15 ways to improve your presentations in 2009

Welcome to this blog - my aim is to make a difference to the success of your presentations. If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! Olivia

This is a big meaty post with 15 ways to improve your presentations.  These ideas are designed to challenge you to stretch yourself. With each idea I’ve pointed you to further resources from fellow presentation bloggers or from my own archives.

Choose one or two to work on at a time. Bookmark this post, so that once you’ve implemented those, you can come back and work on some more during the year.

1. Customise your presentations for each audience

Don’t be satisfied with rolling out the same presentation time and time again. Customising your presentation makes a difference. It gets noticed by your audience - and you go up in their estimation. Christophe Harrer from the Empower Your Point blog says:

The real gain comes from your audience’s reciprocity. If they can feel and recognize all the hard-work and extra attention you have put in the presentation for them, they will feel the need to reciprocate. They will listen carefully, ask more questions and probably agree more.

2. Brand your Key Message

Your key message is what you want your audience to do or remember from your presentation. Your key message can be a branding statement for your presentation. Doug Stevenson has a great podcast on how to do this - he calls it mental Velcro. Here’s a quote from Doug:

Branding is about having one consistent message, one consistent imprint that is repeated so often and so consistently that it sticks to the brain of the intended audience like mental Velcro.

3. Switch the focus from yourself to your audience

In a pitching or selling presentation, it’s easy to get caught up in telling your audience about you and your organisation - rather then focusing on them and their needs. John Windsor tells of a construction executive who wanted to show off his firm’s safety award. John coached him to switch his focus to his prospective client:

“We share your concerns about safety on this project and here is how we’re going to manage it.” [then detail three specific aspects] “And as evidence of our commitment and results, we were recently recognized for having the best safety record in the nation for a firm of our size.”

Do you have a section on the credentials of your company - before you get to what your prospective client is really interested in - their own problems and how you can solve them? Leave the credentials out. Once the prospect is interested in what you have to offer they’ll ask questions to ensure that you have the ability to effectively deliver.

4. Delete or explain the jargon in your presentations

Have you been guilty of using jargon without explaining it. M J Plebon of the Presenting Your Point blog talks of the dangers of jargon. He relates his experience with presenting on the topic of “oil/water emulsions”:

Claiming your technology treated an oily water emulsion could have two completely different meanings based on the audience’s background.  Not knowing the difference in the meaning could damage your professional credibility and communicate a confusing message.  One way to remain safe was to define the term oil/water emulsion every time the presentation was made.  This would put everyone on the same page and reference point.

So if you use jargon - assess whether it’s the only way to express your concept succinctly. If it is (and I accept that there are times when it’s the best way) the first time you use it take a few seconds to explain it so that every person in your audience understands you.

5. Increase the percentage of evidence in your presentations

I define evidence as anything that backs-up your points. It includes examples, anecdotes, case studies, statistics, endorsements, testimonials and quotes. I’ve done an analysis of   presentations by Seth Godin, Al Gore, and Malcolm Gladwell : 

Using evidence in your presentations enhances both your credibility and audience engagement. Analyse the percentage of evidence in your presentations - do you reach the level of Gore, Godin and Gladwell?

6. Incorporate dialogue into your stories

Incorporating dialogue into your stories draws the audience in and invites them to identify with the characters in your story. Anytime a story has more than one person you have an opportunity to add dialogue. Steve Boyd has a couple of posts on using dialogue Conversations in Presentations and Add Spice to your Speech with Dialogue. He tells a couple of traditional dialogue-based stories, but then explains how you can add dialogue to spice up any story:

The dialogue could even be a way of giving information, such as relating a case study that involved two or three people. You simply report on what they say. For example, a new employee was part of a question and answer session with the CEO of the company. He asked, “What is the skill you have that has meant the most in getting to be president of this company. His answer was, “I have learned to listen.”

7. Pay attention to staging

Andrew Dlugan says this about staging:

Staging your speech means utilizing the 3-dimensional space around you in the most effective way possible.

• Novice speakers will chain themselves to the lectern or stand in one spot on the middle of the stage.
• Intermediate speakers will meander randomly around the speaking area. Body movement appeals to the audience and keeps attention.
• Great speakers move around the speaking area with purpose. Every time they take a few steps, they are doing so with a distinct purpose in mind.

Are you ready to move to the level of great speakers? Check out my post 9 ways to use space in your presentation.

8. Take questions throughout your presentation

When you’re just starting out presenting, it makes sense to take questions near the end of your presentation. It’s more manageable and there’s less risk that you’ll go off track. But from the audience’s point of view, being able to ask a question at the time that it occurs to them is ideal. So challenge yourself to take questions throughout. A half-way place is to break your presentation into modules - and take questions at the end of each module. Check out my post 8 tips for encouraging questions in your presentation.

9. Refresh your attitude to hostile questioners

It’s easy to get on the defensive when somebody questions you aggressively. Terry Gault of Speak Fearlessly has a great post on dealing calmly with provocative people.

10. Give your slides a facelift

Have you been using the same slides for some time? Chances are they’re looking a bit dated. Give them a face-lift. This will be much easier if you’ve updated to PowerPoint 2007 (see below). Here are some things to do:

• If you’re using a standard PowerPoint template - throw it out. Read Laura Bergell’s post Now entering the Post-template, PowerPoint design era.
• Have any of your stock photos become cliched - see the slideology post series on cliched images. If so, search for new images or take them yourself.
• Update your design - rounded corners, drop-shadows, graduated shades of the same colour for charts - see my post on adding elegance to your PowerPoint slide design.

11. Upgrade to PowerPoint 2007

The drop-shadows in PowerPoint 2003 are so bad, I would be embarrassed to use them. Powerpoint 2007 enables you to go another level in terms of your Powerpoint slide design.  Check out this post from Robert Lane of Aspire Communications reviewing PowerPoint 2007.

12. Add a flipchart to your visual aids

Providing variety is a simple way of keeping an audience engaged. Mixing up your powerPoint with a flipchart does just that.

Hand-drawing on a flipchart is dynamic and real. As I describe in my post The Power of the Flipchart it provides an energy that PowerPoint can’t match.

13. Improve your drawing skills

Yes, I did this and you can too. I can now draw a better stick figure. Check out Dave Gray’s How to draw a Stick Figure to get you started.

14. Think like a designer

You may think that you’re not a designer. But design is no longer just for designers. If you’re presenting with Powerpoint, you need to develop your sensitivity to good and bad designs and what makes them so. Check out Garr Reynolds’ post on design books and listen to his webinar on How to think like a designer (you have to enter your name and e-mail address to listen - but it’s worth it).

15. Rehearse before each presentation

I’ve blogged before on the benefits of rehearsal. So has just about every other public speaking/presentation blogger (see my post on rehearsal for links). It’s probably the single most powerful thing you can do to improve the quality of your presentation.

Hey, that’s it. 15 ways to improve your presentations. What would you add to this list? What do you plan to do to improve your presentations in 2009? Tell us in the Comments.

And don’t forget to bookmark this post so that you can come back to it through the year and choose another aspect of your presenting skills to work on.

Go well with your next presentation. If you found this post useful, subscribe to my RSS feed.

How to do an agenda slide like Garr Reynolds

Garr Reynolds’ slides from his recent webcast are now online. Garr has an innovative agenda slide. He’s transformed what is normally a boring bullet-point slide into something beautiful and effective. Check out slides 7 to 12 for the agenda slide sequence:

Here’s what I like about it:

1. It’s a visual representation of the presentation timeline. I can see how much time is going to be spent on each section of the presentation.
2. It reinforces the main theme of the presentation. I can immediately grasp that the most important part of the presentation is “How design thinking can help”.  Garr uses both size and colour to achieve this.
3. It looks beautiful. Notice in particular the trademark Garr colour scheme - varying shades of the same colour plus one stand-out colour for the most important section.
4. It’s an elegant solution. Horizontal timelines are intuitive but it’s sometimes difficult to fit the words in horizontally. By putting some above and and some below the line Garr has elegantly solved this problem.

It’s easy to make an agenda slide like this. Create one for your next presentation and your audience will find it both innovative and useful.

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Review of the 3 books of the Presentation Revolution

There are three books which have ushered in and defined the PowerPoint Revolution. If you can only buy one, which one should you buy? Here’s my analysis of the three books and my recommendation.

Cliff Atkinson was the pioneer with Beyond Bullet Points. The Beyond Bullets approach is an entire system for creating a presentation with the support of non-bullet PowerPoint slides. It’s published by Microsoft and is a hybrid between a software how-to book and a presentation book. I find the system too limiting and constraining. Note: I have the 2005 edition of BBP - there is a 2007 edition which may be improved.

Garr Reynolds came next with Presentation Zen, based on his blog of the same name. His book is imbued with the philosophy of simplicity. If Cliff’s book is methodical, Garr’s is philosopical. The book attempts to cover most aspects of giving a presentation from planning the content, to designing the slides to the delivery itself. However, the strength of the book is the section on slide design. Garr made us non-designers aware of the importance of design in PowerPoint presentations. The discussion on the planning and delivery of a presentation is at a high conceptual level. There are useful insights for presenters with some experience but the lack of practical guidance could be frustrating for a beginner.

Then came Nancy Duarte with Slide:ology. Slide:ology is the most beautiful of the books. It is also the most focused. Nancy concentrates almost exclusively on slide design (there is an out-of-place section on audience analysis).

Here’s a table which summarises the strength and differences between the three books:

	Beyond Bullets	Presentation Zen	Slide:ology
The case for the PP Revolution	Appendix discusses Mayer’s research insofar as it applies to the approach described in the book	Develops the case for a new approach to PowerPoint presentations	Short discussion on using slides for visual communication
Content Planning	Template for planning a presentation. Too detailed and constraining.	Applies Zen principles to art of planning content	Short discussion on audience analysis. That’s all.
Slide design principles	Presents one method of constructing a slide with no discussion of principles.	Excellent discussion at a conceptual level	Excellent discussion and gives detailed guidance - a non-designer’s guide to slide design
Slide design inspiration	None	Many terrific examples to inspire you. Examples tend to be from educational-type presentations. Lots of examples of charts, but very few of diagrams.	Huge number of examples from real corporate presentations including makeover of charts and diagrams.
Delivery	Traditional advice on delivery	Applies Zen principles to presentation delivery	None

So which one would I buy? I would no longer recommend Beyond Bullet Points. Not when you can see what’s possible with slide design in Presentation Zen and Slide:ology.

If you want a philosophical discussion of simplicity in the art of presentation together with wonderful inspiration for designing better slides, go for Presentation Zen. But after I’d read Presentation Zen, I felt like I wanted a “A non-designer’s guide to slide design” to help me put into practice the principles and the inspiration that I had from Garr’s book. I could copy the ideas behind some of Garr’s ideas, but I felt like I didn’t have enough grounding in the basics to create my own designs.

Nancy’s book fulfills that need. So if you want the non-designer’s guide to PowerPoint slide design, together with visual inspiration, then Slide:ology is the book for you.

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The top four things I learnt from Garr Reynolds’ workshop

Garr Reynolds ran a day-long workshop yesterday in Wellington, New Zealand. I’ve devoured his blog, poured over his book and I was very excited about attending this workshop. Here are the top four things I came away with.

1. Beauty matters

Garr’s workshop was an aesthetic experience. His slides nourished my visual sense. It was like going to a contemporary art or photo exhibition. Beauty adds another dimension to your presentation. As a non-designer I feel empowered to create the same beauty in my PowerPoint slides.

2. Branding of slides

Garr does not “brand” his slides with a logo, but there is an aesthetic sense which pervades and unifies his slides. This comes from:

• the fonts he uses
• repeated design elements eg: the style of borders around his images
• the consistent visual backdrop (the book cover image without the stones) he uses as a background to text when there is no image.

This is the way to brand slides. Corporate logos are visual clutter. If you have to have a logo, put it on the first and last slide only.

3. Choose visual metaphors carefully

Some visual metaphors are becoming cliches (just like clipart). For example, an image of people shaking hands to represent partnership. Garr’s advice is not to use the first visual metaphor that comes into your mind. Brainstorm first to generate some possibilities. That’s what the Duarte Design team do (Duarte are the creators of Al Gore’s slides in An Inconvenient Truth). When you go to istockphoto or your favourite photo site, look at how many downloads a photo has had - over 1,000 probably means that its turning into a cliche. John Windsor has a creative post on how to freshen up an otherwise tired visual metaphor.

4. Use photo editing software

To create beauty and impact with your slides, the next step is to use photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. This is a challenge for me - I’ve got the software but it takes me ages and some emotional frustration before I can produce anything. But as a result of Garr’s workshop I’m motivated to give it another go.

Thank you Garr for a stimulating and nourishing day.

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Content is King

TED is an annual conference held in Monterey, California featuring presentations from the world’s leading thinkers and doers. Each speaker has 18 minutes to make their point. TED puts videos of the speakers on their website - this is an amazing treasure trove of material for observing and learning from great presenters. Garr Reynolds from the Presentation Zen blog has done a great job in highlighting some of the great speeches from TED and offering his comments. His comments generally focus on these areas:

1. The visual content of the presentation eg: slides, props
2. The delivery style of the presenter
3. The substance of the content.

My approach will be to analyse the process of the content. What I mean by the process of the content is such things as:

1. The key message of the presentation
2. The structure of the presentation
3. The examples and analogies used to support the presentation.

My aim in this analysis is to see what we can learn from TED speakers about planning the content of a business presentation. In a business presentation I believe Content is King. The audience is there for your content - what you have to say. At the beginning of our courses, we reinforce this by explaining the five domains of presenting (content, visuals, confidence, delivery and audience management). We then ask the participants:

“If you are going to a business presentation, as an audience member, which of these five is the most important to you?”

Most will answer that they are there primarily for the content - information of value what they will get from the presentation. You may not deliver it very well, you may be nervous and have no visual aids - but if you have good content you will still have a presentation that people will get value from.  This is an empowering concept for people starting out in their presentation careers. Andrew Abela on his Extreme Presentation blog and Tom Antion on his Great Public Speaking blog have both also discussed the primacy of content. Of course, if you also have great visuals and an engaging delivery style that’s great - but by themselves these things are not sufficient to make a great presentation.

That’s why my focus in analysing TED presentations will be the process of the content.

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