presentations

How to Capture an Audience’s Attention

By in Communication Tags: ,

Radiant millennial employee preparing presentation in office

When giving a presentation, you want to capture and hold your audience’s attention. But it can sometimes be hard to appeal to everyone. Most of the time, your audience will be comprised of a diverse group of people. You’ll have extroverts who love to express their opinions. You’ll have analytical people who wish you would stick to the facts. And you’ll have people who only get engaged when the focus is on personal stories, feelings, and relationships. How can you please them all?

According to author Dana Dupuis, it is possible to cover all the bases and connect with your entire audience. To do so, she suggests that you include the following elements in your presentation:

  • Data – Start your presentation with some statistics, charts, or figures. You don’t need to linger over them. You just need to show your audience some hard data. Without it, you’ll lose your analytical people before the presentation really gets started.
  • Stories – Tell your audience a relevant story. It could be about yourself or about other people that you’ve encountered in your life. Stories are compelling, and they should help to capture the attention of a large portion of your audience. (And if you can weave some facts and figures into your story, that’s even better! Your story will become even more relevant and compelling.)
  • A focus on benefits – Make sure to talk about how your presentation information can benefit your audience. Why should they listen or care? How can it help them? You need to make this clear in order to keep your audience engaged.
  • Open-ended questions – During your presentation, you should periodically ask your audience open-ended questions. (These are the kind of questions that require more than a “yes” or “no” to answer.) This will give the people who love to participate a chance to voice their thoughts and opinions. And it will help to make your entire presentation more relevant, engaging, and interactive.

 

Dupuis, D. (2019). Shhhh! Listen. Talent Development, 73(2), 65-68.

Stop Using Filler Speech When Presenting

By in Communication Tags: , , ,

Presenting

I think we all use filler speech occasionally. Those are words like “um,” “so,” “you know,” “ah,” and “like.” Some people use them more than others. But in regular conversation, it’s OK. People who use a lot of filler speech take a little extra time to get their point across. But they get there eventually. And research has shown that they tend to be more thoughtful and conscientious than those who don’t use filler speech when they talk. So, like, it’s fine.

But there is a time when using a lot of filler speech is NOT fine – and that’s when you’re speaking publically. If you use a lot of filler speech during a presentation, your audience will react negatively. Research indicates that your audience will do the following:

  • Have difficulty figuring out what you’re actually trying to say
  • View you as distracted, nervous, untrustworthy, and inauthentic
  • Get distracted and start thinking about other things

So how can you avoid using these “verbal crutches”? According to Noah Zandan, you need to get comfortable with silence. Every time you feel like saying “um” or “like,” simply pause instead.

There’s no need to fill in every gap with a word or sound. During a speech, pauses are actually very effective. Not only do they give you a chance to gather your thoughts and take a few deep breaths (if you’re feeling anxious). They also make you sound relaxed and confident. They can be used to build suspense and emphasize a certain key point. And they give your audience the chance to absorb and process what you’re saying.

So how can you stop using filler speech and start pausing instead? Zandan recommends that you videotape yourself giving your presentation to identify the types of filler words that you tend to use. And then, after that, you need to practice replacing those words with pauses. Run through your presentation over and over until you’ve succeeded in removing the filler words. Preparation and practice is key.

 

Zandan, N. (2018, August 1). How to stop saying “um,” “ah,” and “you know”. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2018/08/how-to-stop-saying-um-ah-and-you-know?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_not_activesubs&referral=00203&deliveryName=DM15924

 

When Using a PowerPoint Isn’t a Good Idea

By in Communication, Technology Tags: , ,

Bored_by_PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a useful tool. It’s easy to master. It’s a good way to give your presentations structure. And it’s an effective way to present your audience with informative visuals, like photographs, tables, and charts.

But be honest – how do you really feel when you arrive at a presentation and the speaker starts playing a PowerPoint? (Especially a PowerPoint that’s packed with bullets and paragraphs of text?) Are you excited and pleased? Or do you feel a sense of tired resignation and immediately start to tune out?

“PowerPoint fatigue” (a condition that often exists in people who have been subjected to too many PowerPoints) is just one reason why using a PowerPoint in your presentation may not be the best idea. If you get the sense that your audience is suffering from PowerPoint fatigue, you might want to give them a break and use a different tool or technique.

There are also other situations in which a PowerPoint presentation should probably NOT be used. Here are a few of them:

  1. You want to emphasize your leadership qualities – Do you remember that scene in the movie “Independence Day” when President Bill Pullman delivers an inspirational speech to the weary populace? That moment would have been a lot weaker if he had been clicking through a PowerPoint. If you use a PowerPoint, your audience is going to view you as someone who is delivering information rather than as an inspirational leader. Plus, if a PowerPoint is being shown, audiences will spend much of their time looking at it rather than focusing on you. So if you want to be seen as a powerful leader like Bill Pullman, skip the PowerPoint and maybe just use a couple notecards.
  2. You want to stir up your audiences’ emotions and imagination – You have a greater chance of engaging with your audience, connecting with them, and inspiring them if you skip the PowerPoint. Without the visual aid, they’ll focus on you and your words. Inspiration will follow!
  3. You want your audience to participate – PowerPoints encourage people to sit back and zone out. They usually don’t even take notes. They’ll just ask for a copy of the PowerPoint presentation (which they’ll probably never look at). So if you want your audience to take an active role during your presentation and actually do something or produce something, you might want to avoid using a PowerPoint (or use it very sparingly).
  4. You don’t have a lot of time – Creating a good PowerPoint presentation takes time. If you don’t have that time, do without it. Similarly, delivering a PowerPoint presentation also takes time. You need to turn on the computer, make sure to projector is working, and troubleshoot the inevitable problems that occur. And you don’t want to rush through the slides. If you do, your audience won’t be able to follow what you’re saying and will probably overlook key information. So if you only have a limited amount of time to present, forego the PowerPoint.

Remember, a PowerPoint isn’t always necessary. Be like President Bill Pullman, and only use it when you know it’ll really add to the power and substance of your presentation.

 

Witt, C. (n.d.). When not to use PowerPoint. Witt Communications. Retrieved from http://wittcom.com/when-not-to-use-powerpoint/

 

 

Teaching and Presentations — The Biggest Mistake

By in Communication Tags: , , , ,

BoringConference

Probably every professional has been at the receiving end of a poor presentation. Think of the conversations we have afterwards around the water cooler. “Wasn’t that just awful” we whine, often talking about all the mistakes the presenter made.

The most common mistake of all is when the presenters yield to the temptation to tell the listeners everything they know about a particular topic. That is the number one reason why people show PowerPoint slide decks that seem interminable to the audience. The presenter fires bullet after bullet, each containing a nugget of information gathered through years of experience, research, and observation. Sometimes, before presenters finalize the deck, they ask other experts to review the deck to make sure that nothing has been omitted.

That is why most presentations become excruciatingly boring. It’s also why presenters dash through the last fifteen slides, talking at breakneck speed. Sometimes, they make a last-minute decision to omit the last few slides, assuring the audience that these points are really interesting, “but I just don’t have time!”

Once, a trainer who, quite frankly, had no clue about how to present told me very earnestly that “the biggest mistake we can make is to leave something out. Nothing is more important to a presentation than making sure a presentation is complete.”

Actually, nothing can be further than the truth. Good presentations begin with analysis. The most important part of analysis is all about your audience. You should consider the following questions:

  • Who is the primary audience? (Is there a secondary audience?)
  • What do you know about them? (What is their age, background, and educational level?)
  • How do they prefer to become educated anyway? Is the “slides and bullets” method the most effective instructional technique available? (Show me any research that supports that idea!)
  • How much time do you have? And how much can the average human being absorb in the time you have?
  • How much do they already know about the topic? How much of your material will be new to them?

After that, you can get to the most important question of all. What is this presentation for anyway? Are you looking for support? Are you teaching them a new skill? Are you providing information that your audience needs to know to do their jobs better? Is there something you hope they will be able to do at the end of your presentation? Perhaps your presentation is a warning — there are sometimes serious consequences if people don’t have the information that you have at your finger tips.

Finally, polish your presentation with this goal. Instead of asking if it’s complete, approach the task by asking what you can remove without reducing the possibility of accomplishing the goal you’ve established for yourself. In other words, ask how you can make your presentation shorter — not longer.

 

 

Power Corrupts, PowerPoint…

By in Microsoft Office Tags: , , ,

Boring_PowerPoint

Most people are familiar with the saying that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Some people know that the expression is associated with Lord Acton (1834 – 1902). But few people know anything about the contex or that the quotation isn’t entirely accurate.

The complete remark was “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Lord Acton, an English historian and politician, was a Catholic. He was, however, very aware of the way in which Popes had abused power. He wrote a letter to Mandell Creighton, an Archbishop of The Church of England, arguing that history was right to treat Popes harshly. He believed that they deserved it! The remark was part of the letter.

So much for Lord Acton! Edward Tufte is a visionary statistician, who gives seminars on how to display, represent, and communicate data. He wittily parodied Lord Acton’s famous remark in an article he wrote for Wired magazine in 2003 by saying, “Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.”

Tufte deplores the way that PowerPoint encourages speakers to prioritize format over content. He dislikes the way children are encouraged to reduce their ideas to bullet points and sales pitches. He argues that a PowerPoint presentation is really no help to the audience but is a crutch for the presenter. Worse, “PowerPoint’s pushy style seeks to set up a speaker’s dominance over the audience. The speaker, after all, is making power points with bullets to followers. Could any metaphor be worse? Voicemail menu systems? Billboards? Television? Stalin?”

I must admit that, in the course of my career, the number of PowerPoint slides and the number of bullets I have seen have probably run into hundreds of thousands. Rarely have I laughed, been impressed, or even learned very much from a bullet. But I can’t help feeling that Tufte is blaming the tool rather than the presenter. Any technology creates the opportunity to create dreadful output. The advent of desktop publishing spawned thousands of appalling newsletters in the 1980s. The digital camera has been behind billions of ugly photographs. You only have to look at YouTube to see that video technology has let thousands of untalented videographers loose on an undeserving world. Microsoft Word is probably the underlying technology behind every boring book in the library!

Presentations definitely need to be redefined. That is clear. Let’s be honest. How often do you look forward to a presentation? How often do you walk away feeling enlightened, amused, or even simply better informed? I have resolved to make more use of pictures, replace my bullets with stories, offer my audiences the opportunity to participate, and try to fill my presentations with light-hearted humor to replace corporate cliches and platitudes. But this change won’t come by getting rid of PowerPoint. It will come with my resolve to improve my speaking skills.

Like all tools, PowerPoint can be well used or abused!

You may want to resolve to take an interesting risk. Try making a presentation with very few bullets. Use pictures instead. You will be surprised how much more engaged your audience will be. If you’re concerned that they need to walk away with certain details, note these down on a single sheet of paper. Give your audience ample time to read that sheet before you begin. Use PowerPoint to deliver your message, by all means, but do so through the use of cartoons, photographs, and informative charts. Your audiences will be grateful that you left the deadly bullets behind.

 

Dalberg-Acton, J. E. E. (1907). Historical essays and studies. J. N. Figgis & R. V. Laurence (Eds.). London, UK: Macmillan and Co., Limited.

Tufte, E. (September, 2003). PowerPoint is evil. Wired, 11 (9). Retrieved from http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html