Do your presentation skills add up?

Last week, I wrote a short article for insurers and accountants and… well, anyone who has to give technical presentations… presentations which, no matter how important they may be, sometimes fail to set the world in fire.  I suggested that getting into the details at the wrong time, or in the wrong way was counter-productive.

You’d be typical of this group if, as an example, you were making a presentation about the intricacies of some new legislation that affects insurers, accountants or any similar, highly technical and potentially complicated profession.

So how can you insure your presentation works for every type of person in your audience?  (See what I did there?!!? :) )

Some people like checklists, some don’t.  Some like things to be spelled out, because it gives them a sense of security – they can see where a presentation is going – whereas for other people spelling things out is a sin and should probably be a crime.  Some people take things literally – others work better by using analogies.

None of that is an important problem, of course, until people with one kind of preference make presentations to people with a different kind.  My philosophy as a speaker (and a trainer of speakers) is that the responsibility for making a presentation work successfully lies with the speaker (mainly) rather than the audience – so it’s important to check your presentation to make sure it’s working for both types of people.

By all means, design (don’t write!) your presentation your way in the first instance, but then check, edit and change.

I’d seriously suggest that you don’t try and worry too much about an ‘other type of person’ when you first draft your presentation because at that point you’ll need all your creative skills working to their best and (almost universally) you’ll find that if you try and think like someone else as you write, you’ll inhibit yourself to the point where you can’t create something to appeal to anyone, never mind a person who thinks in a different way to you! :)

Once you’ve got your presentation half-way decent (not finished!), step back from it… put it aside and do something different for as long as you can – days if possible, rather than minutes.  That way you’ll get some ‘mental distance’ from things.  When you come back to it, ask yourself these questions…

• Have you been literal a great deal of the way through, or have you tended to work by metaphor or analogy?
• Have you begun at the start and explained things in detail as you’ve gone along, or have you alternatively tended to assume that your audience will ‘just get it’?
• Have you followed-through, step by step to an inevitable conclusion, or have you given the big-picture-end-product (only)?
• Have you tended towards text or have you relied a lot upon images?
• Have you run through things in a chronological way – or perhaps a process driven one? Alternatively, have you tended towards exploring things from the point of view of patterns and principles?
• Have you used technical terms more than once per couple of slides (particularly TLAs!)? Alternatively, have you avoided technical jargon like the plague?
• Have you found yourself with full sentences on your slides (quotes excluded, perhaps) or have you been more likely to use something cryptic?  (Remember that’ what’s obvious to you is potentially cryptic to a lot of other people!)

There are probably a dozen or so other, similar questions you can think of for yourself, I’m sure, but the basic point is that you take a long, hard look… then have a cup of tea… and when you come back to it again, make a point of trying to change things towards the other sort of presentation.

For example, if you’ve got lots of text, and few (if any pictures), try and think of an image which encapsulates the the concept of what you’re talking about.  Show that while you talk – that way you’ll appeal to people who don’t think as literally as you do.

And visa versa! :)

Of course, the very best idea is then to give your presentation to a friend who things differently to you and see how they react…..

I’d love to hear any other suggestions of questions to ask….!

Simon