The majority of material I read on presenting with software stresses the importance of deciding what your point (or intention) is and using the software to the hilt to get that point across.
Why do so few presenters do this? Why do the vast majority of presentations just suuuuuuck?
I've been doing a lot of presenting about presenting recently and I've dropped some of my thoughts on using visuals down onto Slideshare. See if this strikes a chord with you ...
Why do so few presenters do this? Why do the vast majority of presentations just suuuuuuck?
I've been doing a lot of presenting about presenting recently and I've dropped some of my thoughts on using visuals down onto Slideshare. See if this strikes a chord with you ...
[RSS readers may need to click through to see the Slideshare file]
As ever, comments, hoots of derision, ideas, corrections and counter-arguments are all gratefully welcomed.
13 comments:
Very entertaining, Rowan!
Impactful and very, very visual. I like it and will pul it up next time I start to create a presentation.Thanks!
Great slide show, Rowan, with good points indeed. Bravo!
Let me now share something that works wonderfully for me. When I'm going to tell a story or give an example or orally share information, I put a blank, black slide on the screen. Then I'm not competing with a visual.
It also helps to have your screen at the audience's left, which is the visual quadrant, and do your speaking from audience center or right.
Magnificent!
More than anything else, I'd prefer to simply hear the speaker. Right, spoken words. Now, if you can craft a PowerPoint presentation that will accent but not overtake the verbal message, that's fine. But I'm there to hear you, the presenter.
If all you intend to do is toss up a slide with bullet-points and then read them to me as if I were some preschool child, well, chuck that in an email to me and save us both some time and dignity.
For the most part, however, I still think that PowerPoint is the Devil.
Thanks for the great tips - I'm relatively new to PowerPoint, and found parts of the Beyond bullet points approach to be very useful - the parts I used are consistent with your presentation - much appreciated.
Rowan,
This post falls under the heading "Service to Humanity".
I've worked with execs on presentations for 30 years. The misuse of Powerpoint as the driver of a discussion vs. a support tool really undermines one's effectiveness.
In the days of flip charts and overhead projectors, people actually communicated a bit more naturally because they had to! (Less technological "support")
Students at university are using Powerpoint as a required tool in many classes. But they are entering the workforce not having been shown how to use it effectively.
There's a never-ending audience out there for effective presentation tips. As a career consultant, you're adding a lot to your clients' toolkits.
Lisa - thanks as always. Coming from you that's high praise indeed.
Wally - Spot-on. I'm a big believer in the 'W' and 'B' keys when I'm using PowerPoint too. They turn the screen white or black in screenshow mode - forcing the audience's attention back onto you.
O Great Nobby - Spare my blushes!
Rob - If it wasn't PowerPoint, it would be some other tool that would allow shiftless, lazy monkeys to communicate badly. I heard someone say once that blaming PowerPoint for lousy presentation is like blaming Mont Blanc for lousy penmanship! It's just people Rob, just people ...
Matthew - Beyond Bullet Points is superb. Pity their blog has been dormant for so long, I'd love to keep the conversation going with Cliff & Co
Steve - Very nice of you, but I don't think you can compare my propensity for placing my boot at high speed into lazy presenters' asses with Mother Teresa's efforts in Calcutta.
IT illiteracy has rapidly come to be as unacceptable as functional illiteracy. I suspect that PowerPoint and public speaking ineptitude will soon be equally unacceptable. These are not easy skills - there's little intellectual challenge, just lots of hard work - but coming up short in this regards is an absolute career-killer in many spheres now.
Thanks as ever for your kind words.
Rowan
Just to say that I found your presentation so interesting and relevant. I am guilty of many of the mistakes you mention!
I had one question though - Isn't using a company logo essential if the ppt is going to be passed around later on? I as a vendor, often present to person X at my client company who then passes around my work internally.. what in those cases?
Apu - thanks for the comment, and you are absolutely right. If you are distributing your PPT for later consumption, it does need a logo on there somewhere. But not on every page, and certainly not taking up valuable landscape on every page.
The human eye is engineered to spot movement and differences - tigers in the grass etc. Plonking a logo on every page ensures that it will be 'screened out' by the reader's eye after a few seconds. The only people who get excited by logos are their owners. No-one else cares. My younger daughter started fast forwarding through the logos at the beginning of DVDs (unprompted) at the age of 6!
B and W keys huh?
You learn something new everyday :)
Great show - I will be sharing it with a large number of people. A fine example of how to make a compelling presentation.
Post a Comment