presentation bullshit

Honestly, there’s some utter rubbish out there! Try this one, for example. To be fair, though, much of the rubbish is well-intentioned rubbish! :)

The main problem I see with online ‘hints and tips’ articles for public speaking is that they’re written by amateurs. I’m not thinking of blogs (such as this one) dedicated to public speaking and presenting here – more the millions of “generalist blogs” that have a bit of public speaking advice thrown in every now and again.

WIKItraining is a pet hate of mine. I’ve seen a lot of damage done by WIKItrainers

What I Know Is is great for things like computer based problems: after all, if the solution worked for you then it will work for everyone with the same set-up, because if you’ve got the same set up then, by definition, you’ve got the same set up and nothing is going to vary.

For the so-called ‘soft skills’ such as presenting and speaking, it’s not like that. A gifted amateur can, without a doubt, sometimes give great presentations using the skills and techniques that work for him or her. I have no problem with that and it’s been my privilege to work with many gifted amateurs over the years. The problem arises when the gifted amateur (let’s call him Jon) doesn’t realise how gifted and how lucky he is. As a result Jon thinks that what he does is all there is to it.

In a fit of altruism (or to make money!) Jon then goes out to write stuff about how to make presentations or speak in public and sprays it across the web in order to help people. Unfortunately what Jon doesn’t realise is that what works for him works for him – and not necessarily other people. It’s possible, in fact, for Jon to be the only person for whom that particular set of tools and techniques work.

Jon might be a gifted comic who can start his presentations with a joke and so he will advise other people to do the same. Let’s face it though, Jon, the number of people who can tell jokes is a lot smaller than the number of people who think they can!

Jon might find it useful to drink lots of water during his presentation. He won’t know it’s the wrong thing to do for the vast majority of people and so his advice will do more harm than good.

Jon’s not a bad person – just a WIKItrainer. I’ve been known to do it myself for things like, say, rock climbing, or filling in my company‘s VAT forms and I’d like to think I’m not a bad person.

So be careful: even great presenters can make poor presentations trainers (and the other way around, too!).  Just as you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, you can’t judge a trainer by their presentations (necessarily!).