By Steve Rohr and Shirley Impellizzeri

On-the-spot speeches can stump even the most seasoned speakers. You know the kind. It’s when someone taps you on the shoulder and says, “Hey, John has food poisoning and had to leave. Can you introduce today’s speaker in his place?”

John had a week to prepare, and you have 10 minutes. “Sure, no problem,” you hear yourself say, but actually, there are 10 of them, and they’re ticking away.

You’ve spoken in public countless times in your career, but this impromptu predicament is different. The stakes are steeper, and there’s not a nanosecond to spare. The good news is, with these tactics there is a way to win without winging it.

Maximize the minutes you do have. People might believe impromptu speaking is giving a speech without any preparation. This isn’t true, and if it was, it would leave most of us tongue-tied.

Longtime speakers know that not preparing can lead to endless rambling. You should absolutely prepare because you always have time, even if it means collecting yourself and your thoughts while walking up to the podium.

Start actively listening right now. As you go about your day, take note of stories, anecdotes, or quotations that strike you as especially funny, poignant, or interesting. You might read a great article citing a startling statistic, or you meet someone whose courage and conviction is both inspiring and motivating.

Jot down this information or make a note on your cellphone—whatever method is fastest to access at a moment’s notice. Call these thought-gems your safety-net deposits.

Stay calm. Nerves are natural. Acknowledge your anxiety, but only to accept it, and then move forward by taking a quick retreat. If you have a few minutes, find a quiet area to collect your thoughts.

Next, assess the situation. Focus only on the job at hand. What have you been asked to do? Are you introducing a VIP? Roasting a retiring colleague? How much time do you have to speak? Who is your audience?

After that, simply list all of the thoughts that come to mind based on how you assessed the situation.

Make an outline. You can do this on a piece of paper or on a mobile device, but do it. The key is to remember that every speech you’ll ever give (or hear) can be outlined as a beginning, middle, and end.

Your audience is programmed to hear stories and speeches this way. More important, this outline gives you a guide for your rhetorical ride.

Some people will plan the beginning and the middle part of a speech but don’t bother with the end, believing the perfect ending will magically form in their mouths as they wrap up the speech. Good luck with that.

More often than not, this type of speaker will cruise through the beginning and middle, but when reaching the end, will suddenly pause and finally say, “Well, that’s all I’ve got.” It’s not only awkward but a colossal credibility killer because audiences tend to remember endings.

The Bookend Strategy

Once you have an outline with a beginning, middle, and end, it’s time to supercharge it. You need to “bookend” your speech—the first and last thing you say—with jokes, memorable quotes, stories, startling statistics, or interesting anecdotes.

The bookend at the beginning is called an attention-getter. Use it to engage your audience immediately. A surefire way to deflate the room is starting your speech with, “My speech is about,” or anything that’s that obvious.

An attention-getter does just what it sounds like. This is where the safety-net deposits you saved pay off. Quickly skim through all of musings you’ve collected and find one that matches your topic and situation. Or survey the room and look for something that fits this particular scenario. There’s your attention-getter.

Maximize your minutes by making the attention-getter do double duty. Use it at the beginning of your speech as well as at the end. Not only will this save you time, you’ll come off prepared and polished.

Give It a Go

To see how this can work, go back to your impromptu speech introducing the speaker. You’ve assessed the situation, and it is common knowledge the speaker likes baseball.

It’s also well known that she’s retiring at the end of the year. While these two things might seem completely unrelated, they can make for great bookends.

If you begin your speech with an attention-getting anecdote about how she likes baseball, your closing remarks can refer back to your attention-getter by saying something like, “And clearly, our guest speaker will hit it out of the park.”