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Your
Presentation Success Is Our Passion
Present It Right...The First Time!
HOW
DO YOU TELL A STORY?
I just finished
listening to the tape of Blink: The Power of Thinking
Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. I was struck by
all the fascinating stories he used to make his key points. Every
day at dinner, I would recount them to my husband.
Then I listened
to another book on tape (it will remain nameless). That author
went on and on about certain points, not very clearly and without
headlines to clue me in on key points. Since her stories weren't
told in a way that illustrated her points, I didn't find myself
sharing them with many people. Although I managed to get the essence
of her points, I wasn't able to convey them easily to others.
But I'm still repeating the stories in Blink.
What makes Gladwell's stories more memorable and how can you do
that with your own examples?
There are
four elements to telling a compelling story:
1. |
Tell
your story in an order that makes sense. Don't start at
the end, go to the middle, and end with the beginning. Granted,
this might work sometimes, but it shouldn't be a blueprint
for storytelling. |
2. |
Set
the context for your story before you tell it. Reframe the
story around the point you want to make. |
3. |
Recount
the story with descriptions so your audience can create
a picture of the setting in their minds. |
4. |
As
you tell the story, leave out your reactions; don't keep
saying, "I love this story." |
In business
we all want to tell stories that capture the audience's minds,
emotions, and total attention. That doesn't always happen when
you are selling nozzles, reporting on a run-of-the-mill project,
or showing sales numbers. But you can still relate an incident
in a way that is more interesting than reading four text phrases
on a slide.
WHAT
INFORMATION DOES YOUR AUDIENCE NEED?
Over
and over again I am made aware that presenters give their audiences
extraneous data-either information the audience already knows
or will never need to know.
Information
the audience already knows. Let's say you are going to
present to a group of environmentalists who are deeply engaged
in protecting undeveloped land and clean water. Should you present
an overview of the problems? Do they need generalized slides about
the water situation? Probably not. They already know all that-that's
why they are in the audience. If you begin with this information,
you will lose them. Instead, tell them something they don't know.
This same
idea applies to those who present charts and graphs by reading
off the numbers to the audience and going on to the next slide.
Even though the audience may not know the exact figures, they
really expect you to do more than just read the numbers. This
goes back to the communication staircase. See February's
Presentation Points. First, show the data. Second, interpret
the data. Is this positive or negative information? Third, add
value to the data. Was this expected? Is there a story that goes
with why the data is the way it is? Fourth, share a vision for
the future. Based on this information here are two possible future
scenarios. If you are forced to show information the audience
knows about, use the communication staircase as a way to make
the information more relevant and interesting to your audience.
Information
the audience never needs to know. You are involved in
a huge company project. Every month you present an update to senior
management. As usual, there are some issues that have been resolved,
some that soon will be resolved easily, and some that are proving
difficult to solve. Does your audience want you to spend time
discussing all the steps you went through to fix a problem that
is solved? What do they need to hear instead? They want to know
about the problems that are proving most difficult and what you
plan to do about them. Your audience wants to know whether you
have the situation under control. If not, what steps will you
take to get it under control? Do you need their help?
How
to give your audience the information they need. The
next time you put together a talk, look through your slides. Highlight
your text, pictures, or charts as follows:
Yellow:
audience probably already knows
Blue: audience probably does not need to know
Green: useful or interesting; audience needs
and will want to know
If your presentation
is not highlighted mainly with green, then you need to rethink
what you have put on the slides. Go back and ask yourself: What
slides can be eliminated? Condensed? Modified? What photos will
help explain the concepts?
A
QUICK WAY TO MAKE IMAGES
I have just
been playing with a product called Graphicae. It has some excellent
tools for creating charts, timelines, diagrams, and tables to
illustrate data. You can edit their formats in PowerPoint. You
can download the program free for ten days. Go see what you think:
www.graphicae.com
HOW
PEOPLE LEARN: SIGNALING PRINCIPLE
USE OUTLINES AND HEADINGS TO ORGANIZE INFORMATION
The past few
months in Presentation Points, we've been talking about Richard
E. Mayer's principles about how people learn. A professor of Psychology
at UC Santa Barbara, Mayer has written many books on education
and learning, including Multimedia Learning. So far,
we've discussed the following principles:
- Multimedia:
Use words and pictures, not words alone.
- Coherence:
Focus your material, excluding extraneous information.
- Spatial
Contiguity: Present corresponding words and pictures
close together on the page or screen rather than far away from
each other.
- Modality:
Use animation and narration rather than animation and on-screen
text.
This month,
we'll focus on:
- Signaling:
Organize the information with clear outlines and headings.
Many presenters,
when creating a PowerPoint presentation, open a file and just
start putting information on slides. They treat the slides as
a word document, but not one with outlines and subheadings. Instead,
it is more like stream-of-consciousness text. If the audience
is fortunate, the presenter has gone through and cleaned up the
words before giving the talk. But even then, the presentation
content is not organized to focus on one objective and three key
messages. That's because the presenter did not create the slide's
content focused on one objective and three key messages.
Mayer has
seen that people process information better and learn better when
there is an outline with headings that focus on key points. I
dare you to print out the slides to a presentation and see how
it is organized. Could someone not familiar with your topic identify
the key points? Could someone know, by the headings and/or subheadings
used, what the slides are about?
Organize
the Information with Clear Outlines and Headings
Here are some ideas to consider when you want to follow the signaling
principle.
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The
heading identifies the pictures. The text on the right says
a few words about each nozzle. It's very easy to follow and
understand the illustrations. This is the type of information
a customer needs to know in order to decide which nozzle is
best. |
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The
four arrows on the right represent the outline of the presentation.
As the presenter talks about each benefit clients receive
from working with his company, the other benefits are on the
slide so the customer can remember them. |
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This
slide shows how to keep two types of people happy. Words in
gold: the person who only wants a few words on the slide and
tells a story about customer success with the product. Words
in white: the manager who believes in many words per slide.
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This
is a slide from my CD Presentations in a Hurry: 26 Formats
That Persuade. It is from the format called Company Overview.
Rather than ten slides that make these points, one slide outlines
key points and lets the presenter add stories and examples. |
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This
is a slide from Presentations in a Hurry. It is from the format
called Influence.
When you give this executive summary outline at the start
of your presentation, your audience will know the basics you
will cover. An executive
summary outline is especially important when you are giving
a talk to executives. They usually want to know the overview
of the talk before the details. |
PRESENTERS
Convert
one text slide to an image. Tell a story, rather than read the
text on the slide.
DESIGNERS
Print
out a presentation, see how it is reorganized and redo it according
to the signaling principle.
Download a free copy of Graphicae at www.graphicae.com
and see what you think.
Practice how to develop, design and deliver a work persuasive
presentation.
"You
will leave these two days having redone a presentation and given
portions of it. You'll practice presenting and you'll be able
to work on your own presentations at the same time."
Number
of people: Individual attention so maximum of ten participants
2004 Dates: April 13-14
Time: 9 to 5pm both days
Location: Boston by the Fleet Center
Presented by: Claudyne Wilder, President, Wilder Presentations
Confidence: Look and sound much more confident and sure of
yourself.
Less prep time: Save hours of time by using formats for
presenting: for example, strategy recommendation, selling a product,
convincing people of a problem, project update.
Persuasive slides: Receive help revising your presentation
slides.
Increased audience participation: Learn to interact and
engage with your audience.
Improved personal style: Accentuate your unique strengths
and learn to project conviction and enthusiasm.
Excitement: Be excited about creating and giving a presentation.
It's easy once you use outlines for organizing your thoughts and
templates for your slides.
Excellent Laptop Presentation: Learn some tips and trick
when presenting with a laptop.
For
more information click
here.
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