Strategic Human Capital Insights

In the past, I have written extensively about How to Make a Great Presentation.  There are many do’s and don’ts on the topic.  Recently, I attended a 3-day conference, (or attempted to try to make it through a 3-day conference).  Sitting in the audience, I was continually reminded about everything that went wrong with the presentation process I was witnessing.  So, I felt compelled to share the experience and some of my observations, hoping you don’t make any of these mistakes in your presentation.  Always remember that humans are sitting in the audience.  Don’t make them think twice about staying for your presentation.

1. Plan the Conference Daily Agenda with People in Mind: Each day ran for 12 hours – yes, you’re reading this correctly – 12 hours!  What were they thinking?  Who can keep 300 people engaged for that long?  You have to think highly of yourself to think you can be that interesting for 12 hours! 
   
   

Who says great presentations ‘just happen’?  What will excellent presentation skills do for you?

As a professional, your ability to present information is a core career skill. Giving great presentations enhances your career brand, and you will be known as a great presenter who can effectively and reliably promote:

• Your product & company to the competitive marketplace 
• Complex ideas with simplicity and sophistication
• Yourself, your brand & your career 

While presentation tools are getting more sophisticated, great presentations are not keeping pace. Why? Great presentations are so much more than a PowerPoint. Great presentation skills are the complete and integrated combination of delivering great, audience-friendly content with excellent, aligned delivery skills.

The goal of any presentation is to introduce or promote an idea to an audience.  In the course of the presentation, the structure of the material is designed to:

• Lead the audience to ‘see’ your information from your perspective
• Understand what you intended to deliver
• Ensure your information transmits from your brain to the audience’s brain, keeping the integrity of the message intact
• Move people’s minds
• Inspire the audience along the way

How do you go from making a good presentation to making a great presentation, one that is so memorable that people talk about it long after it’s over?  To do that effectively, here are two checklists to help you create the best presentation possible to drive audience engagement.

The aim of any presentation is to impart your information to the audience, ensuring they receive the information as ‘in tact’ as possible. To achieve maximum impact, it is critical that you present with the following three tools: 

            1.  Visual Billboard

            2.  Physical and Vocal Energy 

            3.  Synchronizing the Audience with You and The Visual Billboard

This may seem obvious, but it requires careful orchestration, preparation, and practice. 

PowerPoint presentations can be mundane, but there are still ways to connect with your audience through PowerPoint. This blog reviews the tools available to you and how you can enhance your presentation to get your message across to your target audience.

Background – The Visual Billboard

When used effectively, this is your storyboard. Before you create your first slide, you must determine your message/story from start to finish. To be audience effective, determining your message/story should take the most preparation time. Your overall story must have logic and flow, a start and a finish. When you create your slides, you must have a way to transition in and out of every slide. The information must pass the storyboard filter. Unrelated information must be eliminated, or it will create audience confusion and weaken your message. Every slide must have a purpose, with an introductory transition into the slide and an exit transition from one slide to another.   All this is done before we begin to create the presentation slides themselves. Start with your story and develop the slides to support it, not the other way around. Remember, the sides are not the presentation. You are! The slides are your supporting tools. 

What makes a great presentation great? Great presentations don’t ‘just happen.’ Yes, there is a theory behind the presentation process. Great presentations are carefully crafted on many levels to ensure the presenter captures and keeps the audience’s attention. After all, isn’t that why we make presentations in the first place? There are three critically integrated parts to an excellent presentation that will make it high impact, memorable, and game-changing. Before you even begin to create your presentation, you must consider all the underlying components and your intent for the presentation. To meet all three requirements, you must understand how the audience processes the presentation. 

Where have all the powerful presentations gone?  

I have just spent two months watching presentations that are sorely lacking impact. As an audience observer of the presentation process, I decided to dissect the presentations from a professional presentation discipline – a professional skill set that I have taught and coached for many years. Here are two key observations.

1. The Power of PowerPoint

We have equated presentations with a PowerPoint deck. 

1. The PowerPoint presentation is NOT the presentation – it is merely a visual tool used as part of the presentation. 
   
   
2. The PowerPoint presentation MUST follow presentation standards. As an audience member – that’s not negotiable.
   
   
   • There ARE best practices associated with great PowerPoint presentations. They are focused on how and why the audience perceives and retains information. (The most egregious mistake is the poor bullet that has now become a multi-line sentence – or worse, a blob-like paragraph, which is impossible to read and highly improbable that it will create the intended impact.)
     
     
   • Where did the format and presentation roadmap go? The format and roadmap allow the audience to proactively accompany the presenter on the presentation journey. For the audience’s sake, let’s give them a reason and a rationale to listen. A member of your audience should never think, “Where is this going, or why am I here listening to this?”