Prevent Business Presentation Coma - Some Helpful Tips

Marketing tips for the Southcoast, MA – POWERPOINT WAS A WONDERFUL PROGRAM BUT IT IS A HORSE AND BUGGY ON THE AUTOBAHN OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY - Maybe it’s just me.  Maybe it’s not!  The more I teach, the more I try to evolve.  And, the more concerned I've become about my business students.  Okay, so they don’t have art backgrounds.  But how the heck did they get to their junior and senior year with little if any visual communication acumen?  Hey, it’s not just them, I’ve seen PhDs and active business professionals who are no better at using PowerPoint as well.

Before I move on, let me please say that most presenters use just about one or two of the sixty-four crayons in the PowerPoint crayon box.  That’s one problem.  The other is what my students have heard me refer to as putting five pounds of poop in a two pound poop bag.  So, with this in mind, I’m going to offer you some free PowerPoint presentation tips even though it’s had its day in my classroom.  Regardless of whether or not it is used to its fullest capacity or, whether any standards or graphic or visual communication is being maintained, it’s the end of the road for PowerPoint.

But, if you’re still using PowerPoint, the greatest problems you face as a presenter is time, darkness and disinterest.  Any two of the three challenges are in-play at any given time.  The kiss of death is when all three are working in-concert against you.  Time is a precious commodity.  Your audience is offering you their time in exchange for useful knowledge and, the inspiration to apply that knowledge at their first opportunity.  Darkness is a requirement for show slides.  It is also a big factor in inducing sleep when assisted by a long, dull presentation in a stuffy or hot room.  If these demons I just mentioned weren’t enough - disinterest will take care to totally nullify your presentation and assist the audience to slip into a deep coma.

The Five Ps are old trick of the trade commandments that are still relevant and should continue to be your presentation guide.  Proper Preparation does Prevent Poor Performance!  With that being said and it hopefully being adequate enough to stand on its own, here are some – Tips to Help You Prevent Presentation Coma:

                     

IS YOUR AUDIENCE STUPID?  Do Not Insult Your Audience!  They can read.  Do not read from your PowerPoint slides unless you want them to immediately slip into the dreaded coma.  PowerPoint slides are not the script or the narrative.  They act as cue cards for you and function as visual sign posts for your audience.  Think of the cue cards and sign posts concept as the old piano duet – Heart and Soul.  The cue cards and sign posts are one hand and your verbal presentation is the other hand.

DOES YOUR AUDIENCE LIKE BEING LOST?  Guide them!  Your PowerPoint slides should be sequenced into three distinct parts; the beginning or set-up part, the middle or the ah ha! part and the bring-it-on-home and wrap-it-up part.   Remember, no matter how dry the information is, you’re telling a story.  The beginning or set-up part reminds your audience why they’re there and introduces them to the only thing they care about – what’s in it for me?   The middle or the ah ha! part of your presentation is not about you reaching the half-way point, it’s about leading them to the conclusion that what you’ve said so far was not only worth staying awake for, it gave them part of the answer or the hope or the inspiration they were looking for.

Once you’ve achieved holding them in rapt attention, you have to give them a glimpse of the solution or, the reason why they’re there.  So, you have to bring-it-on-home and wrap-it-up with whatever your call to action is.  And, if you’ve brought the audience to believe that whatever it is your offering is of value to them; what will they be willing to do next?  That’s when you reveal your call to action.

DOES YOUR AUDIENCE HATE BEING ENTERTAINED? Make it more than just a presentation – tell them a story!  What kind of story should you tell them?  There are for kinds.  Will yours be a comedy?  A Drama?  How about a Romance (the old fashioned word for high-adventure)?  There’s Irony, the perfect setting to show what happened to those who chose to ignore everything you just told them they shouldn’t ignore. Remember, stories have characters, plot twists and great endings.  Help your audience visualize your story with the appropriate colors, type and graphics.

DOES YOUR AUDIENCE HATE BREVITY? Avoid the error of putting five pounds of poop in a two pound poop bag.  Less is more!  Remember the other old suggestion - K.I.S.S. (politically corrected now as Keep It Simply Simple).    Limit each slide to no more than three bullet points of two lines each for a total of six lines of type.   Yes, even if that means you’ve tripled the number of slides!  In order to keep to this line limit, edit your words.  Use short-speak or incomplete sentences.  You’re not writing a book!  Case in point is this paragraph that made its rounds in cyberspace.  It’s been passed around so many times since 2003 that I couldn’t find  a better source than David Harris:

Fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? And I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

DOES YOUR AUDIENCE LIKE CHOKING ON INFORMATION? Remember, people eat with their eyes!  The old term for presentations with slides was called an audio-video presentation.  You’re the audio part.  Make sure the visual part: colors, type and graphics are visually stimulating.  Here is where Robin Williams’ Four Principles of Design (C.R.A.P ) comes in handy.  C.R.A.P stands for contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. 

• Contrast is important.  In non-artist or designer terms it means stand-out.  You shouldn’t use red type, for example on a black background.  Every element on your slides needs to stand-out in order to be easily read.  The rule of thumb is to make things easy to read by not making them too small or too cluttered.  

• Repetition is important even if it’s simply keeping your logo or brand on every slide.  Repetition can also be seen as consistency – everything should match! 

• Alignment or, where everything is placed on every slide is important.  That means that all header information is in the exact same spot so it doesn’t jump up and down; visually annoying your audience. 

•  Proximity is about closeness and grouping.  Images next to text usually indicate they describe or support each other.  Speaking of proximity, your PowerPoint slides should be sequenced (grouped) into three distinct parts; the beginning or set-up part, the middle or the ah ha! part and the bring-it-on-home and wrap-it-up part.  

WHAT'S THE UNIVERSAL PRESENTATION PROBLEM? Putting five pounds of poop in a two pound poop bag! Most presenters have too few slides with too much information on each slide.  As Moe on the Three Stooges used to say – spread out!  Increase the amount of your slides while limiting the information on them.  If you follow these tips, your presentation will be lively and entertaining and, you’ll get your point across in the same amount of time or less.  

What about the rabid note takers?  Give them the URL where you’ve posted the presentation or, printout the PowerPoint presentation as a handout.  Stop using PowerPoint if your goinng to present as if you were reading out of a book to a child.  Remember, when you do, your goal IS to put them to sleep!

LONG LIVE POWERPOINT!  As for PowerPoint itself.  Time to learn how to do video.  In fact, starting next semester, all of my students are going to be required to do their course presentations as a video.  Why, regardless of how good a PowerPoint may be, in this day and age, attention spans are shorter.  We are all used to receiving bits of information bur in massive amounts.  Think of as being spoon fed a Tweet at a time. 

No one sits still.  No one can focus on any one thing longer than two and a half minutes.  According to the BBC, university students only have '10-minute attention span.  Regardless of who your audience is, between media over-stimulation and lack of sleep, the last thing you want to do is cause  a PowerPoint induced coma.