{"id":1761,"date":"2012-10-04T09:31:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T09:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/presentation-skills-blog.co.uk\/?p=1761"},"modified":"2012-10-04T09:31:53","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T09:31:53","slug":"counting-the-costs-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/counting-the-costs-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting the costs – part two!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote recently about how much a presentation in a business actually costs<\/a>. I didn\u2019t include the soft costs of things like missed opportunities and damaged morale – even so it came to about two and a half thousand pounds (and that was pretty clearly an underestimate). The question that this raised in my mind was the obvious one – if bad presentations cost so much and give so little, why do people continue to do it? Why (oh why, why!) do people insist upon giving bad, pointless and painful presentations?<\/p>\n

Truth to tell, I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

It could have something to do with them simply never having done the maths about how much money they\u2019re wasting. It could be that wasting two and a half thousand pounds a time isn\u2019t their biggest problem (but if that\u2019s the case, I know some people they should talk to)… but my best guess is much more prosaic – and it\u2019s simply this:<\/p>\n

it\u2019s somehow acceptable (in the UK at least) to give bad presentations<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It used to be acceptable to smoke (indoors); it used to be acceptable to drink and drive; it used to be acceptable to not know how to use email.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Now, society has moved on. Nowadays if you want to smoke you have to leave the building and if you drive after you\u2019ve been drinking you\u2019re looked on as a pariah. So why is it okay to waste everyone\u2019s time and the company\u2019s money (still!) ?\u00a0 Why do we put up with presentations that don\u2019t deliver but consume our time? Why don\u2019t we walk out?\u00a0 (Why don\u2019t we rise up and shoot the presenter?)<\/p>\n

Well, controversially, I think some of the blame lies with people like me and many of the so called professional speakers. Heaven help us there are some bad presentation skills trainers out there and some professional speakers I\u2019d not listen to if they paid me, let alone the other way around!<\/p>\n

There are people out there still advocating the VAK model, or even (may their socks never match in pairs) the 7% myth. There are what I call WIKI trainers (What I Know Is) – and what they know is what they do – not what works for the client, who may have a different style or needs.<\/p>\n

There are even (seriously!) presentation skills trainers who believe PowerPoint is correct focus for training! I struggle to think of a curse appropriate for these people! :)<\/p>\n

So what am I suggesting? What\u2019s to be done?<\/p>\n

How about this for the start of an agenda?\u00a0 (Or even the foundation of a revolution!)<\/p>\n