avoid
Slides to Avoid: The Unused
February 25, 2007 Filed in: Slides to
Avoid
We've probably all seen this happen: The speaker has
either not made good use of his or her time, or the
presentation is actually designed for a different
time allotment than that given in the current
situation. Suddenly, the speaker turns to face the
screen and begins clicking through slides and bullet
points, either just reading the headers to the
(literate) audience or making no comment at all.
If you are rapidly skipping slides, you are sending your audience mixed messages. This material is obviously important enough to include on the slides, but it's trivial enough to skip. Only you know what the real importance is to your talk, and that will affect how you handle these slides during preparation.
If all of your slides are important, then you need to be practicing your talk to make sure your timing allows all the material to be covered. It sounds elementary, but practice is a very important element for a good talk. On the other hand, if you know you aren't going to be using these slides, remove them from the presentation entirely. Create long versions and short versions of your deck if you know you'll be presenting the material differently in different settings.
Skipping through slides effectively pulls your audience out of the attention they were giving you. You want your talk to be a smooth experience for your audience. Skipping disrupts the flow. It's something we are used to seeing, but commonality does not make it a good practice. Get your timing down ahead of time, or remove slides as needed. Keep your presentation as fluid an experience as possible for your listeners.
If you are rapidly skipping slides, you are sending your audience mixed messages. This material is obviously important enough to include on the slides, but it's trivial enough to skip. Only you know what the real importance is to your talk, and that will affect how you handle these slides during preparation.
If all of your slides are important, then you need to be practicing your talk to make sure your timing allows all the material to be covered. It sounds elementary, but practice is a very important element for a good talk. On the other hand, if you know you aren't going to be using these slides, remove them from the presentation entirely. Create long versions and short versions of your deck if you know you'll be presenting the material differently in different settings.
Skipping through slides effectively pulls your audience out of the attention they were giving you. You want your talk to be a smooth experience for your audience. Skipping disrupts the flow. It's something we are used to seeing, but commonality does not make it a good practice. Get your timing down ahead of time, or remove slides as needed. Keep your presentation as fluid an experience as possible for your listeners.
Slides to Avoid: The Title
December 17, 2006 Filed in: Slides to
Avoid
This one's going to seem hypocritical. If you've seen
any of my slidecasts, you know that every one of
those has a title slide – but we'll get to that in a
minute. Usually, this slide precedes the mandatory
"About Me" slide in a talk, and it tells you what
you are going to hear about and who is delivering the
message.
(Of course it needs a logo!)
In reality, chances are your audience knows what they are coming to hear, and if they don't know who you are, attaching your name to a slide offers no enlightenment. Like other slides we've talked about, the title is filler. It's expected and predicable, and you want to be typified by neither of those qualities. In public settings, forego the title slide, and just dive into your material from slide one. You'll save time that is better spent on your material, and you will succeed engaging in your audience more immediately.
(Of course it needs a logo!)
In reality, chances are your audience knows what they are coming to hear, and if they don't know who you are, attaching your name to a slide offers no enlightenment. Like other slides we've talked about, the title is filler. It's expected and predicable, and you want to be typified by neither of those qualities. In public settings, forego the title slide, and just dive into your material from slide one. You'll save time that is better spent on your material, and you will succeed engaging in your audience more immediately.
Explanation
Why then do my presentations have titles? Simple: first, some were made before I began adopting many of the principals I now advocate. Additionally, I find that the title slides make for nice placeholders on my presentations page. They allow you, the reader, to see the topic of the presentation and get a preview of the look and feel of that specific presentation. In this setting, it seems appropriate.Slides To Avoid: Agenda
November 07, 2006 Filed in: Slides to
Avoid
Is it me, or do we see agenda slides just about
everywhere? We presenters can't seem to help
ourselves, and, before any meeting or presentation, a
slide like this will be staring everyone in the face.
Now don't get me wrong. It's appropriate to pass out
agendas from time to time. Just because I can't think
of an example doesn't mean they don't exist. However,
the agenda has no real reason to be incorporated into
your slides.
Your audience can handle solid food. An agenda slide is a form of spoon-feeding – plain and simple. In most settings, your audience is intelligent enough to follow what's going on without point-by-point preparation. Chances are good you are working with professionals who are quick and flexible in their thinking. An agenda slide kind of insults that intelligence.
Who's going to remember anyway? Honestly, five minutes into the talk or meeting, no one is going to remember all of the agenda points. If you handed out an agenda, why did you stick it on a slide? That's just redundant.
Only three more items, and we're outta here! Face it – you just gave the meeting participants a checklist. They will continually refer back to your agenda to see how close you are to finishing. It becomes more of a distraction than a facilitator to anything.
I know I'm going to get some flack from colleagues regarding this post. Agenda slides are old hat. We're used to them, so why bother eliminating them? Quite simply, it comes down to the small touches. If you want your presentation to stand out as unique and individual, sidestep cliché and the mundane whenever you can. An audience won't be distracted by the absence of an agenda – and that is exactly what you want.
Your audience can handle solid food. An agenda slide is a form of spoon-feeding – plain and simple. In most settings, your audience is intelligent enough to follow what's going on without point-by-point preparation. Chances are good you are working with professionals who are quick and flexible in their thinking. An agenda slide kind of insults that intelligence.
Who's going to remember anyway? Honestly, five minutes into the talk or meeting, no one is going to remember all of the agenda points. If you handed out an agenda, why did you stick it on a slide? That's just redundant.
Only three more items, and we're outta here! Face it – you just gave the meeting participants a checklist. They will continually refer back to your agenda to see how close you are to finishing. It becomes more of a distraction than a facilitator to anything.
I know I'm going to get some flack from colleagues regarding this post. Agenda slides are old hat. We're used to them, so why bother eliminating them? Quite simply, it comes down to the small touches. If you want your presentation to stand out as unique and individual, sidestep cliché and the mundane whenever you can. An audience won't be distracted by the absence of an agenda – and that is exactly what you want.
Slides to Avoid: Your Mission...
October 05, 2006 Filed in: Slides to
Avoid
It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads my
blog when I say I am not a fan of mission statements.
While I think direction and purpose is vital to any
organization's success, mission statements are seldom
more than buzzword laden paragraphs designed to
impress an audience rather than direct and inspire
our colleagues.
Moreover, like the About Me slide, the Mission Statement can serve little purpose when plastered onto presentation slides.
If you are giving a presentation to your employees, they should already know what your organization or company is about. You should be communicating that through your decisions and actions on a daily basis. If leaders embody the mission, then employees will understand and follow suit. If leaders and administrators are contradicting the mission, repetition of words will not undo the message you have communicated through your example. (By the way, making your staff unison recite a mission statement is creepy – like 1984 creepy.)
If the presentation is for those outside your organization, the services or products you deliver should be a testament to your mission. Like your example to employees, if your output contradicts your mission, consumers will only grow cynical and indifferent toward your offerings.
Missions have their place, but a Mission Statement is only for the benefit of managers and administration to guide their examples and decisions. Employees and consumers will know your mission if you live it. A slide does nothing to reinforce that message.
Moreover, like the About Me slide, the Mission Statement can serve little purpose when plastered onto presentation slides.
If you are giving a presentation to your employees, they should already know what your organization or company is about. You should be communicating that through your decisions and actions on a daily basis. If leaders embody the mission, then employees will understand and follow suit. If leaders and administrators are contradicting the mission, repetition of words will not undo the message you have communicated through your example. (By the way, making your staff unison recite a mission statement is creepy – like 1984 creepy.)
If the presentation is for those outside your organization, the services or products you deliver should be a testament to your mission. Like your example to employees, if your output contradicts your mission, consumers will only grow cynical and indifferent toward your offerings.
Missions have their place, but a Mission Statement is only for the benefit of managers and administration to guide their examples and decisions. Employees and consumers will know your mission if you live it. A slide does nothing to reinforce that message.
Slides to Avoid: "About Me"
July 14, 2006 Filed in: Slides to
Avoid
At ICE, we presenters had a 45-minute budget to work with. Every presentation I watched had at least one slide devoted to "About Me." Now, in this setting, it is nice to know a little bit about who you are and where you are coming from, but one team spent 15 minutes on who they were! They spent 1/3 of their time budget off topic, and, quite predictably, by the end of their session, the team was rushing to get through the prepared material.
Why do we add "About Me" slides? Is it ego? I don't think so. I think we feel the need to talk about ourselves so our audience understands why we are qualified to talk about our given topic. We want our audience to have confidence in us as presenters. Unfortunately, the "About Me" slide is still adds nothing to your presentation and may serve as a detraction to the product as a whole.
- Qualifications do not make for a good
presentation. Remember the people with 15
minutes of background and qualifications? Their
material was blah. It had only marginal practical
value (at least in the way they presented it), and
they offered little other teachers could build on.
Who you are matters nothing if you message is
broken.
- Your audience doesn't care.
Your audience is there because they want to hear
what you have to say about your topic – not about
yourself. If you speak well enough, and your
audience connects with your message, then they will
connect with you. As a result, you may find some
people who want to get to know more about you after
your presentation is completed.
- Your audience may already
know. This is the opposite of #2. How
ridiculous would it look for Steve Jobs or Al Gore
to begin a presentation with a serious, in-depth
"About Me" section. The fact is, if you have a
reputation in your field, people WILL come because
of who you are. If that is the case, why bore them
with stuff they already know?
- It detracts from the whole. Again, you want your audience to be captivated by your message. You want them to be enchanted. Every minute you spend off-topic or on mundane details is a minute that your audience is losing its collective interest. In addition, every minute you spend off-topic is a minute less you have to spend on your topic.
I know that the "About Me" slide is almost a standard in presentations, but resist the pressure. Don't do it. Leave the "About Me" for your website (and make sure your URL is on the handout your guests receive). Make your presentation about your topic and nothing else.