Question 6: What is whitewashing and how can it be avoided?
I previously talked about whitewashing here. The definition from Dictionary.com:
anything, as deceptive words or actions, used to cover up or gloss over faults, errors, or wrongdoings, or absolve a wrongdoer from blame.
As I have pointed out previously, there really is no such thing as a perfect speech. If we assume that to be true, then an evaluation that doesn’t suggest improvement is a whitewash.
I have noticed an increase in whitewash evaluations. Typically it is a result of a Toastmaster giving an evaluation to a more experienced Toastmaster. It can be daunting to evaluate someone very good at speaking. But, by not giving honest areas for improvement, you are short changing the speaker.
One way to avoid whitewashing is to ask the speaker ahead of time for areas to concentrate on in the evaluation. We are our own toughest critics, so this may give areas where the speaker is weak. Another question to ask is what the speakers goals are for the speech and address whether they met those goals. Often speakers will meet some but not all goals, so again this is an area that can be fruitful.
The bottom line though is that you need to treat evaluations as a gift to the speaker. They really want to know how to improve. It is one of the main reasons that Toastmasters is so useful.
Posted under Toastmasters
This post was written by john on February 24, 2009
