Stand and Deliver

Stand & Deliver

Presentation Skills in the Age of Complexity, Chaos & Light-speed Business

“A person can have the greatest idea in the world. But if that person can’t convince enough other people , it doesn’t matter.”

— Gregory Berns

Presentation Crash & Burn In just about any organization we are called upon to present. It can be a team meeting, an update to senior management, a pitch to investors or a impassioned presentation to people who you need to have care about something and help you advocate for change.

But what happens when what you have to say, your evidence, facts, appeals falls on deft ears, people don’t get it or they can’t see what you see? This is called “Presentation Crash & Burn.”

But it doesn’t have to be that way. We’ll show you how to discover, develop, design and deliver your story (yes, “story”) so it’s clear, concise and memorable. And so it moves people to action. So, let’s fly!

DI S COVER How to start &

DESIGN Rules of

Craft a Story

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08 DEVELOP Secrets of 05

Storytelling

slide design

DELIVER Important

things when standing 07 there

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Start with WHO.

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What’s your WHY.

Who are you presenting to? What do they know & what do they want? Are they there because they want to be or have to be? All these things effect how you present. If presenting to senior executives you have to think about the fact that they want solutions, not your problems. They want to see the big picture. If you are asking for money how will you give your audience confidence that you will spend it wisely & that you know what you’re doing. Remember, they are the heroes.

You need to have a game plan going into your presentation. Think about why you are presenting. What is the goal of your presentation? What is the one thing you want your audience to know, feel or think when they leave? To this you need to add the 3 - 5 top points that will most impact your audience - what is the evidence or compelling things that will convince them the most. Finally, ask yourself “what do I want them to DO at the end of the presentation?” Maybe you want them to give feedback, give you funding, approve something, debate the issue or make a change. If you have this outline you’ll have a better idea of where you’re going.

Start with PAPER. We know. You want to jump on to your laptop and bang it out, right? But don’t! Start on paper by writing out the major points of your presentation (you kind of have them from your WHY). Once you have them then then start adding details - what evidence, what compelling examples and what data helps you make that point in an effective way.

These are the things you are going to say. Once you have this then shuffles your cards around, separate them into groups and experiment with the possible sequences you might use. Could you start with the problem, with the solution? Do you start with an example of the situation or go chronologically. You’ll find out in the shuffle.

Practice, Practice, PRACTICE. It doesn’t matter how good you feel you are at presenting you have to practice.

Practicing you story gets it stuck in your mind, helps you see where things may not work out the way you first thought and let’s you know if you can do it in the amount of time you have. It also makes sure that if something goes wrong in your presentation (the lights go out) you’ll be comfortable enough to recover. Steve Jobs, one of the greatest presenters of all time, would practice on stage for two full days before presenting at MacWorld. If he does it so do you.

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Keep it Simple

Concrete

Don’t use big words just to show how smart you are. The simpler the better. And connect your ideas to things people know like “Speed is like Die Hard on a bus.”

People understand things that are physical and that they can picture in their mind’s eye. Find ways to translate ideas into physical representations. Like 5MB equals 1,000 songs in your pocket.

DEVELOP YOUR STORY You know what you are talking about but does your audience understand it and do they even care? You have to develop a compelling story that is memorable. It’s sales ship and your selling ideas.

Be Unexpected

Build Credibility

If people think they know what you are going to say next they tune out. Keep them guessing by creating gaps. You can ask a question that surprises them and makes them hungry for the answer or present a future you want.

People need to know that you know what you’re talking about.

Use appropriate real world details that showcase your understanding of the issue and use powerful statistics that show you’re made the connections between the data and the real problem at hand.

Make it Personal Business is in love with demographics as a way to neatly package people together. But, to get people to really understand you need to make issues more human.

Describe your problem, challenge or opportunity by talking about individual people.

Close it Up Wrap up your talk by either summarizing what you just told them, telling them what you want them to do next or by reminding them of how you started the story. Every story has a “and they lived happily every after.�

You need to end with authority.

eg. Make it Concrete

Movie popcorn vs contains 20 g fat

Movie popcorn contains more fat than a bacon-andeggs breakfast, a Big Mac, and fries for lunch and a steak dinner with all the trimmings combined.

Your slides are not your presentation. But they do matter.

Crowded, ugly and badly designed slides can distract people from your message. Well done slides support you and focus attention on what you are saying. So channel your inner Salvador DalĂ­ and start designing.

Do not vomit information Do not overload your slides with images and words. Your slide is supposed to be a support to your overall theme not a documentation of everything you are going to say.

6 Words to a Tweet Just in case you didn’t get what we said above then let’s make it clearer: use 6 words and up to a tweet - 140 characters. No more! Brevity is bliss. And try to avoid bullet points. Bullets kill.

You can do without them.

Use Powerful Visuals Find images that stand out and capture attention without being distracting. Avoid the obvious image for what you are saying (shaking hands photo for “partnership�, very weak). One nice way to use an image is to cover the whole slide with it.

You can find Creative Commons images on sites like Flikr and low cost ones on Compfight. You could also take your own photos.

Like how we put a grey opaque box behind the text so it stands out? Genius, right?

Oh, and never, ever, ever use clip art.

Love the White Space Another way to go is to put a very small image on the slide and leave over 70% of it white. This draws people’s attention to find what is important on the slide.

Check out this Volkswagen ad that makes you find the car by leaving the page mostly white.

Digest the Data Don’t make your audience suffer through a spreadsheet with 8 point type and 200 pieces of information. You need to find what data is relevant and turn it into a graphic that helps people understand it’s significance. A great way to do this is to look at info graphics and see how they do it.

Use Color Wisely Color isn’t bad. But too much color can make people feel sick. Don’t over do it. You can go to ColourLovers to find examples of colors that go well together. Or look at websites of brands you like and see how they bring it all together.

Use Fonts Wisely Keep your fonts simple and try to keep them in the same family. Helvetica and Arial are good fonts. But Comic Sans is for second grade teachers. Don’t use it. Ever.

Last but not least... Use Visual Cues

You’ve discovered your story, developed it and designed your slides. Not the part where many of us start to sweat - time to deliver it. But don’t worry, you can do it. You just have to remember a few things.

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Avoid the “umm” “err” “you know”

Eye contact, Don’t read your slides, know your notes.

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Don’t bulls#$t, if you don’t know say so.

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Be aware of your body language and tone.

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Engage people by asking questions and for feed back.

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Focus on everyone not just one person.

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We’re accelerators of creativity, action & change. We help all types of organizations harness collaboration, connect the dots and create the bigger, better ideas, faster.

www.seriouslycreative.com facebook.com/WeAreSeriouslyCreative

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