Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Workbook 1: Developing Your Story Present To Win
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
1
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Introduction The most effective presentations are delivered using the art of storytelling. Your presentation is your story/your journey. The primary focus when developing your story is to define the various elements of your story and the story of your business. Traditional presentation skills such as body language, gestures, your voice, eye contact c and answering questions from your audience are all important. But not unless you are engaging, motivational and have the key skill of being able to tell stories, including making analogies, metaphors, quotes and sharing your experiences. Some books and many people say that storytelling and presentation skills are skills that you are born with and cannot be learned. This is definitely not the case. But, there are no quick fixes; it takes a long time to develop a natural delivery style that is unique uniqu but comfortable to each and every person i.e. you as a presenter and your audience. audience The other critical success factor is getting your story right if you are to deliver truly powerful presentations. When you get your story right, it is the building block for your presentation delivery. The reverse is never true. You may be the best speaker in the world, but if your story is not focussed or easily understood, you will not get your key message(s) across to your audience. So, let’s look at three key messages messages on presenting/storytelling with impact:
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #1 When your story is right, it is the building block for your presentation delivery. delive The reverse is never true. Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #2 The great presenter grabs the attention and minds at the start of a presentations, holds the audience’s hands and guides them through all the various sections, ideas and key messages and never lets go;; and then finishes on a high with a call to action. Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #3 The person who is able to tell an effective business story will be known as someone that is in command, and will gain the respect and confidence of others.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
2
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
The Five Presentation Sins 1. No clear point. The audience leaves the presentation trying to understand what it was really about. How many times have hav you watched a presentation and, at the end, said to yourself (or others), ‘What was the point in that?’ 2. No audience benefit. The presentation does not tell or show to the audience what the benefits of the information presented is to them i.e. a WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). How many times have you watched a presentation and continually think, think ‘so what?’ or ‘what’s the benefits and advantages to me, my department, the organisation etc.?’ 3. No clear flow. The structure of the presentation and the ideas presented is so confusing that the audience is unable to follow. How many times have you watched watc a presentation, and thought, ‘I can’t keep up with this? How did the presenter get to this point? There’s no flow!’ 4. Too detailed. So many ideas and facts are presented, especially those that are overly technical (with jargon), irrelevant or just too small to read on a big screen, that the main message is unclear. How many times have you watched a presentation and invariably thought, ‘what does that mean’? 5. Too long. The audience loses their attention and gets bored before the end of the presentation. How many times in your career have you ever heard a presentation that was too short? Although of the five presentation sins s s are unique and independent of each other, but they can all be summarised into something known as the “Data Dump”. This is an unstructured, unclear and excessively long delivery of data/information without a defined message or desired outcome. The reaction of an audience to this is the dreaded IHSL (I Have Stopped Listening) Effect. Effect The objectives of presentations vary, but but every presentation has a common goal; to persuade your audience to buy-in buy in to your message and show either a desire to help you achieve your goals or to show commitment to what you are trying to get them to do, say or feel. The five presentations sins stop you from achieving this goal.
Notes/Ideas
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
3
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Your Audience & You: Persuasion (From Point A To Point B) Persuasion is one of the crucial skills required for the effective presenter, and is a life skill i.e. one that can be used inside and outside of work. All presentation opportunities have one situation in common; to take your audience from where they are at the beginning of your presentation, which is Point A, and move them hem to your objective (and ultimately your way of thinking, which is Point B.. To get from Point A to Point B requires the subtle ‘art’ of persuasion.
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #4 Every presentation situation has a communication goal of taking your audience from where they are at the beginning of your presentation, Point A, and move them to your objective, Point B.
Your presentation may look impressive, be entertaining and well delivered vocally, but that’s not the point. Your only purpose is to move the audience to Point B. When your point is not clear, you have broken one of the five presentation sins. And it’s not easy! Psychologically, your audience at the beginning of your presentation (Point A) is uninformed, sceptical and in some cases resistant to your ideas. ideas They are ready to question what you claim and are not committed to helping you achieve your Point B. To successfully reach Point B, B you need to move your uninformed audience to understand, the sceptical audience to believe and the resistant audience to act and behave in a particular way. Understand, believe and act are the three stages in you reaching your ultimate goal i.e. your Point B. Therefore, you must start with the objective in mind i.e. e. it has to have that clear point. Otherwise, you are again breaking another of the five presentations sins. Unfortunately, Point B is missing from far too may presentations. So, get to the point. Get to your Point B!
Notes/Ideas
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
4
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Viewing Yourself Through The Eyes Of Your Audience For you to be a truly effective presenter, you need to learn to view yourself, your company, your story and your presentation through the eyes of your audience. When developing your presentation, read it through the eyes of your audience. Take your audience’s point of view. This requires both knowledge and practice. Everything you say and do in your presentation must satisfy the needs of your audience. It’s a simple but extremely important concept. It will genuinely genuinely lead to you being a persuasive and effective presenter. Benefits, Not Features! The difference in features and benefits is something that all advertising and sales people understand as being fundamentally important. You are therefore strongly encourages encou to shift your focus of any of the presentations you design and deliver from feature-based feature to benefit-based. Features are facts about your company, your products or the idea (the Point B) you’re ‘selling’ to your audience. On the other hand, benefits are how those facts will help your audience. Every feature in your presentation must also be translated into benefits. The main reason is that the features may not be relevant to the needs or interests of your audience, whereas benefits always relevant. This leads onto the following key message:
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #5 For people to act on anything, they must have a reason to act, and it must be their reason, not yours.
Benefits are of interest to every audience. Go with Benefits every time. To understand the needs of your audience, sell them the benefits and place their needs at the heart of your presentation.
Notes/Ideas
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
5
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Planning For Your AUDIENCE An easy way to plan specifically for your target audience is to use the following template. This is an easy to use tool to analyse your presentation stakeholders i.e. your audience.
Analysis
Who are they? How many will there be? What influence do they have with the decision makers? Do they know each other?
Understanding
What is their knowledge of the context? What is their subject knowledge? At what level will you pitch your presentation? What are their views?
Demographics
What is their age and sex? What is their educational background? Where are they based?
Interest
Why are they attending? Who asked them to attend? Can you hold their interest with the topic? How might they be impacted by what you say?
Environment
Where will you stand? Will everyone be able to see and hear you? What’s the best room set-up? Will you be able to adjust the temperature?
Needs
What What What What
Customised
Expectations
are their needs as individuals? is the need of the group? are your needs as a speaker? emotions might be attached to the situation/subject?
What specific needs should be addressed? Is this presentation going to be delivered to other people? What level of customisation is required and how long will it take?
What do they expect to learn or hear from you? What attitude will they have to the topic? What political, organisational, personal sensitivities might there be?
Once you can answer YES or have the answer to all these questions, then you (and your AUDIENCE) are going on the same presentation ‘journey’.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
6
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Understanding The Power Of The WIIFY (What’s In It For You?) An easy way to focus on the benefits rather than features, is to ensure when you’re designing and delivering a presentation that you continue to ask the crucial question: what’s in it for you? ? It is not what’s in it for me, as a you may well need to shift the focus from you to your audience. audience. This is what will get your audience from Point A to Point B; simply because you have given them a very, very good reason to make that transition. The WIIFY can be one WIIFY that is used throughout throughout the duration of the presentation (at the beginning, the middle and the end) and is the ‘heartbeat’ of your presentation.
Key WIIFY Phrases There are six key phrases that can trigger a WIIFY. They are designed to make sure that you link every element ement of your presentation to a clear audience benefit. Here they are (below): 1. “This is important to you because...” (The presenter fills in the blank with a WIIFY) 2. “What does this mean to you?” (The presenter explains with a WIIFY) 3. “Why am I telling you this?”(The this?”( presenter explains) 4. “Who cares?”(You You should care, because...) 5. “So what?”(Here’s Here’s what...) what... (Here’s the WIIFY...) 6. “And...”(Here’s Get to know these triggers and use them on yourself the next time you are preparing for a presentation. Always find and and state your WIIFY for all information, facts, data and stories. And keep it simple; which leads onto the next key message:
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #6 Make it easy for your audience to follow, and your audience will follow your you lead.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
7
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Avoiding The “Data Data Dump” Dump Using “Six Thinking Hats” Planning When your presentation overflows with too many facts, without purpose, structure or logic it becomes a ‘Data Data Dump’. Dump’. All that you are doing is saying everything you can possibly say about the topic in the time you have to give your presentation. This is an assumption that, for your audience to understand anything,, they have to be told everything. And there is also the next key message to consider:
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Succ Key Message #7 The Data Dump must be part of your preparation, not the presentation..
What you need to do is take your Data Dump and develop it into a story. This can be done using “Six Thinking Hats” Hats Planning”. When planning your presentation, you probably do this in a rather haphazard way because you use your normal ways of thinking. Edward De Bono is the author and creator of Six Thinking Hats methodology and he encourages us to use all our thinking powers and not only those that we are familiar (and comfortable) with. Therefore, if you have a preference to predominantly use facts in your presentation, he encourages us to also look at future options and benefits. If you like to use your emotions to express your feelings during a presentation, presentation, he also encourages us to consider the process as well. We do have the behavioural flexibility to use all six of thinking hats. Overleaf is a description of all six of the hats, followed by a template which you can use to consider applying all six of the thinking hats. This will ensure that you plan your presentation using all your thinking power and to make it as engaging as possible to your audience. This is particularly important to ensure that you capture the WIIFY for your audience, as they will ll all particular and natural thinking styles as well.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
8
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Six Ways To Think About Your Audience (Not Just You) Yellow Hat Thinking Optimistic Thinking – what is good about your Point B (the presentation solution). What are the positives that you need to stress? Can also be seen as what it will look and feel like when you get it right.
Red Hat Thinking Emotional Thinking – what’s your gut feeling about your audience and how they will receive the information. What are the WIIFY’s for your audience in the context of how do you want them to act and react.
White Hat Thinking Factual Thinking – what information, facts and data do you need to tell the audience and in what level of detail. How can you take these facts and make them interesting to your audience?
Black Hat Thinking Realistic Thinking – review your solution (your Point B) pragmatically and using common sense. Don’t assume the WIIFY’s for your audience. Test them out and ensure that they make sense and are clear.
Green Hat Thinking Creative Thinking – what can you do to make your presentation as creative as possible (visually, verbally and vocally)? What is the most creative creative format to deliver the information e.g. story, hooks, analogies.
Blue Hat Thinking Controlled Thinking – what can you do to make sure that your presentation flows in a logical manner? How will you measure the success of your presentation?
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
9
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Six Hats Template – Wear All Your Planning & Thinking Hats Yellow Hat (Optimistic) Thinking
Red Hat (Emotional) Thinking
White Hat (Factual) Thinking
Black Hat (Realistic) Thinking
Green Hat (Creative) Thinking
Blue Hat (Controlled) Thinking
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
10
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Finding Your Flow Now that you have brainstormed all the potential ideas for your presentation story, it has to have a clear flow. The first key point is that your audience cannot see or hear where you are going with your presentation. They have only linear access to your content, one slide at a time. It’s like looking at a forest at the level of the trees, only one tree at a time. You may be doing an excellent job of presenting one tree. Your audience may be impressed. But, when hen you may onto your next tree, tree, you don’t make it clear how it relates to the previous tree and your audience is then forced to try to make this relationship on their own. They can no longer see the first three, forcing them to work harder to remember it and make the connection for themselves. At this point, you are giving your audience the following three choices: 1. They can become disinterested and show the IHSL Effect. 2. They can n interrupt you to ask for an explanation. 3. They can start thinking in an effort to understand the missing link, and stop listening. STOP! Don’t make them think! Your job is to be the navigator for your audience, and to make the relationships at all points points of your story clear for them. So, the key message for making the presentation flow is as follows:
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #8 The flow of your presentation requires a plan. It’s like a chef who follows a recipe to use the right ght ingredients in the right order. You are the presentation chef – you need to design the recipe and follow each stage of the recipe for it to be a success.
You are in luck. Flow structures are proven techniques for organising your ideas in a logical sequence to create a persuasive presentation. And there are 16 different options for various types of presentations.
Notes/Ideas
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
11
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
16 Flow Structures 1. Modular. A sequence of similar parts, units, or components in which the order of the units is interchangeable. 2. Chronological. Organises clusters of ideas along a timeline, reflecting events in the order in which they occurred or might occur. 3. Physical. Organises clusters of ideas according to their physical or geographic location. 4. Spatial. Organises ideas conceptually, according to a physical metaphor or analogy, providing a spatial arrangement of your topics. 5. Problem/Solution. Organises the presentation around one or more issues and the actions you propose to address them. 6. Issues/Actions. Organises the presentation around a business opportunity opportunity and the actions you propose to address them. 7. Opportunity/Leverage. Organises the presentation around a business opportunity and the leverage you or your company will implement to take advantage of it. 8. Form/Function. Organises the presentation around a single central business concept, method, or technology, with multiple applications or functions emanating from that fundamental core. 9. Features/Benefits. Organises the presentation around around a series of your product or service features and the concrete benefits provided by those features. 10. Case Study. A narrative recounting of how you or your company solved a particular problem or met the needs of a particular client and, in the telling, telling, covers all the aspects of your business and its environment. 11. Argument/Fallacy. Raises arguments against your own case and then rebuts them by pointing out the fallacies (or inaccuracies) that underlie them. 12. Compare/Contrast. Organises the presentation around a series of comparisons that illustrate the differences between your company and other companies. 13. Matrix. Uses a two-by-two two or larger diagram to organise a complex sets of concepts into an easy-to-digest, easy-to-follow, follow, and easy-to-remember easy form. 14. Parallel Tracks. Drills down into a series of related r ideas, with a subset for each idea. 15. Rhetorical Questions. Poses and then answers, questions in your audience’s minds.
16.Numerical. Enumerates a series of loosely connected ideas, facts or arguments.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
12
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Which Flow Structure Should You Use? Is one flow structure better than another? No. In fact, the 16 flow structures overlap to some degree. They key is to choose one or two flow structures for your entire presentation. Where presenters get into difficulty is when they choose all 16...and sometimes all 16 on each slide! Think of the 16 choices as a restaurant menu. You should select only one or two from the menu.
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #9 Choose one or two Flow Structures tructures for the entire presentation. When you do make your choice, your audience will be able to follow your presentation easily. They’ll see the flow. It’s less important which Flow Structure you choose than that you make a choice.
Guidelines For Selecting A Flow Structure When you are selecting ing a Flow Structure for your presentation, the following factors are extremely important: The presenter’s individual style. Choose a Flow Structure that feels right. Experimentation and practice will help you make this decision and decide which option is best for you. Just because one of your colleagues had a success with a particular Flow Structure does not mean that you will too. This puts to rest the ‘one sits fits all’ approach. Because, it does not. not The audience’s primary interest. Different Flow Structures emphasises different elements of the story. Make sure that you choose a Flow Structure that focuses on the interests or concerns of your audience e.g. e.g. Opportunity/Leverage works well for presentations requiring investment or with investors. Innate story factors. Some stories naturally form a particular Flow Structure. Take advantage of this good piece of luck e.g. a company going through change/transition change/tra is a prime candidate for the Chronological Flow Structure. The established agenda. If you are presenting in a conference, business seminar or any with a significant audience size, your presentation may be expected to conform to a set format or respond pond to a particular challenge or question, use f Flow Structure that meets those requirements. Aesthetically pleasing.. In other words; it is easy to view from the eyes of you and your audience. Follow your instinct in the planning of the presentation. If you have a strong sense that one Flow Structure just ‘looks good’ or ‘sounds good’ or ‘works well’ when applied to your story, then use it! Don’t try to ‘fit’ your story into a Flow Structures that looks awkward. If you are comfortable making your presentation, then this will be transmitted to your audience and they will empathise with you.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
13
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Capturing Your Audience IMMEDIATELY: IMMEDIATELY: The Opening ‘Hook’ ‘ You can capture your audience immediately with an Opening ‘Hook’;; a short opening statement to seize their attention and consequently to help you launch into your presentation in a comfortable, conversational manner. You can create multiple Opening pening Hooks from the follow seven classic hook techniques: techniques A question directed at the members of the audience . Question Example:
A striking statistic or little-known little fact. Factoid Example:
A look backward or forward. Retrospective /Prospective Example:
A short human-interest human story. Anecdote Example:
An endorsement about your business from a respected source. Quotation Example:
A familiar saying. Aphorism Example:
Analogy
A comparison between two seemingly unrelated items that helps illuminate a complex topic. Example:
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
14
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Capturing Your Audience IMMEDIATELY: Linking To Point B To make the opening of your presentation as effective as possible, you need to do more than capture the interest of your audience. The Opening Hook goes further by linking it to your Point B. And to make this successful two additional elements need to be added: the Unique Selling Point (USP) and the Proof Of Concept.
USP The USP is a succinct summary of your business, the basic premise that that describes what you or your company does, makes or offers. Think of the USP is the ‘elevator’ version of your presentation: how you would pitch yourself if you stopped in a lift/elevator and suddenly saw that hot prospect you’d been trying to figure out. ou But keep to a 4-story 4 elevator ride, not a 70-story story strip! Therefore, the USP should be one or, at most, two sentences long. One of the most common complaints about presentations is “I listened to them for 30 minutes and I still do not know what their company does!” The USP is what they do.
Proof Of Concept Proof of Concept is a single telling point that validates your USP. It gives your business instant credibility. The Proof of Concept is also optional. Sometimes you can start with the Opening Hook, link through the USP, and then go directly to Point B without the extra beat. It is a valuable beat though, and when you do choose to include the Proof of Concept, Concept you have a number of options. An example: “We sold 850,000 copies of this software the first day it was available” or “Technology magazine picked our product as one of the top 10 of the year”.
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #10 Think of your Opening Hook, Hook your USP, your Proof of Concept,, and your Point B as a string of connected points. Once you’ve planned them and then delivered them at the start of your presentation, the heart of your argument will be primed for your discussion. You will have grabbed your audience’s attention, and they will be very clear about what you want them to do.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
15
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Capturing Your Audience IMMEDIATELY: Tell Them What You Are A Going To Tell Them So this will all prime your audience, audience, but do you now DIVE straight into the main part of your presentation. STOP! No, not quite yet. Take a moment to give your audience a preview of the outline of your major ideas. The technique associated to this is called Tell Them What You Are Going To Tell Them. This is not just an Agenda or Overview PowerPoint slide. Why not make it track the entire presentation i.e. select a Flow Structure right from the beginning of any slide and from the point the presenter starts the presentation verbally. By telling your audience what you are going to tell them has much offer to offer than t an agenda. Try linking forward to Point B,, so that the desired outcomes of the presentation are stated at the earliest point in the presentation that you can. Also, and often underestimated, is forecast the running time of the presentation. presentation Forecast The Time Instead of careering headlong into a dark tunnel, establish the end-point end point at the beginning of the presentation i.e. show them the light at the end while they are still at the entrance. By stating how long your presentation will take, you demonstrate demonstr that you respect the value of your audience’s time and that you will use it productively.
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #11 By providing your audience with a Road Map and a Time Forecast,, you are giving them both a plan and a schedule.
Tell Them What You Are Going To Tell Them also provides other benefits. When you click on your Overview/Agenda slide and run through it with you audience, you can mentally check the component parts of the presentation and remind yourself of the overall flow of ideas. Remember, you can think three times faster than you can talk. You can now proceed to fulfil your forecast by telling them what you promised. Then, move through each of your clusters in greater detail, putting flesh on the sturdy bones of the structure.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
16
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Capture Your Audience Immediately Immed Tell Them What You Told Them Finally, you should then tell them what you told them. them. In most presentations this is the Summary slide. This ‘mirroring’ (linking of the preview and the summary) will provide the book-ends ends to your presentation. The summary should lead to Point B. And another thing with your summary: keep it brief! Just like a book, when only a few pages are left and the reader knows that the end is in sight, the writer quickens the pace of the narrative. The same can be said about a presentation. When you get to your Summary slide, discuss it succinctly.
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #12 We now have an engaged audience at the beginning and navigated them across the journey to Point B. Aristotle would be pleased as he classically said that an story should have a strong beginning,, a solid middle, and a decisive end.
And to help you put all this information and knowledge together, below is a Story Form. Get comfortable with a format layout using these headings that you like, but this is a useful tool for creating a base format that will work for any presentation.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
17
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Capture Your Audience Audienc Immediately: 90 Seconds To Future Success The Opening Hook, the USP, USP a Forward Link to Point B, another Forward Link to Tell Them and one more Forward Link into the Overview are the first important steps in any presentation. It’s very important that hat the presenter ‘hits’ these points, and in that order, in the crucial first 90 seconds of the presentation. Always remember the importance of the start of the presentation. If you lose your audience within that first 90 seconds, the changed are they will be lost forever.
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #13 You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Maximise the use of the first 90 seconds and make sure that your first impression lasts. Check it, rehearse it and deliver iver it so that you have a powerful presentation that’s packed with a punch straight from the bell in Round 1!
Notes/Ideas
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
18
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Bringing ng Your Story To Life: The Special Technique Of Verbalisation The Story Form is the building blocks and overall flow of your presentation story, but because it is highly abstract it i shows only the most prominent points or stages. Your presentation will burst into life with the specific words you will use to tell your story. So, in order to get to the bare bones presented in the Story Form to a complete presentation, we need to follow a process of preparation and practice called Verbalisation. Verbalisation means turning your outline (your Story Form) into a fullyfully-formed presentation by practising it beforehand. beforehand. Speak the actual words you will use in your presentation aloud,, accompanied by your PowerPoint. Deliver it just the way you would when you are in front of your target audience. A genuinely effective presentation is practically impossible without this t special technique. Talking about your presentation (e.g. “OK, with this slide I will say something about our sales revenue”) as a form of rehearsal is completely unproductive. Talking about your presentation is not an effective method of practicing your you presentation, and more than talking about golf would be a good method of improving your swing. This is known as disembodiment because it creates a distance between the presenter and the presentation. An even more common practice is mumbling. We’ve all seen it in action. The presenter either clicks through the slides on the computer or flips through the pages of a hard copy of the slides while muttering unintelligible words. Neither disembodiment nor mumbling are methods of Verbalisation. Verbalisation
The Keys To Presentation resentation Success: Key Message #14 The only way to prepare a powerful presentation is to speak it aloud, just as you will on the day of your actual presentation. By talking your way through your entire presentation in advance, by articulating your key points and making the logical connections, by doing a real--time Verbalisation,, you will crystallise the ideas in your mind.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
19
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Bringing Your Story To Life: Internal Linkages As you build your presentations using the key elements contained in the Story Form, consider these elements as building blocks that need mortar to hold them together. The glue is a set of narrative tools called linkages: meaningful verbal transitions from one slide to the next and from one part of the presentation to the next. And this is not using the same ‘saying’, such as click to a slide on the screen and say, “now I’d like to talk about...” and then talk about that slide. And then the same happens again, again and again. Your audience will obviously notice this. Repeating the same phrase become a useless cliché, it also destroys any continuity or flow. In effect, it makes each slide start the presentation anew. This is the equivalent of rebooting, and it presents a major problem for the audience. The presenter must be both variable verbally when making the linkage and transition ‘stick’. ‘stick’ These connections take two main forms: Internal Linkages,, which are statements that tie together the various parts of your presentation, and External Linkages, Linkages which are statements that tie the various parts of your presentation to your audience. The Internal Linkages are as follows: 1. Reference the Flow Structure. Make repeated references to your primary Flow Structure as you track through your presentation. 2. Logical Transition. Close you outbound subject; lead in to your inbound subject. 3. Cross-Reference. Make forward and backward references to other subjects in your presentation. 4. Rhetorical Question. Pose a relevant question, and then provide an answer. 5. Recurring Theme. Establish an example or data point early in your presentation, and then make several references to it throughout your presentation. 6. Bookends. Establish an example or data point early in your presentation, and never mention it again until the end. 7. Mantra. Use a catchphrase or slogan repeatedly. 8. Internal Summary. Pause at major transitions and recapitulate. 9.
Enumeration. Present related concepts as a group, and count them down. down
10. Reinforce Point B. Restate your Point B at several points throughout your presentation, but using different way to express/reinforce your Point B.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
20
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Bringing Your Story To Life: Verbiage (Not Garbage) How many linkages should you use in your presentation? Use as many linkages linka as you need to create a presentation that is a tightly unified whole. The end result will be a presentation in which each point relates to the next, and put together leads to a single conclusion, Point B. Pick and choose from the Internal Linkage options that you find most appropriate for your presentation and speaking/delivery style. Plan the linkages in as you design your presentation, practice them every time you Verbalise, and then deliver them whenever you present.
Your Passport To Presentation Presentat Success: Key Message #15 Plan the linkages as you design your presentation, practice them every time you Verbalise,, and then deliver them when you actually present.
Verbiage The ultimate phase of bringing your presentation story to life is the words you use to tell your story, referred to as Verbiage. Verbiage And this is where your presentation can ultimately go wrong. Say an innocent (yet wrong) phrase or collection of phrases and there there will be a problem created for you or any presenter. With the examples below (and overleaf), you will find the ‘problem statement’, followed by a solution, the best practise way to state the same idea. The first example is probably the most common of all:
Presenter-Focused Focused Statements “Now I’d like to...” Sound familiar? You’ve probably heard this phrase in every presentation. It can be heard not only in business presentations, but also in university lectures, award acceptances, political speeches, wedding toasts...the list goes on and on. You’re probably thinking...what’s wrong with this phrase? It’s presenter-focused. presenter It implies that the presenter is making an exclusive decision without any regard for the audience. It is almost as good as saying, saying “I don’t care what you would d like to do; this is what I would like to do”. It’s also vague and indefinite. If you would like to do it, why not just go ahead and do it?
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
21
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Bringing Your Story To Life: Verbiage (Not Garbage) Solution: Make the phrase audience-focused, audience inclusive and very definite. Drop the word “like” and simply say: “I’m going to talk about...” Or become even more inclusive by inviting the audience to join you. Shift to the one-person person plural using one of these options: options “Let’s look at...” “Let’s...” What does the following phrase imply? “Like I said...” This phrase is a form of backward reference, an attempt to link to a point earlier in the presentation. Unfortunately, the specific words suggests that your audience did not understand you the first time you said them, and so you are now going to have to repeat yourself to bring them up to your speed, all of which is condescending to your audience. The phrase is also poor English. “Like” is the wrong word; it should be “As”. This does not suggest that you should avoid backward references. Use them extensively as powerful tools for continuity and improvement. If you do use them, however, do so with the proper connecting word e.g. “As I said”, not “Like I said”. But that still leaves the phrase presenter-focused. focused. Better to give your audience credit for having understood and remembered what you said by using one of the following options: “As you recall...” “We discussed earlier...” “You saw...” “You will remember...”
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
22
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Bringing Your Story To Life: Verbiage (Not Garbage) Apology Statements What’s the problem with the following phrase? “I will tell you very quickly...” This phrase implies that you are apologising for your own material, that what you have to say is not very important, and so you will hurry through it. By apologising, you are saying that you did not care enough about your audience to have prepared your presentation carefully. There are many variations of the apology, as the following phrases phrases demonstrate: “I’m running out of time...” “If you could read this slide...” “This is a busy slide...” “This is not my slide...” “Disregard this...” “Before I begin...” You’ve probably heard every one of these in your career. Never apologise, apologise and always prepare properly. Leave out any topic that does not deserve your audience’s time and attention. Present with pride any topic that is important enough to include in your presentation.
Gender-Specific Specific Statements What’s wrong with this next phrase? “The ABC Company listens to its customer and meets his requirements”. The problem with this phrase is that it is gender-specific. gender specific. Are all of your customers males? This is unlikely, unless your company makes a product like after-shave after lotion. The issue here is not political correctness, but rather accuracy. Make your statement universal and go for the plural i.e. “The ABC Company listens to its customers and meets their requirements”. requirements” In the English language, the plural pronoun “their” has no gender marking, so you can use it to refer to men, women or both.
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
23
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Bringing Your Story To Life: Verbiage (Not Garbage) Uncertainty Phrases Here are three other problematic phrases: “We believe...” “We think...” “We feel...” Each of these phrases introduces an element of uncertainty. You believe something to be true, but is it really? You introduce doubt, even if only subliminally in the minds of the audience. Your job instead is to convey certainty. The way to get from doubt do to certainty is to switch from the conditional to the declarative mood. This is not to say that, when the outcome is uncertain, you should make forward-looking forward statements or forecasts. That’s risky business. In such cases, instead of using the weak words ords “think”, “believe” and “feel” to any of these much stronger options: “We “We “We “We
are confident...” are convinced...” are optimistic...” expect...”
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #16 Verbalise your presentation in advance. Do multiple Verbalisations, spaced out over time. Think about the specific language you will use to convey your ideas. Select and plan Internal Linkages.. Monitor your Verbiage to develop a positive, respectful and confident vocabulary. This will help you make your words ‘sing’, your story flow and bring your presentation to life.
Notes/Ideas
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
24
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Customising Your Presentation: The Illusion Of The First Time Many business presentations contain information that must be conveyed repeatedly, to multiple audiences. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to keep your presentation fresh, partly due to your energy and focus. When you are making the same points for the 50th time, it is hard to feel the same sense of enthusiasm, spontaneity and excitement as the first time. You go into Autopilot! And the result is an audience that is on autopilot too – uninvolved, unmoved and unconvinced.
Your Passport To Presentation Success: Key Message #17 One challenge for a presenter is to find ways to achieve “the illusion of the first time”.. This phrase comes from actors, who often have to perform the same role in the same play hundreds of times, who have to convey to each new audience the sense that every ery speech and every action is completely spontaneous.
The key to creating the illusion of the first time is to make a deliberate effort to focus your energy every time you present. Treat each and every iteration of your presentation of yours as if no one in your audience has ever seen you present before. Other ways to create the illusion include modifying your presentation for each new audience. You can customise the core material with the techniques overleaf; all but one of which involve only your narrative, so you should customise with your words.
Notes/Ideas
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
25
Confident Presentations Packed With A Punch
Customising Your Presentation: External Linkages Internal Linkages bond the components of the presentation itself together. It is equally important to bond your presentation (and you, as presenter) to each specific audience. You can achieve this with External Linkages:: words, phrases, stories, and other materials that you insert throughout your presentation to make it fresh. There are seven External Linkages: 1. Direct Reference. Mention specifically, by name, one or more members of your audience. 2. Mutual Reference. Make reference to a person, company, or organisation related to both you and your audience. 3. Ask Questions. Address a question directly to one or more members of your audience. 4. Contemporise. Make reference to what is happening today. 5. Localise. Make reference to the venue of your presentation. 6. Data. Make ke reference to current information that links to and supports your message. 7. Customised Opening Graphic. Start your presentation with a slide that includes your audience, the location, along with illustrative examples.
Notes/Ideas
Bibliography In Brief 1. Jerry Weissman – Presenting To Win, FT Press, 2009 [Fourth Print] 2. www.businessballs.com 3. Edward De Bono – Six Thinking Hats, Penguin Books, 1999
Course Manual & Workbook 1 – Developing Your Story
26