Posts Tagged ‘presentation skills’

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How To Write The Perfect Speech

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
The Perfect Speech Needs To Contain The Perfect Stories

The Perfect Speech Needs To Contain The Perfect Stories

Last week I had the opportunity to give the perfect speech. Now, you might be offended by this statement and are probably wondering just how I could become so full of myself, so perhaps I should explain myself. I had spoken in this venue four times before, I had been invited to speak again because they liked what I had had to say before, and I knew that I was going to be speaking about a month before I actually got up on stage. These are all the elements of a perfect speech.

Since I already basically knew what I wanted to tell this audience, this time around I really worked on HOW I said it – I wanted to make an impact in their lives. Awhile ago I had read an article in which Patricia Fripp boiled down what makes a really memorable speech: tell a story, make your point, tell a story, make your point, etc.

So I did. I ended up working six stories into my speech and then following them up with the point that I wanted to make. In order to make sure that I would fit the 30 minutes that I had available, I did some quick math: 30 minutes x 150 words/minute = 4,500 words in speech. I then did something that I’ve almost never done before.

I wrote out my speech word for word. I did this because I had read somewhere else that in order for you to “tune” a speech, you need to know exactly what you are going to say. This came out to be about five single spaced pages of text.

How I memorized this speech so that I didn’t have to look at my notes even once during my speech is a story for another post…

Do you tell stories during your speeches? How many stories do you work into a typical speech? Do you write your speeches out? How do you ensure that when you give the speech it doesn’t seem like you are reading them off of the page? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in stories | 6 Comments »

Make Your Audience Sit Up, Take Notice, And Learn At Your Next Presentation

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Understanding How Adults Learn Is The Key To An Effective Presentation

Understanding How Adults Learn Is The Key To An Effective Presentation

Some presentations are designed to simply motivate your audience. Some are designed to educate them. It’s this second batch that is tricky to do. It’s probably not that your presentations are lacking in educational material, but rather it’s the way that you are delivering it that really matters. You need to find a way to deliver the information in the way that adults learn…

So here’s the answer to this question right off the bat: research shows that adults learn best when information is presented interactively, using role-playing, and peer-to-peer dialog. The lectures that most presenters use are really only good for passing information along to an audience.

The last thing in the world that you want is for your next presentation to remind your audience of a high school or college class. Having you stand at the front of the room and drone on with no chance for interaction is not what today’s audiences are looking for.

The secret to making your presentation “stick” with your audience is to realize that the more active your adult audience is during your presentation, the more they will learn because they will be tapping into the knowledge and experience of their peers.

At different times during your presentation your role as the presenter should really be to be a “guide on a side” who facilitates discussions among audience members and offering feedback as needed.

We’ve all heard about left-brain / right-brain stuff. Our left-brain is set up for the way most presentations are delivered – logical, analytical, and subjective. It’s our right-brain, our visual & creative side, that is not being fed during most presentations.

Much of what it takes to make sure that a presentation appeals to how your adult audience learns has to do with how the presentation event is set up. Here are some key suggestions on how you can make your next presentation a powerful adult learning experience:

  • Use Round Tables: having your audience sit at round (or half round) tables that seat 8 or 10 people helps your audience to interact easily.
  • Schedule Break Time: make sure that your audience has time both before and after your presentation to meet and discuss what they are going to learn and what they have learned.
  • Use Comfortable Seats: Rarely do we have control over this, but if possible the more comfortable the seats are, the more learning will happen.
  • Lose The Lectern: This can be done as simply as making sure that you have a wireless microphone so that you are not tied to one spot and can move around and interact with your audience.
  • Handouts & Downloads Are Good: You audience is hungry for information that they can take back to the office. Giving them something that they can touch and hold is one way to do this.
  • More Brian Food: This is my favorite. Most food that is served during a presentation can be sugar or carb-heavy. If possible, provide healthful food options.

At the end of the day, you go to a lot of effort to get ready to deliver a presentation. You want your audience to be impacted by your words and you want them to be able to absorb and learn from the information that you are presenting. If you follow these tips, your audience will have a better chance of learning and retaining what you have to say.

What do you do today to help your audiences learn what you are presenting? Do you feel that you do a good job of getting your audience to retain what you are presenting? What was the best learning presentation that you have ever attended? What was it so successful? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in adult learning | 4 Comments »

Why Your Audience Wants Bad Things To Have Happened To Their Presenter

Monday, January 5th, 2009
Presenters Need To Use Their Personal Stories About Facing Challanges To Reach Their Audiences

Presenters Need To Use Their Personal Stories About Facing Challanges To Reach Their Audiences

Today’s audiences are a jaded bunch. In fact, a Gallup Poll shows that just 16% of us have a favorable opinion of business executives. With all of the Wall Street failures and auto maker bailouts that are currently going on, this number will probably keep going down. What’s a presenter to do in order to cut through the fog of cynicism that we are all existing in?

One way that presenters are doing this is by sharing their own stories of adversity. These stories seem to be able to reach out to audiences and somehow make the presenter much more “real” than just another glib business success story.

If this is what your audience wants, what can you do to meet their needs? We all may not have survived a wild bear attack, but we may be able to find other types of material in our lives that will allow us to connect with our audiences:

  • Audiences Love Adversity: The bigger the challenge that you faced, the more they love it. Erik Weihenmayer is a mountain climber who is blind. He over came lots of adversity and ended up climbing Mt. Everest. His story shows his audience how to overcome adversity in their lives.
  • Tales Of Survival Match Today’s Business Environment: Today’s business environment is harsh and unforgiving and surviving is what most of your audience is trying do every day. Trisha Meili
    was assaulted and left for dead in New York’s Central Park. She now speaks to audiences about what she had to go through in order to recover.
  • Find The Metaphor: What your audience is really looking for is hope. They will be interested in your story no matter what you tell them, but it will have a real impact if they can understand that what you went through is similar to what they are currently going through. The fact that you survived (and hopefully thrived) is what is going to give them the courage to keep on trying.
  • Tie Your Story Into Business: A great story will keep your audience on the edge of their seats – but what happens when you stop talking? John Amatt survived a mountain climb 20 years ago that killed three of his climbing teammates. The only way that he survived that disaster and made it to the top of the mountain was to  make radical changes to his climbing route and tactics. This story is very well received by business people who are facing major changes in their business environments.
  • Use Humor Where Appropriate: These topics can be pretty heavy – life and death struggles are rarely something that anyone wants to joke about. That being said, if your entire presentation is dark and scary, then your audience will just be happy when it’s all over. Instead, use humor at the start and at the end in order to start and end on a lighter note. You audience will appreciate it and this will allow your message to sink in further.

We have not all faced life threatening situations. However, what your audience is really looking for is a good story that they can relate to. If you look back over your life, I’m sure that you can find points in which you were faced with a challenging situation that looked impossible at the time. Then all you have to do is weave a story that will grab your audience’s attention…

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Posted in motivational | 4 Comments »

Presentation Challenge: How To Successfully Talk To Teens – And Survive!

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Presenting To Teens Takes A Special Talent In Order To Get Them To Listen

Presenting To Teens Takes A Special Talent In Order To Get Them To Listen

Anytime we speak in public it can be a challenge that gets our heart racing and causes us to start to sweat. However, if you really want to take the stress up a notch, then just try talking to a group of teens and watch your heart either start to beat double time or just stop altogether. Why do we have such a hang-up about presenting to teens? I suspect it’s because we don’t quite know how best to talk to them: they are no longer kids, but they are not yet adults either. We simply don’t feel that we know HOW to talk to them. Well get in line – I’m sure that their parents feel the same way! Let’s have a talk with Pandora Scooter who for the past 15 years has been teaching and putting on workshops for teenagers all the time. She’s got some tips that we can all use to get over ourselves and get on with the presentation…

Scooter points out that even the most experienced speakers seem to have a deep set fear of talking to a group of teenagers. When asked why they fear this audience more than a hall filled with over a 1,000 adults, they come back with answers such as “They won’t care about what I have to say”, “They won’t listen to me”, “I’m afraid of them”. It turns out that just like with everything else in life, there is a grain of truth in what these speakers are saying. Specifically, often times teenagers will look like they aren’t paying attention in order to appear “cool” to their friends – even though they may be hanging on your every word. If you can give them something to focus their attention on, then they will listen to you and you can make an impact. Here’s what you need to do:

  • Challenge Them Right Off The Bat: Your teen audience probably has been told to be there – they didn’t decide to come by themselves. This means that they are expecting you to treat them just like every other adult does – assuming that they care about what you are going to be talking about. Turn this assumption on its head. Ask them a question, get them to raise their hands or stand up. Do SOMETHING to make sure that they realize that this is not just another boring presentation.
  • Stop Talking About Yourself: In a nutshell, unless you are a rock star, your teen audience won’t really care about where you’ve been or what awards you have won. Keep your introduction short and sweet – what’s your name and why are you here?
  • Don’t Be A Pushover: If you take the time to be honest and direct with your teen audience, then they will respond. Almost without fail, there will other discussions that start up while you are talking or there will be people who are clearly not paying attention. You need to not ignore these events, but rather point them out and work out what is going on with the offenders. Simply by showing that you are paying attention to them and that you are not going to ignore them. This will catch their attention, and most of the time will solve the problem.
  • Say “Thank You”: By showing respect for your teen audience and expressing gratitude to them for their participation in your presentation you will capture their hearts and minds. This may seem like such a small thing, but saying “thank you” half-way through your presentation shows that you have something to base it on and warms the audience up for the rest of your presentation.
  • Use Your Eyes: Eye contact can be the key to making your presentation a success. By making direct eye contact with members of your audience, you can ensure that they are engaged. You can take this one step further by calling out individual listeners and working them into your presentation “this gentlemen in black seems to be agreeing with me”, etc. For an audience that is more used to being ignored, this will put them on their toes as they eagerly wait to see who get called out next.
  • Be Available: At the end of a presentation to adults, you would probably tell them how they could get in contact with you if they needed any additional information. Make sure that you do the same thing for your teen audience. Hey, very few if any of the teens will actually take you up on your offer of further contact, but the simple fact that you made the offer will go a long way in gaining their respect and may make your message take hold at a deeper level.

Have you ever had an opportunity to present to a teen audience? How did it turn out – was it a success or was it a disaster? Did the teens pay attention while you were presenting or did they have their own conversations? Do you feel that you connected with any of the teens? Did anyone seek to contact you after you were done? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in connecting with your audience | 5 Comments »

10 Tips For Little Presentations (Or Presentations To Little People)

Monday, November 3rd, 2008
When Presenting To Kids, You Need To Do Things Differently

When Presenting To Kids, You Need To Do Things Differently

So I’m not so sure that that title is clear, but basically what I’m talking about is delivering presentations to young people. I’m talking about elementary school age folks. Like 5-11 years old. Maybe the toughest crowd that you’ll ever have to face! I come up against this tough customer at least once a year when the schools in my area have a “career day” where parents are invited to come and talk to the kids about their careers. The goal is to provide the kids with motivation to study hard and stay in school. I love the IT field; however, it’s a hard sell to kids who have just been dazzled by the policeman / fireman / soldier who all have cool uniforms and neat utility belts. On top of this career appeal challenge, there’s that issue with trying to find the right way to talk to these kids – you know, they really are not young adults just yet…

When I need help in trying to figure out how best to deal with a tough crowd like this, I know that it’s best to go talk with an expert. In this case the expert is Caren Neile who is the director of Florida Atlantic University’s Storytelling Project. Here are 10 tips for how you can not only survive a presentation to the very young, but also do a good job of it:

  1. Watch Your Height: Kids are very sensitive to having to look up at a speaker. You need to do everything that you can to “be on their level”. One way to do this is to sit on the floor. Another is to sit on a chair – pretty much the opposite of what we tell you to do when speaking to adults!
  2. Don’t Start Your Presentation Cold: One of the key things that you want to happen when you talk with kids is to have them behave and pay attention. This can be hard to do if they don’t know you. By spending some time with them before you start your presentation you can knock down some of the walls that exit between you and them. By doing this, you can come across as a person that they know and they’ll do a better job of paying attention to what you have to say.
  3. Be Real Man: Kids hate vague “management speak”. Remember that their world is pretty much what they see on a daily basis and only the things that they can touch are real. If you speak in big broad terms (“the whole world”, “boosting productivity”, “over $1B dollars”, etc.) they simply won’t be able to grasp what you are talking about. Instead, use concrete expressions that they can easily understand (“lots of people”, “able to make even more widgets”, “enough money to fill this room from floor to ceiling”, etc.)
  4. See What I’m Saying: Props are your friend when you are talking to a young audience. We’ve raised them to be multi-tasking demons and they’ll show you just how good they are at this by tuning you out and working on other tasks while you are talking unless you find a way to keep grabbing their attention. Props are one of the best ways to do this.
  5. Take A Time Out: How long can you sit and effectively listen to someone? Kids can’t pay attention for even that long! Given ‘em a break before, during, and after your presentation. They will be forever grateful.
  6. Have Everyone Play A Role: Much more than adults, kids love to participate in a presentation. They will be itching to do this even if you don’t want them to do so. Caren suggests that you work specific places in your presentation for them to help you out. This will help to keep their interest and will make your presentation even more memorable.
  7. Get Up And Move!: Once again, we generally like it when adults sit through our presentations. With kids, things are different. If you can find a way to get them to get up and move around as part of your presentation, then they will connect with you and your message better.
  8. Chill Out Man: With adults, we would often like it if they stood up and started shouting during our presentation – it would show that they were really engaged. With kids, they might just stand up and start shouting because they like to shout. Make sure that you don’t get them too riled up during your presentation or things could get out of hand.
  9. Allow Learning To Happen: We all learn in our own way and kids are no exception to this rule. Some kids will appear to tune you out, may be drawing while you speak, may even get up and walk around. Don’t be offended and don’t worry about it. This may be how they learn best and you should just let it happen.

What happened last time you had a chance to speak to young kids? Did you treat them like kids or like little adults? Do you think that they understood and remembered your message? What would you do differently if you had it to do all over again? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

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Posted in presentation tips | 3 Comments »

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