sounded much smoother than for my routine meeting.

For public speaking, I've rehearsed to do a lot better with my speaking speed.

I'm hopeful that I can learn to improve my speaking pace also in routine meetings, now that I've gotten feedback from the Zoom AI meeting coach.

In fact, in the Zoom meeting that I hosted today, I consciously slowed down my speaking speed because of the previous AI feedback. It felt unnatural to me at first. I realize that doing so meant that I also occupied more time and space in the meeting, which was perfectly fine.

Ultimately, the meeting participants were able to understand my concepts and announcements much better when I slowed my pace today. Incremental improvement!

I can learn with feedback, and so can you.

What You Can Do Too

If you have access to Zoom AI Companion, or comparable tools, see the feedback that the AI meeting coach gives you. The feedback can help you gain insights past blind spots to break any bad habits.

Not only will you gain better communication skills for team meetings, but also for future job interviews and public speaking. Remember, communication skills are one of the Top 5 Valuable Skills to Future-Proof Your Career.

Tips For Job Interviews:

As a speaker, match speed with your audience, including in job interviews:

• In a job interview with a hiring manager who speaks faster than you, try to match speed rather than appear to respond too slowly.
• Conversely, in a job interview with a hiring manager who speaks slower than you, also try to match speed rather than appear to be in too much of a rush.

Your apparent pace will influence the perception of your fit to the company culture.

Tips For Public Speaking:

When speaking to groups, especially to the public, make an extra effort to slow down if you normally speak fast like me. As a speaker:

• Savor each word.
• Enjoy your spotlight.
• Cut extraneous content rather than speak faster.

Even TED talks, for instance, convey big ideas to the audience in under 18 minutes. As they say, "less is more."

Contact Me

I’ll be speaking to a biostatistics leadership class at UC San Diego next month. I’ll certainly continue to personally practice what I’m teaching.

I can speak at your next event too.

Contact me if you would like to book me to speak to your group or event or for coaching:

Jimmy Wong Coach, speaker, and entrepreneur enabling people to thrive in the age of AI. Data science leader with 12 years experience at the LinkedIn company and 27 years in the industry. Visit aijimmy.com​ ​​​​​​

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