One simple truth I've gleaned over my two decades of working with docents and tour guides is that good tours are memorable and the bad ones are never forgotten.

To help my docents remember the elements of good public speaking and to avoid the pitfalls, I've developed a list of docent do's and don'ts.  For backup, I would normally reach for The Good Guide which has long been my "go to" publication for all docent-related questions, but recently I've come across Khrushchev's Shoe: and Other Ways to Captivate an Audience of 1 to 1000 by Roy Underhill which I think offers a broader perspective on public speaking and its role in the museum setting.

It not only covers the "what" to do, but delves into the "why" as well.

The title is based on the Soviet Premier Khrushchev's act of banging his shoe on the podium to get the audience's attention. Although he did get their attention, he also got their indignation and displeasure, basically turning them into a hostile audience.

The author has worked as a master housewright at Colonial Williamsburg and later as their director of interpretive development, and therefore, the book is filled with memorable anecdotes about public speaking and guiding tours.

In his very readable book, Underhill explains "how to entertain, inform or persuade a group of any size," but it's not full of razzle-dazzle showman tricks, but rather clear explanations of audience expectations and what we can expect from our audiences. This is not just a book about how to give a good tour or presentation, but also features the brain research behind how we learn, providing the reader with the tools necessary to approach the guided tour from a strategic point of view. I was so impressed by the scope of the book that I'm using it as a textbook for a museum methods class I am teaching in the spring.

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