Every day in organisations, despite people claiming to be busy, they end up wasting hours. Every time someone makes a poor presentation, everyone loses. When you multiply the time lost by the number of presentations given daily in your organisation, you realise that all of us could have used that time to make a significant difference instead. Because we can’t afford such waste, let’s look at the defects that afflict presentations: presentations that are not tailored to fit, not structured, and not logical.
Interestingly, the need to build and shape a presentation usually comes as a surprise to most presenters who are subject matter experts. They fail to realise that their presentations are often unclear to listeners.
Here’s the catch: Experts usually under-prepare and think that their knowledge will get them through. Little do they realise that having knowledge – and getting it across – are two different creatures.
Add a lack of skills and tools to develop effective presentations quickly, and it’s easy to see why many business presentations end up being time-wasters.
Now for some good news. There are easy ways to make a significant difference in your presentations. Let’s start at the beginning: analyse your presentation and your audience before you write your content.
Analyse Your Presentation and Audience
First, pick a topic that suits your audience. If you have no choice, at least title your topic to increase interest. Apart from that, topic titles are best when concise and specific.
Next, decide your objective: to tell, to show, to persuade, or to inspire. The shorter the presentation, the fewer objectives you should have. Ask yourself, “By the end of my presentation, I want my audience to…” As you complete the sentence, think about what you want. Do you want the audience to leave knowing something or having changed their mind about something? Do you want them to agree on something, or act on something?
Once you state the objective, you become responsible for it. So, promise less and deliver more.
Spare a thought also for what your audience expects. Your audience will ask themselves, “Why am I listening to you for three, fifteen or thirty minutes? How does this benefit me?” What your audience expects might be different from what you are planning. Mismatch expectations and you have a recipe for disaster.
With presentations, one size does not fit all.
Just as you customise your products and services, why wouldn’t you customise your presentations? The same presentation to different audiences should look, sound and feel different. Every group has particular needs, questions and expectations. Your task is to meet those needs, not simply to put across content. You must capture attention, be relevant, and cause people to take action. For example, consider the task of presenting a particular HR policy to senior managers, managers and individual contributors. The first group might want to know about business implications, the next about compliance issues, while the third about their personal autonomy. Each audience wants to go away feeling that you understood them.
Prepare Your Content
You now know about your audience. You also know what your objectives are. You are now about to structure your content. So, your next thoughts might be: What words come first? How is my audience going to remember what’s important? From the research on how people remember, here are several memory principles to help you along.
First, people remember beginnings and endings. That is why good movies and speeches grab our attention in the first few minutes and end on a memorable note. It won’t hurt to follow their example.
Second, people remember things that are connected. So, connect what you say to your audience’s experiences. Give relevant examples. Tell a story or two.
Next, people remember the outstanding. For example, many people remember what they were doing when they heard about 9-11. People will also remember events like graduations, weddings and birthdays (especially those with big round numbers!) because they stand out from the routine of day-to-day living. Your task is to create several “stand-out” instances in your presentation.
Lastly, people remember ideas that are repeated. That is why advertisements repeat actions that they want us to take – repeatedly. We too, can repeat to help people buy an idea, or get them to do something important.
Since people remember beginnings, the opening of your presentation must have an impact. The first few seconds or minutes are critical, so use them well. You will need to grab attention, get people to nod (not shake) their heads, and give them the big picture. Good openings combine various ingredients: a greeting, attention grabber and announcement of your points are usually ‘must-haves’. You can also include the topic, situation, challenges, and objectives. Keep your opening short and impactful. Your audience’s energy will drop quickly if you waste time here.
Keep your greeting simple and suitable. If you do feel good and you are glad for the opportunity to speak, say so. Your enthusiasm will spread to your audience and help you build rapport with them early on.
The attention grabber should do what its name suggests – grab attention. A good attention grabber hooks the audience and makes them curious to find out more. It creates impact. Attention grabbers at a conference or a major company meeting should be so strong that people remember them for years. Similarly, you might want one at a regular meeting to last several days. It is often helpful to write the attention grabber after you have completed the content for your presentation. Once the story has taken shape, a suitable attention grabber will often show up.
Marianne Vincent
Director of Training Quality