prep
Preparation – Not Rehearsal
March 16, 2008 Filed in: General Tips
| Delivery
In a late-February post (yes, that's how far behind I
am), Garr Reynolds shared some presentation tips from Ken
Robinson, one of my favorite speakers to
appear at TED over the last couple of years.
Among his tips is this gem: "Prepare, but don't
rehearse. Think and plan ahead instead."
image by torli on stock.xchng
I used to prepare for my presentations the same way I would prepare for a music recital. I'd go over the material exactly how I wrote it until I could deliver it flawlessly the same way over and over. One French horn performer once told me that I'm not done practicing a passage until I can play it perfectly ten times in a row, and I took this exacting principle over to public speaking.
The problem is that over-rehearsal of a talk can make it sound ... rehearsed. It can sound too perfect, and a certain human element – that element necessary for connecting with audiences – can disappear in the measured recital.
The best musical performances I can think of do not sound rehearsed, even though I know they are. It sounds as if the musician is creating the music spontaneously before the audience. The music is alive at that moment, and that is the way our presentations should be. Our audience should feel as if we are delivering our message for each of them individually and that we are caught up in this moment.
This leads right into another tip from Mr. Robinson: "Leave room for improvisation." He compares the act of public speaking to a good jazz performance, but even a good classical performer demonstrates an ability to take liberties with the given material, making it fully his or her own. When we are presenting, spontaneous points may occur to us. Things might go wrong. Someone might interrupt with a brilliant question, and we should be willing to improvise for a few minutes.
In its purest form, a presentation is a form of conversation, and your best conversations are not completely scripted, over-rehearsed events. Spontaneous creativity is alive and well in the art of conversation. Don't get me wrong. Preparation is exceedingly important, but stay flexible. Stay alive. Don't recite your presentation. Connect it with the people in your audience.
image by torli on stock.xchng
I used to prepare for my presentations the same way I would prepare for a music recital. I'd go over the material exactly how I wrote it until I could deliver it flawlessly the same way over and over. One French horn performer once told me that I'm not done practicing a passage until I can play it perfectly ten times in a row, and I took this exacting principle over to public speaking.
The problem is that over-rehearsal of a talk can make it sound ... rehearsed. It can sound too perfect, and a certain human element – that element necessary for connecting with audiences – can disappear in the measured recital.
The best musical performances I can think of do not sound rehearsed, even though I know they are. It sounds as if the musician is creating the music spontaneously before the audience. The music is alive at that moment, and that is the way our presentations should be. Our audience should feel as if we are delivering our message for each of them individually and that we are caught up in this moment.
This leads right into another tip from Mr. Robinson: "Leave room for improvisation." He compares the act of public speaking to a good jazz performance, but even a good classical performer demonstrates an ability to take liberties with the given material, making it fully his or her own. When we are presenting, spontaneous points may occur to us. Things might go wrong. Someone might interrupt with a brilliant question, and we should be willing to improvise for a few minutes.
In its purest form, a presentation is a form of conversation, and your best conversations are not completely scripted, over-rehearsed events. Spontaneous creativity is alive and well in the art of conversation. Don't get me wrong. Preparation is exceedingly important, but stay flexible. Stay alive. Don't recite your presentation. Connect it with the people in your audience.
Thinking Out Loud
February 09, 2008 Filed in: Links
Rands in Repose crafts a
fantastic essay about the process of writing the
speaking portion of presentations. The approach
he recommends is very similar to the process I
follow in drafting my presentations, and he
describes it far more eloquently than I ever
could. Here's an excerpt.
For more, follow the link: Rands in Repose: Out Loud
Did you notice as you stood in your office talking to no one in particular how thoughts in your head sounded different than on the slides? Did you discover flaws in logic? Mysterious new gaps in content on the slides you’ve been staring at all morning? That’s progress.
For more, follow the link: Rands in Repose: Out Loud
Lost in the Overflow
January 12, 2008 Filed in: Delivery
I was visiting Microsoft's Mac Mojo blog today
when I noticed that many of the images on the
blog overflowed past the sidebar – escaping the
content borders and obscuring tags and archives.
To get all of the images clear of the sidebar, I had to widen my browser window to almost 1400 pixels. Mac Mojo uses a flexible width, allowing the site's borders and sections adjust to the width of your browser window. Unfortunately, images do not have flexible widths, and these images seem particularly problematic. After all, how many people reading this blog have displays 1400+ pixels wide? Between my computer at work, my PowerMac, and my MacBook Pro, only the MacBook has a display wide enough to properly display the blog with these images.
The pictures are very aesthetically pleasing, but they exist to the detriment of the site's usability. This brings to mind how many merely adequate presentations I've listened to and given that would have been better if only some of the excess had been cut. Too often, we feel the need to cram as much material as possible into a 30-45 minute talk, and the quality suffers due to the quantity. There is so much material that it is difficult for the audience to determine what is most important, and irrelevance may end up covering up the most vital parts.
I keep this slide deck around as a reminder of how cluttered my slides once were. Here are 118 bullet points over 32 slides. The presentation is about Attachment Disorder behavior classes and how to best intervene for some of the symptomatic behaviors. Of those 32 slides, 13 of them are introductory material. When I gave this talk in a 45-minute block for the first time, you can guess what happened. I ended up spending 30 minutes on the introduction and had to fly through the rest of the material in the remaining 15 minutes. My content was lost in overflow.
This is a later revision of that same presentation. Now I'm down to twelve slides of content. I still feel like those slides perhaps have too much text, but now I'm allowing myself to cover the most vital information without it being buried in a wash of corollary facts that could just be included in a supplemental handout. This talk is much more focused than my previous effort, and it can be easily covered in 30 minutes.
When practicing your presentations, ask yourself, "Is this really necessary?" What information serves as padding? Chances are there is a fair amount of unnecessary material in the first draft of your presentation. Look for the details that bury the meaning, and cut them out. Don't let an overflow of supplemental information crowd out the actual point of your talk.
To get all of the images clear of the sidebar, I had to widen my browser window to almost 1400 pixels. Mac Mojo uses a flexible width, allowing the site's borders and sections adjust to the width of your browser window. Unfortunately, images do not have flexible widths, and these images seem particularly problematic. After all, how many people reading this blog have displays 1400+ pixels wide? Between my computer at work, my PowerMac, and my MacBook Pro, only the MacBook has a display wide enough to properly display the blog with these images.
The pictures are very aesthetically pleasing, but they exist to the detriment of the site's usability. This brings to mind how many merely adequate presentations I've listened to and given that would have been better if only some of the excess had been cut. Too often, we feel the need to cram as much material as possible into a 30-45 minute talk, and the quality suffers due to the quantity. There is so much material that it is difficult for the audience to determine what is most important, and irrelevance may end up covering up the most vital parts.
I keep this slide deck around as a reminder of how cluttered my slides once were. Here are 118 bullet points over 32 slides. The presentation is about Attachment Disorder behavior classes and how to best intervene for some of the symptomatic behaviors. Of those 32 slides, 13 of them are introductory material. When I gave this talk in a 45-minute block for the first time, you can guess what happened. I ended up spending 30 minutes on the introduction and had to fly through the rest of the material in the remaining 15 minutes. My content was lost in overflow.
This is a later revision of that same presentation. Now I'm down to twelve slides of content. I still feel like those slides perhaps have too much text, but now I'm allowing myself to cover the most vital information without it being buried in a wash of corollary facts that could just be included in a supplemental handout. This talk is much more focused than my previous effort, and it can be easily covered in 30 minutes.
When practicing your presentations, ask yourself, "Is this really necessary?" What information serves as padding? Chances are there is a fair amount of unnecessary material in the first draft of your presentation. Look for the details that bury the meaning, and cut them out. Don't let an overflow of supplemental information crowd out the actual point of your talk.
Back-ups on a Budget
December 08, 2007 Filed in: General Tips
Taking a more nuts-and-bolts approach than usual, I
decided to write this up after reading a couple of
suggestions that presenters should always carry two
laptops with them to speaking engagements. The
thought is that, if one machine goes down, you have a
backup with you that offers no variables or
compatibility issues. While this is a good idea for
people who get paid well for their speaking
engagements, if you are more of an amateur (like me),
purchasing two laptops may not be a feasible backup
solution.
Still, it's important to have contingency plans in place, so here are a couple quick and easy tips to keep your presentation accessible even if something goes wrong with your computer.
image from apple.com
If you have an iPod, Zune, or another device that stores photos, you can save images of your slides to it and use the video out capabilities to share your slides. Both Keynote and PowerPoint support exporting your slides as images, and then you just display them like you would an album of photos. You will lose all animations and transitions, but your content will remain intact.
(In theory, you could also export your presentation as a video and retain your animations, but, since we just have a previous generation nano, I can't test that out to see how it works. If you can try this out, email me about it at crysnrob [at] mac [dot] com, and I'll update this post.)
image from Wikipedia
If an iPod or Zune is still too pricey, keep a back up of your presentation on a USB flash drive. Mine is a 2 GB SanDisk Cruzer that cost about $20 at Radio Shack. Since this backup method assumes you might have to borrow a laptop at your speaking venue, it's important to back up your presentation in as many formats as possible to bypass compatibility issues. For example, I'll keep a Keynote presentation I'm planning on giving in its native format, as a PPT file, as an interactive QuickTime movie, and as a folder of images. Don't assume someone else's computer will have the same versions of PowerPoint or Keynote that you do.
We can't all own two laptops and a KVM switch, but it is important to keep your presentation backed up. Between the option of an iPod or a flash drive, most people should be able to find one or the other viable. Just remember to account for compatibility on the off chance you might be using another laptop when you give your talk. With a little bit of preparation, you should be ready for anything – even if you have to present without slides at all.
Still, it's important to have contingency plans in place, so here are a couple quick and easy tips to keep your presentation accessible even if something goes wrong with your computer.
Keep it on your iPod.
image from apple.com
If you have an iPod, Zune, or another device that stores photos, you can save images of your slides to it and use the video out capabilities to share your slides. Both Keynote and PowerPoint support exporting your slides as images, and then you just display them like you would an album of photos. You will lose all animations and transitions, but your content will remain intact.
(In theory, you could also export your presentation as a video and retain your animations, but, since we just have a previous generation nano, I can't test that out to see how it works. If you can try this out, email me about it at crysnrob [at] mac [dot] com, and I'll update this post.)
Keep it on your keychain.
image from Wikipedia
If an iPod or Zune is still too pricey, keep a back up of your presentation on a USB flash drive. Mine is a 2 GB SanDisk Cruzer that cost about $20 at Radio Shack. Since this backup method assumes you might have to borrow a laptop at your speaking venue, it's important to back up your presentation in as many formats as possible to bypass compatibility issues. For example, I'll keep a Keynote presentation I'm planning on giving in its native format, as a PPT file, as an interactive QuickTime movie, and as a folder of images. Don't assume someone else's computer will have the same versions of PowerPoint or Keynote that you do.
We can't all own two laptops and a KVM switch, but it is important to keep your presentation backed up. Between the option of an iPod or a flash drive, most people should be able to find one or the other viable. Just remember to account for compatibility on the off chance you might be using another laptop when you give your talk. With a little bit of preparation, you should be ready for anything – even if you have to present without slides at all.
Also see:
Empty Your Hands
October 02, 2007 Filed in: Delivery
Time to dust off some
old notes and finish this post! Way back in January,
I talked
about Stan
Sigman's yawn-inducing contribution to the
unveiling of the iPhone. At the time I wrote:
I think one of the most tedious elements of Mr. Sigman's talk was his use of (large) note cards. He actually started out okay, but then he whipped those cards out, and everything went downhill from there. You could almost hear the life being sucked off the stage. (It happens around 1:35:40 in the video for those of you playing at home.)
image from stock.xchng
I have to admit some bias. I have never used note cards (with one or two exceptions). Even in speech classes through middle school, high school, and college that required the use of note cards, I would just walk up to the front of the class with a handful of blank index cards – until I got busted and lost some points! Basically, even with my social challenges, I realized early on that reading a speech created a disconnect between the speaker and the audience.
Reading notes makes for stiff presentations that quickly lose the audience's attention, and the speaker ends up paying more attention to those cards than to those who have come to listen. Even "crutch slides" are preferable to holding notes in one's hands or staring down at a podium for the entire talk. Practice and preparation are essential to being able to speak without relying on notes. Yes, having notes accessible during your talk is a good idea, but they should only serve as a reference tool as-needed.
Breaking away from reading a speech may take some practice. You might catch yourself forgetting to include some information. You might make some mistakes, but the connection you gain with your audience is worth those hurdles.
Mr. Sigman's talk was stiff and formal. It was basically read right off his cards, and it was full of corporate jargon and buzzwords. Mr. Jobs, in contrast, spoke passionately about his company's products. Any notes he might have had were fairly transparent, and he spoke in clear, easily understood language. Also, Steve Jobs kept things moving and kept the audience anticipating the next revelation about these products.
I think one of the most tedious elements of Mr. Sigman's talk was his use of (large) note cards. He actually started out okay, but then he whipped those cards out, and everything went downhill from there. You could almost hear the life being sucked off the stage. (It happens around 1:35:40 in the video for those of you playing at home.)
image from stock.xchng
I have to admit some bias. I have never used note cards (with one or two exceptions). Even in speech classes through middle school, high school, and college that required the use of note cards, I would just walk up to the front of the class with a handful of blank index cards – until I got busted and lost some points! Basically, even with my social challenges, I realized early on that reading a speech created a disconnect between the speaker and the audience.
Reading notes makes for stiff presentations that quickly lose the audience's attention, and the speaker ends up paying more attention to those cards than to those who have come to listen. Even "crutch slides" are preferable to holding notes in one's hands or staring down at a podium for the entire talk. Practice and preparation are essential to being able to speak without relying on notes. Yes, having notes accessible during your talk is a good idea, but they should only serve as a reference tool as-needed.
Breaking away from reading a speech may take some practice. You might catch yourself forgetting to include some information. You might make some mistakes, but the connection you gain with your audience is worth those hurdles.
The Self-Conscious Approach
July 10, 2007 Filed in: General Tips
| Delivery
To reach the broadest
possible audience with your message, you have to care
what others think of you. You are being judged by the
audience every bit as much as your content, and, if
the audience does not buy into you, they will
generally not buy into your material. Think of
political debates you or your family may get into as
well as when the media tackles issues. Inevitably,
the person behind the issues will be as much a
subject as the issue itself.
Whenever you present, it's important to wear as small a target as possible. To do so, you must be very conscious of self – your appearance, the way you dress, your mannerisms and idiosyncrasies that may distract your audience from your presentation. I've seen perfectly competent presentations fail in delivery (and some great deliveries of poor material) because the presenters seemed oblivious or unconcerned with the impressions they left with the audience.
A good presentation is essentially a small-scale production, and productions need good performers.
Take these presenters as positive examples:
left to right: Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds, Al Gore
These individuals are great illustrations of good performers in presentation. They are very conscious of how they carry themselves, how they speak, how they dress. I believe "refined" would be a good word for it. They realize that they are every bit as much a part of the overall presentation as any notes, handouts, slides, or other visuals. They have roles to play in the delivery of their messages, and their presence is just as orchestrated as the technology involved. As a result, the presentations are very engaging and a cut above much of what we are used to seeing.
Being an individualistic society, we value the mantra of not caring what others think of ourselves, but, if we want people to accept what we have to say, we need to make sure we are not getting in the way of our own message. Do some presentations succeed despite the speakers' imperfections? Absolutely. However, giving ourselves as much attention as our notes or visuals will go a long way in removing obstacles between our presentation and our audience's attention.
Additional Viewing and Reading
Whenever you present, it's important to wear as small a target as possible. To do so, you must be very conscious of self – your appearance, the way you dress, your mannerisms and idiosyncrasies that may distract your audience from your presentation. I've seen perfectly competent presentations fail in delivery (and some great deliveries of poor material) because the presenters seemed oblivious or unconcerned with the impressions they left with the audience.
A good presentation is essentially a small-scale production, and productions need good performers.
Take these presenters as positive examples:
left to right: Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds, Al Gore
These individuals are great illustrations of good performers in presentation. They are very conscious of how they carry themselves, how they speak, how they dress. I believe "refined" would be a good word for it. They realize that they are every bit as much a part of the overall presentation as any notes, handouts, slides, or other visuals. They have roles to play in the delivery of their messages, and their presence is just as orchestrated as the technology involved. As a result, the presentations are very engaging and a cut above much of what we are used to seeing.
Being an individualistic society, we value the mantra of not caring what others think of ourselves, but, if we want people to accept what we have to say, we need to make sure we are not getting in the way of our own message. Do some presentations succeed despite the speakers' imperfections? Absolutely. However, giving ourselves as much attention as our notes or visuals will go a long way in removing obstacles between our presentation and our audience's attention.
Additional Viewing and Reading
Wrestling With Technology – Don't Do It
June 19, 2007 Filed in: Delivery
| General Tips
I saw a speaker today who was clearly having problems with the technology involved in his presentation. The technology was nonessential, but he still kept stopping every few words to fiddle with the projector and its settings, trying to get things focused, trying to account for some other visual anomalies. This went on for at least thirty minutes, and, each time he stopped, he had a harder time regaining his audience's attention. In fact, he had entirely lost a small chunk of his audience before the issues were resolved (but that may have been for other reasons).
If your technology is giving you problems, and it's time for you to start talking, go ahead without it. If there is something you feel is absolutely essential to your talk that is tied to the tech, get someone who works at the facility you are presenting in to work on it while you begin delivery. Technology is meant to enhance presentations, but, if we give it more attention than we give our audience, it has become a diminishing factor to the message you are delivering.
The Blank Slate
July 19, 2006 Filed in: General Tips
Once you pick the theme your presentation is going to
follow in Keynote or PowerPoint, you are offered a
selection of templates to choose from. Bulleted list,
text with image, graph with title and text – these
are those slides that are already laid out for us.
All we have to do is plug in our information.
In the middle of these selections is the mysterious "blank" slide. It offers no guidance. You can't "click here to enter clip art." It doesn't tell you where to put your bulleted list. It is an enigma, but it can also be your best friend.
Does this slide intimidate you?
The blank template offers us unlimited creative potential, but, like the writer's blank page, it can be daunting. There is no obvious place to start, no guidance in placing graphics, headers, or text. The slate is blank, but this can be an exciting place to be.
x
The slides above provide a simple contrast. The first slide uses a template for title, bullets, and photo from Keynote's White theme. I followed the template exactly, making no alterations except for shrinking the title's font size a little. The second slide is made with White's blank template. The freedom provided allows for a more visually interesting presentation of the exact same material. Did it take more effort? Yes. Was the result worth it? I think so.
(Secret: Most of my own presentations primarily use blank templates. See this post from earlier this month for an example of how drastically the "blank template" approach can change a presentation.)
Next time you have a presentation to give, challenge yourself, and see what you can accomplish using only the theme's blank template. You might surprise yourself with how much fun you have preparing your slides, and your audience will notice the difference.
In the middle of these selections is the mysterious "blank" slide. It offers no guidance. You can't "click here to enter clip art." It doesn't tell you where to put your bulleted list. It is an enigma, but it can also be your best friend.
Does this slide intimidate you?
The blank template offers us unlimited creative potential, but, like the writer's blank page, it can be daunting. There is no obvious place to start, no guidance in placing graphics, headers, or text. The slate is blank, but this can be an exciting place to be.
x
The slides above provide a simple contrast. The first slide uses a template for title, bullets, and photo from Keynote's White theme. I followed the template exactly, making no alterations except for shrinking the title's font size a little. The second slide is made with White's blank template. The freedom provided allows for a more visually interesting presentation of the exact same material. Did it take more effort? Yes. Was the result worth it? I think so.
(Secret: Most of my own presentations primarily use blank templates. See this post from earlier this month for an example of how drastically the "blank template" approach can change a presentation.)
Next time you have a presentation to give, challenge yourself, and see what you can accomplish using only the theme's blank template. You might surprise yourself with how much fun you have preparing your slides, and your audience will notice the difference.
Take the Time To Be Concise
June 01, 2006 Filed in: Delivery
• Blaise Pascal"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."
In any public speaking situation, the challenge is to avoid padding your material with redundant or meaningless fluff. Sometimes this materializes as that one personal story too many, or it may be in the seventh slide of bar graphs. Perhaps it is found in the fifth slide of bullet points that basically retreads the same ground as the last four slides. In any event, engagement and interest has been lost, and the the audience is slowly glazing over.
How do we avoid meaningless filler? Simply put:
- Practice your presentation multiple
times before you have to give it. Are
there any sections that bore you as the presenter?
Do you feel tedious at any times? If you are having
these feelings, imagine how your audience must
feel. Go back and rework areas of your talk that
you feel are drawn out.
- Seek the advice of others. Before taking your presentation to your audience, share it with some trusted friends or colleagues. Ask them to help you find areas that might encourage your audience to disengage. Welcome their critiques. Not all advice may be useful, but outside perspectives will help you expose those trouble areas.
Don't assume that tedium is a necessary evil. Neither should you assume every detail is interesting to your audience. Voltaire is quoted as saying, "The secret of being a bore is to tell everything." Better that your material be fifteen minutes long while inspiring and engaging your listeners than thirty minutes long with a disengaged audience. Preparation and practice is essential for presenting in a meaningful yet concise manner.
• Mark Twain"Few sinners are saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon."