5 Ways To Deliver A Disastrous Presentation

So you can find self-help info on how to deliver better presentations just about anywhere on the web (including this blog!); however, where can you find guidance on how to really deliver a disastrous presentation? Well fear not, that's what we'll cover today...

Monica is one of my friends who is a professional speaker by trade. She is very good at what she does which is to teach retail sales folks in the wireless industry how to sell more. She appears to be about nine feet tall when you meet her for the first time, has an enormous amount of blond hair, and speaks with a Texas drawl that makes it almost impossible to try to not picture her wearing a cowboy hat. Naturally I went to her to get answers to my questions about how to give a bad presentation.

As you can well imagine, Monica was quite surprised when I asked her what I needed to know in order to give a bad presentation - "... but why would you EVER want to give a bad presentation. Who do you hate that much that you'd force them to sit through that?..." Once I explained that I was trying a bit of reverse psychology here and that if I understood what made up a bad presentation, then I'd know what to avoid she calmed down just a bit. She is from Texas you know so calm is always a relative thing with her.


If you really want to do a poor job of presenting, please consider this to be a checklist provided by Monica. If you'd like to do a good job of presenting, then don't do any of these things!

1. Don't Rehearse. What me worry? Why bother to practice - you know this stuff inside and out, you'll just go up there and wing it and the crowd will love you because it will seem more natural and less rehearsed than all the other presenters. Yeah right. Look: actors and musicians practice, practice, practice in order to get good enough to perform. What makes you think that you can get away without rehearsing? No matter how silly you look while practicing, you'll look much better when you go to do the real thing!
   
   
2. Don't Tell The Audience Why They Are Sitting In Uncomfortable Chairs. When you take the stage, you have everyone's attention. When you open your mouth to speak, you will start to lose them. Since you'd really like to keep as much attention as possible, you really should explain why you're there. Don't launch into your detailed presentation on how to optimize an Oracle 11g database using only a ball-point pen and a roll of aluminum foil until you connect with the audience by explaining why you've come to tell them this information.
   
   
3. Tell Them What You're Going To Tell Them, Tell Them, And Then Tell Them What You Told Them. I'm not sure if this was ever a good idea; however, it has become a cornerstone of public speaking courses and books. Too bad it's really bad advise. We live in an age of text messages, Blackberrys, and TIVO time shifters. Nobody has the time or the energy to sit through a presentation where the content is just being summarized and represented three times over. You always want to lead up to your closing - end with a bang not a whimper. If you are summarizing for your audience, then you'll lose them. Instead tell them that the murder was done by Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick.
   
   
4. Use As Many Slides As Possible. No matter how you feel about PowerPoint you have to admit one thing: it's made creating slides very easy to do. As with most things about PowerPoint, this can be a bad thing. Look, your presentation is all about you and what you have to say, it's not about the slides. Every new slide that you show to your audience will cause them to take their attention away from you to look at the slide. You will then have to fight them to get their attention back. Slides should complement and enhance what you are saying. Try this: use one slide for every 5 minutes of your presentation.
   
   
5. Use Your Slide Deck As A Speech Outline. We've all seen this done: the presenter turns either 90 or 180 degrees from the audience and stares at the slides on the wall during the entire presentation. The audience spends it's time thinking that they could just read the slides and not have to sit through this entire presentation since the presenter is just reading them to the audience. In a nutshell, this just shows that you didn't take any time to prepare.
   

Monica told me that she could go on and on (and I believed her), but that these were the top 5 tips that she would provide to anyone who really wanted to do a bad job delivering a presentation. I'm not sure if she's ever going to talk to me again, but at least I got the info that I had asked for.

So how many of these little gems have you seen in action? Anyone care to confess to actually doing any of them (I've done them all, just not all at the same time). If you did any of them, what made you stop doing it or why haven't you stopped?


Tags: presentation tips, rehearse, public speaking, purpose, PowerPoint

Communication Skills From The Master: Edward Tufte

If you don't know who Edward Tufte is, then you really should. He is a Professor Emeritus at Yale University and his specialty is teaching people how to present data using information graphics. He is truly an expert on the best way to present complex information. A long time I was scanning the web when I ran across some notes that Craig Kaplan up at the University of Waterloo had jotted down on how to deliver great presentations after attending one of Tufte's seminars. We've already talked about how to write a great presentation. I now share these suggestions on how to give a good presentation with the reverence that one must show to the words of someone who is really, really good at what they do:

• Show Up Early!: Good things happen to those who show up early. Specifically, you can solve problems before they become unsolvable and you can take the time to introduce yourself to the audience as they arrive. This way when you start to speak neither one of you will be a stranger.
  
  
• Have A Strong Opening: There are three questions that every opening must quickly answer: (1) What's the problem?, (2) Who cares?, and (3) What's your solution? Answer these questions and the audience will listen to your every word.
  
  
• PGP: As you introduce a new sub-topic, make sure that you move from the particular, to the general, and then back to the particular. Although what you want the audience to take away from your presentation is the general info, the particulars will help make the info "stick".
  
  
• Know Your Audience -- By What They Read!: This is Tufte's twist on an old maxim of public speaking. He believes that knowing what your audience reads will help you understand what styles of information presentation works best for them.
  
  
• Take Care When Answering Questions: There is a good possibility that your audience's take-away impression of your presentation won't be based on your presentation, but rather on how you answer questions AFTER the presentation. Allow for long pauses after the question has been asked and before you answer -- this will give more weight to your reply.
  
  
• Let Everyone Know That You Belive In Your Material: Speak with lots of convection! Clearly letting everyone know that you believe in everything that you are telling them is the key to getting them to believe it just as much as you do.
  
  

There you have it. Now please remember that Tufte also has the ability to use amazing graphics with his presentations that clearly communicate what lots of data has to say. However, even the best graphics won't do you any good if you don't remember these presenting rules from the master.


Tags: Edward Tufte,
Presentation Tips, Information Overload