Presentation - stray thoughts 2

[Photo credit - Tariq's Fantasy World]

The most bothersome thing for any presenter or speaker is that the event is live. Most actors will tell you that TV or film work is much much easier than standing up in front of a theatre full of people. But think about what goes into producing a 90-minute play or a 1-hour TV programme.

• Think of all the writing and the honing, polishing and refining of that writing.

• Then there's the auditioning until they get the perfect person for each role.

• Then they start rehearsing.

• And rehearsing and rehearsing.

• At that point, the technical geniuses come into their own - lighting, sound, props, costumes, makeup, set builders ...

• For a play, they have a number of dress rehearsals, each of which is dissected, beat by beat, line by line.

• For a TV show, they can edit and overdub and add special effects and for each scene, they have numerous takes to choose from.

And then there's you ...

Standing in the boardroom, with your clicker in your hand and your PowerPoint-that-strictly-adheres-to-corporate-guidelines flickering behind you. Contrast that just for a moment with the examples of a stage play or a TV programme. They are the result of the collective diligence and intelligence of a large group of people. They have worked long and hard to eliminate the niggling errors that dog so many amateur efforts and, in doing so, have greatly increased the chances that what the audience is going to watch is going to inform, educate, inspire or delight them.

How many people stand up to make a presentation feeling the same way?

I have read and dog-eared and highlighted Garr Reynolds' Presentation Zen book a number of times now and it is just superb. There is one thought which has echoed around in my head since I first saw it expressed on his blog back in 2006:

"If I give a completely worthless one-hour long death-by-PPT presentation 10 times to groups averaging 20 people, that equals 200 hours of wasted time. But if I instead put in the time, say, 25 hours or more of planning and designing the message, slides, etc. over a couple of weeks, then I can instead give the world 200 hours of a worthwhile, memorable experience."

He reiterates this gobsmacking example even better in the book with a single audience of 200 people for the one-hour presentation. It comes down to this - do you have the humility, and are you prepared, to put 5, 10, 25 or more hours into ensuring that those 200 people don't waste an hour of their lives? Or are you more interested in saving a few hours of your time and, in effect, saying "Up yours!" to those 200 people?

Those who want to delight, educate, inform or inspire know that there is no short cut. True, as you do more presenting and build your approach you will get better and quicker at the prep. But there is no short cut that I have come across in 20+ years of doing this. Some more stray thoughts:

Mumbling/Umming: For most human beings, fluency is equated with intelligence. For most audiences, fluency also equals credibility and any lack of eloquence is punished accordingly. Tape yourself delivering a section of your talk. Count up the pauses, the verbal tics, and the buying-time phrases. Practice that part of your talk 10 times and then record it again. Quantify the difference. You will be amazed.

You don't hum or haw when you are chatting about your pet peeve, your hobby horse, a sporting event or some juicy piece of celebrity gossip - the conversation just flows. When you are speaking in front of an audience, that conversational tone is your starting point. You can't be inspiring or educational if you don't sound like you know what you are talking about, so start polishing. The only caveat on this is that, for some people, too great a degree of fluency equates to "snake-oil salesman."

Notes: I love the written word and I like notes, they're always a good idea; but only as a roadmap, never as a crutch or shield. I have long contended that if the speech/presentation doesn't matter enough to you for you to learn it off by heart, you shouldn't be making the speech in the first place.

If you are using slideware, your notes should be visible on the computer in front of you [Presenter Tools in PowerPoint, Presenter View in Keynote], and just in case, printed off and sitting in your eyeline. That way, if you get sent off on a tangent by an interruption or question, you can re-establish your thread in just a couple of seconds. But if you need your 4X6 cards so that you can do this:

then leave them at home, or better yet, stay at home yourself.

Do not look down: Do. Not. LOOK. DOWN! If you have to look down, it means you don't know what you are talking about and you don't know where you are. If you have been interrupted and you are re-commencing the flow of your presentation, you can use your notes to check where you are and cover that action by taking a drink and pausing for a moment. But if I can see the top of your head throughout the presentation, something is seriously wrong. Look at Mr Sigman above - impressive or no?

Eye Contact: So where should you look? I had one client smiling at a fire extinguisher, an indoor tree and a pillar as he 'swept' the audience until he got the crowd warmed up. When an audience sees you smiling, they assume that you are smiling BACK at people and therefore, when your eyes meet theirs, most people will smile at you. An alternative for a potentially frosty audience is to place three friendly 'plants' spaced across the room who will nod and grin enthusiastically. Another alternative - in a roomful of strangers, introduce yourself to a handful of people before you get up to speak; then make friendly eye contact with them at the beginning of your talk and build from there ...

Practice: Your ratio of practice time to actual delivery time depends on the importance of the speech/presentation. A father of the bride will put major time into his once-in-a-lifetime speech; where a supervisor need only give cursory thought to an informal talk she is going to give at a friendly staff meeting. One CEO I work with averages 50 hours of rehearsal for a bi-annual 1 hour presentation. And before you ask, no, he doesn't sound stale after all that prep.

The two key pieces of advice that I find myself repeating over and over are:

(1) Do not present unless it's really needed - there is far too much self-indulgent public speaking going on in the world. Therefore, if you are going to present, we can start from the foundation that you want this to be a special occasion.

(2) 90% of a presenter's fear stems from the concern to not look like a fool. Know your subject, know your audience and know your talk inside-out. There are no short cuts here. Public speaking is one of those things that follows Edison's model; it really is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. And that means clearing significant chunks of time in your diary for conception and rehearsal of your talk.

Selection of Content: If content is king for a presentation, content that is relevant to the audience is Supreme Ruler Of The Universe. It's not about what you know, or what you'd like them to know - it's about what they, the audience, need to know, broken down into a digestible format and delivered in a way that is mindful and respectful of that audience.

Mindful. Respectful. Such little words, such rare commodities ...

Related posts:
Presentation - stray thoughts 1
Planning your presentation
Using visuals
Avoiding the dreaded bullet point part 1
Avoiding bullets part 2
Sometimes PowerPoint isn't the answer