I’m a student of presentation. Well, actually of influence. All of the variables, constraints, approaches, and dare I say, techniques, that people use to influence others. Essentially it comes down to presentation. Whether you’re asking your daughter to do her homework, or pitching the next big thing to investors, teaching a class, or publishing a novel, you’re presenting your ideas. Hopefully ideas that will inform, educate, entertain, and influence how others think, feel and act.
For better or worse, the computer developed, projected visual aid presentation has become a big part of this. (Read Powerpoint, Keynote, etc) and there is much debate as to whether this is an effective method. I won’t bore you with that debate here. Of course it is!
Not, however, as method, but as visual aid. And then, only when used well!!
In the last 24 hours I have delivered 3 presentations, and seen another 5. It was interesting to watch 2 Pitch presentations this morning at the “Coming to America” entrepreneurial event. Both promising start-up companies, both having done 2 years plus research and development, both looking for about the same money, both with a potential consumer market that reached the millions, if not billions. Yet they received very different reactions.
One was questioned about a number of issues: Distribution, Market, Vision, Competition, all questions that should have been answered in their presentation. In fact, I seem to recall slides that explained some of their answers on the very topics. But they hadn’t answered the questions for the panel, despite their slides explaining these at great length.
The second received about 3 questions of the “give me some more detail?” and “what makes you assume this?” variety. They were actually offered a cheque (pity the VC was in San Francisco at the time).
So what was the big difference?
Well there were a number of differences, in the way the 2nd team structured their presentation, pre-empted questions, built rapport, and…
…effectively used their visual aids.
The biggest difference in the slides? Words!
Or rather, lack of them! The first was what we call “death by bullet point!” Slide after slide of 8 – 10 bulleted sentences. The second used imagery that evoked emotions or highlighted key relationships and information. What’s interesting is they both had the same time, shared the same amount of information (actually the second presentation shared more) yet one answered the questions and influenced their audience and the other, despite all of the information on the screen, didn’t!
What’s interesting to me, after 20 years of consulting and managing consultants, and delivering presentations from team meetings to international technical conferences, is that this is almost a mindset. It’s as if people who’re determined to fill a screen with text just won’t consider another way to do this. It’s the “way things are done.” I’ve coached consultants, cajoled fellow managers, worked with sales people, directors, teachers, trainers, executives. Some, willing to learn, get an “aha” moment, the switch flips and they start a journey to “Presentation Zen” (which in my experience doesn’t end), whilst others (most) trot out the usual responses:
“That’s just touchy-feely stuff, this is serious business!”
(yep, and the serious pitch got questions, the touchy-feely one got $$)
“I need to remember what to talk about”
(Really? Then you haven’t prepared enough, or shouldn’t be doing this presentation)
or my personal favourite:
“This is a reference document for later”
(There’s a tool for that. It’s called a word processor)
Seriously. Think of the most influential presentations of all time: “I have a dream”, “We will fight them on the beaches”, “Yes, we can” or the most influential presentations in your personal experience: “Inconvenient Truth”, “9/11”, or “that bloke who sold me our house” (I infer that was serious to you). Chances are, they didn’t use 63 slides with bulleted text.
I’ve been privileged recently to be a student on the MEGA program. In NSW this is facilitated (brilliantly) by Tim Parsons. It’s been a great experience, and again, I’m challenged, inspired, and humbled by this group of people delivering increasingly great presentations. I discovered, however, that Tim delivered a presentation on Self-publishing, and I personally think it’s a great presentation, which I wanted to share here:
It’s short, succinct, to the point. It tells the story. It takes you through a journey to a logical conclusion. You get the gist without the vocals (yes, hit play, don’t just skip through the slides), it’s really good with the vocals, and I bet watching Tim in full flow, it was a great experience.
More importantly was my response: Laughter (feel), thoughts about what I could publish (think), and heading over to Blurb to check out how to get my book published (do), oh, and writing this post (do).
Yet, there was no explcit “value proposition” statement, no list of “go do’s”, no slides with bullet-points giving me the “detail” that is crucial to me.
And I guess, that’s my point. We’ve come a long way, both in self-publishing, as well as in presenting our ideas, but it comes down to your audience, your story, and your skill with tools.
Next time you present, consider there may be another way. Be prepared to be humble and learn. Think of your audience and their needs. Then your outcomes and what you want them to think, feel, do. Then, and only then, prepare your presentation using all of the resources available.
If you can’t get shot of the text on slides, use a flipchart instead, or no visual aid at all….
…I promise you’ll be more successful. Liberated. At the very least, you won’t have bored, or worse, missed, your audience.