PowerfulPoints

Management of the Mind

2008-06-05T10:33:00Z

One of the things that most people pay no attention to when giving building their presentationis the concept of control: perhaps better said as "Management of the (Audience's) Mind"

All presentations are created with an objective: persuade, educate or inform. If we ignore the idea of control in a presentation, then it's a fair bet that an objective is not going to be achieved. People's minds wander or they go to really would like to know how the researchers discovered that (very neat) statistic. (ALWAYS beware of statistics that fit a comfortable number...10%, 25%, etc.)

How then do we maintain control during a presentation? We do this by making sure that the only things that they can focus on what we want them to focus upon. This means ensuring that that the subject matter on the slide is relevant to the point you wish to make. The classic error of too much text is one area that allows the audiences mind to wander off.

Essentially, it requires that you be clear about the objective of every slide. The traditional 6 points per slide, 6 wprds per point is wrong by a factor of 6! Limit each slide to one point only. If it is important to see all the points together, create a slide at the end of the points that includes all the points on that one slide AFTER you have dicussed each point.

When you can manage the audience's attention you will have more chanc of leading them to your desired outcome.

Cheers!

Its not what you say that makes a difference, its how you say it.

2008-05-07T23:41:00Z

Often we dont have a choice over the content of our presentation: it is given to us by the nature of our work or the reason we need to present. The thing is, its not the content that determines whether we are effective, its how we present that content that makes the difference.

Recently I had the privilege of training a group of staff at a regional city council and they felt half the problem was the 'dry" content of the material. After working with one individual, he came & saw me the next day and said he had written a 12 bar blues song on the content of his presentation. I invited him to present to the class that day, firstly using his original technique, secondly using his new "song" so they could see how far he had moved. It was essentially the same content, just a different mode of delivery.

The difference was, of course, astounding. The song he had written was both entertaining and informative, but here's the key: at the end of the day I asked the class what he had told us in the song presentation. Amazingly, everyone remember the detail of the content...and we are talking percentages here. Everyone remembered the percentages that he mentioned and how they applied! That is an effective presentation!

Now, I know you aren't going to do a song at your next conference or board room presentation but it does raise a point. Dont think that a bored audience comes from the content, it comes from the presenter.

As an exercise, pick a simple to remember point from your presentation then try delivering it in a range of different styles. Use film/movie/TV genres or your impersonation of different actors....Sesame Street, John Wayne, TV Soap...about 6 should do it. Deliver them to an audience if possible, but in a mirror at least and deliver them "full on". In other words, let go of your desire to look good and give it everything you've got...an academy award performance please(or at least your attempt at one)!.

Then, go back & rehearse your presentation, looking for different, more interesting ways to deliver the content. You may surprise yourself at the different energy you will bring to the same material.

What if you want to distribute you PowerPoint slides on paper as a leave behind?

2007-08-30T03:24:00Z

I recently came across an article at Teach 42 about the dilemna of what to do if you wish to distribute your slides on paper, effectively making a "mute" presentation where the reader will not have the advantage of the speaker to elucidate the points on each slide.

There are various arguments that slides should have enough detail to able to be followed without the speaker, however I believe that this comes at a significant cost to the audience members who actually attended the presentation. It must be noted that PowerOint or the like were, and still are, designed to be used for a presentation, not as a document generator.

Nonetheless, practicality sometimes demand that something be given left with audience members to remind them of the presentation content. The correct approach, however, needs to addressed on 2 fronts:

1. If you are a commercial organisation you should consider developing leave behind material separate from the slides. A document should be prepared that will reinforce and, if necessary expand upon, the material in the slides.

2. If the situation is one where the presentation doesnt warrant the expense of a separate document (read that as the financial return will not be sufficient) then distribute the slides by printing the Notes Pages function and add sufficient detail in the notes section to explain each point. The process of writing these notes will add significantly to your preparedness for the presentation itself.

Only when you are clear that the slides are there to assist the audience understand and absorb the content of the presentation will you ever be a professional, highly respected presenter. Every time you do something as a trade off in this area you sell the audience short.

Presentation software is for presentations, not document publication. Would you write a letter in Excel? Would you create a spreadsheet in Publisher? Respect the time & attention your audience gives you and design a presentation SOLELY for them and create appropriate material, using appropriate software, for other occassions.

Understand your presentation objective

2007-07-17T04:37:00Z

A new client, Thomas Klumpp of Ferag Australia, recently commissioned us to create a presentation for a presentation on polybagging (prepacking newspapers and other items in plastic bags on the print line) at an upcoming newspaper industry conference.

When I asked Thomas what he would like the audience members to say after he presented, he stated his objective was to have the audince say "If I am interested in polybagging I have to talk to Thomas Klump". This is very intelligent objective given he has only 15 minutes in front of the audience.

There is a tendency in such presentations to promote your equipment or organisation but that is just being a normal zebra, not an orange one. Given that there will be at least 10, maybe even 15 speakers at the event on that day, there is no way any audience member is going to remember detail about any particular product They are certainly not going to make a buying decision for equipment worth millions on the basis of a 15 minute presentation. Thomas's objective is perfect: use the opportunity to sell himself, his knowledge and integrity to the audience with the aim of raising his profile in the industry. It is simply to ensure he will be on the RFP list for anyone interested in his equipment.

Always think clearly about what you want to achieve out of your presentation in a long term sense. All good presentations start with a clear objective. In such situations as Thomas's, dont try and land a multimillion dollar deal in 15 minutes, you just dont have the time or the audience's attention that way. Be an orange zebra: make sure your presentation stands out so that you are remembered then build on the opportunities that will present.

What does it take to be an Orange Zebra?

2007-07-09T01:32:00Z

What is it that makes someone an orange zebra? Its not the desire to wear outrageous clothes, although an orange Zebra could do that. It is not being ostentatious for the sake of it. Being an orange zebra is being prepared to stand up for what you believe in, being prepared to be different, not for the sake of it but because it is an expression of what and who you are.

Orange Zebras are often very successful because they are prepared to look past conventional "wisdom" and challenge the status quo. Some who spring to mind are Seth Goddin and Bob Parsons. They have built businesses based on a big vision, a challenge to the conventional and have a committment to their audience (or customers if you like). They look past the small stuff and look at athe bigger picture, they look at the overall context of a situation and decide from there.

I had an outstanding experience with Bob Parsons organisation, Godaddy.com, recently. I changed the location of this blog and had some problems having the site actually be visible. I contacted Godaddy support and was given the wrong information which led me to expending $20 unnecessarily. Although the misinformation was an annoyance it was, within a few days, cleared up. Shit happens...

My main concern, albeit trivial, was that I had expended the money based upon their advice. Now, $20 is not really here or there, but it was a point of principle. I requested from support that they give me a $20 credit but I met the usual "we cant do that" from the people concerned. I contacted the president of Godaddy with a short email and a copy of the correspondence. Within 24 hours I had received a credit on the account...they didnt even need proof!

This is the sign of an orange zebra! The president could have haggled, argued or stalled but he didn't, he simply gave me a credit and thanked me for contacting him with the problem. It is not surprising he has risen in the organisation...he understood that I was, as a customer, worth much more than $20 in the longer term. The suppurt personnel? Well, maybe they had limitations on what they could do, or more likely what they were prepared to do. Possibly, more concerned about losing their job if they tried to get the refund for me.

One of the best pieces of advise I ever recieved, and one that underpins the orange zebra philosophy is: it is better to seek forgiveness than approval.

If you want to stand out in life, if you want to make a difference in your world, think about that the next time you present. Sure, you will make mistakes and sometimes it will fail but, if your intentions are consistent with a powerful vision, in the longer term you will succeed.

Powerpoint turns 20

2007-06-27T23:52:00Z

Yes, 20 years ago the prodigal son of presentation design was born of two software engineers, Robert Gaskins & Denis Austin.

What an impact their child has made in that time. According to Microsoft there are 30 MILLION PowerPoint presentations made each day. If you do the maths on that, the money tied up in presentations works out to trillions of dollars each year (6 pax per presentation x 1 hour per presentation x $10/pax x 220 days).

Importantly, as they point out in an interview with Marc Valdez, blaming PowerPoint for poor presentations is akin to blaming the printing press for poor literature.

It shouldn't come as a shock to any reader that bullet points weren't invented by Gaskins & Austin but existed in presentations since they began. It is an important point to remember that we have moved on since the days of the typewriter...we've invented all sorts of things since then: colour TV, the internet...the international space station yet we seem committed to using bullet points in presentations for all eternity.

I beg you...indeed plead with you...look further than bullet points in your presentation, for the sake of your audience, your employer, for all mankind!

You wont win fitting in.

2007-06-27T01:34:00Z

Stephen Bailey in the book he co-authored, "Life's a Pitch" makes the very clear point that, in life, if you want to be remembered you dont want to look like everyone else. The point is very valid with presentations. If you want to have you & your presentation remembered, have your message heard, you have be prepared to step away from the ordinary and be different from those that precede you (or follow you).

Being different isnt about being weird, its about having the knowledge of what makes you, your product or your message unique and then the confidence to express that. In the most part, its simply a marketing exercise. Like a brand you, and your presentation, must have a distinct identity...something that sets it apart. The marketing landscape is filled with "me too" type products that are resounding (not surprisingly) unsuccessful. I would assert that there are more presentation failures where the speaker has gone in with a standard template, little thought as to the structure of what they want to say or clarity of the outcomes of the presentation. Then they have shot themeslves in the foot with bullet points!(pun TOTALLY intended).

If you want to have some powerful insights & strong justification for being different, read "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, an oustanding book that really shows how becoming great today is different from the past. Something nearly all FMCG marketers should listen to and is a must read for presenters.

Info to Ink...how to keep it simple

2006-07-27T04:08:00Z

Info to ink...how to keep it simple. In his outstanding book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", Edward R. Tufte speaks of the "Data to Ink Ratio". In this he describes how to rid a chart of all unnecessary information so that the only components remaining communicate the information for which the chart was created.

It is our philosophy that such an approach should be taken with the text in every slide in a presentation, what we call the "Info to Ink Ratio". "Ink", in this context, is the creative term we use to mean text on a slide. There should be no text in a slide that does not contribute to the message that the slide was developed to deliver.

Importantly in this philosophy is the notion that the slide exists as part of a presentation...and that it will be delivered in conjunction with a presenter...and it exists solely to support the presenter. (More about this another day perhaps.) Also, slideware like PowerPoint was developed as slideware, not a report writer. Many people think that reproducing the slides in printed form is acceptable, which we strongly oppose, unless you would also believe that a spreadsheet would be an acceptable way to write a letter. Excel was not designed for that purpose, PowerPoint was not designed to replace a printed document.

The human mind can only absorb so much information in a single instant and in order to absorb that information it needs to put things into a context to understand it. Placing excessive text on a slide causes the audience to read, listen and contextualise in the same moment and the only outcome can be that the excess is lost and never makes it to short-term memory, let alone any long term placement.

This may be best illustrated if we use an example. I have used a slide prepared by an individual who has been paid to develop this slide, but whose specialty is more to do with the content. Nonetheless, they are very well educated and to protect them I have removed any references. Also, to keep the focus on the text, I have eliminated any graphics.

In this slide we can see a great deal of text that adds little to the overall purpose of the slide. For example:

Repeating the title. If you must use a title, there is little point having exactly the same text on the very next line. If the title is about Product Departmentalisation, then surely the presenter can tie in the definition.
If we actively look at our text on a slide and search for ways to reduce the verbiage, we can eliminate those words that may state the obvious or are better made verbally by the presenter. if we check each one of these sub points, much of the words are irrelevant. "Speed and effectiveness of decision making improved"...what is added in that comment over "Improved Decision making".

If we rework this slide, we end up with:

This new slide is much more visually appealing as it is less cluttered, the points are more more easy to digest and they do not involve the audience in having to read the slide and understand its context whilst listening to the presenter. Now, they simply reinforce the presenters point and add significantly to the potential for recall.

Always try to keep the Info To Ink ratio at 1:1. Anything less is a distraction.

Best sellers don't come from Word courses

2006-07-15T01:52:00Z

At a dinner party last night the subject about what we do at PowerfulPresentations arose, as it often does. It is interesting how concept of a slideware (PowerPoint, Keynote, etc) can arouse vocal comments even from those who would normally be very demure.

A Filipino lady who had just completed a course on how to use PowerPoint was waxing lyrical about the virtues of the product and how much she enjoyed using it. She was not stating she was an expert by any means but, like others I have met, there is a belief that the use of the software package constitutes a skill set in presentation design.

Now, there are certainly a percentage of people out there that use the wizards in Word to create a letter, no doubt, but I would suggest that most people do not. Certainly you wouldn't consider having any great piece of literature resulting from a Word template. Why is it that people believe that a template in presentation software will create an effective presentation? This has to be the greatest misunderstanding ever foisted on the poor audiences of those template built presentations and their custom animations.

It seems to pass by most people that a presentation is a form of media. Media, as defined in wikipedia, is "those organized means of dissemination of fact, opinion, entertainment, and other information”. Now "the media" as we know it is a huge industry. It includes TV, movies, radio, newspapers, and the internet, just to name the biggest players.

Could you imagine a world where the creators of these elements of the media used a standardised approach to the the production of their content? If all movies had the equivelent of a slide heading, then bullet points, a logo in the bottom right hand corner...you get my drift. We would suggest that if that had been the case, the industry would not be what it is today but would have sunk into a well deserved oblivion. In fact the media has been defined by those who stepped out from the boring to generate the original. Rather, many of the pioneers in these industries looked on themselves as craftsmen and artisans, creating an expression of who they are, an elegantly defined example of what they perceived as an art form.

Now, many of us don't have the inclination or the time to craft presentations...or that is their belief...so they stick to the standard format...slide title, bullet points, logo in the lower right hand corner, blah, blah, blah. And then they wonder why their presentation had little impact and they had trouble keeping the audience interested.

Like most things in life, presentations reflect the adage "you get back what you put in". The next time you whip open a software package to create your presentation, I urge you to pause and ponder for a moment on exactly what is at stake in this presentation. How much money is "on the table"? What career options may arise out of it going well (or poorly)? When you do, you may realise that a new approach may pay big dividends, not just to you but the poor audience who is sick to death of template prepared presentations. Then, we might see a reduction in the 54,000 "Death by PowerPoint" references on Google alone and like good presentations, will understand that best sellers don't come from Word courses.