Lorraine Beaulieu has been making speeches since she was eight years old. So talking to a group of five or even 50 people is old hat.

Nevertheless, when the Dell Canada Inc. project manager saw a chance to improve her speaking skills just over a year ago, she signed up immediately.

Beaulieu joined the Dell Canada Club Toastmasters chapter, a group that meets every Wednesday in the company's North York office. Today she is the club's president, and a more effective - and different - communicator.

"What I wanted to learn through Toastmasters was the ability to think off the top of my head, by the seat of my pants," Beaulieu says.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Mark Kolke, who has the floor during a recent Singles and Friends Toastmasters of Calgary meeting, says the experience has made him more effective.

"When a topic is presented to me I have to actually get up and speak about it intelligently for two minutes. If it's a debate, I have to prove my point and win people over."

In recent years, more companies such as Dell have established corporate chapters - to help employees enhance their communication skills or simply overcome the fear of public speaking.

Regardless of their motive, Beaulieu and other professionals say spinoffs in the workplace are positive and continuing.

Marlene Jan, an officer with the Vancouver Blastmasters Club, says when her group's noon-hour meeting ends, people leave on a high.

"They're pumped, they're glad that they came," says Jan, who works in the human resources department at Blast Radius, a high-tech new media company.

Employees initially joined to enhance their speaking and presentation skills, whether was a team setting or with clients. But it's become much more, particularly from an HR perspective, she says. "We didn't know if it would take off.

There is some structure to Toastmasters meetings and there was a fear that people would shy from it or get tired of it. That hasn't happened."

The 25 club members have embraced the concept since the club launched earlier this year. Topics for discussion during the lunch-hour meetings usually aren't about business. Instead, they discuss generic issues such as movies or food, and it seems everyone has a story to tell. The idea is simply to get people up and talking.

"One of the things I've noticed is you learn a lot about people," Jan says.

"That's the hidden part of Toastmasters. There's an element of team building when you do it within the organization.

"Personally, it's given me air time, being in front of people," she adds. "More than that, it's seeing other people present and speak, and the chance to learn from them."

Started 81 years ago, Toastmasters International says that of the 850 new chapters established worldwide this year, half are corporate clubs such as Blastmasters. Others are community clubs such as the Singles and Friends Toastmasters of Calgary, whose members - financial services experts, salespeople, teachers and other professionals - are single.

"I've become a much better listener," says Mark Kolke, public relations vice-president for the Calgary club and the president of MaxComm Realty Advisors Inc.

"To some degree most of us lack skills, or if we have skills and courage, we lack polish and practice. And that's what Toastmasters is all about."

At age 54 and in sales since he was 17, Kolke has always felt comfortable speaking. Part of his motivation to join was to become better at what he did in business and improve his bottom line.

"But there have been big benefits on the interpersonal level," he says. "One on one, whether it's socially or in business, I'm more effective."

The 90-minute Wednesday night meetings, he says, "are very much about speaking, speaking, speaking; and listening, listening, listening.

"We learn a lot. We critique. But it's done in a supportive way. It's also social and our meetings are usually followed by a trip to a local watering hole. We have a lot of fun."

Lorraine Beaulieu agrees. Her Dell Canada group always has at least one huge laugh at their Wednesday noon-hour meetings, and employees return to work energized and enlightened because they've been challenged, their minds engaged.

Beaulieu says the sessions have changed her method of communicating. Instead of speaking the first thing that comes to her mind, she now allows herself a few moments to gather her thoughts and present ideas in a comprehensible and comprehensive way.

"My answer is very detailed and it's very organized. In that way I am a different, and better, presenter."

Like Kolke and Jan, Beaulieu says the structure of Toastmasters provides an environment where learning and laughter go hand in hand.

For example, at the end of each session a quizmaster - who has taken notes during the meeting - fires off a number of questions about what club members said.

"The quizmaster might ask: 'What did Ralph say his dog's name was during his story?' "We shout out the answer, which has always been a part of Toastmasters," she says. "But we've implemented something new, so whomever shouts out the right answer gets candy whipped at them. It's a great time and every one's dying to get a chocolate bar or a lollipop, whatever the case may be."

Ultimately, she says, the meetings are about people sharing, speaking and giving.

Members don't go to Toastmasters specifically to speak and hear the sound of their own voices.

Instead, the purpose is to hear other voices and actually listen. That, she stresses, is too often the forgotten component in communication.

(Mike Dempster can be reached at miked@businessedge.ca.)