{"id":3458,"date":"2015-10-21T18:13:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T17:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/?p=3458"},"modified":"2015-10-21T18:16:04","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T17:16:04","slug":"delivering-presentations-for-personality-types","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/delivering-presentations-for-personality-types\/","title":{"rendered":"Delivering presentations for personality types"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MBTI-logo-RR\"Whatever model of psychometrics you subscribe to (or none!), it\u2019s a truth universally acknowledged (to abuse Jane Austin) that your audience will consist of different types of people, with different personalities.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the sake of simplicity, I\u2019m going to use the MBTI distinction between people with Sensing and iNtuitive preferences – to do with whether they prefer their information with detail; with process and order; and with a bias towards what is and what can be touched\/seen. And all of this in comparison to people with iNtuitive preferences for big picture; linkage and analogy; change and what could<\/em> be (rather than what currently is<\/em>).\u00a0 <\/span>Whether you\u2019re a fan of MBTI or not, you\u2019ll no doubt recognise the descriptions – treat the MBTI terminology simply as labels or shorthand. (There’s a lot more information online, try here<\/a>…)<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem for Ss<\/span><\/h4>\n

Right out of the gate let\u2019s acknowledge the elephant in the room for S preference people\u2026 presentations are not a natural medium for them. Presentations need to be (as they see it) rather superficial, without the time or space to go into the necessary details, explanations and caveats -and this can set their teeth on edge. It\u2019s important to admit it before we start!<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem for Ns<\/span><\/h4>\n

Presentations might seem more natural to Ns, as they\u2019re less inclined to mourn the inability to go into the nitty-gritty of detail but it\u2019s not all plane sailing. My experience of the people I know to be Ns is that their presentations are more often overly superficial and (often, sadly) less well structured. There\u2019s a lot of linking and flitting from one thing to another – but the links are only apparent to the presenter, inside his or her head: the audience isn\u2019t telepathic and therefore often gets left behind or lost. It\u2019s important to be honest about these things!<\/span><\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the solution?<\/span><\/h4>\n

Well, to be honest, it\u2019s tricky. After all, if it was easy, everyone would be making great presentations and I\u2019d be out of a living\u2026 I\u2019ve broken it down into rather artificial steps, so feel free to blur the boundaries if you feel too constricted by them (Ns) or to use them as a route-map if it\u2019s helpful (Ss). And for the record, I\u2019m a little tongue-in-cheek here!<\/span><\/p>\n

Step one<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Know what you are. It\u2019s easier to accommodate for other people if you know where you\u2019re starting from, obviously. The ideal approach would be a full Step Two Myers Briggs assessment (It\u2019s not a test, it\u2019s a tool, instrument or assessment – if you find someone who calls it a test, stop them. If they\u2019re administrating your MBTI, sack them.) Typically, however, that can be pretty expensive: they way I do them for organisations involves a half day group session then a 90 minute one-to-one with everyone involved, so there are my fees plus the licences for the assessments and reports. It all adds up. Fortunately you don\u2019t necessarily need to go all that way – you can just have a much less format assessment (but please get it with an expert!) and get a feel for what you are yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

A note of caution: while that\u2019s cheaper, it\u2019s fraught with risk: you might not be very self aware, for example, or you might take a free-and-fake online tool etc. There\u2019s no need to panic, just be on your guard.<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n

Step two<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Try and be your opposite. As an N, try and think like an S; if you’re S, try and be a bit more N. \u00a0Knowing what you like, think about what bugs you in presentations. Now think about who\/what kind of person does that kind of presentation. Now the bad news, if their style bugs you, it\u2019s likely that your style will bug them; and in order to make them more likely to take on board what you\u2019re saying you need be a bit more like them. So here\u2019s the challenge – as yourself what\u00a0 <\/span>you can do to make your presentations a bit more like the other side. (Note, I don\u2019t mean you should model yourself on crap presentations – just on ones which bugged you. I\u2019m not advocating you model yourself of people who face the screen and read their bullet points!)<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry about going to far to the other side. I suppose it\u2019s possible, but I\u2019ve never yet seen anyone who managed that: the most I\u2019ve seen is someone who moved to the centre ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now consider what you\u2019re doing differently. Have you abandoned anything? Missed anything? Changed the way you do things to the point you don\u2019t keep \u2018your side\u2019 happy? Good, it means you\u2019re trying!\u00a0 <\/span>The trick though, is to find ways to do both<\/b> things. Think about how you\u2019d naturally do things and think about how you\u2019d do things if you did it the opposite way – and now find something that works for both<\/b> sides. It\u2019s easier said than done, but you get the hang of it with practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personal example: I\u2019m an N, by instinct. But one of my team is so very, very S it hurts ;)\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>The obvious thing to do then is to have this team member check my presentations to see which bits annoy her the most. Those are the bits I need to think about more!<\/span><\/p>\n

Step three<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider your audience. The chances are your audience will be mixed, but it can\u2019t hurt to have a think in advance about what they might be and what they might need. For example, if you\u2019re talking to a bunch of accountants you might reasonably expect a higher proportion of Ss than if you\u2019re talking to a group of artists (who we might reasonably expect to have a higher than average proportion of Ns).<\/span><\/p>\n

Step four<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Keep both Ns and Ss happy by:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • providing an overview first<\/b>. Don\u2019t build up to your conclusion: give your conclusion and then<\/em> provide the supporting evidence before restating it. Why? Because it\u2019s not that Ns can\u2019t handle details, it\u2019s just that they appreciate a context or framework to hang those details on – hence the conclusion first. What\u2019s more, it only takes a moment to give your Ns that overview and your Ss can handle that\u2026 but it take considerably more time to give details, which your Ss might appreciate more but can cause your Ns to lose the will to live (unless they can see where it\u2019s going)<\/span><\/li>\n
  • provide an option for backup detail for the Ss if they want it. For example you might say in your presentation that you carried out some statistical analysis using Principle Components Analysis with four Factors and then tell your audience that they can download a PDF after the presentation which goes into detail about how you carried out that PCA, exploring how many Factors you experimented with, a full analysis of explained variance, wither Factor Rotation was allowed at all and if so whether it was orthogonal or not etc.\u00a0 <\/span>Those details might not be appreciated by everyone in the audience but you can bet they\u2019ll be needed to keep some of your Ss happy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    On a personal note, I find it useful to not only tell audiences where the details are, but show them an image of the printed document, with the URL on the screen and a hardcopy of the document in my hand – it helps Ss because of their predilection for the real and actual (rather than the hypothetical).<\/span><\/p>\n

    Summary<\/span><\/h4>\n

    It\u2019s not an easy thing to get a handle on – it\u2019s quite an advanced set of techniques we\u2019ve talked about here – but if you can pin it down, it\u2019ll make a huge difference to your presentations.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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