Do you use graphs in your presentations?
Seth Godin recently expressed some opinions I agree with (it’s not the first time…).
One point that stands out from his article is to use your graph to tell a story.
Archive for the 'PowerPoint' Category
8 simple steps to developing tech presentation superpowers
Published March 27, 2009 Planning , PowerPoint , Presentations 3 CommentsTags: Planning, presentation skills, Presentations, technical presentations, technical to non-technical
Want to move from mild-mannered geek to awe-inspiring tech presentation superhero?
After coaching almost 4000 presentations, I’ve realised that it’s quite simple to stand head, shoulders, abs and knees above the mediocre standards of most technical presenters.
Over the next 8 weeks or so, I’ll take you through what’s needed to become interesting, talked about, clear, relevant, clever and credible. Maybe even a little bit suave.
Here, then, is an overview of the 8 simple secrets to becoming a technical presentation superhero. Each step builds on the previous one, so you get the biggest bang for your buck implementing them in sequence.
1. Focus your presentation on sincere recommendations
A recommendation implies that:
- you are focusing on an action
- that action will benefit the people you are recommending it to
- you are not ‘selling’ this idea, or doing anything underhand or manipulative
- it’s out of your control whether we take you up or not
- you have a genuine desire to connect
In this way, your presentation becomes useful. (Don’t know how to decide what to put into a presention and what to leave out? This step will help you.) Read some more about this here.
2. Speak so slowly you can hear each word you’re saying
Never have I ever had to get a presenter to speak faster. Never. Ever.
Nervous, subordinate people speak fast. Tricksy salespeople speak fast (‘fast-talker’ anyone?). People with status take their time.
Until you get this down, all that advice about using active verbs and pointing at yourself when you say ‘Fabulous’ ( you are, but please don’t) is useless. You can’t change the way you’re expressing yourself until you can hear the way you’re expressing yourself. That sensation of the sentences just falling out of your mouth goes away when you slow down. (Don’t worry if you think you are an irretrievable motor-mouth. Help is on the way.) More about this here.
Planning a sincere recommendation and slowing down until you hear each word
corrects 90% of what’s wrong with modern presentations. Read them again.
The next steps are the magic.
3. Systematically answer our questions about how your recommendation solves our urgent problems
Structuring your session around our (silent, mental) questions is the key to being relevant. We have a few ‘what’ questions, but way more ‘how?’ and ‘Why?’ questions. Follow what’s going inside our heads, and we’ll wonder how you read our minds. Not as hard as it sounds. We won’t even notice this is what you’re doing – we’ll just think you’re smart. More here.
4. Keep your energy 5% above ours
Speakers often confuse high energy with fast pace. The key is raised energy but slow pace.
Speakers also confuse passion with ridiculously high energy. 50% above where we are is too much of a mismatch, unless you want to be some weird ‘motivational’ evangelist. 5% gently wakes us up. As we wake up, you move 5% higher. This is how you warm a group up – gently and at our pace. More here.
5. Separate the slides, handouts and prompts
I have so much to say on this topic I can barely contain myself. Suffice it to say that the visuals we need to follow your talk are so radically different from the reference we’ll need afterwards and from the notes you need to remember your points that it is madness to combine them. Don’t worry – I’ll walk you through this. (And by handouts I mean all post-presentation reference material – but that’s a little less pithy.)
6. Don’t plan a presentation, plan a conversation.
I know, I know, a presentation is a pretty strange type of conversation. However, all sorts of questions about calibration (level of detail, of formality, of jargon) are answered when you think: ‘If I were in conversation with someone from this group, how would I speak?’
7. Plan to speak for half the time
If you think it’s going to take 15 minutes, it will take at least 23. You can use what’s left over to expand, to answer questions, or just to delight people with an early finish. Running out of things to say is so rarely the problem… And when you’re done, you’re done. People will love you for it.
8. Separate the situation from your thoughts about the situation
Almost all of the fear about presenting comes from our thoughts about the situation. Speaking to groups is totally safe. And you don’t need hypnosis, NLP or beta-blockers to sort this one out.
***
What do you think? What’s number nine? And ten?
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Continue reading ’8 simple steps to developing tech presentation superpowers’
What are the worst crimes in technical presentations?
Published March 6, 2009 PowerPoint , Presentations , Visual Aids 5 CommentsTags: PowerPoint, presentation skills, slideshows, technical presentations, technical to non-technical
It’s time to get it off your chest: what annoys you when attending someone else’s technical presentation?
Seeing as I’m launching into advice focused on technical presentations, I thought I’d best check out my assumptions as to where people need help.
The LinkedIn community have started the ball rolling (see the full question and replies here – thanks to the hordes of smart people who replied). I asked them what they thought were the worst crimes in technical presentations.
Here are the main points they raised (only the bits in bold/italic are me, the rest is quotes from other clever people).
First, people hate it when you don’t pitch things for who’s present…
Not speaking the right language, or highlighting the right points, will ruin the entire presentation. [I presume this means right vocab, but I did meet someone who delivered a presentation that was very quietly received and only found out later that no one spoke the language he had just used for the last 45 minutes!]
It doesn’t hurt to state your assumptions about what level the presentation is geared for at the beginning
I hate it when people use the presentation they put together for their colleagues for a presentation to non experts and say out loud “You won’t understand most of this because it was put together for (insert technical expertise) professionals” – why present it to us then? Duh!!
In a similar vein – jargon ‘is a turn-off’…
Many technical guys go overboard with too much jargon. Probably, it is to impress people. But many may not understand the jargon and so the entire presentation does not make sense.
Humour comes up…
Presentation is an art. You may need to add some humor sometimes to make it livelier.
If I don’t see a funny or unexpected slide before the 10th slide, I get bored. Keeping people with the story demands a bit of humor from time to time!
but beware…
Using humor in place of knowledge/personality/understanding of subject matter doesn’t work.
Bad time control is seen as pretty serious…
People hated:
- allowing the presentation to needlessly drag on
- rushing presentation due to nervousness
- no time allowed for questions
And advised:
- keep the presentation short, sweet, to the point
- allow adequate time at end for follow up and questions and answers
Look after your energy level…
The worst thing is when the presenter isn’t even enthusiastic about their own presentation.
and interact with us…
I hate it when presenters don’t engage the audience and involve them.
Finally, the PowerPoint crimes…
When using slides, don’t:
- show the presentation and read every word of it without offering any explanation
- just use text, text and text without case studies/ screen shots
- read the slide out – instead talk about what the slide is showing and fill in the gaps – i.e. talk about what idea you are trying to convey with that slide.
- stop to read the screen when you change slides
- use endless bullet lists
- look at the screen all the time
- click to slide of excel spreadsheet/technical diagram and say “I know you can’t see much here because it’s so detailed…. but this is the bit I’m referring to” – points to small corner of slide ….. grrrr ??! [thank you Chris - don't hide your feelings, now]
- ignore the slide either
- print a 100 page slide list as a hand out with no notes
And the prizes for worst design crimes go to slides that:
- have unreadable text (dropshadow, odd colors applied, really bad font)
- use every single wipe and transition
- have images inserted poorly (low res, poorly clipped, visible off color background)
As one person summarised…
I really don’t like to be read to.
***
Some of the most interesting points came on the topic of experts…
It is always interesting to see an expert make a presentation to other experts. The percentage of jargon as against lay English rises sharply and, because there is no need for the expert to explain basic propositions, presentations can be next to incomprehensible to the non-expert. Such presentations tend to be short, to the point and leave plenty of time for peer discussion.
But experts tend to be very bad in making presentations to non-experts because they have no idea to take their own knowledge and translate it into accessible bites.
The best people to make presentations to non-experts are those who have struggled to achieve some competence. They know where all the hard-to-understand bits are buried and how to present them in simple ways.
If in doubt, never ask an expert to make a presentation to non-expert people and always hide the slide show, powerpoint presentations and other technological gizmos. A simple series of spoken points, followed by question and answer sessions does the job.
***
The worst crime is to have a technician who has not been trained in presentation skills do the presentation.
If the presentation is of a technical nature and it is important to have a technician do the presentation because he needs to communicate technical concepts to laymen and answer their technical questions in a way that they will understand then it is important enough to ensure your technician is trained in delivering presentations properly.
***
One thing I still remember as if it were yesterday (so it must be a worst still after all these years) is a developer presenting new electrical drawings software to an audience, and stopping the presentation for a whole minute, to write down the error code generated on the screen at that time, in full view of the audience.
He was surprised we mentioned this behaviour to him, he never got a chance to present again.
***
What strikes a chord with you? What drives you crazy? Get it all out of your system once and for all in the comments section.
As of next week, I’m going to start giving some solid advice as to how to get all of this to change (Hint: it involves you developing superpowers…)
(image via: Danny McL )
***
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***
Comments on last week’s post on getting better questions after your presentation yielded some very interesting discussion.
M.J. Plebon said:
One rule I have is to never leave the Q&A to the very end. I always say the following: “Before I finish up with my final remarks, I would like to open it up for questions from you.” The reason for this is because you always have the last word and the closing remarks can remedy a difficult situation. There is nothing worse than delivering a great presentation only to have a sticky question that you may not handle well as a final closing.
Saving your final remarks for the end gives you an opportunity to end on the right note and frame of mind.
Abhishek mentioned the cultural side of questions – ie not so easy to get in Sunny Singapore…
When my audience talks to each other first, they get a chance to make sure their voices still work and practice asking their questions, and they also have an opportunity to meet each other. This in turn helps interaction, networking and community-building — all really important outcomes of professional meetings for me.
Chris we-concur-so-much-it’s-spooky Witt spoke with the wisdom of experience:
I judge my effectiveness by the quantity and quality of the questions I get. I want lots of questions, but not dumb ones. (Dumb questions are more a reflection of my presentation than of the audience’s intelligence.)
Dave Ferguson challenged the whole questions-at-the-end model:
If instead you’re inviting questions (and even comments) so people can test the ideas, fit them into their own contexts, relate opportunities and barriers–why not build in a few minutes for that at key points during the session?
I like the idea of having people interact with their neighbors, and that could apply here. I guess I’m urging not to have every presentation proceed on so predictable a path.
to which MJ agreed and then asked:
What tips can people offer to keep the timing on track when you open up the floor to questions and suggestions several times during your presentation?
See, commenting is fun…
***
Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
***
Related posts
~ 9 easy things you can do to stand out in technical presentations
~ PowerPoint: We’ve been fooled…
~ 13 reasons why slideshow presentations are stupid and evil
***
In other news…
I’ve been spending some time looking at charts, graphs, data visualization, and information design putting together some seed content for the wiki on visual aids for technical presentations.
Barcampsg3 was a LOT of fun. It works on an unconference model and is in-TENSE. The amount of learning – wow. And I rejigged the session I ran in 120 seconds based on the session I had attended just before by the rather brilliant Carl Coryell-Martin on creating passionate users. There is some video still sitting on my flip mino which will find its way here when I get a second to work out how I want to edit it (and how to edit it, full-stop.)
Heading to Blogout Singapore tomorrow and IDC’s Cloud Computing conference on Monday. I’ll be tweeting…
Oh and I’m polishing (more like drilling out of the rockface) my American accent for a student movie I’ve been cast in. Yikes – it’s like Texas speech therapy all over again. Gotta get my r’s in check. Repeat after me: ‘The Hurly-Burly Mirror Store at Vermont and Beverly featured hundreds of mirrors. There were several mirrors on the chest of drawers…’
Online stuff
Check out Chris-of-the-comments’ blog Life After Powerpoint – very interesting. And not just because he mentions me.
Movies
Let the Right One In was the sweetest Swedish vampire kid love story I’ve ever seen. 4.5/5 (half a point for the cats).
White Palm was ok – Hungarian gymnast’s life. Nicely shot, but a bit episodic, which makes me think it was quite autobiographical. And oh my god I felt unfit.
Books
Enjoying Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See since last night, at least.
Edward Tufte is a God. Click that link to find out what I’ve been doing in the library the past 2 days…
Like what you’ve read? Want to keep up-to-date with my articles without having to remember to visit this website? Sign up for email updates to have every post arrive straight in your inbox, or subscribe to the RSS feed. If you’re not sure what subscribing entails, click here for my plain English explanation.
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Links to books are often to Amazon for convenience and aren’t affiliate links (i.e. I don’t make any money from them). I’d much rather you ordered from an independent bookseller. If you’re in the UK, phone Kirsty the friendly bookseller at Westbourne Books on +44 1202 768626 – nine times out of ten she’ll get the book in the post to you within 24 hours. Tell her I referred you – it’ll make her laugh. (again – not on commission – she’s just my best book enabler…)
9 easy things you can do to stand out in technical presentations
Published February 19, 2009 PowerPoint , Presentations , Statistics and numbers , Visual Aids 2 CommentsTags: IT presentations, PowerPoint, technical presentations, Visual Aids
Want to stand out beyond the mediocre-at-best presentation crowd?
Let’s establish some fundamentals which straight away are going to raise you above 90% of business presenters.
I went and saw a guy this morning, a management-consultant-type guy, give a presentation. A smart guy, who knew his stuff, but who hid it by the way he presented, which is the tragedy I spend my life helping people avoid.
Here is my advice to him.
1. Have the intent to communicate and know how to do it without your slides
I suspected something might be amiss when he said, ‘I’ll be taking you through some slides this morning that blah blah…’ Let me tell you once and for all:
It is not your job to talk us through the slides; it’s your job to make us able and motivated to take a particular action.
If we’re not careful, giving a talk becomes the outcome, rather than the method. A presentation is a method of inspiring action.
My singing teacher told me this week that the intent to communicate is what frees people’s voices. Just going ‘La la la’ up the scales, or even singing the words to a song, doesn’t provoke enough of a reaction in our physiology to get to our true voice.
In a similar way, if you ‘give a talk’ without the intention to really get a message through to us, it’s not going to lead us to do anything.
Maybe we need to do away with ‘presentation’ and call it ‘a provocation’ or maybe, ambitiously, an ‘inspiration’. ‘Presentation’ is a little passive.
2. Tell real-life stories, not generalised fables
Any story that starts, ‘This guy…’, ‘There was this man who…’, ‘It reminds me of the old story about…’ is doomed to bore us (unless very short). There isn’t enough of you in it. Tell us stories from your life, or at least from someone close to you. A friend of a friend just doesn’t interest us.
3. Make interaction easy
If you want us to interact with you, get us to practice it. Asking for a show of hands once feels like lip-service, and a bit patronising. Also, make sure the question you’re asking us is clear-cut and easy to understand. Prepare for less of a reaction or a different one than you’re looking for.
4. Express your advice in words of action
‘Focus on what matters’ is not an action.
5. E.A.A.A.A. (Explain All Abbreviations And Acronyms)
If I don’t understand your acronyms I feel like one of us is stupid and out of touch. Is that what you want?
6. Make sure your slides follow basic visual logic
There was a slide that had the fastest-adopted changes on the right of the slide, and the later-adopted ones on the left. Huh? Basic visual logic says the past is on the left and the future on the right. I mentioned this and other things in this post. I understood it, but I had to squeeze my brain together. Don’t make me do the work, not in that way, anyway. The same slide lead me to:
7. Use ordinary language
A scale at the bottom of the slide (above) had ‘Relative ease – Low to High’. HUH? How about ‘Easy – Difficult’? Sheesh.
8. Make the most important point crystal clear
In the Q&A…
Someone: ‘What’s the most important important piece of advice you could give us as people managing businesses in the current climate?
Speaker: ”Don’t wait for the crisis – act now.’
Could you be more crystal clear than that? And it wasn’t like he hadn’t mentioned that point earlier, but in the onslaught of information, it was hidden.
9. Three points is plenty
Plenty. Three points helps you remember how precious our attention is, and how you need to budget your words.
***
What else needs adding to the list? What do you see presenters do all the time that would be super-easy for them to correct and make their audience love them more for doing so?
***
Comments from the last post (Creating Slides for Technical Presentations) include:
Simon Raybould from Curved Vision offered us his article on Presentations vs Public Speaking, and invited a little online interaction on the topic. Invitation accepted (see below…)
In a later comment, he says:
‘Statistics are designed to illustrate trends and patterns. If you think of those ideas as ’stories’ in the data you’ve got your presentation sussed.’
MJ Plebon raises the point that ‘Often only one or two key pieces of data are relevant to the message however the slide contains reams of information. The challenge is to direct your audience’s attention on the key data and prevent them from scanning the irrelevant information.’
The Lightheart PowerPoint rule was quoted too in this article by Chris Witt, who seems to be a man after my own heart.
Chris and Simon also added thoughtful comments to this article. Thanks guys.
***
In other news:
There are two people I sms good morning to, and one of them is leaving Singapore to return to sunny Brooklyn. Bon voyage, Shannon! I’ll miss ya.
Having my mind blown and ass kicked by Michael Port’s coaching programme. Particularly this week finding that I do what I do to help people speak from the freedom of truth, rather than being bullied by fear. Huh!
Spent some time researching and setting up a wiki on creating slides for technical presentations. More very soon…
Books:
Being informed, but finding myself rather plodding through, Wikinomics. Underlining lots, so I’m not complaining – more to do with my reading style, than these guys’ writing style.
Half-way through Back of the Napkin. Greatly admiring both the content, structure and easy-reading style. Learning lots at different levels.
Movies/TV:
New in Town was a fun, but straightforward rom-com.
Doubt was good, but I’m not sure how much I liked Meryl’s I-must-win-every-scene performance, full of ticks and strange rhythms.
Gavin and Stacey is sublime and made me bark with laughter.
Seeing Stuart as a baddie in the Singapore children’s tv show GX5 was a riot. Final episode this Sunday 11.30 on channel 8. And there’s a game too…
Like what you’ve read? Want to keep up-to-date with my articles without having to remember to visit this website? Sign up for email updates to have every post arrive straight in your inbox, or subscribe to the RSS feed. If you’re not sure what subscribing entails, click here for my plain English explanation.
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Links to books are often to Amazon for convenience and aren’t affiliate links (i.e. I don’t make any money from them). I’d much rather you ordered from an independent bookseller. If you’re in the UK, phone Kirsty the friendly bookseller at Westbourne Books on +44 1202 768626 – nine times out of ten she’ll get the book in the post to you within 24 hours. Tell her I referred you – it’ll make her laugh. (again – I’m not on commission – she’s just my best book enabler…)
PowerPoint: We’ve been fooled…
Published January 11, 2009 PowerPoint , Presentations , Presentations=conversations , Visual Aids 13 CommentsTags: IT Managers, PowerPoint, Presentation skills training, Presentations
It’s all gotten out of control and it’s time we came to our senses.
I’ve been asked by Olivia Mitchell what I would like to see happen with PowerPoint in 2009 in response to this rant post.
The biggest blessing for business presentations would be for us to put PowerPoint into perspective.
No one says ‘the slides’
If you were sitting in on of our masterclasses in presentation skills, towards the beginning I would ask you to partner up with someone else and recall some excellent speakers (people who inspired you, or who were at least interesting or memorable). With a marker and a pack of Postits, you would then have 5 minutes to write down, one concept per PostIt, the different things that those speakers did that made them interesting or inspiring.
All sorts of areas come up: passion, voice, gesture, story, using ordinary language… a whole variety of things (which we would then go on to cluster together and use as a reference).
I bet you wouldn’t have said ‘Good slides’.
In amongst all of those thousands and thousands of Postits in all these years, never has anyone written ‘Good slides.’ Ever. Eh-ver.
Red herring
PowerPoint is a technological red herring. It puts us off the scent because it fulfils so many psychological and emotional needs for the speaker.
Currently I see PowePoint being used to for four different purposes:
- As a tool to plan presentations.
- As autocue/prompt for the speaker.
- As documentation for people to take away with them, or for people who couldn’t attend the presentation.
- As a visual aid during the session.
For everything but the last one, PowerPoint fares very poorly.
And as most people want to hide when they’re presenting, making a big ol’ screen the centre of attention just feels safer than having all the eyes on you.
PowerPoint matters less than we think
In terms of impact, slides have as much impact as the the fonts and the layout of a document.
If you gave me a document in Comic Sans, or Papyrus, it might put me off. No paragraphs, or all in 6 point, or lots of seplling mstkeas and, you’re right, it would distract me.
But the main cause of success or failure is the content of the communication and the way it is structured.
We focus on PowerPoint because it’s obvious
So much training and discussion is placed on ‘the slides’ as they are the most quantifiable and standardisable (sorry) aspect of presentations.
However, presentations are an unnatural form of communication taking place at the beginning or in the middle of longer, complex conversations, attempting to have an impact on messy, difficult-to-control human relationships.
Let’s keep the slides in perspective.
My 2009 PowerPoint wishes
Actually, sod ‘wishes’. In 2009, I decree that presenters:
- Place more focus on the planning and structure of presentations, including educating themselves a little in the psychology of communication.
- Plan by concentrating on the people being communicated with, rather than the output of the speaker, definitely away from the computer.
- Make handouts in Word (or a package designed for producing printed material), make speaker notes on paper/cards, and follow the Lightheart visual aid rule (“You only need a visual aid in a presentation if you would need one in conversation”).
- Use the B key more often.
What do you reckon? Am I off-beam here? Are the slides more relevant than I’m giving them credit for? Leave a comment, do.
In other news:
We have had a busy Christmas in the UK, including 4 days doing the Christmas markets in Berlin, and now Stuart is back in Singapore. I’m staying here until the end of January, doing some work whilst spending time with our poor abandonded families, including teaching both Mum and Mum-in-law how to use their new laptops.
I’m reading and loving Anathem, Who Would You Be Without Your Story? and Save The Cat Goes to the Movies. I’m also brushing up my German with fab new ipod stuff (3 separate links there). Keeping me company in my cold, lonely attic flat (poor tropical flower that I am) are Skins and Star Trek: TNG series 1.
Oh, and Australia was a fantastically exhausting, epic romp. Me and the Mum-in-law laughed, cried, cheered, booed and, at one point, grabbed each other and looked through our fingers. Just when you think it’s over, it really starts. Loved it.
(Loosely) related articles
~ 13 reasons why slideshow presentations are stupid and evil
~ Marinading the big lump of clay – getting presentation material together
~ How to review your presentation: Two things people get wrong
Like what you’ve read? Want to keep up-to-date with my articles without having to remember to visit this website? Sign up for email updates to have every post arrive straight in your inbox, or subscribe to the RSS feed. If you’re not sure what subscribing entails, click here for my plain English explanation.
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Links to books are to Amazon for convenience and aren’t affiliate links (ie I don’t make any money from them). I’d much rather you ordered from an independent bookseller. If you’re in the UK, phone Kirsty the friendly bookseller at Westbourne Books on +44 1202 768626 – nine times out of ten she’ll get the book in the post to you within 24 hours. Tell her I referred you – it’ll make her laugh.
image by shop_boy
13 reasons why slideshow presentations are stupid and evil
Published September 26, 2008 PowerPoint , Presentations , Presentations=conversations , Visual Aids 6 CommentsTags: multimedia presentations, PowerPoint, presentation skills
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Slideshows perpetuate the idea that a presentation is linear, rather than full of variables
Talking to people is way less linear than, say, putting a pizza in the oven.
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PowerPoint was created by developers and is now ruling the way we communicate
Whilst I respect IT people to develop IT stuff, I’m staying in charge of my own communication, thank you very much. (Oops, did I just offend my main clients?)
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Slideshows perpetuate the idea that you can plan an interaction in detail in advance
Do you script your conversations? If you do, you’ve read too many 1950s sales books.
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Slideshows encourage you to ignore the people in front of you
Must follow slides. Must. Follow. Slides.
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Slideshows encourages performance rather than communication
And generally bad performance, at that.
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Slides make you up the formality of your language, rendering you more difficult to listen to
Remember: conversational is better.
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Slideshows make you think you can deliver other people’s presentations
You can’t. No really.
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Slideshows mean someone else thinks they can write your presentation
They can’t. No. Really really.
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Slideshows encourage recycling of half-examined ideas for what is actually a new audience
The ‘What slides can a re-use’ or ‘How can I treat people like canned goods’ travesty.
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Slideshows make people stand and talk in the dark
Hello? That’s not just evil. That’s insane.
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Slideshows make you feel like when you’ve got the slides ready, you’ve got your talk ready.
That’s like thinking that because your windscreen is clean, you’re going to have no traffic. Or because your DVDs are in alphabetical order, it’s not going to rain for a week.
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Slideshows make you talk in headings and sub-headings
Yeah, because that works so well in reports, essays and academic documents. Such successful models to copy.
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Slideshows mean everyone, all over the world, is delivering the SAME PRESENTATION
Or at least it makes your listeners feel that way.
Enough with the slideshows already. Enough. ENOUGH!
Anything to add?
Learn to plan for sensible visual aid use with my free e-book ‘Rapid Presentation Planning – be ready with a smart presentation in hours not weeks’ by clicking here. No strings.
Like what you’ve read? Want to keep up-to-date with my rants articles without having to remember to visit this website? Sign up for email updates to have every post arrive straight in your inbox, or subscribe to the RSS feed. If you’re not sure what subscribing entails, click here for my plain English explanation.
Related tirades posts
~ The only book to read about designing PowerPoint slides
~ 3 reasons why you should plan conversations, not presentations
~ 3 reasons why you should deliver your presentation like it’s a conversation
photo courtesy of alice_c
How to avoid using Stupid Generic Photographs in your PowerPoint slides
Published July 22, 2008 PowerPoint , Presentations , Visual Aids 11 CommentsTags: Flickr, images, photos, PowerPoint slides, Stupid Generic Photographs, Why Business People Speak Like Idiots
Well, you know how I would prefer you to not use slides at all when talking to a group. It’s just too easy for them to get in the way of you connecting authentically with the group.
This article is about how to at least make sure the images you use in your PowerPoint slides are original and not dumb.
Continue reading ‘How to avoid using Stupid Generic Photographs in your PowerPoint slides’
Using graphs in presentations – Seth Godin talks sense…
Published July 18, 2008 PowerPoint , Presentations , Visual Aids 2 CommentsTags: bar charts, graphs, pie charts, PowerPoint, Presentations, Seth Godin
I’m softening towards slideware (PowerPoint/Keynote) in my old age, especially since my Presentation Zen conversion. I also understand that in corporate contexts, especially with IT presentations and other technical subjects, it is, if not required, then at least heavily expected.
I am, however, still the enemy of bad PowerPoint.
Seth Godin, the well-respected marketer, has outlined his ideas for good use of graphs.
Continue reading ‘Using graphs in presentations – Seth Godin talks sense…’
The only book to read about designing PowerPoint slides
Published June 5, 2008 Planning , PowerPoint , Presentations , Visual Aids 1 CommentTags: book, designing slides, Garr Reynolds, PowerPoint slides, Presentation Zen
Well, I’m just as shocked as you are.
I’m recommending a book on PowerPoint. Never did I think I’d see the day.
For those of you who haven’t worked with me yet, I have been running an anti-PowerPoint campaign for years. I see how much PowerPoint (and other slideware) robs people of both their power, and often their point. Slides are used either as a way of hiding from the audience or distracting them, as speaker notes, or as handouts. None of these (ab)uses does anything for your credibility.
And so I dedicated my professional career to enabling people to speak to groups without needing slides or scripts, so that any visual aid is chosen because your listeners need it, not from a personal need of the speaker.
Garr Reynolds came at it from the other side. He saw terrible PowerPoint presentations and thought, ‘How can I teach people to use slides so that they help the audience to learn what the speaker is looking to convey?’
The result is his book Presentation Zen, based on his blog of the same name.
I’m only part of the way through it, but I don’t think I’ve disagreed with a single word yet. Things I’ve been saying for years are mirrored in what Garr is writing about, illustrated beautifully, of course.
It’s so great to find someone who is doing the same job as me, but from an entirely unexpected angle. Another person being fully self-expressed in his chosen career…
In fact, it’s so well written, that I got quite dizzy in the bookstore, wondering if I’d been wrong all these years. It took me a while to realise that we were just coming at the same problem from different angles.
Same intention, different solution.
I’ll be posting more about Presentation Zen as I move through it. So far, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough, especially if you’re in an organisation that demands PowerPoint.
If you’d like to explore this one with me, here’s a link to the book on Amazon.com.
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)
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