How to persuade other people to ditch the bullets
May 14, 2009
You’ve read Presentation Zen and Slideology and you’re convinced about the benefits of using visually-engaging PowerPoint slides when you present. But everyone else in your organization stubbornly sticks to the bullet-point slides. How can you persuade them to change their minds?
The absolute first thing to do, is to be a good role model. When you present, demonstrate the effectiveness of presenting with visual slides. This is the most persuasive action you can take.
However, it’s not always enough. There’s an obvious irony to the fact that when people are surveyed about presentations, their No 1 “hate” is people reading off bullet-point slides. Yet the majority of presenters probably read off bullet-point slides. I’m sure there’s an overlap between the two groups:
How to prevent and recover from mind blanks
May 7, 2009
Are you concerned that you might suffer a mind blank during a presentation? The fear of a mind blank can be a large part of the fear of public speaking for many people. It happened to Sally Field in her Emmy Acceptance speech in 2007:
How can you avoid this happening to you? [Read more]
5 steps to effective Powerpoint Presentations
November 25, 2008
Stepcase Lifehack just published a blogpost on tips for more effective PowerPoint presentations. I was surprised to see some outdated and unhelpful advice. Here are my five steps to create an effective PowerPoint presentation. I’ve written about many of these steps before, so I’ve provided links to more detailed posts if you’d like more information.
1. Plan your presentation on paper first.
Keep away from the computer. Garr Reynolds from PresentationZen calls this going analog.
5 ways bullet-point slides damage your brand
November 16, 2008
Your presentation style is part of your personal brand. If you’re still clinging to bullet-point slides, it doesn’t matter how dynamic you are as a presenter, your personal brand will be damaged.
That’s because when you use bullet-laden slides in your presentation, your audience will make five decisions about you and your presentation:
1. This is going to be boring
I wish I’d spoken at my father’s funeral
October 26, 2008
Being able to express yourself publicly at important ceremonies and celebrations – funerals, weddings, christenings and birthdays – is one of the greatest gifts.
My father died 10 years ago. I was going to speak at his funeral. But when we arrived at the church all I could see were the distinguished, CEO-looking men in the audience (my father was an international businessman). I felt intimidated and chose not to speak. That’s something I regret.
I’ll never turn down an invitation to give a eulogy again.
Stop being a slave to your PowerPoint slides
August 16, 2008
In my last post The lost art of notes I suggested that you have your own set of hard-copy notes so that you’re no longer reliant on PowerPoint for your notes.
The second step to break free of PowerPoint as your autocue is to have a printout of your PowerPoint slides.
The benefits of a printout of your PowerPoint slides
The lost art of notes
August 14, 2008
In my post The PowerPoint Revolution hasn’t gone far enough I said that PowerPoint should be an equal partner in our presentations.
There’s a major obstacle to implementing this principle. That’s using the PowerPoint slides as your notes. If you use PowerPoint as your notes, PowerPoint always cues you. You click, you speak, click-speak, click-speak.
If you use PowerPoint slides as your notes, you’re relegating PowerPoint to an administrative role – a crucial one – but still administrative. That means it can’t be an equal partner with you. Until it can break out of that role, you can’t exploit it’s full power.
