{"id":127,"date":"2008-03-29T19:33:14","date_gmt":"2008-03-29T18:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elementally.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/2008\/03\/29\/questions-or-not\/"},"modified":"2008-03-29T19:33:14","modified_gmt":"2008-03-29T18:33:14","slug":"questions-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/questions-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions – or not"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"noSomeone who recently introduced me at a presentation I was making checked with me – very courteously – whether I wanted to take questions as we went along or at the end. Taking questions is a point that this blog posting<\/a> handles rather briefly: as does this post<\/a>: and this one<\/a>…. and, well never mind – you get the idea. I’ve even blogged about it myself here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Referring back to my original question (during or after) I’m going to rather over-state my case for the sake of making a point…<\/p>\n

I strongly feel that any questions your audience might have should come along afterwards, not during. This is because your presentation should be so clearly and tightly structured that there’s no need (and no chance for) people to ask you any questions as you go along.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Questions in the middle of your presentation come from loose ends. They come from you having started a train of thought running in the head of someone in your audience and then not having dealt with it. If you’ve really, really<\/em> understood what your audience wants to know, your presentation should be a seamless move from where-they-start to where-they-want-to be.<\/p>\n

Questions at the end tend to be along the lines of your audience taking what you’ve given them and then applying it to other circumstances, places and times; typically they’ll be applying them to their own circumstances. If they’re doing that, it’s good in a big way. It shows that you’ve sold your concept to them and they’re trying it on for size. That’s fine – you should be able to deal with that kind of thing – if you can’t you have to ask yourself hard questions about what you’ve just told them! :)<\/p>\n

I told someone recently who was showing me his Powerpoint slides (and asking for feedback with the question “Does it hold together?”) something quite vicious (kind of!):<\/p>\n